No One Can Teach Real Acting

Acting, is it something that can be taught? Or is it something that is innately gifted by chance or invisible divinity?

Many actors believe that acting is something bestowed upon them as a gift, but why it this? There are no innate Dentists or Tennis Players, why should there be innate actors? Success or greatness in acting, like any other field, comes as a combination of factors, some controllable such as the skills you learn through actor training and coaching, and some that are not.

Let’s look at why we need to believe in innateness and why understanding growth is healthier and leads to real development.

The acting industry is obsessed with the idea of innate ability. They say ‘you’ve either got it, or you don’t’. People write off training in favour of belief in the false God of giftedness. And it’s true that shoddy, outdated training techniques are highly unlikely to help anyone in any field.

But most actors believe that one is either what author David Shenk termed innately ordinary or innately gifted.

Why? Because we rely on the myth of innateness, it is much easier on our egos.

The myth of innate talent tells us that the reason that you aren’t a great actor is that you can’t be one, it isn’t in your DNA, you don’t have ‘natural talent’.

It is much more manageable to believe that some are born to success. It relieves us of the stress of comparing ourselves to others, if Marlon Brando or Jennifer Lawrence are innately gifted, we can be jealous of the luck of their gift, we don’t have to face the disappointment so damaging to our frail sense of self.

If we’re all capable of greatness like Brando or Lawrence, we could become crushed by the burden of expectation or feel less special about those ‘talents’ we have been ‘gifted’ with. If anyone can do it, we’re not quite as special as we thought.

We must replace our belief in ‘talent’ and innateness with a better understanding of the influencing factors that shape us as we develop. The most recent scientific research into skill acquisition and development suggests that innate ability simply does not exist.

Most of these are not within our control, how much time you got to play by yourself as a child for instance could well be a large factor in the development of your imagination, but at age 18, you have little control over that.

It is not that I am saying that anyone could be great, but there are limiting and growth factors in our development.

Adequate early exposure to those things that develop acting skills influences the outcome far more than the myth of innateness: physical or brain development, family and peer attitude, education, play or practice time, a mentor. We’re not equal, because our experience and exposure shapes us.

But can the average person become a great actor? It’s impossible to tell in advance. What factors can we control? Some of the most important factors in success are:

Resilience - if you are willing to sacrifice everything, friendships, family, financial security, time, even how others see you, change your lifestyle, for years. You have to want to develop your skills with such a passion that you look forward to every moment of failure as a moment when you learn something new and make progress. Greatness requires great motivation.

Graft – you must be willing to graft, innateness is a myth, great acting is earned over thousands of hours of practice, many years.

Limitations – whatever you believe your limitations are, you must ignore them. If you perceive your limitations as those that will prevent you from achieving greatness, they will.

Distance – Greatness in acting is further away than anyone else is willing to travel. Average is easy to attain. Most people grow a little skill in acting quickly, but the journey from average to greatness, is further than most people are willing to travel. Those that give up lose.

Heroes – Find someone who started acting late like you did, or someone that didn’t have rich parents, or someone that worked in the Post Office before they were an actor. To have a hero is to constantly remind yourself of what was possible.

Expert Tuition/Mentor – finding expert acting teachers, mentors or acting coaches makes a huge impact on your development. If they believe in the myth of innateness, they won’t teach tangible skills. The reason most actors don’t believe in coaching or training is that even in the most prestigious actor training institutions in the world, they do believe in talent, and so the techniques that have been devised, and which they teach, are based on this. As such, they are usually nonsense techniques. Intangible impracticables that treat acting like it’s magic. Most modern acting techniques have little to do with the job that the actor must do at work, so actors generally tend to disbelief that expert tuition will help them develop.

Deep Practice -finding both a tangible technique and a way of practising that develops skill effectively is vital. Deep practice is conscious practice. Work is not deep practice, it is work. Many actors believe that they can learn on the job, and they will of course learn some skills on the job. But no dancer or professional athlete would support this view, because they know that training and practice builds skill and habits that support excellence when the moment of performance comes. It is a little arrogant for us to think that we don’t need to practice and that work alone will teach us the skills we need.

Many factors influence your ability, but expert tuition and deep practice (actor training and coaching) play a vital factor in an actor’s development. Sometimes that training and coaching is formal, such as drama school, sometimes it is less formal and happens through many hours of amateur dramatics or high school drama with patient teachers, or community drama with loving directors.

It is not a level playing field. Becoming a great actor isn’t an equal journey for everyone. But the factors that affect the outcome of your success are far from innate. It isn’t just innateness, it isn’t just the environment and what you were exposed to, it’s how much you are willing to sacrifice, your attitude, how and who you practice with.

But innateness is a comforting myth, and as long as there are actors, and people that want to be actors, we will need the myth of innate talent and ability. It comforts and protects those that want to act, but aren’t willing to sacrifice, it persuades them that sacrifice would not help, so they would be better off not trying. It comforts and protects those that already act, it persuades them that their ability was gifted to them because they are special.

Greatness is earned. Celebrate it. If you are a good actor, it’s because one of the things that affected your success was the bloody hard graft you put into it. You earned it!

Great acting is earned, It is not gifted. Acting – if taught as a tangible skill can be learned as one of the contributing factors towards greatness. It isn’t a certainty, success cannot be taught or guaranteed, but the acting skills to get there can.