In American television and films it seems surprisingly common to see a character take a mouthful of food, chew it a little and reach for a drink before they’ve even swallowed. Considering that the drink is almost always something sweet, this seems a particularly bad way to eat.
Is this common in America, or is it just one of those Hollywood things where people don’t actually do that, but it’s still what actors do when acting?
While writing this I remembered another one. Characters on the phone seem to instinctively know when the conversation is over. Sometimes it’s just a case of not saying “bye”, but at other times even the recipient of an important call will, seemingly psychically, determine that whoever called no longer needs anything else and end the call. Americans do say “bye” on the phone, right?
I’m interested in answers to these questions, as well as other examples of what is, I assume, a disparity between how (especially Hollywood) actors portray people and how real people act.
It may seem like a bad way to eat but does it seem like a bad way to act in a tv show or film? Do you want to watch people take a bite, chew 100 times, swallow, then rinse with a drink? Or does it seem like a more efficient way to move the story along and allow for more dialog if they take a bite and wash it down?
I suspect it’s a cultural thing, that yes, many of us do drink sweet drinks with meals, and yes, many people do “wash down their food” with a drink before they’ve swallowed the food. The first is frowned on by doctors (who would have us drink water), but many people do it anyway, and the second is frowned on by advice columnists and etiquette mavens (who would have us swallow, then sip), but many people do it anyway.
We do say “good-bye” or some equivalent before ending a phone call, however. That is a movie/TV weirdness, one that’s commented on by Americans as being silly, too.
ETA: I’ll add that if actors are using actual food and really eating while filming the scene, the drink is sometimes to clear their mouth when they have to say their next line, so they don’t spit food all over the table. If you’re good with timing and your co-actors are cooperative with the pacing, you shouldn’t have to do that, but sometimes your line is coming up a little sooner than expected, so you do what you have to. Other times, it’s a character choice - a character in a hurry or with poor table manners. Other times, it’s just because that’s what the actor does in real life, and doesn’t know it’s icky, so they do it on film.
Actually, the scenes with food that I notice more are the “exposition while getting ready to sit down and eat, or preparing food, or sitting around with food” scenes that then cut away from each actor or end before any food is actually eaten. Sometimes the scenes are very long, and then it gets a little obvious that no one at that table is really eating anything, they’re just sitting there and talking. It happens in real life, so I don’t know why it bugs me, but it does.
I always wondered if the actors are even dealing with real food in those cases, or if they were just going through the motions with very realistic fake props.
My favorite scenes of that variety happened in the series Smallville, where Kristen Kreuk, working in a cafe, would deliver lengthy monologues while randomly moving pastries from one tray to another.
I believe there used to be a rule that you could never have real alcohol in a TV show (chat show, etc, rather than a drama) and it was always water. I think that rule has been variously relaxed and genuine alcohol does make an occasional appearance, accepted as long as there isn’t any risk of drunken behaviour.
No. You could always portray drinking in a dramatic or comedy show.
There are network rules against portraying actors drinking beer in commercials and you will never see that. In beer commercials the actors look at the glasses, raise them in the air, open a can or pour the beer, but they will never sip. This isn’t an FCC rule, BTW; it’s enforced by the networks and the Ad Council.
Actors don’t drink alcohol in TV shows (or movies) for the simple reason that there might be many takes and the actors can’t afford to get drunk and keep blowing their lines*. It’s the same thing on stage. But they can be portrayed as being drunk.
*Norm on Cheers had a glass of low alcohol beer, with salt added to keep the head. That discouraged more than an occasional sip for the cameras.
It’s probably real food, but not necessarily fresh real food. I’ve heard of scenes being filmed over three days with the challenge toward the end being not reacting to the smell.
In answer to your question about how real people act as opposed as to how hollywood has them act. In TV detective shows, detectives are often left alone in a room to do exposition (sometimes with the implication that the homeowner told them to let themselves out). This does not happen in real life. One presumes it’s to avoid having to set up another scene. In movies this doesn’t happen at all.