Aside from crying on command which seems difficult, and remembering the lines to long monologues, couldn’t anyone be a good actor/actress with a little practice and some direction? How hard is it to read some lines with certain inflection that, in most cases, would be obvious to the performer, and if not, easily conveyed unto them by the director.
From an outsider’s perspective it seems like your appearance is 95% responsible for whether or not you’d be suitable for a specific role. Anyone with acting theory knowledge able to explain why I’m wrong? One example that made me think of this is Mark Margolis in Better Call Saul. All he did was ring a bell and make facial gestures, which anyone could do, but it’s his distinct appearance that sells the part.
In: 0
Go find a commonly used audition monologue for stage actors and deliver it into a camera and watch it back. Would you be cool with betting 200 million dollars that audiences will be moved by it?
I think the best way to learn about this is to watch some bad acting. Take look at this clip from There’s Something About Mary.
https://youtu.be/rTluEVN3tHg
Brett Favre (not a professional actor) is noticeably worse at acting than everyone else in the scene. His stance is awkward, his delivery feels flat, he doesn’t do anything interesting with his face or body. The other actors are far more expressive, make interesting faces and movements, and sound natural when speaking.
You can certainly spend years studying acting or you can be naturally gifted with little training, but it’s absolutely a skill not everyone can easily get.
Watch a bunch of hallmark movies and you’ll see what bad acting looks like. Good acting looks easy, but bad acting looks painful.
Anyone can read lines with specific tone, but making it look natural can be difficult. Physically how you move, your facial expressions, line delivery, timing, all separate good and bad actors.
It’s those subtle attributes an actor has that they can give to the performance. Have you ever had someone lie to your face and you thought “they’re a terrible liar?” And have you had someone else come up to you and you took it hook line, and sinker?
It’s all in the delivery. They can make you believe what they say and do because it looks natural and sounds natural. To the point about Mark Margolis (RIP), When I go listen to a symphony, yeah, anyone can hit a bell or strike a triangle. But they know when to do it, how to do it, how hard to do it, what else is coming next in the score. I couldn’t just go up on stage, read the music, see where to hit it, and just do it. In some way, it would be wrong and unconvincing. That’s why people study music and acting, so they can be convincing. Facial expressions, subtle body movements, tone of voice — knowing how the other actors are going to react — all of this goes into delivering a superb, convincing performance. Any little thing that’s missing can make it unconvincing. Can you learn to do all this? Absolutely. Does it take time and study? Absolutely.
There’s more to performing than just repeating lines. Selling your character means you can deliver those lines in a believable way that sounds natural and realistic for the character. That your body language, tone, and emotion all align in a way that resonates with who you are trying to portray.
Even learning a short text and making it sound natural can be much harder than it seems. Add to it reacting to the sitiation, the settings and other actors, and trying to add some context to your character.
It’s a testament to the talent of actors that you believe acting is easy. They have taken something incredibly difficult and made it look so natural that a lot of people, not just you, believe it must be easy. Because you don’t see any struggle, it appears easy, but acting is very difficult. More specifically, good acting is very difficult. That’s why people train for years to do it. Some people have natural talent, sure, but acting, like most artistic pursuits, requires an immense amount of training and work.
Having done basic commercials and training videos for my company, it’s incredible how bad at acting the average person is.
Many people can’t act naturally on film or even in audio. Listening back they are either too nervous or overdoing it and they often fail to recognize that they are doing that and don’t take direction particularly well.
And that’s just asking them to play themselves, let alone characters with personality traits, body language, and inflections are totally different than your own.
Good actors make it look really easy.
There’s also a reason that good actors take acting classes and have degrees in drama and acting. It’s a skill
But as others here have already said the best way to identify good acting is to watch bad acting. People being stiff, wooden, or out of place.
Acting is not a hard career because it’s hard to act, it’s a hard career because you have to compete for 500 people for the role.
This is like saying what makes Olympic athletes so great. The differences are more noticeable due to record times or weights but they’re surrounded by other athletes and therefore don’t FEEL as remarkable. Throw in an average Joe and you’d definitely notice.
Same thing with actors. Usually actors shine with other great actors, but ensemble casts allow for a better view into the differences.
Latest Answers