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Observation
Aug 17, 2019
There are different schools of thought on actor training. One advocates complete immersion into a character, another for finding what already in your being relates to the character you are playing, and so on and so on.
I tend to follow a hybrid approach, which has developed over the last 3+ decades of performing. When I started, I used what I now refer to the Jack Nicholson school of acting. I played myself playing the character. In the end, what you saw on stage or screen was a variation of the actor creating the character. In the Renaissance Faire world, it worked.
As I moved to the stage, I realized that this would no longer work. So, I learned to watch people. At first, I just watched how people walked, and generally moved their bodies. Then, I learned to understand how various base instincts and motivations affected movement.
Now, I sit and watch people. A lot of actors, especially character actors, do. I watch the springy step of youth and the unsure step of both extreme youth and age. I watch whether a person leads with their head, their chest, their crotch... Do they slouch, stand ramrod straight, hunch their shoulders? Do they smile, frown, or keep a neutral face?
Mixing all that with a study of the character's motivations, it is my hope that now I can create deep characters that take the material to new levels.
Spill Your Guts
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