ON ACTING: Thoughts on Thinking
Most people would agree that the human thinking process allowed humanity to dominate the world.
However, it was not a cost-free evolutionary leap. (If nothing else, a larger brain became an extra burden for the feet to carry). Thought takes effort.
Most people don’t want to think. Neither should actors-as-characters. Thinking (which is nothing more or less than a mental delay prior to overt physical action) is a human activity forced on us by the severity of prior inner emotional turmoil.
Even intellectuals would rather live without thinking: otherwise they would not look so dour and sour all the time--with wardrobes dominated with black, brown or gray--if thinking for them were such a wonderful and desirable a human activity.
The good actor must accept: the action of thinking must be motivated by a deep emotional dilemma caused by a prior moment in the scene; it is a result of a prior feeling problem for the character that can not go unresolved; hence it must be thought about.
However, it was not a cost-free evolutionary leap. (If nothing else, a larger brain became an extra burden for the feet to carry). Thought takes effort.
Most people don’t want to think. Neither should actors-as-characters. Thinking (which is nothing more or less than a mental delay prior to overt physical action) is a human activity forced on us by the severity of prior inner emotional turmoil.
Even intellectuals would rather live without thinking: otherwise they would not look so dour and sour all the time--with wardrobes dominated with black, brown or gray--if thinking for them were such a wonderful and desirable a human activity.
The good actor must accept: the action of thinking must be motivated by a deep emotional dilemma caused by a prior moment in the scene; it is a result of a prior feeling problem for the character that can not go unresolved; hence it must be thought about.
posted by Cliff Osmond at 9:30 PM
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