Expert: J. Spyder Isaacson - 9/29/2011

Question
I'm an actor. My director does not know how to explain what he wants unless he completely does the entire scene first and then says "that's how I want it." I told him I did not want to mimic him. He then asked why not? What's wrong with that?

I feel he should try to find an alternative to what he is doing so I can give him what he wants and it be organic for me. He feels it's up to me to find that. Not him.

I feel all this is wrong. Am I right? Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Answer
In this case, I have to sympathize - if not empathize - with you. This is a very difficult situation, and I don't blame you for having questions.

It's always a bad idea to say that a particular director is doing it "wrong". Each given director has their own particular style of directing - some more effective, and some less effective. I have found that these differ from giving strict line readings (which is very similar to what your director appears to do) to no instruction whatsoever (letting the interpretation of the scene "organically" develop) to asking questions that draw the character's motivations and attitudes from the actor while giving the actor the freedom to explore those motivations and attitudes.

While I have seen all of these approaches succeed (in their own way), I have also seen them all fail spectacularly.

The key to success for the actor with any of the approaches mentioned is to find the intent behind it. Sometimes this is easy, and sometimes not; this is the challenge. In your case, your director has a concept in mind of what they want to see but cannot express it well without displaying it. Perhaps it might work to ask the director (privately, if necessary) how they arrived at a given interpretation of a scene after they have displayed it. This might help them to find a way of expressing their vision without you needing to mimic them.

In a worst-case scenario, when they literally want you to literally mimic their performance, the key to keeping it real and effective is simply to put your own interpretation behind the mimicry, and to watch for inconsistencies that may develop. Any rational director should be more than welcome to help an actor deal with any such inconsistencies for the sake of the show.

I know this is a lot of information to pass along in one gulp, and it's only scratched the surface, so please feel free to ask a follow-up question if you need to or if you need clarification.

Break a leg!

-- Spyder