The Great Acting Blog: “Lose The Self-Concern”

The Great Acting Blog: “Lose The Self-Concern”

Having to pay close attention to what another person is saying to you, can be a bit of a pain. It requires real effort, real commitment and real discipline. We are suddenly putting someone else at the centre of our universe. It’s much easier to not really pay attention, to show only the pretence of listening (nodding in the right places, smiling etc) and just generally go through the motions until the conversation is over. This is especially true in performance, where actors trot up to their mark, and instead of responding to what the other actor is doing, they merely implement their preparation, speaking their lines when they’re supposed to speak them because that’s what it says in the script. There is no true exchange, no real engagement. The results of such an approach tend to be bland and safe and lacking energy.

By paying close attention however, we up the stakes, we make the other actor and what he has to say important, and, horror of horrors, we take our attention off ourselves for once. Unless we do that though, we will never enjoy the full benefit of what the other person is giving us. All those little pieces of body language are infact codes: the tapping of an object on the table signifying a lack of comfort with the topic of conversation, a sudden folding of the arms to denote defensiveness, fear masqued by a smile. These tells produced by inner rumblings are actually little gifts the other actor is sending us for our own performance, but if we’re not paying attention then we will not be able to receive them.

Working off the other actor, playing close attention to what they’re doing, is a very underrated aspect of the craft. We adjust our own performance by observing what the other actor is doing in relation to our action: if we’re trying to get an apology in the scene for example, does the other actor look like they’re going to give us an apology, and we adjust accordingly.  Observing the little tells creates for us a myriad of ways in which we can respond, and in so doing, our performance becomes an in-the-moment improvisation, constantly shifting. The net result is a performance which is alive and dynamic, varied and detailed, provocative and true. – in short: by giving the other person our full attention, we become compelling to watch because we are no longer self-concerned.

This is true in life also.

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