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.
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I’m of the belief that everyone can act, but few can do it *well*.
Body language, voice inflection, improvisational skills, and ability to maintain character motivation despite having nothing in common with that character take talent and skill. (To get a touch hyperbolic: it’s like a super liberal vegan person accurately portraying a steak and potatoes loving slave owner, or a super maga person portraying a trans abortion activist.)
I like to compare it to cooking. Everyone knows how to cook for the most part, but they’re not a Michelin Star chef for whipping up a box of kraft mac n cheese or following somone else’s online recipe note for note. Actors are chefs who have to breakdown the human experience to it’s bare bones and then make that palatable to the consumer.
The talent and connections is what puts you in front of the public eye, however. Most actors do a very good job, but aren’t household names just because they might not be in big projects or haven’t been in a movie that made waves.
If you are into self-study, I would also recommend looking into the 2 forms of method acting: Classical and Modern.
In addition to what others have said you’re underestimating what the job entails. It’s not just memorization or crying on cue.
Memorize on short notice. An actor often is given new pages and has to be ready to be off-book in a couple hours.
Stamina. Work long hours and be fresh every day as if it’s not grueling at all. 12+ hour working days are extremely common. That’s just the time on set or at the rehearsal hall. They also need to set aside time for memorization, publicity, etc.
Physical discipline. They are constantly being required to reshape their bodies in some very specific way and then maintain it at exactly those dimensions for months. No bigger, no smaller. Once a costume is custom built for them, it’s a big deal to have it altered. And on camera their body must look the same throughout a scene even when it’s comprised of takes done months apart. Even someone who looks overweight has to maintain the same measurements. It costs a production a lot in costuming, makeup, and editing if the actor’s appearance becomes inconsistent. Many roles also have other intense physical discipline demands, such as fight choreography, dance choreography, singing, playing an instrument, dialect work, etc. Even just one scene may require months of physical preparation. They may also need the physical discipline to routinely still for hours getting elaborate makeup applied. Depending on one’s costume, one may also need to exert unusual discipline about when they eat, drink, or pee since being essentially sewn into a costume all day is a thing that happens.
Mental coordination. They have to not only get the lines right, every time, but also the blocking (where to stand and where to direct their face and eyes). They have to deliver their lines at the right time, while hitting their marks exactly right so that the lighting etc all hit them perfectly, usually while wearing restrictive garments, while handling each prop at just the right time, while not getting in the way of others doing all the same, while remaining mentally engaged with what everyone is doing in a scene. An actor who brings a scene to a screeching halt as soon as something doesn’t go to plan is not going to get hired again. Being able to both deliver everything exactly as required while also always ready to nimbly adapt to circumstances is key to getting more work.
Resilience. Actors face a lot of rejection in their lives. Not just in auditions, but in reviews. They have to be able to withstand constantly being inundated with “you suck” messaging without withering.
Analysis, empathy, ability to keep track of emotional state and repeatedly move through an emotional arc over and over. Most of the work of creating a character is done by the actor, not the director. An actor must be able to analyze a work, and read between the lines to make detailed choices about what the character is thinking and feeling behind each thing they say or so. Do do that they also need to be able to appreciate a wide range of human emotions and varied ways of expressing each, and make choices about how to get from point A to B all the way to Z in each scene and across the work as a whole. They have to be able to hit a very specific emotional level on demand, and take care that an emotional crescendo doesn’t happen too soon, doesn’t conflict with other actors’ choices in a weird way, and doesn’t overshadow something more important to the plot than themsces. So that the audience feels like they’ve been taken on an emotionally logical journey throughout. Actors have to be able to render those complex emotional journeys over and over, even when they’re not in the mood or when they are feeling spent. Whether that’s for many camera takes or because as a Broadway actor they do multiple performances per day.
There’s a lot more things to being a working actor. Most people do not have the capacity to be working actors because realistically most humans don’t have the unique combination of mental, physical, and emotional skills required. It’s a really hard job. Props to those who do it well. They deserve our respect.
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