The Performance In Your Mind Is Nothing | The Great Acting Blog

 

The performance in your head is nothing – what actually took place is the actual performance. 

It’s not real – the director, the editor, the other actors, the final audience, cannot see what is inside your mind. They respond to what they see on screen or stage – nobody has any idea about the performance in your head apart from you. 

And yet we all have the moment when we first see the rushes and want to head for the hills – ‘that wasn’t what I intended at all!’ – It’s like taking a bite out of a delicious cake but instead of tasting sweet it tastes sour. We come away shaking our heads frustrated – ‘where was the beautiful rhythm and energy I found in rehearsal? The creativty?’ And yet the performance is the performance – it’s done, it’s passed, and there’s nothing we can do about it now.

Don’t Fret, Improve Your Work      

Obsessing that our performance wasn’t exactly what we intended will only drag us down and so remove the joy from our work – this is critical because joy is necessary for creativity, especially for the actor. So lets not go there. Let us instead exercise a little bit of objectivity. Let us stand back: firstly, I’m sure there are performances in the past that caused disappointment but now we can’t remember what they are – the point is, the moment passes – we think back and cannot remember our original intentions. Secondly, if there is something specific in our work that needs fixing, then let us fix it – perhaps you could be physically fitter. Perhaps your voice needs fine tuning, perhaps your preparation needs to be a little bit more organised – note it for next time and take action. The process is one of continually making our work stronger. 

It’s good to worry up to a point, it shows our work matters to us – it is only the weak and mediocre who are fully satisfied with themselves.  But this worry must not spill over – a certain amount is energising, too much is inhibiting. 

Finally, you might view the performance in your head as a template or a yardstick by which to measure your actual performance by – comparing what you actually did against what you were trying to do. This may seem reasonable but to do so is to negate acting itself. Acting is about dealing with the moment as it unfolds in real-time during the scene – not merely the steady implementation of a blueprint. To create in-the-moment is fiery and frightening but it also leads to performances of truth and provocation, performances which connect with and move an audience, and this is, afterall, the purpose of our work. 

 

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