Most people feel that actors are born not made. That acting comes natural for those that are actors. That may be true to some degree. Some folks do have natural talent however that talent must be honed and developed. Before going out on auditions you must spend time studying acting as you would study any profession or craft. A part of you that must be developed in order to become a good actor is the art of listening. Listening is the key to understanding the emotions you must be able to evoke.
Listening is not easy for most people. Not just listening but being able is not said. Observing body language and facial expressions is just as important as is the spoken word. Often what is not said is as important as what is said.
Once you are actually acting pick up on what your fellow actors are expressing. Understand what they are trying to convey so that you can work off of them and give the audience a complete understanding of what your role is about.
Frequently an actor will leap into a part without really understanding what their part in the script is about. What their character must portray. There must be an objective that an actor must target in his or her performance. Without an understanding of the role in front of them they will not have understanding to head down the path toward their objective. In fact, they won’t have an objective or it will be a wrong one. What will happen is instead of establishing a relationship between themselves and their audience that an audience can relate to the audience will become disconnecting leaving the actor in the cold.
When listening to your fellow actors as parts are read you must learn to understand not only what the words they are saying mean but whatever is unsaid behind the spoken words. You must learn to not just act but react to those words and thoughts in such a natural way that the audience does not perceive you to be acting but their perception is that they are just observers to what is presented in front of them by real people not actors.
You must divorce yourself from reality while you are in the moment. Get into a zone. If you have ever driven down the road with your mind on things other than driving so you reached your destination without really remembering driving their or at least there was a section of the drive that you don’t recall. Well your mind was in a different place than the reality of driving. In acting you must put yourself into the role so that you are not thinking your acting but you are the character you are portraying. You need to get lost in the role. You need to get into the zone.
