by Kimberly Jentzen

Creating an inspired performance is beckoning the parts inside you, your instincts to come and play. Part of playing is believing in the world of the script which allows the audience to trust and believe in you as the character. As an actor you’ll want to remove the blocks that get in the way of accessing something meaningful within you.

Because we can’t control how we “look” – we can’t show an audience what’s in our head. Have you ever had this happen… videotaping an audition only to discover that you aren’t doing anything you thought you were doing? You may have had an idea of how it’s supposed to come out. But when you watched the playback, you may have discovered it’s somehow different than you imagined.

Acting can’t duplicate a performance in your head because any preconceived result is a fantasy. The face, mind, body and emotions don’t live in an ideal reality, they live in a flawed reality. That doesn’t mean you’re flawed and will never be able to execute it right… it means the flaws you possess make actually likeable because they make you human.

We don’t like to admit our flaws or weaknesses. We want others to believe we are what we believe we are, but we don’t see our own blind spots. We can’t really know how we come across unless others tell us. However, often what lies beneath the surface is something we actually attempt to hide, but it comes out anyway… it instigates our behavior, the tone in our voice, and our attitude.

You just can’t watch yourself while your acting, and you can’t watch yourself while your living. You lose authenticity in the process. So, attempting to match what’s in your mind creates a false expectation of approaching from a surface idea and expecting layers. Acting is about experiencing a genuine living moment.

Acting is best when it’s inspired by the character’s thoughts and feelings, not your own expectations. You might want to skip the surface approach. Sure, the surface informs you of the direction your performance will take, but it’s up to you to go beneath a superficial approach to access the unknowable, your instincts.

You’ll want to experience something truthful, to move your audience. This is when you’ve mastered a piece of material, this is when your work gets attention.

You need a layered performance to do that.  So, coming from only an expectation of “how to act a scene” will set you up for a struggle. Especially if you tasted depth in your work and want more of it. You’ll need to have a better system that doesn’t force you to feel like you’re lifting 50 lbs. of weight to get there.

Great actors are truth seekers.

A scene is like a wonderful song, the beginning is the set up for the climax so that the listener can co-feel and thereby, have an experience that they can now relate to. Even if they’ve never experienced it before. That’s the beauty of great acting, giving an experience of the world to your audience who have never traveled there.

The depth of your work permits your audience’s belief in your character because they are genuinely moved by your effort. That’s the power of a celebrated actor, that somehow, they’ve touched us, by exposing their flaws, their imperfections, to allow the humanity of the character to shine through.

The first step is to let go of the expectation of how the performance will come out. To inspire the instincts of the role as your own, you’ll want to let go of any preconceived ideas and expectations to discover what emotions and thoughts live inside the character and what they are grappling with.

Releasing preconceived ideas might feel radical, but acting is about moving an audience, not projecting a perfection in your mind. We have artificial intelligence to that. What separates us from robots are our human limitations and flaws, which force us to be creative as we go about our goals. Realize that every human is unique and as an actor, you’re aim is to generate original characters.

The next hurtle is courageously seeking the truth that lives on the page; the part of your character that drives their behavior, desires, and the dynamics that live into their relationships.

In order to play the truth, you have to find it. You want to look deeper into the role so that you can play at another level, a deeper level, a level that leverages your instincts and allows you to expose what lives inside.

Great acting isn’t showy. It isn’t necessarily all that grand. It lives in a place that moves an audience. It’s that powerful. Great acting can move mountains of thoughts – your audience. Great acting begins with belief within the life of your character and drives home the core of who they are, in concert with their relationships.