Jimmy Chase

The movie The Players by Robert Altman opens with a long one-take of characters going about their professional workday in Hollywood. One of the characters of note during this long take is Jimmy Chase, who is delivering mail around the studio. He rides a bike, talks to various Hollywood employees, and delivers mail. There is a moment when a cart strikes him, and employees come to his aid, which is how we learn his name, but he continues to deliver mail after the fact. He is seen less frequently throughout the film and is a minor character. Christian Keathley, in the article “Pass the salt…and other bits of business”, talks about the movement of an actor and how giving an actor something to do or, as he refers to it, “business” (Keathley, 2011, p. 105) is an essential piece for acting and helps in the depicting of a solid and realistic performance. He explains that “Minor characters – especially those who appear only once or twice in a film but are nevertheless crucial to the plot – must be easily identifiable to the viewer, and giving them some business can help define their character quickly, efficiently, and distinctively” (Keathley, 2011. p. 106). In our case, the business of our minor character is moving around with his bike and delivering mail. With this business, we, as an audience, can quickly identify that he is the delivery man of this studio. Without much dialogue, we know his occupation through the business and can start to quickly assume things about him without hearing him speak. Through the process of him being hit by a cart and continuing his job despite that, we can quickly assume his attitude towards his job. We can quickly assume his personality even through how he interacts with his coworkers while delivering his mail. Through the business of the minor character, we can swiftly make many assumptions about the minor characters depending on what that business is.

References

Keathley, C. (2011). Pass the salt … and other bits of business. Screen, Volume 52(1), 121–127. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq061