Stanislavski's Acting Technique- Historical Post 6 & 7

What does Sally want and why does she want it?

• At first, we see Sally Bowles as a working class show girl who wants to make it big in the industry.  Sally may well want to be successful but for my interpretation, my character of Sally Bowles also wants stability in her life, but seems scared of stepping out from her showgirl facade.  She has never really settled and lived in one place, had a family that is always there for her or a man that has promised to love her always.  In Christopher Isherwood's Book,  when Brian returns home to Sally after being rejected by her father, he finds Sally sitting in the dark,  smoking her life away and feeling depressed because her father has stood her up. Sally sobs that while her father tries to love her, he simply does not care and thinks she is "nothing." Although Brian says he loves her dearly, she feels like she is a burden on him, showing that really she isn't that confident.

• In Christopher Isherwood's novel Sally say of herself “I believe I’m a sort of Ideal Woman, if you know what I mean. I’m the sort of woman who can take men away from their wives, but I could never keep anybody for very long. And that’s because I’m the type which every man imagines he wants, until he gets me; and then he finds he doesn’t really, after all.”.  I imagine that this has always been her state of mind, until she met Cliff.

• In the film, it is clear that Sally loves her job as a showgirl, she has a passion for dancing and singing, but it can get a bit tedious constantly having to be someone that she's not.  She wants to be a big movie star, but she doesn't ever look for opportunities, she waits for them to come to her, which most of the time doesn't happen.  She has realised that although she is still young and has her whole life ahead of her, she wants to share her life with someone that loves her for who she is underneath all the heavy make up, provocative clothes and outgoing personality but however much she tries, she can't seem to step out of her comfort zone, she feels like she is stuck in Berlin forever.