Movement trainer takes Hollywood and West End in his stride
Movement trainer Michael Brown's passion for his craft is paying off in theatre and film, writes Gloria Chan
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who looks more in love with his work than Michael Brown when he talks about film and theatre. "I was asked to join a theatre production of Hamlet when I was 21 and have had the acting virus ever since," he says, his eyes sparkling. "I'm still looking for the antidote."
Best known for his role as movement director and trainer in the West End production War Horse and in last year's Oscar-winning film Gravity, Brown says that his career has been a result of serendipity, accidents and trust. "The nature of our work is to stay open and follow things that interest you. Work then sort of comes along."
Brown recalls how Alfonso Cuarón, the director of Gravity, became fascinated with the puppetry movements in the War Horse production in London and asked for the artists involved, including Brown, to work on his space epic.
Born in the US, Brown studied philosophy at the University of Texas then took a master's degree in classical acting training at the University of Wisconsin. He went on to London to train with Jacques Lecoq, a prominent French actor and acting instructor, at the London International School of Performing Arts.
Charged with helping actors become more expressive with their bodies, a movement trainer needs to be observant and meticulous, spending hours every day studying the movements and behaviour of the subject they are attempting to mimic. "That way, the audience will see that thing on stage without it actually being there," Brown says of working on War Horse.
"We had to think how those little moments - the breathing, that twitch of a tail - can bring a massive puppet to life. Then the audience will stop seeing the puppet; instead, they'll see the horse."
He tackled the same challenges on Gravity - except this time the challenge was to find ways for the actors to manoeuvre as if there was no gravity. Brown worked closely with stuntmen, ensuring that puppeteers controlling stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney moved the actors seamlessly. Planning the movements for a few seconds of film would take a day or two, and mastering the zero-gravity movements took a few months.