Film director Laurence Laurentz is one character among the ensemble cast of Hail, Caesar! (2016) that stands out in the sea of minor characters set in the studio of Capitol Pictures. In Hail, Caesar! (2016), Laurentz is a recognized film director known for his direction of several societal films. Laurentz is introduced in a scene where western film star, Hobie Doyle, arrives on set after a last-minute transfer to the cast of Laurentz’s latest societal film. Laurentz, used to a very different genre than Doyle, must grapple with directing someone completely out of his element. Mathijs suggests in “Referential acting and the ensemble cast” that referential acting relies on the audience’s expectations of the character’s type and acting according to how the audience would perceive the character. One such way Laurentz exhibits this type of acting in Hail, Caesar! (2016) is by having the frustrated director meet with busy studio manager Eddie to convince him to remove Doyle from Laurentz’s film after a struggling scene between Doyle and Laurentz. This scene in Hail, Caesar! (2016) adds another level to Laurentz’s characterization, his developing persona, as a self-entitled director who believes he should have only the best actors for his films, and perhaps hints at some of his failings as a director since he cannot work with Hobie. Laurentz shows how the lead, Eddie Mannix, handles management and deals with people in the studio. Mathijs asserts the ensemble actor bases his acting and character persona off of the audience’s ideas about the type of character the actor plays, in Hail, Caesar! (2016) the persona of Laurentz plays off common notions of a Hollywood director with numerous films to his name. This is achieved with Laurentz through the display of authority on the set, along with specific posture, framing, setting, gestures, and speech patterns, to display Laurentz’s direction of the entire scene, which Mathijs, asserts are forms of referential acting, by using the preconceived understanding about directors and the arrangement of actors to influence Laurntz’s acting and thus the audience’s perception of his character. Additionally, in Hail, Caesar! (2016) the gossip about his involvement with one of the actors of one of his earlier films pull from rumours surrounding Hollywood directors and Hollywood’s need for scandals outside of the single film, allowing the audience to connect it to his character. Overall, Laurence Laurentz is one of Hail, Caesar (2016)’s many ensemble characters, differentiated from the cast by his status as director, his character performs to the expectations of an entitled Hollywood director.
Works Cited
Ernest Mathijs, Referential acting and the ensemble cast, Screen, Volume 52, Issue 1, Spring 2011, Pages 89–96, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq063
Hail, Caesar!. Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, 2016.
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