Emotion

What am I feeling? So, let’s talk a little bit about emotion. First of all, I would advise you not to think very much about emotion at all. In the beginning I said that we almost always make the mistake of looking at a script– –and right away start imagining different emotional states– –we think that we need to get into. And this will only make us self-conscious and introspective and tense. Remember that it’s called acting and not emoting. What we should be looking for are things to do rather than to feel. But you might also have noticed that in the last two videos about objective and relationship– –I’ve started to talk about how you feel about something.

Or how you feel as a result of something happening. And this is how you can think about emotion in your acting. How you feel about something. Or how something makes you feel. In the words of Meisner, emotion is a byproduct of doing. This goes back to the example of the football player trying to score a goal. Depending on what happens moment to moment in trying to accomplish this– –they and the audience may feel many things. And may feel them very deeply. But that ultimately is not the main focus. It’s a result of something else. How we feel about something can also be a good indicator of– if we understand our choices or not, if we understand a scene or not.

Our emotional responses to the work we do using our imagination– –can do a lot to guide us in our preparations. But once we start acting we should leave it alone and see what happens in the moment. The goal is by no means to be emotionally empty. It’s just not where our focus should be.

So, is this the whole truth? No. Everything in acting is a paradox. It’s this way, but sometimes it’s that way. There will be times when a scene calls for you to have a certain emotion showing. But usually this is less of a problem than we think. And either way, it’s mostly not helpful to focus on the emotion you’re supposed to feel– –but rather on creating the imaginary circumstances that might make you feel that way.