acting and emotion

 

The secret to moving the passions in others is to be moved oneself. – Aristotle.

 

Moving yourself to tears, for the average person, is a sign of hysteria or misery. For an actor, it’s a sign of success. To be able to tap into your emotions and express them as a character is acting at its core; failure to move oneself is also the first thing a critic will point out in a poor actor. Being told you “lack range” is one of the worst things an actor can hear. Acting and emotion go hand in hand, the sooner you can embrace that fact, the easier your career will be.

To avoid being stuck in narrow, emotionless roles, an actor must prove they have a wide emotional repertoire; for the method actor, this is easy. Your emotional repertoire in character is just as broad as your range of emotions in everyday life.

This is because method actors recognise that it’s impossible to experience the emotional life of anyone beside themselves. You can’t live Hamlet’s life, or Al Pacino’s. You only have your own emotional life to draw on. When you’re on stage performing, the emotions you express come from you, not the character.

The Three Pillars

To access a complete emotion, there’s a checklist of sorts: the three pillars of emotion. Tapping into each of these three pillars – the mental, the physical, and the linguistic – is how an actor truly re-experiences emotion in a performance.

Exercise

To see how all three of these pillars combine to produce a complete emotion, try this exercise:

 

Hard, isn’t it? Try it again:

 

 

It’s very difficult. This shows us that emotion is more than just thinking about it: the body is triggered physically and verbally as well as mentally.

Brain Training

The right side of the brain is the one we need to train to become a quick and effective actor. The right side is concerned with holistic thought, intuition, and creativity – all necessary traits in acting. The left side is analytical, and although letting this side wither is clearly unhealthy, training it to turn off whilst acting is helpful. The left brain often fixates on what’s ahead, and tries to anticipate the next move; this takes an actor out of the moment.

Unfortunately, the brain doesn’t take commands; it must be stimulated by the senses. This is why in method acting we train the brain to respond to senses more quickly.

The difference between a method actor’s approach and a basic approach to acting can be seen when they are asked to express emotion. If a director suddenly asks the actor to cry for a scene and they’re unprepared, the basic actor will try to force sadness. What is expressed is a representation of emotion, not the real thing.

The method actor, on the other hand, will have trained their brain to respond to sense cues. All the actor needs to do is reinvent their sadness from mental, physical, and linguistic cues; which they will have trained themselves well in. They will express true emotion, and real tears.

It’s not as hard as it seems. Most people will know the feeling of hearing a piece of music and being reminded of a past relationship. But it’s not just being reminded, is it? The music evokes an emotional reaction that transports you back to the moment, and you sense it all again.

If it can happen to you in real life, you can train your brain – somewhat like a muscle – to react on sense cue.

Acting and Emotion – Making the Link

Earlier, we mentioned using the senses to cue the brain into feeling emotion. Further explanation is needed. Our senses – taste, touch, sight, sound, smell – are how we experience events. When we are reminded of a past experience, we often only tap into sight or sound; but to completely re-invent it (as a method actor does) we must use all five senses.

It’s not as difficult as it sounds. When rehearsing or preparing for a performance, you might use affective memory to find which experience you will re-invent on stage. Once you’ve found it, you use sense memory to unlock the flood of emotion that goes with it.

This is done by going through each sense within the memory you’ve found. Go through every sound, every smell, every sight, until one particular sensation transports you back completely. This sensation is called your emotional release object.

After years of practice, you will know your emotional release object for a huge range of emotions. When asked to convey virtually any emotion, you will recall your emotional release object and your highly-trained right brain will evoke true feeling immediately.

For more formal training on how acting and emotion can work together, why not see if the Ultimate Acting Programme is for you? It’s a one-year course in one of the only Strasberg Method schools in the UK. Brian Timoney produces actors in the top 5% in the UK, so if you think you can keep up then apply for the October intake today.

Chekhov Technique

 

It cannot be said of him that he is merely a gifted artist and director who is capable of staging the most varied repertoire. He simply breathes art. – Margot Klausner, on Michael Chekhov

 

While the name Chekhov doubtlessly brings to mind play upon brilliant play you’ve read or performed, the Chekhov this technique is named for is not Anton; it’s his nephew, Michael.

Michael Chekhov was Stanislavski’s favourite student, which should endear him to you. Along with two others – Eugene Vakhtangov and Vsevolod Meyerhold – these people helped naturalistic theatre to blossom, and actors to be recognised as artists; not serfs.

Chekhov was celebrated as one of Russia’s most brilliant actors and directors. Unlike his mentor Stanislavski, however, he didn’t subscribe fully to realism in art; this was anti-government. He was forced to flee under threat of arrest by the USSR’s government in 1928, at the age of 37. He was recognised in particular for his character work, which emerged from pioneering a ‘psycho-social’ approach that we now term The Chekhov Technique. It’s largely due to his exile that we know about this technique; had he stayed, it would have died with him in Russia.

Chekhov’s belief was that truth could be inspired; that on the stage, an actor must be bold and traditionally dramatic whilst maintaining a realistic element. His ‘psycho-social’ take was based on the connection between the body and psychology.

His technique allows actors to be free from limitations on their character’s personality; he has an imaginative approach to truth. In this way, Chekhov’s technique shares more similarities with later iterations of Stanislavski’s system, or Stella Adler’s techniques.

Creative Individuality

Imagination is what sets Chekhov apart. While still a student of Stanislavski, he was exercising affective memory (still a highly valuable tool for method actors). He recalled his father’s funeral in great detail and to great effect in performance; but his father was still alive. Chekhov’s vivid inner life and imagination would become the core of his technique, and inspired Stanislavski in later years to incorporate imagination into the method.

The Chekhov technique emphasises a holistic attitude: the actor’s “inner life” should be a complete collection of the character’s imagination, intellect, and emotions. The second step is to express this inner life with the body. This inner event and outward expression are called “creative individuality” because the inner life of the character is imaginative, and separate from the actor.

 

The actor must divorce his own personality and mannerism from those of the character, and give himself over completely to the will, feelings, habits, and appearance of the character. – ‘To The Actor’ by Michael Chekhov

 

Unlike other forms of method acting, creative individuality is about much more than working small details of an actor’s life into a role to make it more realistic. Chekhov thought it was necessary to also allow the subconscious and its archetypes to flow into characters:

 

“[Past experiences] being forgotten by you, or never known to you they undergo the process of being purified of all egotism. They become feelings per se. Thus purged and transformed, they become part of the material from which your Individuality creates the psychology, the illusory “soul” of the character.””

 

Because creative individuality is such a complete union between the actor and the character there is little chance of the personalities of the actor and the character being muddled during performance.

