Question and answer time! An actor recently asked me:
“I always had this idea, like, when I saw a great performance in a film, it had to be really hard for that actor to get to that place where they could give that performance, which to me always felt like this uphill path you have to take to be a great actor. I want to be a great actor. So when you see a great Meryl Streep performance, how does that connect up with what you’re doing (at the studio)?”
Meryl Streep, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt—they’ve all said more or less the same thing about acting: There is no such thing as “character.” It comes from me.
So if it comes from you, then what great acting comes down to is you being truthful—being true to who you are and not trying to show us your idea of the “character.” Go for truthful moments. It’s that simple. That’s what people want to see!
But it’s hard. It’s so damn hard for us to get truthful in our acting and in our lives. No one wants to get truthful. We want to hide behind “character” because it’s scary to show ourselves to the world, warts and all. But that’s what makes us human (and interesting
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