The late, great acting teacher Stella Adler was once asked what her biggest challenge in training actors was. She said, “Their middle-class conditioning.” Another way to say this is that they were under the influence of a “one size fits all” conditioning that valued conformity over authenticity and originality.
From early childhood, through years of schooling, and with the overarching impact of cultural conditioning, we’ve been taught to distrust our instinctive animal nature and replace it with thinking and control. The fact is, we’ve been shamed for being human animals—shamed for being what we truly are. The truth is, we are animals, and the degree to which our animal nature has been domesticated and suppressed is the degree to which we’ve lost the fullness of our humanity as well. I once heard a wise man say, “Being domesticated is tremendously painful for the human animal.” Fortunately, acting—and in my opinion, the art of “NOT” acting that I teach—offers a beautiful way out of this conundrum, with the possibility of having a wonderful acting career and fulfilling life.
Often, in the beginning, when I work with actors, they’re quite surprised when I say they weren’t being truthful in their work. As an aside, these are often actors who’ve been through all the well-known programs. I tell them that while they may feel they’re being real, they’re actually being “conventionally” real. In other words, it’s a culturally accepted version of being “real,” which, in actuality, isn’t real at all. They’re also often overly invested in getting it right and afraid of making mistakes. I tell them they have to get it real, not right.
Great actors are like the wild animals we see in nature. They’re alive, instinctive, unpredictable, and incredibly intelligent.
It’s not that great actors aren’t thinking when they’re acting—they’re just not living in “ideas” of what a scene should be. That’s a huge difference. Actors who play the “idea” of a scene know ahead of time what’s going to happen. But how can anyone possibly know what’s going to happen until it happens?! That’s what being in the moment is all about—not knowing what’s going to happen until it happens! The thoughts the best actors have in a scene are deeply connected to their feelings and instincts, rooted in the truth that’s unfolding from one unknown moment into the next. That’s exciting. We don’t know what they’re going to do next because they truly don’t know what they’re going to do next.
The key question becomes how to overcome this conditioning, stop overthinking, and trust your instincts as an actor. After all, many acting techniques attempt to address this issue in the foundation of their approaches. It took me many years to realize a simple solution. I actually addressed it in depth in my first blog post, "Why Letting Go of Acting Techniques Is Often the Key to Finding Your Way.” When you find “your way” as an actor, a tremendous confidence—without arrogance—emerges, along with self-trust and self-respect. You feel safe to be the human animal you are, and you discover numerous, previously hidden aspects of yourself, now free to be expressed in the different roles you play.
You’ll realize that many of the characters you embody become your best friends and allies, providing a creative and safe space for the wildest and most honest versions of yourself to be expressed within the story. As this happens, you’ll realize how lucky you are to be an actor and that your career is built on your aliveness as an animal and the depth and breadth of your humanity.
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