In Which I Get Really Actor-y

So I thought I'd take a break today from my usual, practical advice, and jump into something a little more metaphysical: What does it mean to be the character you're portraying? Yipes (yes, yipes), it's pretty deep. In my head, to be the character is to take your own self and inject it into the playwrights situation. Right? That's the essence of acting. We are to be "truthful under imaginary circumstances."* What Meisner meant is that you are to be truthfully you under imaginary circumstances. It's easy. What child hasn't pretended to be a superhero or a princess and almost actually believed it? If you're shaking your head right now, whatever. I can't be the only one.

And, of course, as people grow up, some lose the ability to pretend. If you want to be an actor, but can't pretend, go find another occupation - I think it's safe to say that all actors have to be able to pretend... But if we all can pretend to be something, what distinguishes good actor from great actors? Well that's where it gets even deeper. What the good actors don't understand is that with each character you play, there are some aspects of your own personality that you have to shut off. Whaaaaaat???? But if you think about it, there are certain things that have happened in your life that have shaped you into who you are, but the character never experiences. Confused? I'll give you an example.

I know a really lovely actress who is in her thirties. In this moment, she's playing a girl of eighteen who doesn't want to admit she's in love. Her character hides those feelings by being mean to her love interest. The key difference between an eighteen year old and a woman in her thirties who doesn't want to admit she's in love is that the teenager is going to be silly while she's mean. She's going to say ridiculous things in a jabbing way (mind you, in this show she's saying all this while clutching a bottle of tabasco, so it's already ridiculous.) Deep down, she wants him to flirt back with her, so she's not serious. The actress in my example, though, chooses to be serious. She gets mad. She jabs at him, and we know she's playing, but she's too serious. She's not a naive little girl, she's reacting as herself, a woman who's been in love before and understands.

Makes sense? Sorta? Kinda? What I mean is that, in order to make a character believable, we have to understand who the character is, and then who you are in relation to them. When I get a role, I'll usually make a list of everything about the character (her age, preferences, etc.) then I move onto what she wants and how she feels about everything. I think about how her situation might make her react. When that's done, I compare how I'd react to those situations to how the character, given our differences. That's the important thing right there: How does she (or he) react in a way that's different from my own reaction, given how we're different? Differences are everything, similarities are easy.

Understand? Disagree? You know what to do.xx

*Sanford Meisner