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| How Act To Be "Real" And Be In The Character |
Sorry, Your Acting Looks Fake!
The Key Of Acting 'Real' And Look Convincing To Audience
One of the top directors I knew who visited my coaching session, stated that when he�s casting for a role, he�s looking for �someone who is not acting but a real character.� Judging from everything I know about casting and the industry, this is definitely true.
- At the same time, one of the most effective things you can do as an actor is to reject �trying hard� to be a character:
While imagining yourself �IF' you are that character, be so real that your partner, audience, casting director, director, producer, etc., can't tell whether you're acting or really talking as a character.
Cultivating such a level of �realness� in your acting craft is so awesome and staggering to casting directors in auditions, directors during a 'Take' or audience, that it creates a natural feel in them and gives the appearance that you are speaking with no trace of acting.
This is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to the entire production, as it causes the directors, writers, and producers to look at you with a sense of wonder and envy.
In my opinion, the difference between �good� and �great� acting is the actor who starts every scene lit up and is emotionally full, instead of bein flawless but with emptiness, requiring warm up and perhaps re-takes as they go. This �real� creates a strong platform from which an actor can take the film to incredible heights who acts in a way that seems so natural that everyone is pulled in the film, without any stench of acting technique or being filmic.
It doesn�t reek of the stench of acting technique or preparation. A great example of this is the opening scene of the Oscar-winning film �Birdman.� The film begins with a group of actors sitting around a table on a stage, seemingly having a discussion. As the conversation progresses and the camera moves, we realize they�re actually having a table read and acting dialogue from a play. This example so vividly demonstrates the elegance and ease that truly seamless acting can present: It can look startlingly real.
How to Begin
1. Be A Blank Canvas
After all preparation and seeds of �character� have been planted inside the actor, the bravest �act� an actor can do is to be a �blank canvas� and exist moment-by-moment, just like life!
When an actor gets a confidence of �can be the character instantly�, he should forget everything and be a true self. Just a blank slate, an empty glass.
In life, you truly don�t know what the person you�re talking to is going to say or do. You can achieve this dynamic on stage or on screen as well. Some actors protest and say that the script prevents that sense of wonder and spontaneity, but I disagree. If you really are in the moment (in a story, scene, with changing rhythm and emotions) but allowing yourself to be a blank canvas which responds truthfully to what�s happening before you, you really will respond in a natural manner as if you don�t know what you�re partner is going to say or do.
The great actors learn by practicing mind exercises and has a �switch on-off" mind and feel so real (and presumably uncertain), that they feel like life. You can create a combined sense of fear, uncertainty, and the unknown�all of which are so captivating to watch.
2. Simple Exercise of Keeping It Real
Phone a friend, family member, or acquaintance and let them know you�re going to play a little game as you have the phone conversation. The game is that you�re going to interject lines of your dialogue into the conversation but you�re not going to tell them when you�re doing it. The challenge is to see if the person on the other line can tell when you�re speaking from the script and when you�re really speaking to them. Apart from adding your script lines in the conversation, the conversation engaging the other person could be anything bullshit. I guarantee this session will make you more aware of when you�re being real and fully engaged with emotional fullness and when you�re not.
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