The Lessons Learned
You know, I learn more from teaching than most of the students ever realise. Having to articulate time and again the goal of truthful acting, the authentic behaviour that I call truth in action. Being an acting coach is a privilege, working with people young and old, beginners and experienced professionals, people coming back into the profession and people just putting their toe in the water, it’s an exciting job where no two days are EVER, EVER the same.
I’m fairly use to ranting about acting, but I’m also given the unique opportunity to test out my ideas in practice every day, with the people I work alongside. So this week, when we started to develop something special (CODENAME: ADRA) there were plenty of people around to bounce ideas off. I’m amazed when I read books on acting just how difficult those guys make it seem, just how complex and complicated, just how much nonsense they take, I mean, lovely, well-intentioned, well-meaning nonsense, but just intangible crap. The lessons I’ve learned in the past few years are that nothing works better than the truth, nothing is more convincing than real, authentic behaviour.
Today, I just wanted to give you some things to think about. Things that I’ve been thinking.
Acting is about listening, but not to other actor’s words, they’re lies, but what the other person is doing, there’s truth in that. Respond that.
You have to do more with the words than the words actually mean, the words of the script are really just the tip of the iceberg.
Authenticity cannot be faked, it cannot be bought cheaply, it cannot created, behaviour is not something that you can create, it is something you do.
The foundation of your scene work is your understanding of the scene. If you don’t understand the scene, you’re acting on ignorance.
If you don’t have the tools to transform that understanding into action, your understanding is academic.
The tiniest moment of each scene is your friend if you know how to use it.
Finally, something I’ve tweeted earlier last week: The script, the moment, and your partner, that’s acting, that’s all it is.
These are my thoughts, I appreciate all the support from my students as we continue to refine and define our approach, and for the actors, coaches and directors that have inspired with their compliments and insults, we’re only three years in – in the life of ACS, already I think we’re onto something special. Stick around. You never know where this is going.