The Great Acting Blog: “Great Actors Have An Objective”

The Great Acting Blog: “Great Actors Have An Objective”

We’ve all met people who say whatever comes into their heads. They speak but they don’t say anything. Eventually, we learn not to pay too much attention to what they say because we know it’s  meaningless. Their words are worthless, they carry no authority, they have no meaning.

Similarly in acting, we see actors who ramble through their dialogue, speaking the words but saying nothing. They bore us, we find it difficult to focus on them, we can’t connect to them and eventually we tune them out.

Then there are those great actors, whose performances we so admire. Nothing they do is trivial, they mean every word – they do have something say and they say it with total commitment. Consequently  they are intense and compelling, we can’t take our eyes off them. They know what they’re trying to do – they have an objective, and everything they do is purposed towards completing it.

Don’t speak unless you too have determined a clear objective and committed to it fully. Be an actor who doesn’t just trot out lines of dialogue, but one who actually has something to say. Be an actor who, when you speak, people listen – that’s an actor worth the time and attention of the audience.

Great actors have an objective.