What really is acting? Is it the telling of a story? Is it the portrayal of a character, or is it what many consider to be the biggest form of the craft – our day-to-day lives.
Acting, among other professions, was nominated for the second-oldest profession by the World Almanac. The rest of the nominated professionals include con artists, pirates, spies, counterfeiters, etc.
This was quite fascinating to me. Oddly enough, there is an eerie similarity between most of the nominees. All of them try to convince somebody of something on a daily basis. Con artists, would lie and cheat, make people think that they are who they present themselves to be. Spies hide, looking like normal people while in fact observing and gathering information. Counterfeiters would convince people that their money or valuable items are real. And actors would convince everyone that they are some place, portraying some body, going through something.
Giving back. The truth.
However, of course, what actors do isn’t frowned upon by the law, but is in fact, giving back to the people. This is perhaps one of the main reasons why actors have been revered since ancient times. When you see a touching story, performed by marvelous actors, it takes you somewhere where the line between others and ourselves, you and me, is gone. We are moved by the story and the telling of it in a way that engages us emotionally, physically, spiritually and mentally.
But is that because of the actors solely? Shakespeare is a playwright that lived during the 16th and 17th century. His plays still live and have been performed worldwide for over 4 centuries. Clearly, the cast has been changed a few times. We’ve seen some of the greatest actors of our time perform Shakespeare, like Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Daniel Day-Lewis, Dame Maggie Smith and many, many more. So, for a play to live on for so long, it must mean that there is something which transcends the actor, the person delivering the text and is in fact, hiding within, well, that same text.
Storytelling has been a part of our existence as a species forever. It is our first map of the world which we are handed down, through stories, by the elder members of our tribe, or family, or ethnic group or nation. It is the stories that hide life truths within them. We know them as myths, legends, memories and stories. They are always served in a way that aims for us to acknowledge ourselves as someone who is very likely to be placed in the same position as the story’s hero. Or in fact, face the story’s villain. Those stories are based upon archetypal figures that go beyond the borders of a country on a paper map. They go beyond age, religion, colour of our skin, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. They are truths that hide within us all and we reach them through metaphors.
If told well enough, the words have the power to move anyone. If told right. As much as these stories, myths, legends, Shakespeare’s plays, have existed forever, they require skillful story tellers to share them with the rest of the mortals if the desired outcome is not that of disdain. Not all story tellers are born equal, believe it or not, and some are inevitably better than others. Just because you to be one, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be good at it. Sometimes the best thing to do is to do something else.
Is that all that there is?
Anyway, so as much as actors, and story tellers, need a good story to tell. A good story needs good actors to tell it. So where does the difference lie? Where does story teller end and actor begin?
In order to act, to be an actor, you need to transform yourself into someone else, that inhabits someplace else, and has gone through something else, in order to create what would be yourself in the other time and place. Let me say this again – you are yourself in a different place and time, with a different past. So many people confuse acting with representing a different person. With playing someone else. The truth is that I cannot ever imagine what someone else could behave like in the situation that I am given. I can only know how I have acted or would act should that happen to me, by that I mean whatever happens in the script. You can never play someone else. Well then, you will say, what do you do when portraying a real figure. Let me return the question at you and ask you what do you do first when playing a real figure? Do you not research them? What they have been through?
And in the process of doing so, you understand that what they did and are doing now is absolutely in your character, if you’ve gone through the same things as them, have heard the same words spoken to you, have had the same thoughts and beliefs as them.
Perhaps, that's not all...
So, to answer another question, where does actor end and character begin. Character is purely the way someone responds to different stimuli. One thing happens to them and how they react is truly what makes their character. Some are fearful, others courageous. It is the decisions you make. Then, of course, comes to colours of speech, tone, accent, inner tempo, rhythm, physicality, and so on. But those are really secondary.
So, essentially, whatever character you’re playing, they need to really and truly be you, but making different decisions in different circumstances.
Now combine this with a whole ensemble of characters that make decisions in favour of a story that they’ve all been brought together to tell. However, although again story-tellers, we are also story-creators. We portray what later will become the legend, or the myth. We are the story itself being unveiled in front of an audience. The story being observed as it unfolds, rather than being told long after it happened.
Hence, an actor is not only one that is expected to repeat lines, follow directions, and keep their mouth shut. An actor must be the creator, too. Otherwise, the story will not be alive. Actors need to be able to see the story live in their minds, sharing the vision of the director, and then simply living through it time and time again in front of a live audience or the camera.
What is the truth about acting?
The truth about acting is that it involves one’s whole being. Not only to tell a story, not just to show it or represent it. But to live the story as it unfolds for an audience to see. For a memory to occur again and again and again.
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