Thespian Thursday - Tips on Being a Better Actor

Hello and welcome to Thespian Thursday; the day where I pass on some tips to help you be a better actor, and maybe tell you about some the ridiculous things I've done as an actor.

There was a joke here about my future being so bright that I needed to wear sunglasses inside...
I didn't anticipate actual blinding glare on the camera lens...

So you want to be an actor eh? Or at least a better one at any rate. I think I've got some tips that might prove handy if you're interested. I've had a fair degree of success in acting (In theater performance at any rate, I'm working towards expanding into media.) As an actor I've had to perform roles ranging from the mentally deranged, to the cowardly and weak, to a figment of someone's mind. There was also a pirate somewhere in there as well. (Although he was mostly famous for an incredibly well drawn beard and ear piercings.)

Out of these performances, I found that I had something of a natural talent for acting.
Last Thespian Thursday I spoke about some of my successes as a result. (I didn't mention the superman slides though. *Sad face* How on earth could I forget those.) In any case, I can say with fair accuracy, at least as far as I'm concerned, that talent is not everything. What I'm going to tell you about in this post can be learnt with some work. Talent is by no means some magical thing you're born with, it's merely the luck of being good at the right things for a task, and in this case, you can learn the right things. (Maybe you'll even become famous one day. It'll take some work though.)

The most important piece of advice I can give you is this: 

Don't act words and actions, act thoughts and emotions.

This is something I tell pretty much anyone who's struggling with a particular role. If you're trying to portray a character, portray a character, now the things they do. The most believable actors spend weeks and even months "getting into character". They sit and think in the way their character would, consider things from their perspective, and most importantly, learn their emotional reactions to things. You will typically find that as you sit and learn about the character you're portraying, you will slowly begin to grow a better understanding of them and thus be able to more accurately act as them. How can you express the outrage of a businessman who's been robbed if you do not understand how important his money was to him, or how hard he had worked for it. Motivations are key to a believable portrayal. One of the greatest exercises I was ever made to do was when the director of my first play lined the cast up and began demanding us to answer questions about the character that were meaningless to the play and unanswered by the script. 

"What's your favorite colour?" "Why do you enjoy drawing?" "Who were your parents." These questions all served to prompt us into learning who our characters truly were. As such, we were far more capable of portraying them as fully fleshed personalities, as averse to simply a jumble of actions and words. The best part: achieving that level of understanding means that should you by mischance, forget your lines, or a fellow actor forget their, you will be able to far more believably improvise actions and lines in order to maintain the flow of the play. 

So to summarize, I was not good because I was born good, I was able to perform well because of my understanding of my characters perspective and motivations. To portray a someone well, you need to see the things as they would, understand how they would deem things as important or unimportant in helping them achieve their goals, and of course, know why those things would be important or unimportant to them. And you can figure all this out by simply sitting down and considering the life of who you wish to portray. Perhaps even imagine having a conversation with them. How would they react to the things they do. What kind of mannerisms do they have? Does their face have laugh lines or a sunken cheeks and a scowl? Start at the basics, and simply grow to know your character, and I guarantee that you will perform far more believably. 

And if you're still wondering what I meant by superman slides; I found it immensely amusing to jump out at velocity and slide from curtain to curtain of my old school stage. I think most of the bruises and scrapes I accrued were results of that... but to be honest. IT WAS AWESOME. (Teehee)

Anyways, hopefully you've found something here of value in your acting pursuit or perhaps for some other reason. Or maybe you just found my eloquent typing a pleasure to read. Whatever it was, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have a suggestion on other things that may help budding actors or something else you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below. Perhaps even consider sharing this with any actor friends you have who are struggling and don't forget to like my new Facebook Page by pressing the button underneath the Twitter feed. (That's that gray thing to the right of this post.)

That's enough from me. I hope you guys have/had and AWESOME day, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Later people.