The impact Myth#4 has on your audition - “all I have to do is think the thought and the camera will pick it up”

If you are not one of the lucky people who have very little distortion between what you feel and what you reveal, you run the risk of not appearing authentic, genuine - or what we most often hear - real.

So often, working with actors on their auditions - not only beginning actors but those working as well - I find what’s missing in their work is the history connected to the situation that is taking place or the words they are speaking. When there is no history the words lack color and the face often remains blank.

How do we read someone’s history? It’s in their voice, sometimes body language, but often by what’s on their face.

Where does this history come from? Specific, ideas, opinions and/or judgements rooted in the character’s past.

Think about it - we reveal our history constantly in our daily life, often in the most subtle ways. My favorite example is if a friend were to ask you if you wanted to grab a bite to eat. When they mention the name of the restaurant they want to go to, your upper lip rises up towards your nose slightly or your nose wrinkles just a bit as you shake your head no...

We do this constantly. Try it, just lift your upper lip up towards your nose or wrinkle your nose slightly and shake your head “no” and see if it doesn’t feel familiar.

Not only would your friend instantly know that you didn’t want to go to that particular restaurant, but you had a specific dislike or distaste for it. Even if you didn’t shake your head no, they would still know how you felt. How?

Because those two muscle groups you produced are distinct to the disgust family. That reaction would never occur if you just didn’t have a strong enough opinion about the restaurant, the staff working there, or the kind of food they serve. Something from the past created that opinion and it’s now registering on your face.

What I tell my actors, “your reactions are your thoughts manifested on your face.”

Understanding how you reveal your own history is the first step in understanding how a character reveals their’s.

Myth #3 How Does Myth #3 Affect Your Audition?

In life, you have very little say when it comes to what you feel, how much you feel and what you reveal. This all happens pretty much without your awareness. You don’t have to think about it. If you unexpectedly sit on a tack, the first emotion you will more than likely experience is surprise. The pain you experience might trigger some anger. Or if a dog starts growling at you, bearing his fangs, you don’t have to decide how you feel. According to research, when an emotion is triggered, emotional facial expressions happen without your consent. The most you can do when these emotions are provoked is attempt to manage or distort them.

So with this research in mind, if you create it truthfully, honestly, organically it should be revealed on your face appropriately. The problem is, in the audition there is no real tack for you to sit on or dog threatening to attack you. There’s just you, some sides and the casting director. You have to create all this through your own imagination. Without much feedback, you begin to question, how surprised or angry am I about the tack? How frightened am I about the dog? Is it reading? Is it enough?

Just because you create an emotion doesn’t guarantee the proper reveal. In real life, we have no say about what is coming at us, as actors we are creating the stimuli and have the power to turn it off. If you are an introvert when it comes to expression, you might create the emotion but reveal very little. If you are an extrovert you may over express it. You might distort the emotion. If you don’t know about the nature of emotions, you may even miss the signs in the scene that trigger the emotion. If you don’t know what muscle groups are involved with the emotion you are creating, you will be at a loss if they ask you to make it bigger or smaller.

The on-camera actor who has the ability to create and manage what his face reveals from its slightest hint of emotion to its strongest reveal, has a greatest chance of booking the job.

Myth #4: All I have to do is think the thought and the camera will pick it up.

Any qualified acting coach or teacher will tell you that you need thought. Thought is what motivates us to physical and verbal action.

What acting teachers and coaches often leave out is that a thought that is not connected to a strong enough idea or opinion will never register on your face. Think about it, you have many thoughts every day, most are not strong enough to change the appearance of your face, which is what others around you pick up. It's what the camera picks up. Even if you have a thought strong enough there is still no guarantee the camera will capture these thoughts based on things I’ve already talked about in earlier posts, such as, how you are wired to express (introverts vs. extroverts), display rules, etc.

What I tell my actors is this:
Thought not connected to a strong enough idea or opinion will often leave the face blank - void of any emotional expression. An emotional expression not connected to a thought is an acting lie.

The only way to secure successful recognizable transmission of thought is to understand the emotional connection you have to your opinions and/or ideas. This emotional connection is what the camera picks up as you think your thoughts. For example, the slight tension in the eyelids or ridge of the lips that may be produced by the hint of anger when someone mentions the name of the lover who dumped you. Or the raising of the upper lip in disgust as you watch a cruel parent mistreating their child. To understand the emotional connection you must understand emotions themselves, what triggers them and what they look and feel like on your face.

So, in answer to the statement, ‘All I have to do is think the thought and it will appear on my face’ Is it a myth or a fact? It's a little more complicated. It will happen if the thought is connected to a strong enough idea or opinion and you understand how to communicate these ideas or opinions through the subtleties of emotional facial expression. If you don’t know how to do this then it just won't happen...

My suggestion for all the actors who are trying to make that transition from
stage to on-camera work is to understand and identify these emotional subtleties. In doing so you will become a true storyteller, not only of action, but of thought.

Myth #3: "If I create truthfully, honestly, organically, it will appear on my face appropriately."

This statement has put me in a bit of controversy with some of my peers and at first in conflict with myself based on my own training. Like most actors, I was taught not to be concerned with the face. I was taught to listen to the other actor, focus on the circumstances, involve myself with an activity or the overall action and come from my own instincts. If I did this, what appeared on my face would be appropriate. So, if what you are experiencing doesn’t appear on your face in an appropriate way then all that is left to think is, you are doing something wrong. How frustrating is that?

At some point you (may) have to be concerned with what your face is revealing or choose not to work in front of the camera. You can, of course, always stay on the stage.

So, back to the statement, If I create it truthfully, honestly, organically it will appear on my face appropriately - Is it a myth or a fact?

It is a fact, if:
•the trigger is specific and strong enough to trigger the emotion in you
•if there are no distortions in what and how you express emotion
•if you understand the nature and the experience of the emotion you are creating, which refers to the impulses and the sensations that stem from that emotion
•if you have a keen awareness of what that emotion looks and feels like on your face, from its slightest hint to its strongest reveal

Unfortunately, this is a fact for only a small portion of the acting community and quite possibly the reason why such a small percentage of SAG actors are actually making a living from acting. So for the rest, to not understand the very thing that you are relying on to get you hired, it may be time to get concerned with what you face is communicating.