THE DISAPPEARING ACT

Tillotama Shome belongs to that rare breed of contemporary method actors who vanish into their characters

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

American theatre director Lee Strasberg once famously said that acting is not something that you do. Instead, it is something that occurs. “If you are going to start with logic, you might as well give up,” he said. At some point in her life, Tillotama Shome discovered this to be true. Shome, 44, part of that rare breed of contemporary method actors in India, does not act as much as she lives. In her latest projects—The Night Manager 2 and Lust Stories 2—both of which released on June 30, she inhabits her characters to a degree where it is impossible to tell where she ends and they begin.

Along the way, she has learnt a few lessons: that one cannot fake emotions, and to make the audiences feel what you are feeling is an art that comes straight from the soul. Lately, she has learnt one more truth—that what the actor intends might not be what finally results onscreen. She learnt this inside the editing room, where “actors are usually barred from entering”. She recalls witnessing an exchange between her character and another on the editing table. “The way the scene was edited felt like there was a sense of fragility to my character [which I had not intended],” she says. “It came with the way it was juxtaposed on the editing table with the other person’s performance.” Shome says this was a real revelation.