Wednesday, April 6, 2016

The Most Important Word for an Actor Is...........



(Names or gender may have been changed to protect the guilty.)

In this business – in New York City, just when you think you’ve heard and seen it all, someone stoops even lower.  

That brings me to the main lesson taught in most schools now – the most important thing about acting – it’s a single word… Can you guess?

Where it once was ‘objective’ or ‘spine’ or something active, it is now ‘TYPE’. The character doesn’t matter, the play doesn’t matter, all that matters is knowing your ‘type’ and sticking to it. What 'type' are you most likely to play? The first time I heard it was in a ‘Business of Acting’ class at NYU my freshman year. We were told we’d never make it in the business if we didn’t know whether we were a ‘Pacey’ or a ‘Dawson’. (Hell, I’d been studying with ‘Joey’ for years before, and I'm certain she didn't know she was a ‘Joey.’ She just knew she had a rich daddy.) Sure, it’s good to know what you’re best for, but dear God, it’s called acting. (And even at NYU, the money factory that it is, the 1 hr business class was a supplement to 28 hrs a week of actual training.)

During a recent production, 2/3 of the way through the run, I had an actress tell me she wasn’t going to play the character as written or as I’d directed – as it wasn’t “behooving” her career. She was a bombshell, and would never get cast as a dork, so she was going to disregard the play and everything else, as casting people need to see her playing her ‘type’.  Luckily, Lady Brilliance got no laughs that night, which were crucial to her, as she was not playing the role. She changed back – unless she knew there was a Casting Director in the audience – then damn the play and the other actors.


‘Type’ is what they teach today, especially in these $50 for 4 minute workshops that are all the rage and that I am fighting tooth and nail. ‘Know your type. Play your type. Be yourself. ONLY.’  How boring! And yes, this actor, errr... actress is a regular at these things.
It’s called acting!
A production is about honoring the playwright.  Sorry to shatter some notions, but it’s not about your career. You’re not acting in a vacuum. If you want to do a one person show all about you, than do it yourself. Don’t fuck with someone else’s show.  If you’re part of an ensemble, do not change your character to fit your ‘type.’  If playing against your ‘type’ is detrimental to your career, then you need to find another career. 
Again, a lot of this goes back to teaching – aka these commercial 4 minute ‘classes’ that don’t give a damn about talent or craft as many of them wouldn’t recognize talent if it bit them in the ass. They want you to ‘play’ yourself; it simplifies things for them – but real talent and real casting directors can see you become something other than you are.  (To me, that’s the exciting, fun part of being an actor.)

So yes, while there is a point of knowing the business side of acting, when that becomes the primary focus, you are fucked. You may get cast once but never again. And as big as NY seems, it’s a small world after all.

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