On Acting
I found a great post on "2 Blowhards" (by Micheal Blowhard) about acting. It's definitely worth checking out, not just for his original post, but also for the responses it generated. Read it here. Terry Teachout also sampled from it in his ArtsJournal blog. (If you've never read Teachout, you MUST get over to his About Last Night blog. He covers art in all its forms.)
Anyway, I thought I'd write my own mini-response to Blowhard's comments on acting. He mentions that actors love displaying their faces, voices, and bodies, but notes that they are also often painfully shy. He also notes that he thinks actors are most themselves when they can pour themselves into other characters, questioning if actors do indeed know who they really are.
As to the first point, I do think that, in some cases, actors do enjoy displaying themselves. However, I think that the reason it's easier for a shy actor to do so is that it's almost as if it is not really him/her that's being displayed. It is, after all, the character. Blowhard notes that actors have nothing to hide behind, but I would argue that this is untrue. Although the character must be authentic to the human experience, he/she becomes a sort of mask for the actor. In this respect, performing is extraordinarily freeing. An actor is afforded the ability to say things, do things, and feel ways that they may never say/do/feel during the course of their actual life. (It can be a very escapist, guilty pleasure. It brings to mind the old, "I was drunk; I'm not responsible for my actions last night" excuse. The actor is allowed to love, hate, fantasize, laugh in delirium, etc., in each performance, and there are no repercussions on his/her "real life.")
Because of the nature of their profession, I think that actors probably know who they are more than most. I agree that they can be capricious and mercurial, particularly because they must retain (and exercise) the ability to see themselves in the characters they play. A necessary byproduct of that ability is the robust use of the many different facets of an individual's own, personal character.
As to how actors do what they do, I believe that it is a largely instinctive process. Classes can help actors develop their technique or give them extra tricks to add to their bag for help during difficult scenes or patches of performance that are "not working," but most people I've come into contact with either have the spark, or they don't. (As for those actors that you don't notice for a long time, who then overwhelm you with their talent, my argument would be that you just hadn't seen them in the right role yet. A talented actor is a talented actor, but the wrong casting or direction can interfere with the display of that talent. Theatre is a group effort, and sometimes the planets have to align for the right actor to be cast in the right role with the right direction.)
Anyway, this is all total conjecture, based on my limited experience. But I read Blowhard's post, which I thought was insightful and provoking, and I thought I'd take a stab at a response.
Anyway, I thought I'd write my own mini-response to Blowhard's comments on acting. He mentions that actors love displaying their faces, voices, and bodies, but notes that they are also often painfully shy. He also notes that he thinks actors are most themselves when they can pour themselves into other characters, questioning if actors do indeed know who they really are.
As to the first point, I do think that, in some cases, actors do enjoy displaying themselves. However, I think that the reason it's easier for a shy actor to do so is that it's almost as if it is not really him/her that's being displayed. It is, after all, the character. Blowhard notes that actors have nothing to hide behind, but I would argue that this is untrue. Although the character must be authentic to the human experience, he/she becomes a sort of mask for the actor. In this respect, performing is extraordinarily freeing. An actor is afforded the ability to say things, do things, and feel ways that they may never say/do/feel during the course of their actual life. (It can be a very escapist, guilty pleasure. It brings to mind the old, "I was drunk; I'm not responsible for my actions last night" excuse. The actor is allowed to love, hate, fantasize, laugh in delirium, etc., in each performance, and there are no repercussions on his/her "real life.")
Because of the nature of their profession, I think that actors probably know who they are more than most. I agree that they can be capricious and mercurial, particularly because they must retain (and exercise) the ability to see themselves in the characters they play. A necessary byproduct of that ability is the robust use of the many different facets of an individual's own, personal character.
As to how actors do what they do, I believe that it is a largely instinctive process. Classes can help actors develop their technique or give them extra tricks to add to their bag for help during difficult scenes or patches of performance that are "not working," but most people I've come into contact with either have the spark, or they don't. (As for those actors that you don't notice for a long time, who then overwhelm you with their talent, my argument would be that you just hadn't seen them in the right role yet. A talented actor is a talented actor, but the wrong casting or direction can interfere with the display of that talent. Theatre is a group effort, and sometimes the planets have to align for the right actor to be cast in the right role with the right direction.)
Anyway, this is all total conjecture, based on my limited experience. But I read Blowhard's post, which I thought was insightful and provoking, and I thought I'd take a stab at a response.
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