Tuesday, March 6, 2012

UNIQUE YOU: Who you ARE is more than "Just Be Yourself"

Since my last post I've been thinking a great deal about the actor's origin of creation.  In a number of my previous posts I have made mention of and echoed many similar traditional beliefs that acting starts with you--THE ACTOR -- and I wholeheartedly agree with these beliefs.  Who you are is where it will all begins.  All your past experiences and the depth of YOUR imagination are what will feed the creation of your characters -- Your Who Am Is.  But this is just the beginning NOT the finished product.  I have heard so many acting teachers coach actors to do less "acting" by prompting them to "BE more of you" or "find more of yourself in the role."  This really gets under my skin.  Why is it that acting teachers go straight to "just be yourself" as Maggie the cat or "find yourself" in Hedda to curb Behavioral/Quality acting?  Is this at the core of what the American Method has created?  I will agree that when two actors are just sitting there AS THEMSELVES reciting lines simply without "acting" in the room together it can be a very honest moment -- it CAN be moving.  But what if that style/technique/approach doesn't fulfill the demands of the text in the scene or the overall story?  What then?  Can an actor make an adjustment to who they are as a person?  No, YOU can't.  But CHARACTERS can!


No you are missing the point of What If!  I have to imagine how I would do this if I were in this situation!

You know somewhere along the way I think Stanislavsky's "What IF" has been reduced to a lazy Actor Centered excuse.  Instead of actually using it to discovering a character -- which might take too long, result in going to emotional places that are uncomfortable, or WORSE unbelievable acting -- the modern style is to re-interpret the character's identity to that of the actor's.  Now how "I" react in the imaginary circumstances is based on who "I" have evolved into from my own real life experiences.  As a result the character is no longer in the play...the ACTOR is.  But let's imagine that you are playing Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire.  It's the end of Scene III and you are rehearsing the famous "STELLA" moment.  You decide based on your life experience that you, the actor, really wouldn't over react in circumstances like these because you don't really like conflict in your real life.  You are more level headed about things -- not to mention you can hold your liquor pretty well so you don't believe that if YOU were in these imaginary circumstances you would behave so erratic or emotional.  Besides, this is really YOU and honest to how you would get Stella back downstairs so everyone needs to accept your performance as fulfilled.  REALLY???  This is NOT what the magic IF is about.  An actor CANNOT replace the character with their own actor self.  The What IF is not about how YOU would behave in the given circumstances so much as it is about how the given circumstances might AFFECT you.  Stanley -- in accordance to the story you are in service of -- has been drinking for hours and most likely more than normal -- for starters -- because he is losing money.  His living situation is inconvenienced.  His wife is less compliant/cooperative now that her sister is living with them.  He is threatened some and possibly attracted to his wife's sister -- all of which is creating conflict and disrupting his happy life.  So how YOU, as the actor, might react to the given circumstances is only the beginning.  How YOU might react is what starts to inform your imagination to the sensations of the given circumstances.  You are not imagining what you would do in that situation -- you have to imagine what those circumstances would do to you.  Remember characters rise up out of the given circumstances.

Every one of us has our OWN unique way of reacting in every situation that we encounter in life.  We react the way we do based on our very complex development, perspective, and the values we give everyone and everything in our personal universe.  This is what makes us who we are AND is our greatest asset as a creator.  But TRUTH is not limited to your real life experience which is why "just be yourself" falls short of inspiration.  I think if you are only acting AS yourself in the given circumstances then you are limiting your potential.  And it seems that the accepted belief in this approach is that you, the actor, ARE the epitome of truthfulness and honesty in your everyday existence and we KNOW that isn't true.  Most of the time in "real life" we are too busy trying to be anything but honest with ourselves and others.  We try too hard to get our friends to think we're funny.  We do things we don't believe in to impress our bosses at work.  We smile a little too much to convince our spouse we still adore them.  Real Life is FULL of "fake" moments so how can you trust THAT to be your artistic benchmark?

But what you can trust about BEING YOURSELF is just how UNIQUE that self is!!  There is no one else like you in the entire world.  In the entire HISTORY of the world.  There never has been and there never will be anyone who is like you.  No one who thinks like you.  No one who speaks like you.  No one who has the same imagination as you.  That same complex development, perspective, and values you give everyone and everything in your personal universe has only evolved the way it has ONCE in all of time.  And only ONCE with you.  This is what makes your performance so special and different than anyone else.  No matter if you say the lines with the same reading as another actor -- with the "same" inflection and "same" objective -- the performance will NEVER be the same.  Declan Donnellan has a great perspective on this topic in his book The Actor and the Target as one of his "uncomfortable choices:" Originality or Uniqueness.

"Whenever we try to be original it is evidence that we have lost confidence in our uniqueness.  We may fear our uniqueness might not be there when we need it, or, what is more sinister, we fear that what is different about us may actually be inferior.  Particularly when young, uniformity can be reassuring.  But uniformity is impossible.  Uniformity is only an ideal, always a dangerous one.  But it shouldn't frighten us too much as it has never actually existed.  Like attention or presence, uniqueness is given to us; it has to be accepted and is out of our control.  Like anything else out of our control, we suspect uniqueness simply because it just might let us down.  So we invent an imaginary substitute, a synthetic dummy, which will be our personal creature.  Hello originality, goodbye uniqueness...The more we strive to be original, the more we obliterate our inherent uniqueness.  The more we try to be 'new', the more repetitive and reactionary we become."
For years I wanted to STAND OUT and be original to the point that I was more interested in that than fulfilling my character's wants and needs.  This was once again my ego driving the bus to nowhere.  My acting had no purpose and therefore my choices were self-centered.  I believe there is nothing wrong with a desire to unearth an inspired choice but when you neglect your purpose the result is just you being clever.  Of course at the other end of the spectrum, resting on your uniqueness (just being yourself) instead of doing the rest of the required investigation is only HALF the work and just plain lazy.  Have confidence that your uniqueness will drive you forward in creation.  As your imagination and investigation develops then your uniqueness will shine through in your choices.  The Who Am I/Character WILL be uniquely yours but TRUE to itself. 

I think that teachers train actors to "be themselves" because they do not know how to inspire truth in unfulfilled acting any other way.  I'm sure this started out as a very productive and useful approach.  However, this is not a healthy or constructive way to develop an actor.  It is limiting.  If an actor's boldness is "fake" or "showy" then the issue isn't that they need to be less of the character and more of themselves.  The issue is that their performance is detached from truth.  It is detached from purpose.  It's like hydroplaning in your car.  You know the second the car has left the road -- you are no longer in control and at any moment you could fly into oblivion.  You can feel it in all of your being.  It should be our job to help you discover why you came off the road.  Not tell you to get out an walk.  Not TRICK you into NOT performing by directing you to "just play yourself."  Acting is not a reality show.  The inescapable fact about acting is that you ARE performing.  There is no way around it and you will never be able to convince your brain that you are not -- so you might as well accept it.  So with that in mind my first advice is, DON'T SHOW ME A PERFORMANCE.  PERFORM FOR ME A TRUTH.  Then we can be as bold as we want all day long!



 

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