Glasgow Acting Coach gives Advice: It’s Not About You

When we are insecure, unsure and anxious, we focus on ourselves. It’s no surprise then that the highly stressful job of the actor should lead them to become self-focused. Actors get a bad rep for being self-centred, in such a self-conscious profession, no one should blame the actor for over much self awareness.

But it is something you must fight because it is crippling. That internally focused critic is not your friend, the Beast, a self-destructive monster that pretends to care but only destroys.

My rule of thumb is this, script first, and then your scene partner, self last. Decisions should be based on the script, then off the scene partner, self last.

When we are focused on ‘the other’, our self consciousness evaporates. When we are self-focused, we are clumsy, defensive and tense.

The main thing that I loathe about theatre performances is watching the individual actors doing their individual ‘turn’. It is self-conscious to the maximum and turns the audience off.

But when the actor seeks a real-world exchange with their fellow stage partners, when they attempt to affect them, to change them instead of acting out the meaning of the lines in some apparently entertaining way, then, they become captivating to watch. It’s as-if taking the attention off yourself and placing it elsewhere makes the audience become drawn to you. Your lack of self-interest causes more audience interest.

When you are forced to change them, you know you must be truthful, for they cannot be changed by your performance, but by your truthful actions.

By truthful actions, I do not mean ‘realistic’, or even ‘true to life’ but true to the moment.

When an audience sees the truthful exchange taking place beneath the surface of the lines, they become drawn in and they are affected by it on a gut-level.

This does not happen when you do your solo ‘turn’, making your clever performance in front of the audience. They may marvel AT your performance, your clever ‘turn’, how entertaining you are, but they never believe it for a second.

One of the most important thing that an actor can learn, is to place their attention on another, to make changing another their scenic task and to speak and act to change the other actor.

COACH

Mark Westbrook is Senior Acting Coach at Acting Coach Scotland

Based in Australia? Mark is coming to Sydney in November for a week-long intensive masterclass! Find out more here.