Thursday, September 19, 2013

Body Language Analysis No. 2526: Skyler White, Anna Gunn and "Breaking Bad"

In this interview with Gayle King, the Emmy nominated Anna Gunn talks about her character Skyler White - the wife of Bryan Cranston's character's Walter White's in AMC's "Breaking Bad" as well as the public's dislike of her character (of which she also wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times). Oodles of juicy nonverbal communication are displayed in this video.

Note: The original video has, since the original post, been removed from its online source. The images below however, were captured from this video.

At the 2:09 mark, Gayle begins "Look, Let's talk about warm and fuzzy, because Anna people don't like you. They don't ... they don't like your character. I mean you've been described as shrew, harpy, annoying, bitch wife, I've never hated a T.V. show character as much as I hate her. These are all things people have written about you. And at some point it got so vicious that it even turned to you personally - where someone said, 'Tell me where I can find Anna Gunn so I can kill her.' Did it scare you?"

Just before Ann answers, "It didn't scare me at first ...." (at 2:33), Ms. Gunn's neck muscles undergo a moderately-strong contract for about a second (slightly longer than a microexpression). Here it's primarily Anna's sternocleidomastoid (long ropy & cylindrical muscles of neck) muscles that tighten - although often it's primarily the platsyma (thin near-paper thin muscle that lies just beneath the skin of the entire front of the neck and acts to give the neck a "tented-up" appearance). The platysma is not contracted as much in this particular example.

These highly characteristic neck muscle contractions is but one type body language which is highly correlative with fear. And after all, wouldn't you be afraid if someone threatened to kill you?

See also:

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2344:  Jillian Michaels Body Language - Neck of Fear & Mouth of Fear

Negotiation Secret # 329: Angela Merkel's Neck of Fear

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2498:  McKenzie Morgan,  17 Year-Old Solo Pilot Walks Away From Crash  Partial Mouth and Neck of Fear Body Language

Nonverbal Communication Analysis # 2261:  Mom pulls Python off of her 2 year old daughter -  Body Language & Microexpression of Fear

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2486:  Katie Holmes on David Letterman and the  "Social Etiquette Fear Face"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2454:  NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman & a  Subtle "Neck of Fear"

Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 2517:  Bashar al-Assad Fears Over-Throw if U.S. Attacks, Body Language Tell During Charlie Rose Interview, Part II
































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