Is Acting the Wrong Name for it?

For Cara

We call it – acting, but when we say ‘acting’ more often than not we mean ‘putting on an act’, ‘pretending’, or ‘stepping into someone else’s shoes’.

But actually, to me acting implies action, not ‘putting on an act’. Acting is doing, doers of action are… Actors.

Mel Churcher recently complimented my students on not ‘acting’ which to me is a lovely thing to say as it what we aim for, we want to be as far away from the first definition as possible.

The greatest praise an actor can receive is that they weren’t caught ‘acting’. Now that’s a strange thing.

Good acting, particular that which takes place before the camera, has nothing at all to do with putting on an act. It’s about being authentically you.

Yet people love to ‘put on an act’ to be ‘something other than themselves’ and other cliches.

One of the first lessons I think every actor should learn is that acting comes from you, inside you and is aimed outwards towards the other. Acting is doing that’s inspired by the imaginary fictional world of the scene, restricted by it, augmented by it.

No part of this connects with the fraud associated with ‘putting on an act’.

I don’t mind how you get your results but I know I cannot bear the hammy playing to the audience that is rife among young actors.

But for the brave few, those who understand that acting means authenticity not fakery, they will not get the fake applause of fawning family and friends. But they are the difference between true and false, between success and failure.