Building a Character

Actors have a tendency to abandon their technique as soon as they get an audition – and leap to a performance. Just taking a little time to really think about the text makes an enormous difference.

There are many roads in to building a character and, unfortunately, there is no paint-by-number approach. It's great as an actor to play with several different techniques.

When an actor does not connect, you catch them "acting". It doesn't matter if it's a television series or a play. Specificity helps us connect.

We have a tendency to leap to clichés because the dialogue seems to lead us there. There's a way to fight this.

It's very difficult to believe that there is not just one correct choice. As long as an actor is clear what the text is about, there are countless roads in to the experience of the world of the play.

"Everything is something." It seems simple, but as actors we often skip over something that can give us the key we're looking for.

The craft of acting is there to give us confidence. If we're not confident it's easy to see, especially for people casting. One of our problems is that we often throw away lines, – or parts of lines, – or even entire phrases. We miss the opportunities for creative acting work because we rush so fast to performance.

There are all sorts of quick fix "schools" of acting, but it's an art form and it takes dedicated study to become confident in your technique.

The purpose of the technique is to help open your talent, not strangle it. I'm suggesting that you think in terms of what the impulse is for a scene, – or what's going on with your character.

The vocabulary of acting is strangling the talent of actors. The need to use the right words is cutting off the actor's talent.