# How do actors play dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 19, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610 "2008-08-19T23:00:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lillith\_Fair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lillith\_Fair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lillith_Fair)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/1 "2008-08-19T23:00:41Z")
How do actors “play dead” in their roles? How do they keep from moving or breathing or having us see their blood pulsing through their veins? ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/2 "2008-08-19T23:03:05Z")
I always just assumed they were holding their breath. Not moving is pretty easy, and I’ve never seen a movie where they showed a “dead” actor so close you could see their veins pumping. I suppose it’s possible some of them could use mild tranquilizers to slow their breathing down and make it easier for them to be motionless… ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/3 "2008-08-19T23:12:07Z")
Assuming you’re talking about TV/movies, if the body is going to be shown for a while, or if there’s any kind of damage to it, they’ll make a plaster copy of the face and attach it to a body. There’s a really cool extra on the _Six Feet Under_ DVD where they interview the people at the warehouse that make the bodies. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/4 "2008-08-19T23:27:24Z")
In the shower scene of **Psycho** , how did Hitchcock handle it when when he zoomed in on Janet Leigh’s eyeball? Did he use a B&W image of her? ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/5 "2008-08-19T23:44:35Z")
[QUOTE=Lillith Fair] How do actors “play dead” in their roles? How do they keep from moving or breathing or having us see their blood pulsing through their veins? [/QUOTE] It looks like in many cases they do just what you’d think - relax, close eyes, hold breath, don’t move. Unless you’ve got a really good close shot of somebody’s neck I don’t think you’d have a chance of seeing their pulse. There are plenty of shots where you can tell they aren’t doing it well - corpses breathe, eyes move under closed lids, bodies move, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/6 "2008-08-20T00:09:45Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] In the shower scene of **Psycho** , how did Hitchcock handle it when when he zoomed in on Janet Leigh’s eyeball? Did he use a B&W image of her? [/QUOTE] She was just laying there. If you look very closely, you can see her throat move at one point during the zoom. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/7 "2008-08-20T00:14:37Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] She was just laying there. If you look very closely, you can see her throat move at one point during the zoom. [/QUOTE] Oh. TY. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/8 "2008-08-20T08:25:39Z")
[QUOTE=Marley23] She was just laying there. If you look very closely, you can see her throat move at one point during the zoom. [/QUOTE] And of course her pupils are exactly opposite how a dead person’s pupils would be. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/9 "2008-08-20T09:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=DooWahDiddy] Assuming you’re talking about TV/movies, if the body is going to be shown for a while, or if there’s any kind of damage to it, they’ll make a plaster copy of the face and attach it to a body. [/QUOTE] Silicone or latex rubber, actually. The plaster mould is just an intermediate step. I’m pretty sure 90% of the autopsy bodies in _NCIS_ are done this way. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/10 "2008-08-20T10:12:08Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Silicone or latex rubber, actually. The plaster mould is just an intermediate step. I’m pretty sure 90% of the autopsy bodies in _NCIS_ are done this way. [/QUOTE] They are called [moulage](http://www.moulage.net/). They sometimes use special cloudy contacts for eye closeups. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/11 "2008-08-20T13:00:14Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] And of course her pupils are exactly opposite how a dead person’s pupils would be. [/QUOTE] Constricted? Dilated? Which? (My WAG is the latter.) ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/12 "2008-08-20T14:10:59Z")
Good actors put a lot of work in how to use their body. Part of that is learning to be still. ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/13 "2008-08-20T14:24:50Z")
In “The Body” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the editors had to digitally “paint” over one of Kristine Sutherland’s eyeblinks. So, the actors aren’t always flawless. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/14 "2008-08-20T14:43:44Z")
Robert deNiro, always a stickler for accuracy, was actualy killed for one of his parts in order to present a truly accurate dead body. They revived him later with epinephrine and heart shocks, but the experience damaged him so badly that he went on to produce and act in **Rocky and Bullwinkle** ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/15 "2008-08-20T18:29:03Z")
[QUOTE=BarnOwl] Constricted? Dilated? Which? (My WAG is the latter.) [/QUOTE] Her pupils were constricted, meaning that the muscles were active, while in a dead person the muscles would be relaxed and the pupil dilated. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/16 "2008-08-20T18:39:02Z")
I’ve actually been in a TV Shot as an OD’d junkie. I’m not a trained actor and it was low budget so I didn’t have any helping tools. (My “character motivation” was $300 in hand, cash - I was literally picked off the street) And damn, it’s hard! A shoot can easily take two minutes if they’re doing something like a dolly pan, a tilt or if there’s any movement around you. The worst part of it is usually to find the exact same position after a break (I had someone bring coffee to me so I didn’t have to get up, but it still took 5-15 minutes between shots with the script girl manually adjusting me between breaks). The worst deal is obviously if they’re cutting between angles and can’t film them in pairs, under the same conditions. And man, that was one of the first times I noticed how many natural reactions you have that can’t be seen. One shot had to be canceled due to me getting goosebumps on my chest, two had to be done again due to an involuntary spasm in my neck and one was halted while they applied make-up to deaden the veins in my forehead. Geez. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/17 "2008-08-20T21:33:16Z")
Lie back and think of Cleveland? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/18 "2008-08-20T22:15:19Z")
[QUOTE=Valgard] There are plenty of shots where you can tell they aren’t doing it well - corpses breathe, eyes move under closed lids, bodies move, etc. [/QUOTE] The kid taking a dirt nap with baby Jesus in _Serenity_ takes a breath during his shot. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/19 "2008-08-20T22:29:38Z")
[QUOTE=Zebra] Good actors put a lot of work in how to use their body. Part of that is learning to be still. [/QUOTE] A good example, frequently cited, is Kevin Spacey in **L.A. Confidential**. After his character is shot the camera lingers in close-up on his face for several seconds ( seems longer ) while he dies. You can see precisely when the life leaves him and it is a remarkable little moment - it looks like “the spark in his eyes disappears.” I was watching this again on cable several days ago and it looks like what he _might_ have done is relax the muscles around his eyes, letting them go slack. Whatever he did, it was remarkably effective. Maybe one our resident thespians/cinema buffs can come in here and confirm or rebut the above. ETA: Whatever he did, I have to assume it isn’t an easy trick to pull off, because frankly I’ve rarely seen death scenes done as well. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610/20 "2008-08-20T22:32:08Z")
[QUOTE=Tamerlane] Maybe one our resident thespians/cinema buffs can come in here and confirm or rebut the above. [/QUOTE] I’ll try to find a thread on this topic - that scene is much praised on the Dope and elsewhere - but I recall one poster citing an interview where Spacey said he achieved that look (at least in part) by unfocusing his eyes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-actors-play-dead/460610.md?page=2)