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By Ayers Baxter
Director Daniele J. Suissa’s article “Need
Or Want”
where she writes on an actors “needs and
wants” explains her method of success in
directing and her examination brings up an
important point in the process of acting. It
seems especially important in motion picture
acting when most actors have few lines and
little time for rehearsals.
The following expresses my thoughts on
this subject of “wants and needs”:
I've never seen or heard anyone successfully
acting out what they thought the character
thought they needed. As in the foregoing
sentence, words and thoughts can be
confusing. Characters and actors may use
words to tell us what they need. But words
in life and scripts can many times be
deceiving.
My experience has led me to believe that in
most cases it is impossible to act out what
we need. But we can certainly act out,
viscerally, what we feel.
A director’s objective should be to lead to
or encourage an actor toward an action that
is meaningful to expressing the character’s
inner feelings. To me, simple direct active
expression of feelings are the key to great
acting.
If an actor can successfully express through
actions a multitude of emotions, then and
only then can the actor hope to create an
image of a character who, in a course of
many actions and the results and
accumulation of those actions, demonstrates
to some degree what they want and how badly
they want it. And this is where a director
can succeed in getting something worth
picturizing.
But an actor may say, “I don’t want anyone
to know my feelings. So, I sit quietly,
without any action, expressionless and
wait.” Ah, this may seem to be inaction. But
let’s look at that word IN ACTION. A very
perceptive word, so subtle, so sublime and
so deceiving. A shortened form of the words
“inner action” for when a character decides
to hide their emotions, that, in and of
itself, is an action. While I “wait”
“damming up” my emotions in my body, soon
the damn is about to break. Yet still, I
“hold” it back.
A somewhat suspended motion – inaction. I
hide. I wait. I dam up. I hold back, I
deceive or at least try to… all action
words.
When we study body language, all of this
solemn wall would be recognized as a person
who is trying to hide their feelings and
thus to an avid viewer, their quiet,
solidness doesn’t deceive anyone. Their hand
quietly covering their fist that rests on
their knee holding their anger inside
doesn’t fool anyone. Their rigid stone face,
their frozen smile, their stiff neck, their
too calm and controlled voice, their eyes
that drill a hole in your head or flee when
noticed. Their sigh, their slow labored
breathing, their knees crossed to keep away
from impregnation of ideas, their shaking
foot at the end of a perfectly still body.
These inactions speak louder than words.
I don't think an actor should
intellectualize what they NEED; because in
truth, we, as humans in real life, do not
ever fully know what we truly need and that
is why we are forever searching for
something to satisfy us. This is life. Thus,
to replicate life, the actor must never go
beyond a character’s means. For in reality,
most of us are wandering… and wondering in
the dark, “what is that just beyond my
reach” hoping to find the light or find
someone who sees the light or someone who
holds the light. That is why social orders
wield so much power and why the Masons,
Chamber of Commerce’s, Fraternities,
political parties, religions and movie stars
draw, like magnets, so many followers.
When I work with actors, I want them to
think about what they want “NOW!” To me,
this is imperative. And by the evidence of
the results I’ve experienced, empirically
sound. For it is my experience in life that
most of the time we don’t know what we
really want in the future. What we think we
want may not be what we want when we get it.
So, when I work with actors I want actors to
think only about “What does my character
want NOW?” “What do I want NOW!”
When actors do this in performing, they
never fail. Because it is a moment to moment
experience that changes from moment to
moment from reaction to reaction from now
unto NOW.
The same is true in life.
I want to hit you. No, I don’t want to hit
you. I want to kiss you… no, I better not do
it while my mother’s watching. But, I can’t
stand the pain… I want to die if Romeo and
Juliet are dead.
An actor reacts to action. This is acting
“in the moment”. There is no before or
afterward. There is only - NOW.
Now, is the question, “How do I do this
consistently?”
The secret is to LISTEN, carefully.
Copyright 2006 Roy Ayers Baxter, Jr. ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of any kind is
strictly prohibited without the expressed
written permission of the copyright owner.
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