The Psychological Gesture

This is one type of outward expression. It’s a particular movement that conveys your character’s psychology; its complete inner life. It captures the whole personality in one movement, like a logo for your character.

The psychological gesture expresses personality to the audience, but more importantly it helps the actor to awaken the inner life within them. It is performed before a performance to help you embrace the character, and during it, before your inspiration begins to fade.

Finding the right psychological gesture for your character is sometimes simple. It will come to you spontaneously as you read a script or watch a performance. If this doesn’t happen for you, there’s another option: Leading Questions. In this exercise, you ask yourself to express outwardly various aspects of the creative individuality until you find the right expression.

If you’re playing a villain, you’d ask yourself to physically express power, malevolence, domination, hysteria, or any other trait you feel the character has. When you find an expression that makes you feel fully villainous, you’ve found your psychological gesture.

You don’t have to stick to one psychological gesture over the course of an entire play or film. It can help to come up with one to embody each scene or emotional moment. Characters, like people, can change over time. Embodying those changes is useful to the actor’s psychology, but also helps the audience to recognise the character development.

The Legacy of The Chekhov Technique

 

Why be narrow-minded, why cut ourselves off from any of these rich heritages when…we have the freedom to make the most of the best in all techniques? There are no prohibitions against it. All it takes is a little wisdom, imagination, and courageous experimentation.

 

One of the reasons so many actors use Chekhov’s technique is that he did not require total dedication to it. He believed many acting techniques offered great value – he and his mentor Stanislavski remained close and inspired by one another even when their methods differed. You can use Chekhov even while being a method actor as according to Strasberg or Meisner.

His books on technique are still recommended to actors, writers, directors; anyone in a position even vaguely related to the theatre. More than that, some of the most acclaimed method actors – including Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, and Anthony Hopkins – have acknowledged the power of his technique in lifting their art to new heights.

If you, too, want to lift your art to new heights then the Ultimate Acting Programme might be for you. It offers complete training in method acting, including affective memory – which can only be improved by incorporating the Chekhov Technique.

dangers of affective memory

 

Drawing on the emotions I experienced—for example, when my mother died—to create a role is sick and schizophrenic. If that is acting, I don’t want to do it. – Stella Adler

 

Affective memory has always had its critics. We’ve covered several times how powerful a tool it is for actors, and how useful – but it’s time we addressed how dangerous it can be. Also known as “emotional memory,” affective memory is the use of your past experiences to help you emotionally connect to the experiences of your character.

It sounds straightforward. However, affective memory is a tricky tool to master, and then a dangerous one. You could be drawing on a positive memory, but often affective memory is acting with your scars; using a painful or upsetting past experience to fully connect to a character’s grief or anger. It’s used this way more than not because – let’s face it, actors – tears are harder to fake than smiles.

You might use affective memory while playing the role of Ophelia in Hamlet, for example. She has a suicidal fate, and connecting to that level of depression means delving into memories that could trigger a very real depression in you.

Dangerous effects of affective memory can include:

 

How to Use Affective Memory

On your first few attempts you should have a trained instructor with you. Most method acting teachers should be qualified to lead an affective memory session. They will start with relaxation, a method acting technique that prepares the body and mind for the emotions to which they’re about to be exposed.

You begin by sitting in an armless chair with all your limbs hanging loosely at your sides. Move each joint and limb in circles, shaking out all tension. Do the same with your head and neck. You can also grunt or yell to release inner tension. If this sounds confusing – or like it couldn’t possibly take the recommended twenty minutes – then that’s all the more reason to make sure you have an instructor present.

Once you’re relaxed, you should be ready to delve into your memories. Once you have chosen an appropriate memory to explore, you must then go through every detail of every moment looking for your emotional release object. This is done by using your sense memory.

When you’ve found the exact moment in your memory that floods you with the right emotion, you’ve finished the exercise. You can see where the danger arises; flooding yourself with a negative emotion could be mentally damaging. Relaxing and ridding your body of tension can help you to maintain emotional control.

 

 

How to Stay Safe

The main proponent of affective memory – Lee Strasberg – recommends that actors only use memories that are at least seven years old. While this is no guarantee of safety, it certainly improves your chances of avoiding the main dangers of affective memory.

Strasberg also stresses that when exercising affective memory, actors should not force emotion. The exercise should focus on sense memory; on recalling the sound, smell, sight, taste, and feel of every element in the memory. Letting the emotion come via one of these senses is more organic, and less harmful. It’s also through the specific details of sense memory that affective memory works best.

When recalling a memory of anger – maybe you were cheated out of a prize – try to remember in detail the room you felt that emotion in. Where were you standing? Who spoke the words that angered you? What were those words? By focusing on everything around the emotion instead of the emotion itself you can generate a new version of it in the present, free of the same level of trauma.

 

 

Imagination

Another way to use affective memory safely is to incorporate the techniques of other schools. Here at Brian Timoney we mostly teach Strasberg’s method, but are not averse to the lessons Adler and Sanford Meisner have to offer. One such lesson is the value of imagination as a supplement to memory.

The actor and teacher Michael Chekhov is the best example of how imagination can improve the quality and safety of affective memory. During an exercise as a student he drew on the memory of his father’s funeral so effectively that Stanislavski himself was floored by the young man’s raw power. It turned out that Chekhov’s father was alive and well; the power came from his imagination.

If you have the kind of mind that’s capable of this alternative, I recommend you use it for those darker pieces.

 

 

Avoiding the Dangers of Affective Memory

Avoid using the affective memory too frequently, or remaining in your memory for a long period of time. You don’t need to re-live a horrible experience, only recall the base emotion that went with it (although we recommend not using truly damaging experiences).

Do you think you have a good enough memory to be a great method actor? We take only the most driven students. If you’re ready for a challenge – and the success that goes with it – then why not apply for our Ultimate Acting Programme?

Getting creative

 

Being a great actor is about much more than just saying someone else’s line. You have to bring your own creativity to the parts you play to bring them to life for an audience. It’s up to you to make choices about how you take the words on the page and say them, the emotions you invest them with, and the physical actions you place around the words. All of these require creativity on the part of the actor.

In this sense, a script can be thought of like the blueprint for a building – it’s important, but it’s nothing without the people who actually turn it into something real and three-dimensional. Your job as an actor is to take that script blueprint and build a performance around it.

Without your own creativity this is impossible and will result in a weak, thin performance that never feels real or alive. Getting creative with your acting is about knowing how to stimulate and exploit your own creative instincts in order to turn a script into a fully-rounded performance. If you can do this, people will be fighting to work with you because you make their jobs easier. Get the hang of being creative as an actor and building an acting career will be much, much more achievable.

