Acting Class

[George K]

[Jolly]

Actors are born, not made.

[George K]

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

Actors are born, not made.

Back in the day, a company came to the university to make a "patient safety video" or some other such nonsense. They wanted a clip of the anesthesiologist bringing a patient to the Recovery Room PACU and giving report to the nurse.

For some reason, I was chosen to be in the video.

I can't believe how stiff and unnatural I looked on tape. I would never hire me as an actor. I was terrible.

[Doctor Phibes]

So, it has come to this.

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in Acting Class:

I can't believe how stiff and unnatural I looked on tape. I would never hire me as an actor. I was terrible.

A good trick is to record yourself doing some bullshit. Keep the camera/phone/whatever on you for a long time. Maybe talk to the camera, maybe don't, just always keep it on you. If you need to, watch the playback, too. Keep doing it until you no longer give a shit about the novelty of being recorded.

I've had to record myself for interviews and the like, and still have to here and there. I still hate it, but I no longer care that I hate it so it doesn't come out as bad.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

Actors are born, not made.

Utter bullocks.

[Doctor Phibes]

There's nothing special about acting. Some people are naturally better at it than others, just like pretty much everything else we do.

Studying and practice will make you better at it, just like pretty much everything else we do.

[Jolly]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Acting Class:

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

Actors are born, not made.

Utter bullocks.

Truth, lad.

It's like throwing a fast ball.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Acting Class:

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

Actors are born, not made.

Utter bullocks.

Truth, lad.

It's like throwing a fast ball.

There must be some kind of learning process involved, otherwise there'd be as many British pitchers as American ones, and (he said, ducking) as many decent American actors as there are British ones.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Acting Class:

@Jolly said in Acting Class:

Actors are born, not made.

Utter bullocks.

Truth, lad.

It's like throwing a fast ball.

You're talking sports while simultaneously discrediting the entire story of Rudy. C'mon, man.

But it really isn't. Not everyone starts with an equal baseline, sure. Not even close to an equal baseline. But you reach a point in nearly any skill timeline where consistent effort trumps talent, every time. If Daniel Day Lewis had never worked at it you'd never know who he was. Meanwhile, Angelo Rossitto did work at it, and look what he's done.

But hell that's just Hollywood movies. That's not the whole of what "acting" means. There's being on Netflix, but there's also making a living from YouTube, being part of a solvent theatre group, improv, etc., etc. The people who do these things well aren't failures just because you've never seen them in movies.