To really know something is to know it through the three sense doors: mind, body, and heart. When we care deeply about something or someone, we take it/them in on these three levels and thus we have a complete and well-rounded relationship with that person or thing.
For actors, the three sense doors must be open at all times so that in the audition you’ll be able to turn the words on the page until a fully realized person.
The least interesting sense door for the actor is the mind. What you think about something is nowhere near as important as how you feel. Yet, so many auditioning actors take in the material through just this one door, and you can’t produce a three-dimensional audition with a one-dimensional approach.
You’d think it would be impossible, but in many casting sessions 20 out of 25 actors look exactly the same. When these 20 read the piece, they let their mind decide what they should do with no input from the body or heart. And given that most audition pieces aren’t rocket science, they all came up with the same decisions. The mind’s job is to put things in order, create logic streams, and keep you safe. The decisions that come exclusively from order, safety, and logic
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