| Errors | Missing | Unverified | Supported |
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| 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
While Embrace of the Serpent (2015) was guided by a structured script, the film’s production was deeply collaborative, relying on a "spirit of improvisation" and significant on-set adaptations—particularly from the indigenous non-actors.
The most notable instances of improvisation and unscripted elements include:
The most significant "improvisation" was the ongoing revision of the script by Antonio Bolívar, who played the older Karamakate. As one of the last surviving members of the Ocaina people, Bolívar frequently corrected director Ciro Guerra on cultural and linguistic accuracy. He would often tell Guerra, "I wouldn't say this" or "My people do not think this way," leading to on-the-spot rewrites of dialogue to better reflect indigenous philosophy and the Ocaina language.
The young Karamakate (Nilbio Torres) and the older Karamakate (Antonio Bolívar) spent three months in preparation together. During this time, they engaged in improvisational movement exercises. They were encouraged to "play" together, mimicking each other’s walk, posture, and way of handling objects so that they could convincingly portray the same soul at two different ages. This created a unified character performance that wasn't dictated by the script but discovered through physical improvisation.
In the nightmarish "mission" scenes (both the 1909 and 1940 segments), the behavior of the indigenous extras was largely spontaneous. Director Ciro Guerra instructed the community members to treat the acting as a "game" and encouraged them to "do crazy things" or behave in ways they found funny or transgressive. Their unsettling and chaotic background actions were not meticulously choreographed; instead, the director used "the tools of cinema" (lighting, smoke, and camera movement) to turn their spontaneous play into a cinematic nightmare.
The Western actors (Jan Bijvoet and Brionne Davis) had very little room to improvise dialogue because they were required to speak indigenous languages (like Cubeo and Wanano) phonetically. However, their physical interactions with the indigenous leads were often unscripted. Because Torres and Bolívar were non-actors who reacted naturally to the environment, the professional actors had to "give in completely" and improvise their physical responses to the non-actors' unpredictable energy.
While not "improvised" in the sense of being accidental, several key elements were changed on the fly for ethical reasons:
| Scene/Element | Type of Improvisation | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Dialogue | Cultural/Collaborative | Antonio Bolívar revised lines on set for authentic Ocaina perspective. |
| Mission Scene | Background/Extras | Indigenous extras were encouraged to "play" and act "crazy" without specific direction. |
| Character Prep | Movement | Torres and Bolívar improvised physical traits to ensure the character felt consistent across 30 years. |
| Interaction | Physical | Professional actors improvised their physical reactions to match the naturalistic style of the non-actors. |
The summary omits that the film was shot on 35mm with a strict limit of two takes per scene, which significantly constrained the possibility of extensive improvisation during actual filming.
Yes, Embrace of the Serpent featured several forms of improvisation. Most notably, the indigenous extras in the chaotic Mission sequence were instructed to treat the scene as a "game" and do "crazy things" spontaneously. Additionally, the two actors playing Karamakate (Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolívar) engaged in improvisational workshops to mimic each other's movements and unify their performance. Antonio Bolívar also "improvised" in the sense of collaboratively rewriting dialogue on set to ensure cultural accuracy.