The Fear of Being Found Out
Was talking to Jacalyn, one of our studio students about this recently, thought I’d develop it into a blog:
Acting is a simple, intuitive, instinctive thing. It can be trained, developed – it helps if you have a natural aptitude for it, but I believe it can be learned given enough time and effort and importantly self-awareness. The trouble is that I think a lot of actors out there, trained and untrained, have no idea how they do what they do. The techniques and methods they learned in drama school did not create a map for performance, they don’t seem to fit each role, which means that to survive, over time, they’ve developed their own simple ways, and they’re not all that complicated – but they wouldn’t want to tell you that. Why? Because after 10, 20, 50 years in the business, it would be embarrassing to admit that you do not REALLY know HOW you do what you do. It would be like confessing you cannot make it happen on command, it would decrease your bank-ability, maybe even endanger your future career – how could they trust you if you didn’t know HOW to make it happen on cue? It’s so hard to admit it if you don’t really know how you do it. And that creates the fear – the fear of being found out, not a REAL actor, if you don’t talk the nonsense.
And so many great actors, and many fine jobbing actors, my favourite people in the world, they’ve bought into the voodoo around the craft of the actor. If you take an actor and ask him how he prepared for the role, his answer will be, either entirely practical, ie horse-riding, read the novel, learned the accent, talked to the author etc. Or complete voodoo hogwash bullshit. Forgive me, I don’t mean to deride, I really don’t. It’s just that IS what it IS. Bullshit. It’s a shame, but it’s true. And of course, not all.
The fear of being discovered creates a smoke screen around the craft and the techniques and methods for the most part are just a placebo to help that smoke screen stay in place. If I believe hard enough that I am King Arthur, I will behave LIKE King Arthur. Hmmm… Tried that as a kid, didn’t work out. But it DOES definitely give you confidence as we spoke of in the blog on acting technique as placebo.
I’m calling for honesty. If you don’t know how you do it, that’s okay. If you don’t know how to do it, that’s okay. Ask someone for help. But unless the help is practicable, capable of actually acting upon, then shun them like the charlatans they are.
You don’t need to fear this. You don’t need to admit or confess. Just don’t bullshit yourself or perpetuate the myth. Your way of working is probably as personal and therefore private as the next actors, and if you produce the results. Great. And if you don’t. Find that someone who can help.