 

Always be prepared

It’s often said that “nothing is created in a vacuum” and this is just as true for acting as for any other field. Creativity needs to be fed and the way you do this is by carrying out extensive research. For actors, this usually takes two main forms.

First, you need to be able to place your characters in context. Say you are playing a police detective; if you can get into the mindset of a police detective, it will be easier to make believable choices about how to play that character. Getting into that mindset will usually involve research, such as reading books, watching documentaries and, if possible, talking to actual police detectives about their work, the problems they face, what it feels like to be them. The better you understand this, the more fuel you will have for your creativity when interpreting your character.

Secondly, you need to study the performances of other actors. If you need your character to be tough and intimidating, watch as many great actors as you can playing tough, intimidating characters. How do they hold themselves? How do they talk? What do they do with their hands? The idea here is not to simply plagiarise another actor’s performance, but to take elements of what various actors do, combine it with your own research and creative instincts and synthesise all of these to produce something new.

This is the essence of creativity. As the writer Mark Twain once wrote:

 

“All ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.”

 

Actors are like magpies, taking ideas from everywhere they can and pulling them together to create a rich, layered whole. The more preparation you do, the easier this is.

 

Using your experiences

One of the core techniques of method acting is affective memory and it is an invaluable tool for informing an actor’s creative choices. Affective memory revolves around using your own past experiences to shape your performance, giving depth and veracity to your acting.

Using affective memory means recalling a past experience in as much detail as possible. By remembering the sights, sounds, smells and other sensory information associated with the memory you can retrigger the emotions you felt during that past experience. This can provide a valuable source of creative inspiration for your acting.

It’s important to understand that affective memory is not just about using memories that are closely related to what you are acting out. For example, in the film The Deer Hunter, Christopher Walken had to act out a game of Russian Roulette. Having no direct analogue in his own life to pull on, Walken identified that the feelings his character was experiencing were primarily abandonment, anger and loss. He then remembered an experience of being forced to go to summer camp as a child which had made him feel those same emotions. By recalling the summer camp experience, Walken was able to organically produce the relevant emotions even though he was acting out an entirely unfamiliar situation.

Being able to make this kind of connection between the experiences of your own life and those of your characters is an important part of being creative as an actor. It allows you to ground your choices in reality, meaning your creativity produces results which feel authentic and relatable.

 

Achieving a creative state

I’m sure we’ve all experienced the feeling of being more creative on some days than others. As professional actors, however, we are required to be creative on demand: when a director needs us to be, not when the mood takes us. Being able to get into a creative state when needed is a valuable skill and there are a number of exercises actors can use to do this.

One popular method is to take one of your favourite upbeat songs, put it on loud and then dance, sing, scream, jump up and down, clap your hands…basically just really let yourself go wild. The idea is that by letting go of your inhibitions and throwing yourself into the moment you loosen yourself up and energise yourself at the same time. By the end of the song, you should find that your creative juices are flowing and it’s much easier to start throwing out ideas.

 

Taking risks

When making creative choices as an actor, one of the most important things is to be willing to take risks. If you always stick to what seems safe, chances are you will end up producing a performance that feels safe – or, in other words, boring.

As Christian Bale puts it:

 

“It’s the actors who are prepared to make fools of themselves who are usually the ones who come to mean something to the audience.”

 

This is because you have to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone, try things which might not work and see what happens. Trying new things is the only way to generate unexpected results and it is the unexpected which audiences find engaging.

Robert De Niro is a big believer in following your acting instincts. Speaking to Esquire, he said:

 

“I always tell actors when they go in for an audition: Don’t be afraid to do what your instincts tell you.”

 

As an actor, you need to learn to develop and trust your creative instincts and the only way you can do this is by taking risks. Finding out what doesn’t work can be just as valuable as finding out what does. The more risks you take, the quicker you can hone your creative sensibilities and be more confident about what will work in future.

And remember, the rehearsal process is all about finding what works, you don’t need to get it right every time. Fear of embarrassing yourself with a creative choice that doesn’t work is absolutely crippling for an actor. You need to get over it, learn to take risks and that way you can create performances that surprise and energise your co-stars and the audience.

 

Mastering improvisation

Most great actors use improvisation to some extent. In fact, many of the most famous scenes from top films were the result of improvisation. Improvising allows you to try out different ideas and explore different aspects of your characters. Those improvisations may not end up being used in the final performance, but they can play an important role in informing the way you play your characters.

The more you practice improvising, the more comfortable you will be trying out different ideas. Coming up with ideas is also like any other skill, the more you practice it the better you get. Improv is a great way to practice idea generation and allows you to quickly get a sense of what works and what doesn’t.

Not every director is a fan of improv, however, so you need to find out how comfortable they are with the technique before trying it out. Even if your director is not a fan of improvisation, you can still use it privately as an exercise to develop your character and creative instincts, so it is well worth getting to grips with some basic improvisation techniques.

 

Effective collaboration

Unless you are writing, directing and starring in your own one-person shows, you are going to have to work with other people as an actor. Being able to sync up your creativity with that of writers, directors and other actors is a really important skill which makes you much more attractive to work with.

According to Robert De Niro, the key is knowing how to listen:

 

“As an actor, it is important to be a good listener. You need to listen to what others have to say, the director, the producer, your co-actor… everyone. I try to listen to everyone and take their inputs on what I have to do.”

 

It is really important when starting any new acting project to really take in what the writer and director are trying to achieve. Understand their goals and you can then use your initiative to guide your creativity and help achieve those goals.

When you try things and offer suggestions, be open to feedback from your creative team and your fellow actors. It’s important to realise that it’s not all about what you think works for your character, but also what fits with what the other actors are doing and the broader themes and motifs of the project.

By listening to others, you can make sure your creative instincts are pulling in the same direction as everyone else. This produces cohesive productions and ensures you are someone people will want to work with again and again.

 

Learn how to be a more creative actor

When it comes to getting creative as an actor, method acting is unbeatable. Rather than just teaching you how to say other people’s lines, it gives you the tools to access and use your own creative instincts to create more real, engaging and compelling performances.

The Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio provides aspiring professional actors with world-leading method acting tuition in our 1-Year Ultimate Acting Programme. This course offers comprehensive and in-depth training in all aspects of method acting, turning you into a creative acting powerhouse.

We also have a strong focus on professional skills, teaching you about the business side of acting. This means you leave our course with all the knowledge you need to take your new-found acting prowess and start getting paid work right away.

