The Great Acting Blog: “Know What You’re Doing And Know What You Want”

 

“Nobody respects us”. – Something I overheard an actor saying this week.

The director-actor relationship is unique. During the course of his work, the actor makes himself incredibly vulnerable, which is to say he loses his self-consciousness (which is a tool for protecting the self) in order to perform in the scene. The director however, remains hidden behind the camera or in the stalls, observing, critiquing. So we see clearly how the actor needs to feel that the director is on his side. We live in an era when the director is regularly credited with good work by the actor (director x drew a great performance from actor y). The director dominates the actor in the sense that the actor is there merely to serve “the director’s vision”, as if the actor possesses no creative individuality of his own. The actor works to please the director. So we can also see how actors are wide open to abuse from directors – the director, angry at his own shortcomings (and that of his “vision”) may take it out on the actor, bullying the actor, or, more slyly, criticise the actor using charm. The director may fail to articulate his ideas properly (either through inability or lack of will) but berate the actor for his lack of understanding. There is the fear of unemployment too, the actor defers to even incompetent directors, while the director may feel he is doing the actor a favour by casting him in an over-crowded market-place. This situation is relatively new however, a hundred years ago, directors had no such power (the job barely existed) and actors headed their own companies, but today, it is easy to see why actors may not feel respected, and begin to not respect themselves as a consequence.

Any actor who believes all directors act in the actor’s best interests, is incredibly naive, and needs to grow-up or they deserve everything they get. Similarly, you are only debasing yourself by repeatedly attempting to win the favour of those who have no respect for you. Self-worth comes from knowing what you are doing, knowing your craft. And once you become confident in your own abilities, you will be more discerning in who you are willing to make an effort for, and there will be no reason to be overly-saddened when treated shabbily; at least you know where you stand, learn from it and move on. Further, once you understand what it is you are actually trying to achieve as an actor, you are better placed to measure whether a certain offer is worth while, or whether a certain situation is worth the effort, worth risking your own good opinion of yourself. If you don’t know what you’re doing, and you don’t know what you want, then you’ll always be somebody else’s play-thing.