The Great Acting Blog: “How To Play Weak”

The Great Acting Blog: “How To Play Weak”

We don’t like showing we are in a weak position, we don’t like showing that we need something. We don’t like revealing a vulnerability – it’s degrading, it’s embarrassing, it may even be humiliating, and we leave ourselves wide open to being damaged. This is especially true in acting where we have to consciously choose to be weak whenever the scene demands it. It’s just so counter-intuitive for us: we live our lives protected by a carefully composed masque, and now we are asked to throw that masque away.

So how do we play weak while at the same time preserving our self-respect. How?

By selecting the appropriate action.
Which action?
To plead.
And to embed some objectives in there: to plead for help, to plead for love, to plead for money, to plead for mercy, to plead for another chance, and so on.

We plead when we are not in control – we are powerless, we are reliant on the other character to give us what we need. When we plead, we physically tend toward weakness or lack of grip; our voice rises, our face stresses, our anguish is obvious.  Pleading is also something we can do, so we don’t have to debase ourselves by trying to squeeze out some sort of “emotion” – no, we avoid debasing ourselves by playing truly.

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