If you are serious about becoming a professional actor, we can help make that happen. To find out more, including dates for our next round of auditions, please get in touch.

the-business-of-acting

 

For anyone aspiring to be a professional actor, knowing your craft is only half the battle. You also need to know how to go out into the real world and find paid acting work. Understanding the business side of the acting industry is absolutely crucial if you want to make a living as an actor. If you can get to grips with these less artistic elements of the acting life, you will be well on your way to making a career for yourself as a professional actor.

Getting your name out there

No matter how good an actor you are, if nobody knows about you then you aren’t going to get any work. Making sure the right people are aware of you and what you can do is absolutely fundamental. So how do you do that?

The first step is to put together a proper promotional package to send to casting directors and agents. This should include your actor’s CV, a set of professional-quality head shots and, ideally, a professional-quality acting showreel.

A package containing all three of these elements will effectively demonstrate to industry gatekeepers that you have the skills and experience they are looking for. It also allows them to judge the kind of roles you might be suitable for. That way they can start offering you appropriate auditions or recommend you to other industry professionals who may be able to offer you work.

In the modern digital age, it’s increasingly easy (and important) for actors to market themselves online. There are several ways you can this but the most popular and effective are creating a website with the same information found in your promotional package and making good use of social media.

Making useful connections

The old saying “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” isn’t entirely true, but it’s not completely false either. The truth is, success in the acting industry is about what you know AND who you know. Getting to know the right people means when opportunities arise, they can give you the chance to take advantage of them. You still need the skills to make the most of those opportunities, but to get your foot in the door, knowing a good selection of industry insiders definitely helps.

When it comes to networking, remember it’s about what you can offer, not just what you want to get out of it. If the instant you meet a casting director, more successful actor or agent, you immediately ask them for a favour you are likely to annoy them more than anything. Make sure you take the time to get to know people and see what you can offer them before asking for anything. Once they know who you are and what you can do, you shouldn’t have to beg for favours. They should be happy to help you because they will know that you have something genuinely valuable to offer to them and their contacts.

To make the most of your networking time, you need to know where to go and who to speak to. Do your research and find out which casting directors, agents and other industry figures are involved with the kind of projects you would like to work on. You can then identify the kind of industry events, bars and clubs where the people you want to connect with are likely to be.

One you get in a room with someone you want to connect with, be brave and go say hello. A large part of succeeding is simply having the courage and self-confidence to put yourself out there. Once you have introduced yourself, find common ground and make sure to ask plenty of questions about their work while also making sure you communicate your own career ambitions without directly asking them to help straight away.

Make sure to get an email address or details of their social media accounts so you can stay in touch. Then you just have to keep in contact with them and make sure to always say hello if you see them at other events in future. That way you can strengthen your connection and hopefully be introduced to their own connections, growing your own industry network.

Getting an agent

Pretty much every serious professional actor has an agent. It’s their job to get you meetings and auditions with casting directors, directors, producers and anyone else who can offer you work. They can also chase up people for you after an audition and talk you up to increase your chances of landing a role. They’ll negotiate on your behalf when you are offered a gig and a good agent will get you more money with better terms than you would be likely to achieve representing yourself. An experienced agent will know a lot more people in the business than you could ever hope to, so will hugely increase the opportunities available to you.

How do you get an agent? Again, you need to do your research. Find a list of acting agencies who cover the geographical area you are looking to work in. Make your own list of agents who have a track record of successfully representing actors like you for the kind of work you are interested in. Then get in touch with each of these agencies with your actor’s CV, head shots and showreel, explaining who you are and the kind of work you are looking for.

If your promotional materials are good enough, you should get multiple agents interested in representing you. You’ll then be in the lucky position of getting to choose which one you wish to go with. Ask them the right questions and you will be able to narrow the choice down to those best suited to your career aspirations. Then you simply have to make your choice and sign on the dotted line.

Handling auditions

Of course, getting auditions doesn’t mean you’ve made it. You need to actually win the audition in order to progress to the bit where you’ll start getting paid. Obviously a huge part of that comes down to how good you are as an actor, but there is also a whole load of audition etiquette that you need to know. Get this right and you’ll be judged purely on your acting. Get in wrong and you’ll be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

The number one mistake so many actors make is turning up late for the audition. This is pretty unforgivable and it gives the impression you can’t be relied upon – not a great impression to give people you are hoping will hire you. Make sure you plan ahead, find out where the audition is taking place, how you will get there and how long it will take. Leave yourself plenty of time to get there and plan to be at least 10 minutes early so you have some leeway.

The other key thing is to listen. Take in every instruction you are given and follow them. If you can’t take direction in an audition, it’s not a good advert for your ability to take it on stage or in front of a camera. You may be able to offer your own creative input, but judging when this is appropriate can be tricky.

One thing all professional actors need to do is to learn to deal with rejection. Most jobbing actors will lose far more auditions than they win, that’s just the nature of the game. This isn’t to say that you’re a bad actor, but there’s a lot of competition and not every actor is right for every role. Understand this and accept that you will probably have to go to dozens of auditions you don’t get for every one that you do and you’ll have a more realistic approach to the business and how hard you need to work to succeed.

Knowing how to behave

Being a professional means acting professionally. This doesn’t begin and end with the audition, it applies throughout every stage of the acting process. Be polite, punctual and pleasant to work with and people will offer you work again. Be rude, unreliable and make people’s lives difficult and you’ll soon find yourself struggling to get hired. Remember, people in the industry talk to each other, so if you annoy one director or casting director, word will get around.

Acting often involves long hours, lots of waiting around and high amounts of stress. Being able to remain calm, focused and professional will make you an asset not a liability. Always be willing to listen, offer an opinion where appropriate and, above all, work really hard. Earn a reputation for professionalism from day one and you can begin building your career on a solid foundation.

Managing your money

Being a professional actor means getting paid for you work. This is fantastic, of course, but getting your head around the financial side of the business can be off-putting. As an actor you will generally work on a self-employed basis, which means your first priority should be to register as self-employed. You will need to get to grips with invoicing, tax, national insurance and claiming expenses. You should also consider insurance and pension schemes as there is no sick pay or final-salary pension for an actor.

The other thing to remember is that you are unlikely to have a steady income each month, so it is absolutely crucial to get the hang of budgeting and saving. Live within your means and make sure you put money aside when you have a good month to keep you going through the lean times.

Continuing your professional development

Although we are talking about the business of acting rather than the craft of acting, the two are obviously interconnected. The more you learn as an actor, the better you will be and the more opportunities you are likely to get. This can mean taking acting classes, but may also involve developing additional skills such as stage fighting, stunt work or horse riding.

