I Don't Need an Acting Class

As actors, it is our job, our responsibility to observe human behavior. We do this to understand what it reveals about people and relationships, because it gives us information that we can use, another frame of reference for an idea or character or relationship. Imitation may be where we start but it can’t be where we end up. To inhabit the character fully we need to scratch the surface of physicality and behavior to understand what is going on underneath it and thus build the full scope of a complex human being.

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This week, Milton reminds us of the importance of having a specific relationship with everything and everyone around you. According to Stella Adler, the director’s job is to tell you where to enter, hit your marks and exit; your job is to fill in all the blanks, and we have limitless possibilities at our finger tips when it comes to choices. You are never in a place and time about which you have no point of view. You should never stare out a window blankly with no relationship to what you’re looking at. You should never have the same relationship to everything and everyone in a scene. These are all opportunities we must take advantage of, in order to give us depth as actors.

In this episode, we re-examine the concept of the given circumstances. Every play has its own set of given circumstances, from which all drama emerges. It’s helpful to look at your work from this perspective because it helps you understand what your character is fighting against. Milton’s objection to what is known as “substitution” or “emotional recall” is because these techniques exist in order to create an effect. And since they tap into our own lives, as opposed to the given circumstances, it pulls us out of the play we’re doing and into our own private play. “I object to it because I think it cheapens plays,” says Milton, “but also because it loses the fun for you. Part of the joy of acting is being able to live off of the play that you’re in.”

Somewhere in the process of creating a character, it’s helpful to step back and ask ourselves: why are we doing this play? Why are the characters we’re playing important? Why bother in the first place? The answers will begin moving you in the direction of a theme, and remind you that big ideas about the human struggle are timeless and vitally relevant, right now. It's also helpful to ask your character "why questions" about who they are and what is important to them. Asking these questions helps to connect you, the actor, to your character, as well as capture their essence in a three dimensional way. 

Cultivating the imagination was one of Stella Adler's core tenets as an acting teacher. But the idea of the imagination is often misunderstood when actors assume that their imagination is limited to their experience. We must inform and enrich our imaginations in order to broaden it as an instrument. When educated, the imagination becomes a much more useful tool. This is why it’s so important to do research, immerse ourselves in the character’s timeline and the period in which they live. If you can get a full picture of the world your character lives in, you then get a much clearer sense of how he or she fits into that world, which is essential in order to fully live off the facts of the play. 

It essential for us to step back and look at our character's timeline in the play, to know where he or she is going. One of the benefits of playing a role is that, unlike in life, we know what the future is. And so the actor, unlike your character, knows where your character is headed. This is important information to have because it informs what pieces of past we need to build in order to get there.

This week, Milton talks about what it means to “go there,” or commit 100% to giving ourselves over to the circumstances of the play. It’s an enormous emotional risk because by letting go completely, we make ourselves vulnerable, revealing our true selves through a character. “It’s like going off a high diving board. You know you won’t die because there’s water there, but it’s so far down. It’s not a comfortable place to go.” Have a question for Milton? Email him at: [email protected]

As actors, we’re always trying to find what’s actable, doable, something we can hold onto. One way to get there is to examine the nature of something. Whether it’s a particular character trait, circumstance, or moment, we want to ask questions that take us deep into the essential nature of each factual element of the play. Have a question for Milton? Email him at: [email protected]

This week, Milton touches on a very tenuous aspect of building a character’s past. There is a difference between experiencing a past event from the perspective of the present, and experiencing the past in that moment, as if reliving the scene. It’s an important distinction because your relationship to the past event in the present is different than it was at the time it was happening. There are no hard and fast rules here. Often we move in and out of the past and present, as we do in life when telling a compelling story; and it’s a valuable exercise to talk out an event from both perspectives. But ultimately, how you experience the past is influenced by your relationship to it (then and now), and what you're doing in the scene. 

When building a craft, it’s important that we actively put to use the tools and techniques that we’ve learned. Otherwise we’ll keep “winging it”, hoping and praying that it lands. Also, kicking ass on an exercise doesn’t mean that we’ve mastered the concept. We must be disciplined, practicing the techniques over and over again in order to integrate them into our way of working, and eventually it becomes second nature. This is about understanding that “connecting” and “being believable” isn’t enough. If the goal is to become a great actor, we must keep pushing ourselves, asking ourselves: what else could I try here? What technique could I apply to what I’m working on that will help me go deeper?