What is good acting? What does good acting look like?
With thanks to Tom
It’s a difficult question and the answer could fill a book. Or several. Or perhaps it already has.
I can only tell you how I see acting.
First off, the actor does nothing to interfere with my desire to suspend my disbelief. The length of the performance, I want to pretend that you are the character in the play, film etc. If you do something that draws attention to yourself the actor, I will stop enjoying it. So good acting actually looks like no acting at all, I don’t want to see you acting, I want to totally enjoy the magic of the theatre or the silver screen. To do this, you must be truthful to the moment, not ‘realistic’ but truthful to what is happening around you in the scene, and in film, the director, the DOP and editor are REALLY doing to help you. And on the stage, you’re really on your own, but respond to what is happening around you, and you stand a good chance.
Second, that the actor does not place themselves in front of the story of the film, or play. In other words, their performance is not about getting my attention, they already have it. Instead, its about letting me enjoy the film or play. Every time you draw attention to yourself, I can see you at work, and I didn’t come for that, I came to immerse myself in the story, that’s why I go to the movies or the theatre, not to marvel at your skill, but to forget you are even there and fall headlong into the fictional world. Stop pointing at your performance, winking at me to admire your skill, stop drawing attention to your performance, you are pulling me out of the fictional world all the time to marvel at your histrionics and I know I am committing reputation suicide here, but I don’t enjoy Al Pacino, or Christian Bale, or Daniel Day Lewis, because despite all the epithets about how wonderful they are, all I see is the strings, an actor working so hard, that all I see is the actor. And I think they steal the scenes they are in by trying just tooooooo hard.
My advice to actors, get out of your own way, get out of the audience way, get out of the way of the play and the writer. You are wonderful, you are amazing, you can give the most astounding performances, but let me decide that without you showing