The Great Acting Blog: “The Exhilaration Of First Principles”
It helps to have some first principles to refer to when under pressure, and this is especially true for actors who spend much of their time buffeted by various winds. They help us to say no when we’ve been mis-sold, they help us to say no when we are asked to lie, and they help us to walk away from work we don’t believe in. They guide our instincts by ringing the alarm bell at the crucial moment.
We live in an age where phrases such as “artistic integrity” or even just the word “integrity” are laughed at, and seen as a waste of time, after all why bother to make your life harder with these tricky concepts? Why bother with developing your own point-of-view, it’s just so much more problematic than accepting the one given to you.
Why? Because the employment of our principles, putting them into action, makes us stronger. They are not just fancy ideas but tools to help us navigate our way through the storm. At first glance, it would appear that they make our lives more difficult, but eventually, after they have been employed habitually, they work for us, they help our flow. They simplify complex situations to the point that taking a principled stance becomes more straightforward than capitulation. This simplicity is the sign of our growing strength.
If we are asked to do something which violates our first principles, then we have to refuse. To do it in order to release pressure in the short term, will weaken us for the long term: our capitulation will mean that we will be complicit in our own humiliation, a state of affairs which will not only weaken us, but become debilitating.
We’ve been lead to believe that employing first principles, taking a stance, is difficult, that it’s so much easier just to go with the flow. It isn’t. Continual application of principles is not only productive, but exhilarating.
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betina marcolin/ 21.11.2013
Very good article about artistic integrity. Actually I often think of the phrase: “to sell one´s soul to the devil”. Without getting into religious matters it gives a good idea of losing some of yourself when you compromise with what I call “universal principles” since they are all around. for e.g respect, working for the good case, being loyal, being honest and true and so on…
Growing older I feel I´m founding my own personal flow much better and in a very useful way BUT I also feel I am going more and more against the main flow. Artistic integrity is linked with ethics and once you live and work with those guidelines, you can´t step back, the process is started. Luckily I live in a country where I am capable of choosing whether I want to follow my flow or not and take the consequences of it. But I often think of artists living in countries run by dictators. That convinces me even more to follow the ethical way and the principles I have chosen.
James/ 21.11.2013
That is a very good point.
Here in the UK, we can just grab a camera and go and shoot a movie in the street, without permission or permits, or we can just write a blog post on whatever subject we desire. We take this freedom for granted, and would be mortally shocked if that freedom was compromised in some way. I cannot however, imagine living in a situation where I could not express myself freely. Yes, we should honour what we have.
Many thanks for your comment.
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