Even though acting is a form of play-pretend and make-believe, effective performances are grounded in emotional honesty. What makes an actor cry on stage or turn red with fury?
These renowned veterans verbalize how to produce emotionally rich performances and what happens when they do.
Marion Cotillard, “Two Days, One Night”
“While we rehearsed I did personal work, inventing her backstory.... I wrote her life before. I wrote scenes I would use later when I needed some support to be able to burst into tears out of nowhere. I needed to build a structure of stories that I could use when I needed to reach this or that emotion.”
Nathan Lane, “Angels in America”
“[Eugene] O’Neill is asking you to be as brave as he is in the writing and to go as far as he goes—which is very far. It kind of demands an exposure and going to the darkest places of your soul, otherwise it doesn’t work.... There were nights that it was almost hallucinatory, where it takes you emotionally. I highly recommend O’Neill if you’re looking to shake things up—let’s put it that way.”
Brian Tyree Henry, “Atlanta”
“It’s not about being safe anymore. It’s about being as raw and bare as I possibly can be...These characters are reflecting me back to me, and that’s terrifying. I used to say I was being paid to lie. Then a friend said, ‘No, you’re actually being paid to tell the truth.’ Mind. Shattered.”
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
“You just need that one little drop of empathy—like, ‘Oh, I see where they’re coming from now, but I still can’t forgive them because they’re still obnoxious’...The little drop goes such a long way, and all [my recent projects] built that kind of character that can get away with the sometimes obnoxious behavior or ugliness because they’ve also given you a little crack of the door into the other side of them.... Look for the humor in the dramatic elements and the drama in the funny parts just as an exercise to be unexpected...if you just put that exercise on it, you never know what you’re going to find.”
Nina Arianda, “Fool for Love”
“It’s more important to be ready than to be primed...Does that make sense? If you’re primed, then you already have an idea of what you’re going to do. But if you’re ready, then you’re just…available.”
Yvonne Strahovski, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
“She’s so evil but she has humanity. She’s so scarred and she’s so sad and bitter and she has so many real human emotions that follow her around, that haunt her.... I find that to be the most challenging but also the most exciting part of my job.”
Antoinette Robertson, “Dear White People”
“I wanted to approach [my character] from the standpoint that women can be both ambitious and assertive and that does not equate to them being a bitch. In a world that tries to tell women what to do, be, say, act, wear, having a woman who is competent in her abilities and assertive in what she wants to pursue in life, coupled with the fact that she’s human and she’s experiencing things that may or may not hurt her, it doesn’t make her weak to show her vulnerability. Vulnerability is a source of strength, in my opinion. Having those elements makes her more multidimensional.”
Melissa Errico, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever”
“One of my great teachers, his name was Harold Guskin, and he taught Julie Andrews, [was] Kyra Sedgwick’s teacher, Glenn Close, James Gandolfini. He was our private coach. He wrote a wonderful book called ‘How to Stop Acting,’ and it has a lot to do with knowing at what point all your preparation needs to go aside. You have to breathe and listen to the other person and let your reactions become absolutely natural and fresh. There are ways to disengage from all your plans, and you don’t bore yourself to death with the pattern that you’ve planned.”
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