The Great Acting Blog: “The Benefit Of Studying Our Heroes”
As we know, understanding what it is we’re trying to do, understanding what our project is about, is crucial to making progress. Without that understanding we will be forever hamstrung in our efforts.
One way of gaining this understanding, is by studying the work and careers of those artists who we are passionate about, inspired by, connect with, who we might aspire to be. Deconstruct their work, read critical studies of them, read interviews with them, in fact, lay your hands on anything you can lay your hands on.
Often, the reason we respond strongly to certain artists and their works is because we see ourselves in them (usually unknowingly). So, by studying them to get a better understanding of them, we come to a better understanding of ourselves. We will identify in these works our own values, as well as aesthetics which excite us, and ideas we believe in, all of which however, will have been vague and inchoate, but which now we can articulate and build upon.
We don’t need to study the work of those who are in the same field as us necessarily, if you’re an actor you can still learn about yourself through studying the work of a playwright for example. What is important is that you look at work which excites you and which you are passionate about.
