I'm an acting student in college and in my class we're doing a short scene with set dialogue, but we get to alter anything else we'd like. It's an exercise in training subtext, body language, nonverbal communication etc.

I'm looking for a little bit of advice on how to demonstrate authentic pickup, I'm kinda a noobie to this.

We're both dancers so we decided to have the setting be a pickup in a bar/lounge with a dance floor. About halfway through we were gonna break and have about a 1 minute dance together. I'm thinking it would be really cool to have the dance speak the subtext of the scene and have a few ideas for that. We're going to rehearse at a social dance hall on friday nights for as close to authentic practice as we can.

So, any advice on how she and I should approach this? Where/when I should smile, when she should, what sort of touching and stuff we could do?
What should our clothing communicated etc?


Here's the lines I've got to work around

Her: Oh
Him: Yes

Her: Why are you doing this?
Him: It's the best thing.

Her: You can't mean it.
Him: No, I'm serious

Her: Please.
Him: What?

Her: What does this mean?
Him: Nothing.

Her:Listen.
Him: No.

Her: So different.
Him: Not really.

Her: Oh.
Him: You're good

Her: Forget it.
Him: What?

Her: Go on.
Him: I will.

Awesome, I love acting! Well, I love watching actors

My advice is slightly dated and from around 1987. Their is this movie that I watched a while back actually called The Pick-Up Artist, but that isn't the dealbreaker, the lead role is acted by a young 'flamboyant' Robert Downey Jr.

The movie is Ok but he is amazing, I think it would be great for you to watch and imitate. He isn't playing the most swarve or sophisticated character in the film but the best part of him is that he really doesn't care what people think of him onscreen and infront of crew/audience etc

You may not be his standard yet but it should be fairly easy to copy him as much as possilbe.

_________________
"I guess a little small talks in order here now."

"Do I look like a gentleman to you in this shirt and these pants?"

"I know you from some place."

Thank you! I'll look that up on netflix and see how it works.


I'll try bringing a much more playful flirty vibe to rehearsals and see where that goes. I did a line reading with a different girl from my dance class yesterday and the vibe was sizzling
We eye fucked each other the entire time, I held a really direct gaze until she would break eye contact then look back up with a sly smile. "I will" became the sexiest line I've ever spoken!

This morning my scene partner and I rehearsed for the first time and it was absolutely terrible
Her boyfriend tagged along and she wasn't off book yet so it was rigid and mechanical and she's choosing to have her character be a mega bitch who hates men.. the idea is to melt the ice queen but it really makes the dynamic weird and bad.. In character I don't have any motivation to charm her I just want to run away and go dance and flirt with someone more fun.

I'm crossing my fingers that rehearsing at a the dance hall will ignite some spark at least..

How would you have the girl take on this scene?
I'm a bit lost on how to relate to her character choices in a pickup oriented frame.

Just watched the movie. I thought it was great that his character had no shame and was willing to do anything, but I HATE that he never shuts up! It felt as though his character was using blunt force as a communication tool, bowling people over without giving them the chance to contribute to the interaction. Sure he was successful but it was all about him.

I want to make my partner look good, and make my partner feel good, just like in dancing. It's not how sexy YOU are its how sexy you can make HER feel. That's how I've been taught in all my dance classes at least..

That's my first impression anyways. I'll watch it again to see what else I can pickup, maybe watch it as a silent film to pickup more of the nonverbal communication. One thing I did notice was at the end when he held a really direct gaze and cocked his head to the side with a blank look where he was just absorbing. And she was doing the same thing. And it was a beautiful moment.

Cool that you watched the film, my point was to look at it more from an acting point of view. How Robert Downey Jr can let himself go and become the pick up artist.

If you want to study any more pick up films for PU specific techniques and stuff then you could try:

1. Roger Dodger (2002): Campbell's character is amazing in this film, totally impassive PUA. Must watch!

2. Alfie (2004): Jude Law's character is the confident player type PUA. Swarve all over.

3. Spread (2009): Film is purely about Ashton's character fucking hot women. But their is still things to take from the film. He is about picking up women and crashing at their place as he has no house. THAT IS GAME!

Let me know if you watch any of these, they are not as dated as The Pick-Up Artist film.

_________________
"I guess a little small talks in order here now."

"Do I look like a gentleman to you in this shirt and these pants?"

"I know you from some place."