The Great Acting Blog: “Fear Of Truth”

The Great Acting Blog: “Fear Of Truth”

There is a certain kind of actor who’ll do absolutely anything apart from actually act the scene. They are full of chatter about it, they ask too many questions about it, you can’t get through the scene in rehearsal without them breaking off to speak to the director about something. They’re never happy, they’re never comfortable, there’s a problem with the script, there’s a problem with the dialogue, their costume wasn’t how they imagined it,  their character “just wouldn’t do that!”

All of the above are symptoms of fear. Fear of committing, fear of doing what they said they were going to do, fear of criticism, and most importantly, fear of facing up to the truth of the moment. Except, you cannot escape the truth of the moment, you cannot ignore it, you cannot sweep it under the carpet and pretend it isn’t there, no matter how hard you try, you can only attempt to. Why? Because your fear of facing the truth of the moment IS the truth of the moment. And if you fail to turn and face that moment, then you are a coward and you winced out of the work of the actor.

Dealing with the truth of the moment is the actor’s job. It’s scary, and requires courage and strength. That’s the glory of it.

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