Portraying A Character

1. Portraying A Character

2. An actor in a scene study workshops was carefully editing his scenes, removing or replacing all blasphemy. When I asked him about it, he explained it was against his religion to use blasphemy. • Another actor wouldn't do kissing scenes. That, was against his religion, which specified that he could only kiss his wife, so he was carefully ending scenes just before the final kiss. • There was an actress whose workshop scene called for specific costuming: a bikini underneath a big fur coat. She wore jeans instead, explaining that she was shy. • The idea behind acting is to portray the character from the character's perspective -- warts, beauty marks and all. The issue isn't whether the actor has a problem with blasphemy or bikinis, but whether the character does! If the character is kissing his brother's wife, then that action is pretty important to the story. It is not up to the actor to upgrade the character's morality, but to portray it accurately and with empathy. • When we act, we get inside a character's skin and look at the world from his perspective. The human animal being what he is, an actor has to know beforehand that she is entering potentially wild and uncharted waters when she ventures into another person's head and heart. Go there and you may discover a vain and prideful genius, a slutty junkie, a racist, or someone whose sexual orientation is different from your own. The hat trick is to figure out how the character's behavior is a survival mechanism because every single human in the world is doing his or her best to survive successfully in life.

3. I'm not suggesting that an actor should never judge his character's behavior. If you are portraying a pimp or a murderer, it is reasonable for you to be repulsed. However, your personal opinion must not get in the way of your art! The goal is to get the audience to empathize, and you can't do that if you stand in judgement of the character. • An actor must never spend a single moment denying in himself the potential to behave as the character behaves. If the character swears, then the actor -- even if he is a born-again Christian -- must find in himself the potential to express himself that way; if the character kisses every third person on the street, invest in some Chapstick and get on with it. If the character wears a bikini underneath a big fur coat, go shopping and get back on your diet.