William H Macy at the Actors Studio
Hey guys, I’m always looking out for interesting and inspirational things to post here for you. Most recently, I watched a tremendous episode of Inside the Actors Studio, which featured Macy. I enjoyed it all, but at the end, he said things that so categorically aligned with my view of acting, I wanted to share it with you. It’s quite long, but check it out nonetheless, and maybe it will speak to you as it spoke to me:
Bill Macy:
“The whole thing about your emotions is, Grotowski found this out, if you perform an action, it will have an emotional reaction, you couldn’t stop it if you tried. Your emotions will come out. You cannot bring them forth and you cannot hide them, they will come out. And there’s never been a scene that is about being sad. There are scenes about making a bond, that’s something you can do, but being sad, you’re gonna fake it, you’re just gonna be pretending. What the audience needs to know is that you’re making a bond or you’re getting a promise, or that you’re laying down the law. These are things that are within your will, that’s what counts. And I’ll go further. Actors are emotional people, the question always, should actors be emotional people? You are emotional people, And here’s the thing, you are sufficient. You don’t have to improve yourself. First of all, you’re not gonna. In your study of acting, you’re not gonna become better people. You are sufficient, you’re enough, you’ve got the goods, you’re completely emotional enough. What we need from you is your bravery, your will. If you do it right, the journey of the character is strangely similar to the journey of the actor. In other words, the fear that the character feels is so similar to the fear that you feel. At some point, you have to stop saying, I’m wrong to feel this way, I should be feeling something different. The character should be feeling a certain thing. Nah, if you’re feeling it, it’s real.
The purpose of the technique, always – always is to free your subconscious, because that’s where the truth lies. That’s why you have a technique, so that you can let the inner stuff out, you wanna get out of your head and become impulsive. That’s where you’ll find the truth. And you’ve got the goods folks, you are sufficient.”