You’ve read a great number of acting tips. Have you remembered or tried to use most of them? There are lots of different people offering acting advice, especially on the internet. How does one separate the meaningful tips from the bad ones? This article will demonstrate some poor acting tips you may have heard. Aspiring actors should avoid this poor advice.
Actors who are just beginning may not be able to tell good advice from bad. Luckily there are lots of talented actors eager to share their experiences. Acting training, class work and experience have led me to know which acting advice is good. Uta Hagen provides acting instruction in her book Respect for Acting. I’ll share the benefit of my acting experiences and explain some of the low quality directions.
Have you encountered acting tips regarding dialogue memorization? Attempting to recall every word of dialogue is a mistake. Your primary goal as an actor is to breathe life into the character. Why does the character do what he does? The audition process is not about looking for a person who can memorize lines. You should try to stay with the script, but remember the intent and feelings of the character are more important than speaking the scripted dialogue. The important thing is how well you can act. How well you remember the script is not important. Actress Jessica Alba said in Elle Magazine December 2010 issue “Good actors, never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.” That demonstrates how often professional actors stray from the script.
Be wary of acting techniques concerning reacting. Of course you want to react to other characters, but you don’t want to rehearse your reactions. As soon as you begin to plan body language you run the risk of them looking fake. It is sometimes called mugging and it is over acting. Jim Carrey has made a career of it. Movies like Liar, Liar have a good bit of hamming it up. However nothing beats the Ace Ventura movies where Jim goes over the top in every scene. You should concern yourself on what your character wants and how he feels, and you won’t have to plan your body language. Concentrate on your character and let yourself react instinctually. A review of Scarface in People magazine called Al Pacino an over actor, saying “his acting isn’t acting, its shameless showing off”.
You have now uncovered two shockingly poor acting tips. But there are worthwhile acting materials out there for you. ActingScenes.com is one example of a good acting resource. There are free scenes you can download and perform, either for practice, class work or perhaps even duet acting competitions. There is a free method acting ebook based on the concepts of Constantin Stanislavski. The method acting ebook covers concepts like concentration to become comfortable on stage, and drills like shoes and socks to improve your acting skills.
About the Author
Pay a visit to ActingSenes.com to get the free method acting reference. You will discover a free method acting ebook and lots more.
