09/29/2026
Tips & Insights from John Boylan.
Walking.
I’ve always been a big fan of actors who walk well in movies.
John Travolta is one of the first I’d single out. A beautiful walker. And one who was aware of his walking.
He had the skill and accepted the theatricality of a performed walk in a wide shot.
Walking isn’t always easy to do. More than one actor, myself included, will relate a story of how while trying to execute the direction “Walk from here to there,” you start swinging your arms opposite to normal arm swings. Two left feet.
Helen Mirren, in her MasterClass series on acting, starts by walking across the stage and sitting down. Then she says, “I’ve just done one of the hardest things an actor has to do — walk across a stage.”
Be ready to put in practice time doing simple things like walking, sitting in a chair, getting out of a chair — things you would think require no practice.
In Louis Malle’s 1958 film The Lovers, Jeanne Moreau gives a brilliant example of walking well in a film.