Plan out the kind of acting work you would like to pursue, then do some research and find out what skills might help you with that kind of work. Not only will this give you useful, industry-relevant knowledge, it will also look good to agents and casting directors as it demonstrates that you are a hard worker who takes their career seriously and is open to learning and developing.

Learn the business of acting

Learning how to negotiate the business side of the acting industry can take years, while many actors never get the hang of it at all. The sooner you get to grips with the business of acting, the sooner you can start supporting yourself as a professional actor.

Our One-Year Ultimate Acting Programme not only offers the UK’s leading method acting tuition, it also includes a comprehensive introduction to the business side of the industry. The Brian Timoney Actors’ Studio takes the uncertainty out of making a career as an actor by teaching you everything you need to know to go out and start getting professional acting work straightaway.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

brain and acting

 

When thinking about how your brain affects your acting ability, the first, and perhaps most important, thing to keep in mind is that it is impossible to play an emotion. You might think this sounds strange; after all, we’ve all seen great actors laugh, cry, be joyous or get angry on screen. But the truth is, you cannot just ‘put on an act’ when it comes to expressing emotions or, at least, if you want to put on a brilliant performance. Instead, you have to actually go through that emotion, feel it and express it for it to be believable and realistic.

If you’re wondering how you could possibly invoke the feeling of fear or of falling in love on a film set with co-stars and cameras around you, that is where your brain – and how you use it – becomes your most important instrument as an actor.

 

Brain Basics

It’s very likely that you’ve heard of the difference between the left side and the right side of the brain. The left half of the brain is often considered to be the logical, analytical side. Whenever you complete a task which has to do with reading, mathematics or science, this is the part of the brain you are engaging. The right side, however, is the part which controls creativity and comes into action whenever you undertake an emotional or artistic endeavour.

 

Which Side of the Brain do Actors Engage with Most?

As acting involves reading from a script, memorising lines and taking angles and positions into account, many people make the mistake of thinking that acting must therefore be a ‘left brain’ activity. This could not be further from the truth as your brain cannot respond to verbal or written commands in this way.

If you try to simply tell your mind to act angry, heartbroken, happy, or any other emotion – that is acting with the left side of your brain and you will be setting yourself up for a poor performance. Instead of telling yourself to trigger an emotion, you must learn how to utilise your senses to invoke a truly emotional reaction in the right side of your brain.

If you’ve ever heard a piece of music and suddenly been transported back to a special night with the love of your life, or smelt a certain type of flower that put you back in your grandmother’s house as a small child, then you have experienced just how strongly our five senses can trigger emotional reactions.

All of the best method actors use this technique to engage with the right side (the emotional side) of their brain and incite senses to help them feel what their character is feeling. This is a skill that you too can learn and apply to your acting when you study ‘The Method’.

 

Train and Control Your Mind

In order to truly use your brain when you act, you need to learn how to control your brain and train it to use all five senses effectively. Memory plays a big part in this. By drawing on your own personal experiences, you can recreate emotions that you have felt in your life and be better equipped to feel whatever it is that your character is feeling.

Even if you are playing an outlandishly evil part that you really can’t relate to, our basic emotions stay the same. You will be able to find some empathy to how the character is feeling and how they would respond to it. The best actors use memory for this in more ways than one.

The Method teaches you to train your brain to re-experience emotions, memories and situations that you have been through in your life – even through reliving memories of specific events or people you have known.

All of this isn’t just guesswork either. A 20 year study by psychologists and theatre directors; Anthony and Helga Noice found that the way actors are able to remember so many lines of dialogue is by engaging with the emotional intent and subtext of each and every line, rather than simply trying to memorise words like a computer. Thinking about the meaning behind words triggers the right side of the brain and allows performers to memorise entire long scripts with ease.

 

The Actor’s Brain in Action

Another excellent example of a study which shows how the brain affects acting was carried out by Professor Sophie Cott in 2009.

Irish actress Fiona Shaw who is best known for her roles in Harry Potter and True Blood, underwent an MRI scan. While her brain was being scanned, Fiona alternated between counting out loud and reading T S Elliot’s 1922 poem, The Wasteland.

The purpose of this scan was to see what was going on physically inside an actor’s head when they were playing a part. Professor Sophie Cott came up with some very interesting results which proved something those of us who study The Method have known for some time.

Only three parts of Fiona’s brain were activated when she was counting out loud; the nerve centre which controls facial movements for speaking, the hearing section of the brain and the part of the brain which controls planning speech – all of which are on the left side.

However, when she performed dialogue from the second verse of T S Elliott’s poem, parts of Fiona’s brain in charge of controlling all sorts of body movements were activated – proving that she was thinking about doing them without realising. As well as this, a part of the mind which conjures up complex visual imagery was highly stimulated.

You don’t need to be an expert in psychology or neurology to understand that this means Fiona Shaw really was taking on the identity of the character she was playing in the poem and that this goes so much further than speaking lines and faking emotions.

 

Turn it into a Habit

The Method is a crucial element in finding out how to incorporate the ability to invoke emotions in your brain and recreate senses To make this a part of your natural process, it’s a good idea to start by practicing affective memory for just a few minutes every day. This is where actors re-imagine the memory of a certain situation and attempt to recall the details and emotions of that memory as best they can.

As you get into this habit you will need to increase the amount of time you spend doing it, but make sure you work it into your daily routine. Choose a time when you have a gap between activities, so that working on your affective memory becomes a regular routine and doesn’t disrupt your daily tasks.

After a while, you will find this becomes a habit which you resort to naturally, rather than a chore. This is just one small thing you can do at home, but if you are serious about committing more time to this and other method acting techniques, then perhaps you need to consider one of our weekend boot camps or year long Ultimate Acting Programme.

How_to_develop_sense_memory

 

Sense memory is a concept used by everyone even loosely involved with method acting: Stanislavski, Strasberg, Meisner, Adler – the list goes on. It’s a core exercise used in affective memory, or emotional recall, but no matter your terminology or whose acting methods you subscribe to, it’s sense memory that is the key to a truthful performance.

This is because good actors don’t just act; they do. Your job is to feel on demand – much more difficult than just crying on cue. Presenting strong emotions when asked is hard to recreate even after overcoming any problems with public performance. Being emotionally expressive in any way is a full-body issue, and actors who get criticised as weak are often picked on because they’re unable to seem authentic during emotional displays. Thankfully, sense memory is here to help you level up from basic crocodile tears.

 

Where to Use It

Sense memory is part of affective memory, which in itself is one the most important techniques in a method actor’s toolbox. Affective memory is the art of manipulating your own experiences to create a truthful emotional performance of a character. Sense memory is how you discover the particulars of that manipulation. It helps an actor to recall the details of their past experiences so that they feel “in the moment”.

