20 I Can Read You Like a Book
What the pros know:
TV vs. reality
The ability of television cops and lawyers to catch a killer seems
almost magical. For them, clues glow in the dark and fall out of the
rafters. And when they interview a suspect, they read his body
language to confirm his guilt. Given the advantage of close-ups,
and a director explaining when and how to mimic a behavior, you
get to see what tips off the brilliant detective—but you don’t neces-
sarily know what it means. Rubbing the legs while he’s talking (stress
relief through energy displacement), pupils narrowing to a pinpoint
when he sees a photo of the victim (the picture brings back the
rage that led him to kill the guy who stole his money), and dry
mouth (another sign of intense anger), all fit together for the smart
cop, but all you perceive is a feeling that the suspect is an emotional
wreck. These actors are, of course, working from a script, so they
know the subtext, which the writer may or may not have gotten
right. The truth is often much more subtle and difficult to read.
Human subroutines can become really complex, and it is a rare
combination of talent and experience that enables the writer-
director-actor team to get it right.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent and The Closer provide great
examples of the substantial information that a body-language
expert can glean from interaction with a person. In the former,
Vincent D’Onofrio stars as Detective Robert Goren, whom TV.com
aptlydescribes as “an exceptionally bright homicide investigator