Expert: Taylor Sheppard - 8/5/2009

Question
i am 14 and taking drama for one of my options for year 10 is there any more information you can give me to help make acting my future???

Answer
Hi Ellen,

As far as learning, books can take you a long way toward your education. I have read so many I can't keep a count! Do not be put off by them disagreeing on things, there is more than one school of thought when it comes to acting on what it is and how to do it. I would have to say I am a "Method" type actor who needs to replicate stimulus as closely as I can to really get into it. There's a German method that basically takes the opinion that it's NOT the actor's job to "be a reporter" -let the audience figure it out! That sounds harsh or lazy at face value, but really, it actually makes sense. There was an experiment a long while back where they showed an audience slides of peoples faces and asked them what they thought of their expression -AFTER- telling them a short bit about what was happening to the person..."She was just told her son died", "She just saw her lover she thought was dead"...etc. What they didn't realize was the woman just had a blank look on her face! She wasn't sad, shocked or happy, just...nothing! However, the audience believed what they were told and could see how POWERFUL her emotions were. You see Ellen, sometimes the best thing to do in acting is...not to. Imagine you picked up the sharpest knife in the world. Imagine you could drop a human hair on the cutting edge and it would slice into two pieces. Now imagine you picked it up and then held up your finger, and as if in a trance, you touched the blade to your finger and it "POP!" just split open on contact, all the way to the bone! Sorry for the disturbing image, but if you could have seen your face filmed when you read that or imagined it...it would have been...enough. It looks awful to see someone "trying" to act. If someone is on camera and just twists up their face in a closeup, it can really be a career issue. If you can imagine something really well, then your face will take care of itself. Daniel Day-Lewis was once locked in a jail cell and treated like a prisoner, doused with cold water, etc., to play in "In The Name of The Father". He needed to know the feeling of being held against his will and of the cold and isolation that his character would feel.

Now, that is what I believe. Read the books, Meisner, et al, and make up your mind what you believe.


Best,

Taylor