The Great Acting Blog

The Great Acting Blog: “If Discipline Is A Problem….”

19.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

All endeavours contain drudgery and arduous periods. Acting itself contains aspects which are hardly thrilling, but need to be done well if the performance is to be any good - like learning lines for example. And yes, there are times when you need to take a break...

The Great Acting Blog: “The Actor’s Performance Is A Gift”

18.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

If you are the recipient of another's generosity, then you should be grateful. Too many mistake generosity for stupidity, and try to take more and more, as much as they can get in fact. In consequence, the generosity recedes as the giver senses, quite rightly,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Follow Your Heart Not What You Think People Want”

17.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

"What the public criticise in you, cultivate. It is you." - Jean Cocteau The problem with striving to please others, is that it creates a tendency to erase that which makes each actor interesting, namely his individuality, or, put another way, his art. When trying to win...

The Great Acting Blog: “Expect Problems, Difficulties, Complications And Obstacles”

16.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

Don't feel hard done by when an unexpected problem spits itself at you. Don't be bitter when weeks of meticulous planning gets wiped out by an unforeseen difficulty. Don't despair when your perfectionism is defaced by a new complication. Don't think you are being distracted when a silly obstacle presents itself. Problems, difficulties,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Why Actors Fail To Speak About Their Work With Confidence”

14.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 2 Comments

Many actors find it difficult to talk about their careers. There is often this sense of pressure that if you're not famous or not working on something famous then you don't count. A lot of actors too, feel within themselves that their careers should be further...

The Great Acting Blog: “Do What You Want To Do”

13.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

In Italian cinema during the 1950s, film actors' voices were dubbed with those of theatre actors. There was nothing wrong with the way they spoke, they were dubbed because film acting at that time was not considered to be respectable, and film actors were...

The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Let The Negative Drown Out The Excellent”

12.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 0 Comments

Whenever we go after a difficult goal, there will inevitably be periods of great stress - if there wasn't then the goal wouldn't be difficult. By the same token however, in order to accomplish the goal there must be great moments where we excel ourselves. The tendency...

The Great Acting Blog: “The Compassionate Actor – Ralph Richardson In The Fallen Idol”

11.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

In Carol Reed's 1948 film, The Fallen Idol, Ralph Richardson plays Baines, a butler charged with taking care of the French ambassador's 10 year old son. Richardson is trapped in an unhappy marriage while he carries on an illicit affair with an employee from the French embassy,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Invest In Your Work”

10.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

When we're first starting out, we're mostly happy just to be given a chance to exercise our craft. Doesn't really matter what the work is or who it's for so long as we get the chance. We are extremely accommodating too, because we're just relieved to know...

The Great Acting Blog: “Keep Working”

09.04.2014 , The Great Acting Blog , 16 Comments

We toil away day after day, but our increments of improvement can be so small as to seem imperceptible. But they are there. The only way to properly reveal our progress, is by placing ourselves under extraordinary pressure and seeing how we respond. Our ordinary day-to-day...

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