30/09/2022
This is the first time we've learned about this marathon impro session during the filming of "The Big Chill." It's no surprise that the actors were exhausted after 5 hours of playing together in character with no script or direction...for most people it's difficult to instantly become a character and grow it during the scene itself. It takes strong listening skills, the ability to be in the moment, to be "out of your head" and into the game, and the confidence to accept that your character is supported by your scene partners.
Improv training helps to develop these skills which can then be applied to daily life (and to the stage and screen, if that's your thing!)
On this date in 1983, "The Big Chill" was released.
Of the marathon improvisation period during the rehearsals period, director Lawrence Kasdan said: "It happened kind of spontaneously. We were working at the house and everyone was in costume and we decided it might be great if we all cooked a meal. That way they'd have to split up the tasks and approximate a group of close friends putting together a dinner. I chose to leave at that point and all I said was, 'You should do this in character'. I left and for five hours they remained in character without any authority figure, without any director to tell them if they were behaving or reacting in the correct way according to the writer's or director's ideas. They had to live in those characters' skins and instantly deal with input from each other character. It became a very intense experience and they all came out of it exhausted and drained. I'm not sure it would have developed as fully had I been there during that time. A rehearsal period goes through stages like a life cycle and we had already had three and a half weeks of rehearsal. But that happened at a crucial, crystallizing moment and it turned eight individual actors into an ensemble." The main cast members lived together for a few weeks before filming began.
Kasdan says the title, "'The Big Chill' is about a cooling process that takes place for every generation when they move from the outward-directed, more idealistic concerns of their youth to a kind of self-absorption, a self-interest which places their personal desires above those of the society or even an ideal." Further, "the [movie's] title refers to the cold world of adult reality" as stated in the essay by [error] included with the Criterion Collection's DVD and also available online. Moreover, '10 Things I Learned: The Big Chill' by Curtis Tsui at the Criterion Collection's website states: "What does the film's title mean? Writer-director Lawrence Kasdan explains that 'The Big Chill' refers to the experience of cold adult reality after leaving the 'warm embrace' of true friendship during college."
Flashback scenes with Kevin Costner as Alex Marshall were filmed but then cut out of the movie. Costner is still visible as the body being dressed at the beginning of the film. Fans have long clamored to see Costner's footage for several sequences showing Alex's life prior to his su***de, but in documentaries and interviews since, Kasdan has never shown anything more than still photographs from the location shoot. Kasdan has also refused to do any sort of "director's cut" saying that the version of the film as it has stood since 1983 is his director's cut and will not be augmented. (IMDb)