Some people have trouble separating out which part of the affective memory exercise is sense memory, and how then to apply it to a performance. Here’s a break down of the process:

Although we’re unaware of it in our day-to-day lives, every memory we form is done so through our senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound. Usually when we recall an event, it’s using one or two of these (predominantly sight and sound). However, if we’re properly engrossed in the memory then all five senses become a part of it.

An example of how sense memory makes a difference during performance is seen in the example of acting cold. A basic technique would be mimicking the typically ‘cold’ behaviours: blowing on your hands, chattering your teeth, and shivering. An actor using sense memory would recall a time they really were cold, and all the small reactions: pulling a hat down over your ears, thrusting your hands into your crotch or armpits; moving stiffly, because your muscles are constantly tensing to stay warm.

This is very much part of the method’s basis: psychological realism. Psychological realism demands that the actor truly feel what is scripted, and so recreating every single component of a memory is vital to having a detailed truth. Acting should be more than simply imagination could achieve.

 

Why it Works

The theory is that one can recreate an emotion based on past experiences, and thereby express it with truthfulness.

The use of all five sense in recalling the memory not only helps to paint a full picture; it is also the best way to find your emotional release object. It could be the ticking of a clock, or the smell of a retirement home, but for each memory there is a subconscious, sense-based ‘key’ that will flood into your mind everything to do with the emotion you’re trying to evoke.

Sense memory is a powerful tool, but one that must go hand-in-hand with mindfulness or relaxation exercises. You need to be able to control your emotional state at all times, otherwise sense memory could be mentally damaging. If you find that a particular memory engrosses you to the point of taking you out of the scene, you might have to revert to the less-powerful technique of imagination.

Once you have gone through the senses and found your emotional release object, you will be able to recall and enact that particular emotion with increasing ease.

 

How to Use It

Think of sense memory as an exercise: it trains your emotions to burst forth at will. By thinking of it this way you will be less surprised by any difficulty you have initially – and later, more understanding of those ‘highly-strung’ actors! The exercise goes something like this:

We suggest doing one sense memory exercise per day; this should help you train your emotional responses without overloading them.

If you master sense memory, you will be able to perform any emotion on command, and lose the awkwardness of evoking high drama during auditions – or in every day life! Actors with a strong sense of memory capability often become highly empathetic, which helps them to grow their range and their network; empaths are much more likeable, after all.

Do you have plenty of memories to draw on? A vivid imagination? You could benefit from refining it with our Ultimate Acting Programme. Applications for the October intake are nearly closed – apply now!

creative mindset

 

The Importance of Creativity

If an actor doesn’t believe their scene is real, there’s a good chance the audience won’t either. This means that to be a good actor, you need to be convinced of the truth of your scene – to have a truly creative mindset.

The good news is that your imagination doesn’t have to be as powerful as you’d think! Truly believing that you are in a castle or have turned into a donkey is ridiculous, but a good creative mind can find the “truth” of the scene – you’re not in some random castle, you’re in your bedroom; you’ve not just magicked into a donkey, you’ve been betrayed and humiliated.

A creative performance finds the symbolic truth of set. Marlon Brando confined himself to bed for a month to better perform as a paraplegic, and Daniel Day-Lewis has (among many other things) lived alone in the woods as a survivalist for his role in The Last of the Mohicans.

These actors didn’t literally become paraplegics or members of a dying Native American tribe – they did what they felt was reasonable and relied on their creativity to draw the rest of the truth into the role.

So, you can draw emotional memory from experiences; but where can you get creativity? While everyone is different, there are some basics we think any actor can master.

 

Emotion

Your emotional state will affect not just the quality of your performance, but also your ability to create. A terrible mood can make your mind blank and your actions lacklustre; and in a brilliant mood you might feel like the world is your proverbial oyster.

On the other hand, actors sometimes find that their bad moods actually help a performance. If your character is just as angry or miserable as you are, you can channel it for a very natural performance. A word of warning, though – extending a bad mood longer than necessary might not be worth it.

Using emotion to enter a creative mindset means finding out which “mood” is your creative fuel; though people don’t always like to say it, sometimes anger is a good source of creativity (and conversely, creativity is a good therapy for anger!).

However, it’s hard to force emotion. Emotional memory can be a good tool to get the details of a headspace, but to begin your journey to creative happiness some music might help.

To enter a creative mindset, you might need some ambient guitar, whale music, or even white noise. To get into your character’s headspace, it might be better to listen to a “break ups” playlist. Websites like 8tracks and apps like Spotify have playlists to match nearly any feeling you need to feel.

 

Exercise

Creativity relies on the physical as well as the emotional, in both conception and performance. Your body is usually guided by your mind, often subconsciously. It acts out things you didn’t even know you were thinking. Do you ever catch yourself copying the yawning motions of someone across from you on the Tube? Do you sometimes check your phone for phantom texts without thinking?

There is a way to reverse this process – you can encourage your brain to behave creatively through exercise. Moving your body improves blood flow to the brain, giving it a power boost. It can also induce a meditative state, perfect for finding inspiration. When you’re out for a long walk, sans mobile phone, your brain must occupy itself with only its own contents.

So – don’t put those music playlists away just yet! A long walk in the morning or a little yoga in the afternoon between rehearsals is brilliant, but if you hit a creative block mid-session don’t worry – just break out the speakers and lose yourself in your favourite song for three minutes.

 

Socialise

There’s a reason “creative duos” are so successful. The best minds in creative industries are ones that know when to ask for help. Talking to others about your goals, problems, or just a few ideas for a scene you’re performing can help in several ways.

Firstly, by verbalising that which is blocking your creativity, will make the problem/s easier to solve. Writer’s/actor’s block can strike at any time, and mulling over it on your own isn’t likely to help. By finding a sympathetic ear and explaining where you feel you’re going wrong, one of you could figure out a way around the problem.

Secondly, a second opinion never hurt – someone else’s opinions and ideas could begin a chain of creative thought that gives you the next big idea in the theatre. By listening to them in turn, you’re not only adding to your knowledge base; you’re also giving your brain a little light exercise in its memory and response times.

Find someone whose work you admire, or who you know is a good sounding board for ideas, and spend an afternoon just chatting. You could go for a walk at the same time, for a double-boost to your creativity!

 

An Exercise in Creativity

I want you to act out a small scene, no words. Using a combination of mood music, exercise, emotional memory, and imagination, conceive each moment of the scene and then perform it – to yourself, to a friend, anything. Here it is:

 

You’re walking into a hotel lobby, late at night. It’s empty, and the lights are harsh – you’ve been crying. You’ve just been dumped, and you’re going back to the room booked for the two of you – alone. Walk from the lobby entrance to the elevator.

