Acting

[fabsec54]

Wasn't sure where to put this message.

How does an actor "pretend" pain, say when he plays a character who has to have a bullet removed without anaesthetic, does he "visualise" the pain or use painful past experiences?





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Top of Page

�2007 Associated Newspapers Ltd � Terms & Conditions � PrivacySkip over adverts

[andy-hughes]

You can't actually use a past 'painful' experience. The mind protects itself, and will not allow you to re-experience the sensation of physical pain - although it will allow you to re-experience pleasure.

Any actor worth being watched can show 'pain' or indeed 'pleasure' by means of body language and / or vocal expression - as the famous 'When Harry Met Sally' 'orgasm' scene demonstrates - that is in fact an acrtress - portraying a character - acting a response.

[saxy_jag]

It can be either, or a mixture of both, or something else entirely - it depends on the individual actor. Certainly when they're doing tears, many of them endeavour to remember the saddest thing they've ever know, and pain is similar. You can never recreate it, but you can remember what it felt like and act accordingly.

[sherlockian]

Good actors "act" which is why they are good - bad actors "pretend" which is why they are bad. Any actor worth their salt can act any situation - whether they've experienced it in life or not - and convince an audience it is sincere - the audience know they are acting, the actor knows he/she is acting, but both parties enter a pact of suspension of belief that they are experiencing sincere emotions.

[jno]

not sure there's any great distinction between acting and pretending. There's a famous story about Laurence Olivier and Dustin Hoffman filming Marathon Man, and Hoffman - a 'method' actor which means getting yourself deeply into character - running round getting himself exhausted and wearing Olivier out making him do the same until at last Olivier asked him why he didn't just act tired.

[sherlockian]

jno - I have to disagree - there is a very GREAT difference between acting and pretending, and I think great actors are vastly unappreciated because of this common misconception! I have seen many fine actors act, and many bad ones pretend, and the difference is startlingly obvious.

[jno]

well, I'd just call that bad acting

[mightywease]

I agree with you Sherlockian. excellent acting can often be overlooked because a good actor makes things look effortless, as an observer you forget thay they are acting and don't see the work that has gone into their performance. Whereas with average and mediocre actors you are aware of the process behind what they are doing, you are aware they are pretending..

However the diferrence between 'acting' and 'pretend' is a tricky one. One the one hand the actor is pretending to be someone other they who they are and yet what they are feeling and showing is real.

For instance I am currently rehearsing a play in which one of my sons is killed within the first few pages. When that happens i do feel and show the emotion but it is within the confines of the play - I personally don't use my own experiences i.e think about an upsetting time or event when trying to play the scene. For me the emotions come out of the writing, the scene, the character I'm playing. It is that character's emotions, not mine. So I am kind of pretending but I'm kind of not. I am acting. Hopefully well enough that people will see the character and their pain and not me.

I haven't really described that as well as I would have liked but I hope it makes sense. That's the other thing with acting, although it can involve a lot of hard work it is also spontaneous, of the moment, intuative and fleeting. Things that can be hard to pin down. That's what makes it such good fun though!

[Quizmonkey]

Sherlock - I agree with your distinction but not your terminology! I equate 'acting' with 'pretending' - the objective of a good performer is surely 'being'. Sounds a bit high-falutin' and it's difficult to put into words...but when I have achieved accurate emotion on stage it certainly has been through the writing and the immediacy of the situation (as Mightywease says) rather than the 'recollection of personal agony' route - which always sounds such a fake and contrived method to me.

I remember one experience when a fellow actor asked the director if she could move to a window rather than a door during one scene. His reply was "You can do whatever you like as long as you don't act!". We knew exactly what he meant...

A play I did last year resulted in tears streaming down my face in the final scene - which only came in actual performance and took me by surprise. That's when I felt I really nailed it.