How many acting tips have you come across? Have you remembered or tried to use most of them? There are lots of different people offering acting advice, particularly on the internet. The problem is not all the information you get is good. This article will demonstrate some poor acting tips you may have read. Aspiring actors would do well to avoid this poor advice.
When you get started in acting, it is difficult to know who to listen too. Luckily there are lots of talented actors willing to share their experiences. Many years of acting experience have shown me who is worth listening too. Uta Hagen provides acting instruction in her book Respect for Acting. I’ve been acting for ten years and I can shed some light on the poor information.
An especially poor acting tip is how to commit lines to memory. As an actor, your focus should not be memorizing dialogue. You should focus on why the character is speaking the lines. What are the characters goals? What is he feeling when he is speaking? How does he respond to other characters? The audition process is not about finding the person who can memorize lines. You want to rehearse with the script. But no director will scold you for improvising some of the lines. What is important is how well you can act. How well you remember the script is not important. Actress Jessica Alba said in Elle Magazine December 2010 issue “Good actors, never use the script unless it’s amazing writing. All the good actors I’ve worked with, they all say whatever they want to say.” That demonstrates how often professional actors stray from the script.
Another low quality acting tip is telling you to react. Of course you want to be affected by the other characters, but you don’t want to prepare your reactions. Have you ever witnessed someone overact and notice how distracting it is? It is sometimes called mugging and it is over acting. Jim Carrey has made a career of it. Movies like Liar, Liar have a good bit of hamming it up. However nothing beats the Ace Ventura movies where Jim goes over the top in every scene. Acting theory says you should employ techniques like sense memory to feel what your character is feeling. You will react without planning ahead using this technique. Do not rehearse your facial expressions. Quoting Craig MacDonald “The best acting is instinctive. It’s not intellectual, it’s not mechanical, it’s instinctive.”
The above are examples of bad acting information. But, there are several good acting resources and websites. A perfect example of high quality acting information is ActingScenes.com. There are free scripts you can download and perform, either for practice, class work or perhaps even duet acting competitions. You can get your copy of a free method acting guide. Method acting teaches you exercises like the breakfast drink to help you boost your concentration, eliminate stage fright and grow as an actor.
Pay a visit to ActingSenes.com to get the acting secrets ebook. You’ll get a free acting script and lots more.