 

Most actors will probably do this walk differently – and that’s good! Everyone walks and behaves sadly in a different way. Which music did you use to enter the right headspace? Was there a particular lobby or elevator that came to your mind?

Creativity is a vital part of acting. Only through our imaginations are we able to bring to life a character’s truth. That’s why our Ultimate Acting Programme has a holistic method acting approach; and why a creative audition is more likely to land you a spot on it. Applications for October’s intake are nearly over – so make sure you apply soon!

10 Famous Method Actors

 

People often ask us who our favourite method actors are, but with so many of Hollywood’s top actors relying on the Method, naming our favourites is extremely challenging. Did you know, for example, that over 80% of Best Actor Oscar-winners this century have been method actors?

Ultimately, picking our favourites comes down to a mixture of who has achieved the most critical acclaim, who has gone the furthest in their dedication to method acting and a healthy dose of pure personal preference. With that in mind, here are 10 of our top famous method actors.

Al Pacino

A student of method acting pioneer Lee Strasberg, Al Pacino is one of the most famous and committed proponents of the Method. As well as having used method acting to secure 8 Academy Award nominations and 1 win (for Scent of a Woman), Pacino is particularly admired among method actors for his ability to play in a range of styles. He has embodied characters at the extreme ends of the spectrum, from the wild Tony Montana in 1983’s Scarface to his more subtle Oscar-winning performance as Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman.

Speaking to the Guardian, Pacino explained the essence of method acting:

 

“You have to look for the human in all the characters you play.”

 

Charlize Theron

Getting into the mind of a serial killer is particularly challenging for any actor. Charlize Theron did such a good job of it for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster that she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert called it: “one of the greatest performances in the history of the cinema.”

Theron understands that being a great actor means:

 

“Your job is to go for the emotional truth”.

 

This is what has allowed Theron to successfully avoid type-casting with diverse roles in such critical hits as North Country, Young Adult and her recent film-stealing performance in Mad Max: Fury Road.

 

Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson is one of the most critically respected actors of all time with 12 Oscar nominations to his name and three wins, two for Best Actor and one for Best Supporting Actor. He is also a devoted method actor who once claimed:

 

“There’s probably no one who understands method acting better academically than I do, or actually uses it more in this work.”

 

Nicholson is highly committed to his craft. For his first Oscar-winning role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest he spent months living in an asylum. His other wins were for the comedy As Good as It Gets (Best Actor) and Terms of Endearment (Best Supporting Actor).

Those who work with Nicholson often comment on his ability to spontaneously come up with very different takes on the same scenes, offering directors a real choice. He is also frequently praised for his high levels of professionalism. Director Tony Richardson explains:

 

“He can come on the set and deliver, without any fuss.”

 

This is the essence of a great method actor.

 

Hilary Swank

Two-time Best Actress Oscar-winner Hilary Swank’s career is all the more impressive for the fact she bagged two Academy Awards by the time she turned 30. This demonstrates perfectly how it doesn’t take a lifetime to become an elite actor if you can just master the Method.

For her first Oscar-winning role as a transgender man in 1999’s Boys Don’t Cry, Swank spent months going out disguised as a man. Swank cut her hair short, bound her breasts and stuffed socks into her underwear so she could experience what it was like to pass as the opposite gender. According to Swank:

“It really showed me how much we use our identity and our gender to communicate”.

For her second Academy Award-winning role in 2004’s Million Dollar Baby, Swank undertook extensive boxing training for two months. Often working out as much as 5 hours a day with a professional boxing trainer, she put on 19 pounds of muscle and learned to understand the boxer’s mentality of having to “get out of the way of [yourself]”.

 

Dustin Hoffman

Perhaps the best-known story about Dustin Hoffman as a method actor was his approach to his role in Marathon Man. Wanting to achieve a sense of his character’s mental and physical deterioration due to the stresses he was undergoing in the story, Hoffman stayed up for 3 days and 3 nights. Hoffman’s committed performance helped to make the film a critical and commercial success.

Hoffman originally studied method acting at the Actors Studio in New York and ultimately went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, once for Kramer vs. Kramer in 1980 and again for Rain Man in 1988.

 

Natalie Portman

After a stunning debut in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional, filmed when she was just 12 years old, Natalie Portman has gone on to have a highly varied and successful career. Perhaps best known for her starring role in Star Wars Episodes I-III, Thor and Thor: The Dark World, Portman’s most critically-acclaimed role was playing the lead in Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Portman undertook over a year of intensive ballet training, including 6 months were she trained 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. This training not only got Portman into shape for the role and allowed her to do a certain amount of her character’s dance scenes herself, but also helped her get into the headspace of a professional dancer. She explained:

 

“You are constantly putting your body through extreme pain, so you get that understanding of the self-flagellation of a ballet dancer.”

Robert De Niro

1976’s Taxi Driver was one of the key performances that really made Robert De Niro a star. In preparation for his leading role in the film, De Niro worked 12-hour shifts as real New York cab driver to give him a reference when creating the character. He also made use of animal exercises, a classic Method technique, whereby he based his physical performance in the film on a crab, whose side-to-side motion he felt represented the character’s indirectness.

De Niro’s dedication to the Method earned him an Oscar nomination for Taxi Driver, one of 7 he has picked up over his career. He has won twice, picking up Best Supporting Actor for The Godfather Part II and Best Actor for Raging Bull.

 

Naomi Watts

With two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress to her name, British actress Naomi Watts is one to watch. She studied acting under Stella Adler and has worked on critically acclaimed projects including Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman and 21 Grams, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.

Recently Naomi Watts devised a clever way to develop a deep bond with her co-star Matthey McConaughey for Gus Van Sant’s Sea of Trees. To simulate the closeness of the married couple they were playing on screen, Watts and McConaughey spent a month and a half exchanging emails in character.

Watts explained:

 

“If you can’t get in a room with a person and see their eyes and take time with a conversation, writing can be a good way to connect.”

Daniel Day Lewis

A legend among method actors, Daniel Day-Lewis has won the Academy Award for Best Actor 3 times, a feat unequalled by any other actor. His first win came for 1989’s My Left Foot, his second for 2007’s There Will Be Blood and the most recent for 2012’s Lincoln.

Day-Lewis is particularly well-known for his dedication to authenticity and the extremes he is willing to go to in preparing for his roles. For Last of the Mohicans, Day-Lewis spent 6 months living alone in the Alabama wilderness only eating food he had tracked and killed himself.

