Scene Study Isn’t Enough! - Part 1

 

by Jason Bennett, April 10, 2005

 

If you are going to be a great actor, you must be able to create intense emotional realities and vibrant imaginary worlds in which to truly live while you are acting. You must be able to do this in front of strangers and on cue. But many professional actors who come to my classes, even the most trained, cannot do this.

 

These actors were simply trained to analyze the story, develop the character’s biography and ‘use their imaginations.’  They analyze the ‘beats,’ ‘actions,’ ‘circumstances’ and ‘objectives’ of the script, and hope everything else falls into place. When I investigate what it means for them to ‘use their imaginations,’ I usually get vague and confused answers.

 

This incomplete, vague approach to acting can fail you for several reasons. First, it won’t work if you come to acting, like many great actors, with emotional blocks and inhibitions. Second, it will fail if you do not have an acting process for creating and experiencing intense emotional realities and imaginary worlds in which to truly live. Third, this approach can fail you because it is based on an incomplete, simplistic understanding of how and why humans ‘act’ in life.

 

Most of us come to acting with all kinds of emotional blocks and inhibitions. We have been taught in our culture that profound sadness is ‘negative’ and means we have a disorder or to smile when we are uncomfortable or that feeling intense anger makes us dangerous. Some actors think that when they step on a stage their emotional blocks will magically disappear. But if you are like many talented actors, your emotional blocks are amplified when you are in front of the camera or on-stage in front of thousands of people.

 

You must be able to go into any emotional area effortlessly, in front of complete strangers from intense vulnerability to out-of-control rage. There are hundreds of modern acting exercises you can experience that will make this happen, freeing you from every kind of emotional and creative block. These exercises also expand your imagination, as you explore the deepest parts of your psyche. These kinds of ‘instrumental-therapy’ exercises achieve results very rapidly for the actors I teach. They never fail.

 

Unfortunately, this intense emotional and imagination work is left out of many acting classes. This is partly because some acting teachers do not believe in helping actors with their emotional blocks. They sometimes expel these actors, screaming that they are untalented. Some say acting has nothing to do with emotions. Some acting teachers just don’t know how to help an actor deal with these kinds of issues. They angrily tell actors their ‘choices’ are not strong enough or that they aren’t truly committed to their acting.

 

And then a few acting teachers go too far in the opposite direction, their classes turning into group therapy sessions, having nothing to do with pursuing professional acting.

 

There is a balance that can be struck between these extremes where you are learning ways to free yourself from your emotional blocks while developing your imagination, in order to develop yourself as a professional actor.

 

But this is only the first step in developing a complete acting process. After you are relatively freed from these emotional ‘talent blocks,’ there is much more work to do. You need specific acting tools for creating and experiencing intense emotional realities and imaginary worlds in which to truly live. Otherwise, your acting (doing) will be lifeless and intellectual. These fundamental tools are also left out of many acting classes.

 

Sanford Meisner used to say, ‘Acting is doing.’ This belief, shared by many teachers of his generation, is at the root of many acting teachers’ instructions to analyze the story, choose objectives and activities, and go after them with extreme commitment!

 

This approach isn’t enough for many great actors because it is an incomplete explanation of how your mind works in real life. It is not that it is wrong. It is that acting is much more than simply doing.

 

In life, you do not do things (act) as a result of analyzing your life circumstances and determining your actions and objectives. It is because you are experiencing an intense need to act that you do all the things you do.

 

Why do you go to the job you hate? Because you analyzed your circumstances and you are pursuing your objectives and goals? No! It is because you feel the fear, the consequences of not having your rent and because you feel the thrill of imagining your successful future -- getting rich, being a successful actor, and fulfilling your deepest dreams.

 

Or you go to the job you hate because you feel a profound sense of responsibility to support your ailing mother, you feel love for her and you feel intensely guilty and anxious if you don’t support her in old age. But you practice your auditions and work on your acting every day because you feel the thrill of imagining yourself as a wildly successful movie star and making your mother so very proud of you! 

 

Or perhaps you don’t kill your annoying, stinky, loud neighbor because you feel the fear of losing your freedom and going to jail for the rest of your life, even though you feel intense hatred towards him.

 

These are emotional realities and deeply felt fantasies, with far more meaning than simple intellectual or textual analysis. And these rich inner experiences and fantasies are what impel you to need to act in life!

 

So in acting, it is the creation of intense realities and specific imaginary worlds to live in that causes you to truly need to do your actions and pursue your objectives. You must learn specific acting tools for experiencing the profound hopes, dreams and deepest desires of each character you play. Then your acting/doing will be completely filled, specific, multi-dimensional, unpredictable, and extremely theatrical!

 

Is acting only about creating intense emotional experiences? Of course not. And should you be focused on how you feel while you are acting? Absolutely not! No, no, no.

 

But if your acting/doing is not caused by the intense needs and desires of the character that you are experiencing and coming from your imagination, you will look like you are acting.

 

Here is the bottom line: Most great actors need help eliminating their emotional blocks and developing their imaginations, throughout their careers. You also need specific acting tools, beyond intellectual analysis and ‘playing objectives,’ that allow you to create intense realities and imaginary worlds in which to truly live. Truly living in these imaginary worlds will cause you to need to act. You won’t be able to sit still!

 

Acting is not just doing.

 

In acting as in life: It is who you are being and what you are experiencing that interacts with and causes what you are doing!