FINDING EXCITEMENT IN YOUR ACTING

Nothing is more natural than the desire to be comfortable. Being relaxed, calm and comfy is where we like to be when the stress of life gets to us. It’s comforting to be praised and liked, to be part of a group all pointed in the same direction.

As a result, it’s natural to look for an acting class that is fun. Desire for comfort is instinctive in most all of us. Unfortunately, seeking comfort is completely detrimental to actors.

Actors who retreat to their “comfort stations” are really cheating themselves of their most valuable asset, themselves. Being comfortable in acting is actually working against the flow of the craft. When you are comfortable with no challenge there are no sparks of passion, there is no vulnerability and there is no desire on the part of the audience to watch.

Actors who are comfortable are backing away from what affects their audience. And you can’t explore your vulnerability when you are backing into your comfort station.

In short, work to abandon comfort in your acting. Working on yourself includes finding the comfort stations you back into when someone or something is too demanding or making you ill at ease. If you have to jettison your old habits and your surefire routines, do it. In their place experiment, test, and reinvent. Reinvent your acting by challenging your comfort hideaways.

Comfort stations are often disguised but here are a few to look for.

Self-criticism: A great place to hide. Saying, “I really screwed up that scene” seems to indicate that you are being hard on yourself and not being passive. But it’s really self-indulgent and, therefore, a comfort station.

Hidden Acting Attitudes: “I’m not sexy enough,” “I’m not tall enough,” “I’m not thin enough…” Anything starting with “I’m not” is a Hidden Acting Attitude. It feels comfortable because you do it so often. See Hidden Acting Agenda

Your Go-to Routines: These are the comedy bits family and friends “love” about you. Giggling, or that other funny sound you make, or the behavior of some cartoon character. One actor in my class avoided personal emotion because it made the actor uncomfortable. The actor’s comfort station was being “funny” instead

Abandoning your comfort stations begin with acknowledging you do play it safe. If you are sure you don’t have any comfort stations, then you are either in denial or you are out there taking risks, challenging yourself, the script, the other actors, and especially yourself.

In short, you should work on yourself as much as you work on the character. In my workshops we work to abandon comfort in all aspects of acting.

“ I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”   —Pablo Picasso