The Great Acting Blog: “How Much Creative Freedom Should Actors Have?”

The Great Acting Blog: “How Much Creative Freedom Should Actors Have?”

Actors cannot go through their career hoping to encounter the perfect director who will provide them with the perfect working conditions they desire. In fact, part of the art of the actor is coping with the demands thrown at him by a myriad of different situations. If the actor is unwilling or unable to adapt then life could get very tough.

However, part of the director’s job is to create the conditions that will help the actors do their best work. This requires respect, understanding, generosity and no little humility. Personally, I think the best directors give as much freedom to the actor as possible and have the strength and imagination to accept that the scene, filtered through the actor’s creative individuality, may lead to different results, results which the director may not have anticipated, which may in fact be very different, but which nonetheless have a merit of their own. This is important because in so doing, the director sends a message to the actors that their effort and their creativity are valued, and this in turn relaxes them, boosts their confidence and they enjoy their work. This leads to stronger results in the next scene as the actor grows, and the pay off for the director is that he will have great acting in his production. The more a director tries to control the actors, the more he tries to impose his ideas on the actors, the less responsibility he gives them, then the more diminished their work will be, which of course will have an adverse affect on the production as a whole.  The director needs to respect the creative individualities of his actors.

In the end however, the actor must toe the line, regardless of the merits of the director or lack thereof, after all, the director is the actor’s boss. Getting into clashes with the director really doesn’t help anyone. The truly great actor however, is able to make it all work regardless of who the director is.

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