The Gesture: Merrit Wever in "Unbelievable"
Monday, June 29, 2020 at 1:00PM Having long been fascinated by gestural movements in acting, we thought we'd try a series on it. - Ed.
by Nathaniel R
There is no one working like Merrit Wever. She's so real, so in the moment onscreen, that you can sometimes flash to one of her scenes like its pulled from you own very human memory. No matter how outlandish (Run) or specific (Unbelievable) her situation, you're in the space with her, living it, no cameras in sight. Queen of naturalism!
Take this diner sequence from Unbelievable...
Detective Karen Duvall (Wever) is tracking a serial rape suspect and eager to get a DNA so she follows him into a diner. She's angry and restless and doesn't even register that her food has arrived. It could be anyone in any diner -- me, you, -- hopelessly distracted and not in the mood for whatever reason. Only in this case its deeply specific too, this anger, this concentrated distraction from your own physical space.
Her partner for the sting, Officer Selig (Connor Tillman) tries to pull her out of her own head, sarcastically referencing that she's not even pretending to eat.
You should at least move it around the plate.
That irritated gesture, performatively stabbing her smothered pork chop and fries, is so perfect. Impatient, funny, but also a neat externalization of her inner rage (her fellow officer will make a remark about shooting the rapist and she brushes it off too practically -- has she already imagined this?)
(Bless the continuity person for tracking the fork, which stays upright in every shot thereafter. It's as real as Merrit's performance.)
Finally Detective Duvall is saved from that rapidly cooling food by her suspect leaving, her previous fidgeting merely a tightening of her coil, waiting to spring into action.
Christopher McCarthy, thank you for your DNA.
Reader Comments (6)
Agree, great scene and a fantastic performance in general: real, emphatetic, seemingly effortless, perfectly in sync with other actors (especially Collette).
Oh yes!!!! I can’t wait to see what other gestures appear in this series! I’d totally let Merrit stab me with a fork.
Ken. Cosgrove. Accounts.
(Bigger roles please! I thought he was going to have a huge episode but he's barely in it)
She has so many great moments in this. My favorite TV of the year, and she's one reason why.
I love Merrit in this series -the interrogation in the car- specially because it has nothing to do with her previous work in Nurse Jackie, which is also loved, but it was full of mannierisms.
Adam Driver would be a GREAT subject on this. His mannerisms and tics, even the movement of his eyes make him performances that more amazing to watch.