Sanctioned Public Masturbation

There is a famous and much lauded moment in a scene from On the Waterfront, where Eva St Marie drops her pretty white glove. It is said that this was an accident and that Brando’s reaction – to pick up the glove – was an index of his true acting genius.

It is one of my greatest concerns as an acting coach that actors are taught that this in any way an act of genius, a symbol of the power of the Method, or anything other than the common sense reaction that any actor should follow.

But it’s true that most actors would not do that. They would ignore it. It’s not scripted and that would be a dud take, but Brando continued the take and that IS special.  Somehow in all their training, actor aren’t often taught to be present enough to deal with what’s really happening. If actors are truly in the moment, they are present in the scene, with their partner, and whatever happens just becomes part of that scene.

Acting as Meisner said is ‘living truthfully’, truly being 100% human, being yourself in the simplest way. But somehow actors are taught character and transformation and so they are reduced to inventing creative moments. In these moments, they take their understanding of the script and they produce some clever idea to augment it.  Actors think they need to create clever little ideas and add them in. When really, the most incredible acting moments I’ve ever seen were no more than that person being genuine. Picking up the glove was genuine, it wasn’t revolutionary, but it was genuine.

Forest Whittaker in Take 3, playing with his chess piece. This creative idea, this special character thing. It does not serve the story, it is not a subtle nuance that adds to our understanding of the character, it is a nonsense bullshit clever idea that is so clunky that it becomes a parody. These moments are not drawn from the script, they are ill fitting additions to it, they do not add value to the story, they do not help our insight into the character, they insult the audience’s intelligence and they stick out like a sore thumb.

Then why do they happen? Because most actors, even the best, do not know how to be present, do not know how to be anything less than a sliver of themselves when the camera roles. But truly great acting is so much more, you are so much more than your clever ideas, you are infinitely fascinating already. Just be and live and do what people do.

And the industry not only condones it, it sanctions, it approves it. With this approval, actors search for more good clever ideas. And finding them gives them pleasure. It does not give us the audience pleasure. It does not add for us. It is masturbatory.

After Brando picks up the glove, the human thing is to give it back, instead, he stretches the fingers and puts on the glove himself. It comes out of nowhere, it looks completely out of place, and we all stand back and applaud his cleverness. That wasn’t clever, it was awful. He ruined the beautiful moment by not knowing that he could trust his instincts. He did not need to gild the lily. He did not trust himself. I don’t blame him. He was not taught to trust himself.

I know, I am not Brando, I do not pretend to be, I do not want to be, he was astounding, but in that moment, he showed the world his fantastic ability and at the same time that he did not know who to trust himself.

Inside all of you is the potential to be great, you do not need to add your ‘best ideas’ to the script, we do not need to see your publicly sanctioned self-pleasure –  you need to get out of your own way and learn to trust your instincts.