Expert: Taylor Sheppard - 4/2/2009

Question
Hi, Taylor. I'm taking an acting class that's only two days a week, and one thing that I'm told constantly is that I have trouble emoting. On separate occasions I've been told my performance is meek, lacks energy and vitality. Is there a way I can cultivate that part of me that seems to come naturally to other people? They can yell, be happy, be angry, be joyful, be disgusted. It feels silly to emote like that... but I got to start somewhere, even if it is difficult to do and even difficult to watch, I imagine, for the audience. So in the beginning it'll feel silly and embarrassing, but I can build off of that. I believe that this is learnable, but it is a process. I've looked at The Acting Corps, but can't afford their training right now. I like the on-your-feet, daily acting workout that they offer. I'd like to get into that in the future, but is there any advice you can give me to work like this on my own?

Answer
Hi Daniel,

A very common problem for actors!

I had a really good motivation teacher who could pull the performance right out of you. I was acting a scene from Sam Shepherd's "True West" with an actor that was having issues similar to you. She asked the class how we felt about his performance. We replied: "We want to kill him!" -nothing worse than a non-committal performance, unless you count someone over-acting- which is already bad if you're "acting" and worse if you are magnifying it!
He just didn't seem to care! Well, she dragged him around the room by a towel (she had one end, he had the other) while he read his lines. It helped, and he got more into the performance. The reason? He didn't have time or ability to get into his head, focusing on being self-conscious! You see, he was wrestling her, not knowing which way she would turn next,(she was really fighting him hard) and trying to hang onto and read his sides, so he was BUSY! -AND...he actually put something into his reading!

You see, the reason for lack of emoting is fear...and conditioning due to gender/age. When guys have a near accident, we shake our fists at the other driver and fly into a rage. Women, on the other hand, clutch their heart and go "OMG!" You see, it's not ok in society for men to show fear, while women are exempt. It's even harder when a guy has to learn to cry on camera. Big boys don't cry!

You have to get over the fear of letting your emotions show. They say that you have to be able to not care if you make an ass out of yourself -true!

I can't say when exactly, or how I got over it, but basically you need to inhabit -crawl INSIDE your character and not be ON your character. Sometimes it's just how you think of things that make the difference: you aren't playing someone else so much as being yourself in a different situation and circumstance and with different values and history. Does that make sense? It's like acting LIKE a king vs. acting AS IF you were a king. How would you behave if YOU were a king?

The hard part of acting is being yourself and trying NOT to act.
If you are not a very emotive person to begin with, that may be a problem, but I think if you work on focus and concentration exercises, you eventually should be able to walk out on stage or set and have everything drop away but the other actor and your world.

Also, if you don't know the lines, in fact, the ROLE by heart, it makes it hard to give your whole mind over to what you are doing. It shows on your face when you are hunting for the words because you haven't got them memorized. Be sure to also learn the lines several different ways so if asked, you can "do it differently" and not go blank.

Hope this helps!

Taylor