The Great Acting Blog: “The Independent Actor”

The Great Acting Blog: “The Independent Actor”

One of the key points for actors in John Cleese’s lecture on creativity is the notion that we cannot be creative if we fear making mistakes. I believe this to be true, our creative juices just dry up in such situations. It’s especially poignant for actors because we rarely, if ever, work alone in the way a writer or a painter does. Nor do actors have the luxury of the director who can step back and observe the work objectively remaining safely ensconced within a rationale. No, for actors, creative work involves other people, it involves going out on a limb publicly. And that’s just the work. Then there is the audition process, where the fear of making a mistake can blight even the shiniest talent. In a rehearsal or a performance it’s a question of getting the job done and that is all that really needs to be focussed on, it’s what we do. The audition however, is a sort of twilight world between work and unemployment – the actor knows that the panel sat before him in the room are not really an audience, they are there to judge to him (unlike an actual audience, who come to be delighted by him), and the actor, for his part, can feel as though he’s got something to lose, ie – the possibility of working, and so daren’t make a mistake and lose that blissful possibility (as he might see it). This kind of scenario can play havoc with your creativity.

Cleese’s point also has implications for the actor-director relationship. He offers us yet more evidence (if more was needed) that directors need to create an environment where actors feel as though there are no mistakes, that they can try things, and if it doesn’t work, then they can try something else – yes there is a job to be done – but they must be able to work without fear of censure. This kind of environment encourages actors to make ambitious choices, from which their best work is produced, and so they, the audience and the production all benefit.

Ultimately, actors do not have the comfort of enjoying their ideal working conditions on every audition they attend or on every production they work on, in fact, that rarely if ever happens. The reality is that actors have to respond and make do with whatever confronts them. The constant in all of this however, is the actor himself. So, the wisest solution is surely for him to ensure that his own house is in order rather than letting himself get into a tizzy about why the whole world doesn’t conform to his idea of it.

The actor must be independent.

What does this mean? It means possessing a repeatable, caste-iron technique of acting which holds up under pressure, it means being prepared, being personable and not worrying about anything outside of his control.

Not fearing mistakes is ultimately about how you set yourself up as an actor. Rather than crossing your fingers and hoping that somebody in the room you just walked into gives you what you want, be independent and give it to yourself.

 

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