AN APPROACH TO EMOTION

After a scene in an acting class the actors usually sit silently awaiting their critique. For instance, last week after their scene Tony and Bev said nothing, but their sour faces revealed how they felt about their scene. Then Bev said, “I worked on my character and it still fell flat.” Tony nodding added, “Yeah, I know what she means. It sucked. Not her, me.”

My reply was: “You can waste thought and energy on self–indulgent criticism of what you did or you both can start faking the character to get to a truthful acting.”

They were not faking the bewildered expression on their faces.

To almost every actor being real is one of the major goals, if not the only goal. The intense quest for reality can be stressful. When reality doesn’t come easily, actors start to force, which pushes an actor away from any reality they already possess.

Instead of force, allow some deception to open you up to all that you are capable of. This means, “Fake it till you find it.”

Fake the character in order to wake up all your inactive feelings, emotions and ideas.  Faking a character is not the goal. The goal is to fire you up.

Most people are familiar with the term “Fake it till you make it.” This theory says that if you fake, or assume, a positive feeling you will become more positive. Aristotle’s theory was that if someone acted with virtue he would become more virtuous.

Fake it till you find it is a way to discover more real characters.

Let’s say your character in a scene is a murderer. Knowing that it’s OK to fake this character, you can try anything you want that you think would represent a murderer. You can imitate every attitude, quirk or emotion that you think would fit the character and then see what happens.

If you haven’t imitated someone, you have seen someone do it, usually for a laugh. Often when imitating a person’s behavior, you will start to feel or behave like that person.  You might even start to think differently. Continuing this will bring up more and more thoughts and ideas.  When you get an idea go with it and see what happens.

Maybe, your simulated character will be overblown. Let it be, because this may guide you to your real ideas and emotions.

However, since real emotions are impossible to fake, what you can do is imitate a part of that emotion and see if that fires up the real emotion.

For instance, if you wanted to fake grief you could start by repeating, “Boohoo, I’m sad” over and over. Continuing that you would become sad to some degree. Now, explore that grief even more.

“Fake it till you find it” has only one requirement: You must fully commit to your fakery. This means that you must not hold anything back.

Remember, the goal is to trigger your real feelings, ideas and emotions.

Fake it till you find it is a specific acting ingredient for actors to ignite their emotions and bring those real feelings to a character. This approach is the permission you might need to be more personal and less reticent in your acting.

Faking it will help you find real characters.