Speaking of couches and the kind of professionals who might need them… Have you seen the HBO show, In Treatment? It features Gabriel Byrne as a psychiatrist who spends each show helping his patients deal with their issues in one on one therapeutic sessions. It’s a great show (just starting its second season!), but it’s of particular interest to me, since it involves an awful lot of sitting.
Gabriel Byrne spoke to Salon recently about this particular issue, believe it or not:
So when you’re doing a role where 99 percent of the time you’re sitting down, how does that change things?
That changes things a lot. A huge amount. Your body language is constricted. All that’s left is your eyes, your physical body language. It’s like being in a wheelchair. Part of the character is his stillness. In order to really listen, you have to be still. The danger there is that it becomes dramatically uninteresting. To make that interesting, you really have to be listening so that when the camera goes back to you, the audience has to say, “Oh, he’s thinking.” So what on paper seems like a pretty simple role — you get to sit in a chair, you ask a bunch of questions — it’s much more difficult than that.
By the way, I have a different chair this season, which changed my body language. I know a lot about buying chairs now. Don’t buy a cheap chair. It may look good, but it will be uncomfortable after a couple of weeks. Buy a chair that allows you comfort and flexibility, that you don’t sink too much into it, that supports your spine.
Looks like Mr. Byrne has been paying attention to the tips on this blog!
If you want to emulate this great character and actor, you might try the Fasttrack leather club chair — stylish and comfortable enough for a tv star, priced for the rest of us.
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