Good acting comes from the application of technique. Mature acting comes from the way we think about the script. The way we extrapolate from it. Combining it with our own understanding of life. Mature Interpretation is a result of who we have become as people.
We see plenty of strong actors, with fluent emotional instruments, who give good performances,
When we’re not really Engaged, we tend to Illustrate our ideas about the scene. We know what the writer is trying to say about the character, or the relationship, and we find some obvious way to portray it. Either with a line reading, or gesture, or a piece of business of some kind.
It works okay, but it isn’t really a pleasure.
Once, I asked a young actor if he thought he could be a professional athlete. He was silent for a moment. Then his eyes narrowed and he spoke in a serious tone. “If I really set my mind to it,” he said, “if I really committed, I think I could still do it.” How would you start, I asked. “I’d get up tomorrow at five in the morning and work out twelve hours a day.”
Was he working this hard as an actor?
