Think of Renée Zellweger’s scrunched-up mouth, Kristen Stewart biting her lip, Jack Nicholson’s slow drawl, Samuel L. Jackson’s flurry of F-bombs, Zooey Deschanel’s doe-eyed glances, or Marlon Brando’s mumble. These mannerisms help flesh out these actors’ characters, making them feel real. But knowing when to allow your natural habits to shine and when to rein them in as an actor can be confusing—so we put together this guide to help you on your mannerism journey.
These are a person’s natural little tics—what they habitually do with their eyes, facial features, voices, and hands. Types of mannerisms include:
- Physical, such as Casey Gardner (Brigette Lundy-Paine) anxiously biting her nails on “Atypical.”
- Vocal, such as Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) repeating “alright, alright, alright” in “Dazed and Confused.”
- Personality, such as the curmudgeonly affect of Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) in “The Holdovers.”
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They can help you land roles. Mannerisms that you schlep from role to role can become part of your overall brand as an actor, making you more marketable to CDs and directors. For example, Reese Witherspoon’s wholesome smile became a large part of her girl-next-door appeal in her early career, allowing her to land roles like Annette in “Cruel Intentions,” Elle in “Legally Blonde,” and Melanie in “Sweet Home Alabama.”
They could also cause you to lose roles. Not all mannerisms are charming, though. Some viewers may bristle at Bruce Willis’ smirk or Bill Murray’s mock-innocent grin. It can be distracting when actors overdo physicality in theater by doing things like tossing their hair, slapping their hands on the table to emphasize a point, or smiling toothily for no reason. Sometimes your natural mannerisms work for the character you’re playing, and sometimes they don’t. The key is to be aware of your natural quirks so that you can allow them to become character mannerisms—or not.
They help define your type. Your actor type is influenced by elements including physicality and personality traits. Knowing your mannerisms allow you to play to your strengths and know how to go against type when necessary.
How To Find Your Type as an Actor 1. Study the greats. Do you remember how Jack Lemmon did that stiff thing with his neck, as though choking in a too-tight collar? Or notice how Dustin Hoffman sometimes moves his lips hesitantly, seemingly mouthing the words before he speaks? Studying performers like these can help you figure out your own key mannerisms. For example, Richard Harder (“Possession,” “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”) recalled that he started his own career by copying everything Al Pacino did, including the particular way Pacino “looks away to consider for a moment, then looks back.”
2. Explore your natural behaviors. Consider your own behaviors and what kinds of characters they might fit. If you’re always drumming your fingers impatiently, you might find that high-powered executive roles fit you best. Known for your seductive wink? Consider taking on the femme fatale.
The late actor Jeri Lynn Cohen (“Nash Bridges,” “Somebody Is Waiting”) said she was very much aware of her mannerisms, which included preceding a line with a little intake of breath and demurely touching her throat or chest. Critic Steven Winn wrote that these mannerisms became Cohen’s “distinctive watermark” as a performer.
Tony Amendola (“Stargate SG-1,” “Annabelle,” “Once Upon a Time”) said that early in your career, you’ll want to bring yourself fully to every role, baggage included, to find out who you are and what you’re about. Later on, you can divest yourself of your mannerisms little by little.
3. Learn what to leave out. When Amendola was a young actor in summer stock, his director got so fed up with the way he’d over-gesticulate that he told Amendola, “I just chopped off that character’s arm.” Amendola ended up playing the role as a one-armed man, for no apparent reason. Harder said he’s also aware of using his hands too much and takes that into consideration when performing.
4. Ask for feedback. It can be difficult assessing your own mannerisms, so try asking a director or teacher for feedback. Cohen said she wasn’t aware of some of her mannerisms until someone pointed them out, and fell back on them when she wasn’t sure what she was doing. “When I’m clear how to get from a to b to c, I don’t do [those things],” she explained.
Amendola suggested tackling the problem with directors you’ve worked with over a period of time. “It’s easier to do that in theater than on TV,” he added. “With TV, every time you take a break, it costs money. In theater, a director can say, ‘Just for today, take a deeper look inside, don’t worry if I can’t hear you; try to find a different walk.’”
5. Make specific choices. Mannerisms should be considered a red flag to warn you that you haven’t made specific enough choices. “When I don’t know what I’m doing, I become very loud,” said stage actor Tamar Fortgang. “Because it’s not a specific choice, there’s often anger attached to it that’s forced.… Also, early in rehearsal, before I know what I’m doing, I cover my face with my hands. It’s an insecurity thing, a way of hiding.”
6. Play from different centers. One of the ways Fortgang avoids mannerisms is by playing from different centers of the body when she’s creating a character. For example, when playing Kate in “The Taming of the Shrew,” she initially placed Kate’s center in her head, then later, when Kate finds love, placed her center in her heart. The changing centers naturally changed her body.
7. Consider mannerisms as guideposts. Fortgang said she’s also aware of a sort of default vocal inflection; even when she’s playing a Tennessee Williams southern belle, her character can articulate with a slight Yiddish lilt. When that’s pointed out to her, she realizes she has to go back and figure out exactly what she’s doing in a scene. She advised that instead of hitting yourself over the head because of your mannerisms, you should simply see them as guideposts pointing you toward the work still needed to discover what you’re doing in the moment. “Once you solve that, your mannerisms, ideally, will be softened or gone,” she theorized.
8. Be wary of overcompensation. Acting coach Ivana Chubbuck described how mannerisms tend to emerge most fully in high-stakes situations. Character quirks while flirting might include twirling hair, touching the upper chest area, and shifting weight from foot to foot. In anger, hands fly. In fear, hands might come up to cover the face, or a character might freeze, or become manic. When there’s not enough work going on inside your heart and mind as an actor, Chubbuck said, you overcompensate—you put something in there through movement because you’re trying to make up for feeling that you’re not doing enough.
9. Do the work. As personal to you as they may be, mannerisms can also create the uniqueness of a character. However, these mannerisms need to be driven by your inner work. That way, Chubbuck explained, they can emerge in a natural and revelatory way. She reiterated that this can only happen if you do the work. Otherwise, mannerisms can be a form of hiding behind the character rather than allowing your fullest self to merge with the character. “Shuffling your feet, slapping the air with your hands, sighing—these things indicate you haven’t done the work you needed to do,” she said. “A lot of actors don’t make choices, period, so uncomfortable, self-conscious mannerisms come forward. In real life, we’re a series of quirky, interesting mannerisms that we’ve created from role models, and from trying to survive in the world. These mannerisms protect us and allow us to pursue life in its most grand way.”
10. Keep self-assessing. Chubbuck thinks that through training you’ll become aware of when your mannerisms are covering up general acting, as opposed to when they’ve arisen from your careful preparation. When filming, in the five minutes between takes you should be able to assess your own work. “Dailies should be unimportant,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to see yourself.” She added, “I believe in the flourishing of good mannerisms.”
Fortgang feels that personal mannerisms can block impulses or flow of organic emotion. “It’s amazing how the defense system comes up, and you go back to what’s familiar,” she said. “It’s so vulnerable to be onstage.”
“You can never really get rid of yourself,” Amendola concluded. “Yet you have to whittle away at yourself. And like a woodcarver, rather than throwing out all the stuff you’ve whittled away at the end of the day, you keep it because you might need it for something else.”
