There is nothing more fakey looking than a fake stage slap, where one actor reacts as though he/she were slapped, and either the slapper or the slappee tries to make the sound of a slap by whacking themselves in the leg or some other part of the anatomy. I have seen no one do it convincingly. Nope, a slap is a very personal insult, and needs to be real, at least on stage.
There is a whole area of training called stage combat which teaches actors to look like they are pounding each other to death, without actually doing so. Murderous sword-fighting scenes, for example, can and must be faked.
But the slap cannot be faked. Come on, it isn’t fatal. I was slapped to the floor, twice, in one play, and three times (in rapid succession) in another. Right across the chops, and for real. Yes, it hurt, but not as much as it could have had I not learned how to ride it out.
By the way, in both instances, I was slapped to the floor by none other than the love of my life, Mil Nicholson. And she didn’t pull her punches. It wouldn’t have looked real.
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