How Christopher Walken uses dance to elevate his performances: “Rhythm is very important”
Plenty of actors are known for developing signatures that eventually become an accepted part of their on-screen arsenal, but befitting his status as a legend of the profession, Christopher Walken has two.
Admittedly, the first isn’t something he can do a whole lot about, but having one of the most recognisable voices in cinema has come in very handy. Impressionists have been doing their own spin in Walken’s inimitable cadence for decades, but the way he wraps his tongue around every syllable has a lot to do with his other favoured habit.
Ever since he was a toddler, the man has been dancing. By his own admission, Walken took his first dance lessons at the age of only three years old, and it blossomed into the love of a lifetime. There’s evidence illustrating just how long and how often he’s been working it into his performances, with a comfortable half-century of credits featuring him busting at least one move.
Once he was bitten by the dancing bug he refused to let it go, even though he first gained prominence as a serious dramatic actor. He’s got an Academy Award, a Bafta, and a Screen Actors Guild Award to show for it, but his obsession with rhythm has become integral to his approach to finding the root of any character he plays, regardless of what genre he’s occupying at any given time.
Orally and physically, that’s how he prepares for his acting roles, and he more often than not finds a way to ensure he gets to indulge his song-and-dance side. “For me, rhythm is very important. I think we express ourselves as much with rhythm as with the words,” he explained to Michael Wechsler. “It’s curious, how you’re not collaborating with anyone at that point, and by the time you get there with other actors on the set, usually what you’ve done at home makes sense, and it’s acceptable to everybody.”
With a background in ballet and tap, among other disciplines, Walken hasn’t starred in a massive number of musicals in the traditional sense, but the way in which he uses his own distinct inflexion to enhance his performances is every bit as indicative of that training as the innumerable scenes – and iconic music videos – where he gets to do it in a more literal sense.
“I suppose musicals have always been my favourite thing, I’m talking about movie musicals,” he suggested. “If somebody asks me if I want to go see a show, my choice is almost always musicals. I think if I was in the movies at an earlier time, I might have been in a lot of musical movies.”
Without his iconic method of delivering lines and his fondness for incorporating the odd shake, shimmy, and shuffle into his work, Walken would be just another character actor. As it stands, though, he’s one of the all-time greats, and he’s managed to do it by transforming his love of dance and his dedication to rhythm into the foundational elements that gave rise to a career of consistent, acclaimed, and legendary success.
The man can dance; he knows it, and he decided the world needed to know it, too. For that, audiences everywhere are eternally grateful.
