Thursday, March 1, 2012

Commercial Acting Class - How To Create Distorted Personalities Without Being Dominated By Stereotypes

By Maggie Flanigan


Despite the fact that Shia LaBeouf once stated that he was a "lonely dude", it is doubtful that this feeling is shared by many other actors. The implication in this statement is that loneliness is a price that is paid by actors. In an interview for The Washington Post, he stated that a real actor must be, at least to a certain extent, "brokenhearted". It is likely that there were several actors who took offense to LaBeouf's statement. There are, however, probably many individuals who took hold of his statement and adopted it as their own due to the common "suffering artist" stereotype.

As any good commercial acting class with teach you, a successful actor must consider human emotion and nature in any and every performance. However, there is no reason for an actor to himself suffer in order to be able to succeed in an audition. Therefore, how does an actor explore and develop characters withing becoming too emotionally invested?

When discussing identity and stereotypes, the term that must be discussed is distortion. Regardless of whether the actor is learning commercial acting techniques or methods for other types of acting, distortion is a necessary talent. All actors distort the truth, from those who are involved in dramatic films to those that perform on reality shows. Distortion, if well executed, is actually able to reveal truths previously undiscovered by the actor about himself. This is the crux of an actor's job.

The Meisner technique teaches that stereotypes are personalities that have been distorted. They do play a large role when it comes to creating a character. They cannot, however, be allowed to take over the entire personality. Even the simplest character must be more complex than a basic stereotype. For example, a good actor will be able to create a character who has a tragic aspect but also maintains a comical exterior.

Utilizing a character stereotype, particularly at the beginning of a performance, can allow your viewer to get a handle on the type of character that you are presenting. Later on, the character must be given complexity or the audience will become disenchanted and bored. Occasionally, the writer will use stereotypical characters as a device which means that the character must be carefully illustrated.

Many actors are particularly sensitive to their world and their fellow man. Actors are people just like everyone else and can suffer just like we can. It becomes dangerous, however, when an actor believes that suffering is essential for true success. Success comes, instead, from continued study, passion, and dedication.




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