He is also known for his refusal to break character on set, preferring to keep himself to himself between takes. Day-Lewis is notoriously interview-shy, but has explained in the past that he prefers staying in character as it takes less energy than slipping in and out between filming. It also allows him to focus all of his efforts on his performance.

 

Meryl Streep

No list of method acting legends would be complete without mentioning the magnificent Meryl Streep. With an astounding 19 Oscar nominations to her name, Streep is the most frequently nominated performer in Hollywood history.

Streep is also one of only 6 actors and actresses to have won more than 2 Oscars. She took the Best Actress gong for Sophie’s Choice in 1982 and The Iron Lady in 2011 and also picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for her part in 1979’s Kramer vs. Kramer.

Speaking at the University of Texas, Streep explained what motivates her as an actress:

 

“The thing [that’s always] ignited my own excitement about working is to know more about somebody: What made them do this? What in God’s name went wrong?”

 

This desire to understand a character’s motivations is absolutely key to method acting as it allows you to relate the character to your own life experiences and motivations. Getting this right time and again is what has made Meryl Streep perhaps the greatest actress of her generation and one of our most valued method actors.

 

Join these Hollywood legends by learning method acting

If you want to become an elite actor like these Hollywood legends, you need to learn the Method. Our Studio is the UK’s leading provider of method acting tuition and has produced numerous successful professional method actors over the years.

Our ever-popular courses include 3-Day Method Acting Boot Camps and our One-Year Ultimate Acting Programme. We teach you everything you need to know to master the Method and become a successful professional actor. Unlike most acting courses, we also focus heavily on the business of acting, giving you the skills and resources to start finding paid acting work the moment you graduate.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Streep

 

Meryl Streep is often referred to as the best actress of her generation and not without reason. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has received 19 Oscar nominations (more than any other actor or actress in history) and won 3 times, once for Best Supporting Actress and twice for Best Actress. Meryl Streep is one of those rare performers for whom the word “legend” is not an exaggeration.

This level of success did not come about by chance. Streep is a phenomenal performer much praised for her ability to completely transform herself into the characters she plays, offering deep and utterly convincing performances in a wide variety of roles. This kind of acting ability is rare indeed, but there is a method behind it and, by understanding how Meryl Streep approaches her craft, you too can begin to follow in the footsteps of the “the greatest living actress”.

 

Finding herself in her roles

Meryl Streep once said:

 

“Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.”

 

For her Oscar-winning role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, Streep found herself identifying with Thatcher’s “position as an outsider”. Streep saw parallels between Thatcher, a grocer’s daughter from Grantham and the UK’s first female prime minister, and her own experience being one of the first female students at a previously all-male college.

This idea of finding the similarities between a character and elements in your own life is a core technique of method acting known as ‘affective memory’. Making these kinds of connections can allow you to relate to experiences that are totally different to your own life. In this way it is possible to bring a high level of emotional truth to a role, by calling up the emotions you felt during your own experience that resonate with your character’s situation.

 

Creating a physical presence

One of the most remarkable things about method actors is how they create such complete characterisations, producing performances that feel completely three-dimensional. A key part of this is developing the physical side of their character, including the way they move, hold themselves and any distinctive habitual actions or ticks they engage in.

For her Oscar-nominated role as Helen in Ironweed, Streep based her idea of the character around the musical sign of the treble clef. Streep said:

 

“It expressed for me her passion for music and her inner grace, and it gave me the sad, drooping line of her body.”

 

By visualising the character in this way, Streep was able to take an abstract concept with strong emotional associations for her (Streep is a keen musician) and use it to connect the characters internal and external life. The result is a performance with a physicality that reflects perfectly the inner life of the character, adding depth and a real sense of truth to the performance.

 

Learning confidence

Streep describes herself as being something of an introvert which may seem surprising for someone who performs for a living, but in fact many of the best method actors are quite introverted. Because method acting requires a great deal of reflection and understanding of yourself, people who are naturally inward-looking often make better method actors.

That said, acting does require confidence and this is something Meryl Streep had to learn. She uses her mother for inspiration who Streep considers to have been much more confident than herself. By imaging how her mother could have handled any given situation, Streep is able to boost her own confidence. She says:

 

“It’s a good thing, to imagine yourself doing something you think you can’t. I do that every day”.

 

This kind of visualisation technique can be extremely helpful for actors. It can help you get used to the idea of dealing with difficult situations making them easier to handle for real when the time comes.

 

Being professional

One of the most important things for any actor is being professional. Method actors are often well-regarded for their high-level of dedication and the strong work-ethic they bring to their roles. This is a result of the rigorous process that method actors go through and the fact the Method allows them to produce amazing acting on cue over and over.

Dustin Hoffman, who co-starred alongside Streep in her first Oscar-winning role praised the actress, saying:

 

”She’s extraordinarily hardworking…I think that she thinks about nothing else but what she’s doing.”

 

This gets to the essence of what makes method actors so well-regarded in the industry. They work hard and they have an incredible level of focus about their work. This is why so many actors, writers, directors and casting agents prefer working with method actors.

 

Staying humble

Streep is also well-regarded for her lack of ego. Her Into the Woods co-star Anna Kendrick, said of Streep:

 

“She is cool as a cucumber — so smart, so down to earth”

 

This humbleness is really important for being a successful method actor. Although many people imagine Hollywood stars are all hugely egotistical (and some definitely are!) the best, like Meryl Streep, always keep their egos in check. Not only does this make them easier to work with (the importance of which cannot be overstated) it also makes them better actors.

As an actor, you will often be asked to put yourself in situations which you may find embarrassing or to play characters who are deeply flawed, either physically or psychologically. To do this successfully, you need to be able to detach yourself from thoughts of your own self-image.

As Streep famously once said:

 

“I think the most liberating thing I did early on was to free myself from any concern with my looks as they pertained to my work.”

 

Learn the art of method acting like Meryl Streep

Great actors like Meryl Streep are not born with some magical natural talent. They have to study and work at developing their craft. By learning the art of method acting you too can develop the ability to bring real emotional truth to your acting and begin the journey to become a truly exceptional actor, just like Meryl Streep.

 

Our 3-Day Method Acting Boot Camps are the perfect introduction to the world of the Method while our 1-Year Ultimate Acting Programme teaches you everything you need to know about becoming a professional actor. The Ultimate Acting Programme offers a full understanding of the method acting process used by Meryl Streep as well as the majority of elite Hollywood actors. Not only this, we also teach you how to navigate the business side of the acting world, giving you the knowledge and skills to go out and begin finding paid acting work straight away.

To find out more, please take a look around the rest of the website and, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.