The other day I was practising. Working on facial expressions and tonality on my friends to work on my all around game. The believability was their but it brought up the harsh statement of "Actors/Actresses are just really good liars". I wanted to post this and get feedback on what your thoughts and opinions were on this statement. Thanks
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Acting is a craft and if you don't have a solid technique you won't get anywhere,. I directed features and I teach actors in LA and wrote the book How To Make Your Audience Fall in Love With You. I st...
Expand commentActing is a craft and if you don't have a solid technique you won't get anywhere,. I directed features and I teach actors in LA and wrote the book How To Make Your Audience Fall in Love With You. I stress making exciting choices and using yourself in the role not a character. Use your own charm humor and energy. I call it looking out of your own eyes. How you react to something is different than how I will react and I want to see how you react or I won't believe it. Lying has nothing to do with it. We all play different roles in our lives and we can play the roles that are written for us. You are different when you are a mom or a boss or in sweats or in a tux. That is how we approach acting. We play different roles. Korbin, I too am worried about practicing expressions. You should be concentrating on changing your partner in some way and working so hard at it that the expressions will take care of themselves. All classes can give you something but I have to say that I have had Meisner people study with me because they have no idea how to audition to get the job. My students work all the time because they blow the casting directors away. I have auditioned many actors and too many of you are boring. There is so much competition that you have to rise above the crowd. If you are interested and you read ( love actors who read) then check out DerynWarren.com and read a chapter of my book and articles I write for Backstage and other magazines. Best of luck to all of you and - never be temperamental! :) Deryn
@Deryn - Thanks for the advertisement about your services.
@Deryn - Any time you say something that is not true, by definition, you are lying. Fiction writers tell lies - lies we like and even love - but they are still lies, because they are not true. The sam...
Expand comment@Deryn - Any time you say something that is not true, by definition, you are lying. Fiction writers tell lies - lies we like and even love - but they are still lies, because they are not true. The same is true for actors. There is nothing wrong with lying if it is done in the right context. Truth vs. Lies: http://uneed2listen2this.podbean.com/mobile/2008/12/27/voir-dire-20/
@Thomas - I have no doubt your method helps you deliver your best performance. But I don't think it is necessary for someone to believe they are lying to provide a good performance. Consider a shady c...
Expand comment@Thomas - I have no doubt your method helps you deliver your best performance. But I don't think it is necessary for someone to believe they are lying to provide a good performance. Consider a shady car salesperson. Does he or she really believe all the crap they tell you? Having heard many of them behind the scenes, I don't think so. All they have to believe is that they are fooling the customers/audience. And in the end, the audience is the final judge of the quality of the performance: Was it believable?
Nice post, Paula. To me it is making YOURSELF believable and putting yourself, not a character, in imaginary circumstances and reacting as you would. You are unique and we want to see that unique reac...
Expand commentNice post, Paula. To me it is making YOURSELF believable and putting yourself, not a character, in imaginary circumstances and reacting as you would. You are unique and we want to see that unique reaction. Of course we also want to see the full you with all your energy and vulnerability and charm and humor.To do that well you need a lot of training. One reason I called my book, How to Make Yur Audience Fall in Love With You is that you have a lot of choices in acting and you should strive to make the ones that make you appealing. If the part you are playing has a lot of fed up and weary lines don't do them that way, use game playing and "I can't BELIEVE you are so awful," in an amazed way, not a fed up way. Great actor make interesting appealing choices. Look at the charm of Hannibal Lector, for example. He loved his wins and superiority. He got great pleasure from them and so did his audience.