You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does. ~ Glenn Close.
An observation. Only been working on accents again for about a month and already I’m beginning to notice a change. Although I’m a long way off perfection, certainly I doubt I’ll ever be as good at mimicry as Michael Sheen, these past few days I’ve attempted dialects I’d never tried before and my efforts have been recognisible. At least, I’ve recognised them
Lots more work needed, other people’s opinions being the acid test, I’m under no illusions. Still, it’s uplifting to see a little pay-off. This self-training thing may have some very large flaws but it seems to have some practical, workable areas too. Onwards!
In music, the punctuation is absolutely strict, the bars and rests are absolutely defined. But our punctuation cannot be quite strict, because we have to relate it to the audience. In other words we are continually changing the score. ~ Ralph Richardson.
- Acting is merely the art of keeping a large group of people from coughing.
- Acting is the ability to dream on cue.
- In music, the punctuation is absolutely strict, the bars and rests are absolutely defined. But our punctuation cannot be quite strict, because we have to relate it to the audience. In other words we are continually changing the score.
It’s what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That’s all and that’s the hardest thing. ~ Morgan Freeman.
This is my first attempt a studying another performance. Starting in the ’80s BBC TV adapted all of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books starring Joan Hickson and the scene I refer to is in the second half of Nemesis
with Liz Fraser. I first saw this in 1987 and this one moment has stayed in mind as extraordinary. That’s why I chose this lesser known scene.
I’ll probably come back to this is a few months/years and find it’s a little bit riubbish but for now, I’m finding it helpful. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s really no way to teach you how to act, but there is a way to teach you how to teach yourself to act. That’s kind of what it is; once you learn the little tricks that work for you, pretty soon you find yourself doing that. ~ Clint Eastwood.
- Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you’re playing through your own experience – so we’re all different.
- Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef – but that’s only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn’t ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.
- I don’t make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare – in fact, unless you’re a good comedian, you’re never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.
- I think the point to be understood is that we’re all different. I’ve never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn’t go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, ‘This is the way you should act.
- When you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that – in real life – I wasn’t doing.
- If I was on a march at the moment I would be saying to everyone: ‘Be honest with each other. Admit there are limitless possibilities in relationships, and love as many people as you can in whatever way you want, and get rid of your inhibitions, and we’ll all be happy.
It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it. ~ Dame Judi Dench.
- I don’t think anybody can be told how to act. I think you can give advice. But you have to find.
- I work out the other bits, too, but I need to know what I look like, very early on. And then it’s like a template; I’ll fill that person out. If I get that out of the way, then I’m all right.
- I’ve figured out what to do so far, but it’s always the next thing you come to where the man with the bucket of ice cold water is waiting – whoosh! in your face. That’s why you work with directors who know what to tell you to do.
- It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it.
- It was good to learn so early. They’re not going to be kind to you. You have to do it and get on, and then gulp down and get better.
- Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are – maybe not all of them. But it’s up to you to put in the amount. It’s up to the director to nag you until you get it right. on remeron thyroid levelslipitor due baldness to
With the hugely talented women I’ve worked with or observed, it’s not a question about temperament or ego; it’s a question about getting it right. If they’ve got a reputation for being difficult it’s usually because they just don’t suffer fools. ~ Glenn Close.
Current audition speech and character study I’m working on.
HERMIONE
Since what I am to say must be but that
Which contradicts my accusation and
The testimony on my part no other
But what comes from myself, it shall scarce boot me
To say ‘not guilty:’ mine integrity
Being counted falsehood, shall, as I express it,
Be so received. But thus: if powers divine
Behold our human actions, as they do,
I doubt not then but innocence shall make
False accusation blush and tyranny
Tremble at patience. You, my lord, best know,
Who least will seem to do so, my past life
Hath been as continent, as chaste, as true,
As I am now unhappy; which is more
Than history can pattern, though devised
And play’d to take spectators. For behold me
A fellow of the royal bed, which owe
A moiety of the throne a great king’s daughter,
The mother to a hopeful prince, here standing
To prate and talk for life and honour ‘fore
Who please to come and hear. For life, I prize it
As I weigh grief, which I would spare: for honour,
‘Tis a derivative from me to mine,
And only that I stand for. I appeal
To your own conscience, sir, before Polixenes
Came to your court, how I was in your grace,
How merited to be so; since he came,
With what encounter so uncurrent I
Have strain’d to appear thus: if one jot beyond
The bound of honour, or in act or will
That way inclining, harden’d be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near’st of kin
Cry fie upon my grave!
Surely we have always acted; it is an instinct inherent in all of us. Some of us are better at it than others, but we all do it. ~ Sir Laurence Olivier.
I’ve created a ’syllabus’ (oh OK, vague plan of attack) that I intend to follow here. What do you think of it? What have I missed?
To be a good actor, you should know the words and movements and execute them perfectly; to be a great actor, you should know the words and movements and execute them perfectly, and also be able to invest them with great meaning; but to be a master actor, you should know the words and movements and execute them perfectly, invest them with great meaning, and be a farmer. ~ Proverb about theatre from Bangladesh.
Just watched this video:
(Taming of the Shrew: Meryl Streep and Raul Julia as Katherine and Petruchio)
Only short excerpts but they look like two brilliant performances. Blown away although also found it slightly depressing that I had never thought of it in those terms before. I’d found Katherine impossible to fathom and would resort to thinking of her in terms of history, which is rather dismissive. Does that mean I shouldn’t be anywhere near the profession or simply that I hadn’t paid it enough attention?
I wonder if the full version (either of the documentary or play) is available to watch anywhere?
Edit: Updated to include a new video clip of the documentary, after the last one went AWOL.
At least, I’ve recognised them 
