Acting is whatever works. It doesn’t matter if you work from the inside out or the outside in. It doesn’t matter if you start with the language or the given circumstances. It doesn’t matter if you begin with your head or your heart; you just have to find something that works for you and for the material.
To reach this goal, you have to work at your craft. It’s nice to think that acting comes naturally or that inspiration will hit when you need it. But the truth is, the more you practice, the more skilled you will become at finding your way into a script. The more scene study you do, the easier it will be for you to make your lines active and interesting. The harder you work, the more often inspiration will come to you and when it does you’ll actually be able to do something with it.
To find what works, you have to learn to read and understand scripts. This will enable you to uncover the given circumstances, language, themes, and actions. By being sensitive to the workings of the script, you will also be guided toward an approach to acting that works for that particular script as well as for you. Remember, if you only have one approach to acting, you are only going to be able to handle certain material.
Finally, to find an approach to acting that works for you, you must be responsive to your acting partners, sets, props, and given circumstances. Regardless of how you work, you are not acting alone or in a vacuum. Responding to and living off of the people and things around you will make your acting come to life no matter what approach you use.
“Acting is whatever works,” means that you have developed methods of working that enable you to do whatever a script calls for, in a way that is natural and effective for you.
Eric Barr. All rights reserved
