Info about Acting Classses
Let's talk sense about Acting - Talent
Let's try to define it. Acting talent comes in many forms. Albert Finney's got it, so has Ken Dodd and so has Meryl Streep. A great number of people have some talent for 'acting'. We often use the word to describe manipulative, persuasive or self-dramatizing behavior. True acting talent is distinct from skill in dissimulation, as it is distinct from being an entertaining person, an extrovert or a charmer. Some very good actors are in themselves ordinary-looking and quiet in personality. At the core of talent is an ability to see and understand people and characters from the inside, from their own point of view. Actors call this 'getting into the skin of a part'; it's also known as 'empathy'. It's an intuitive ability rather than a pseudo-psychoanalytic process, and the actor must possess it. He must have a gut feeling about what makes a character tick, and a desire to bring that character to life, to recreate his feelings, wants and experiences. The actor must want to show that character to the world, to share him with an audience.
Rich imagination is a part of talent and something which the actor must feed and nurture all his life. Everything in life is food for the actor's imagination. Much of what happens on the stage or screen will never happen to most of us, but the actor must be able to imagine them: death, misfortune, mind-blowing ecstasy; how it feels to belong to another time, another race, another culture. Acting is about recreating existence, a reality that's happening here and now, and having emotions and feelings about it.
The actor suffers and enjoys his character's experiences, and to do so believably must understand his own and other people's emotions, having no inhibitions about expressing the deepest and most private feelings. He or she must also possess the ability to relate to people sympathetically, and sometimes even seductively, in a wide sense. The great actor Coquelin said that acting was like making love to a thousand people a night' (I presume he meant simultaneously). Now there's a man who enjoyed his work.
Talent may also include a natural sense of rhythm, in speech and movement, and an instinct for body language, that is, a physical expressiveness which carries meanings beyond those conveyed by speech. An actor can be any shape or size and should have the quality that we call 'watch ability' or 'presence'. Ken Dodd is supremely watched able, whilst contriving most of the time to look as silly as possible, brandishing his tatty tickling stick. And an essential ingredient of talent is THE WILL TO DO IT. This is hugely significant and embraces all the following virtues: courage, tenacity, persistence, patience, deep thought, tolerance, optimism and above all, humor.
• Let's sum up the definition of talent:
• The gut intuition for seeing people and characters from inside, from their point of view.
• A rich, free-flowing imagination.
• Uninhibited and sympathetic emotionality.
• The will to do it.
With a decent bit of the first, a reasonable amount of the following two and a great deal of the last, the would-be actor is ready to learn how to be a good actor.