"Daniel Day Lewis"Academy What makes an Award Winning Face?

How fascinating to watch a master artist with the subtleties of emotion. Can you tell by this photo what he is feeling? If you say anger, you are in the ballpark.

Academy Award winner Daniel Day Lewis from the movie Lincoln

 There are 3 things going on with Daniel's face That are very telling about his emotional state. Can you tell what they are?

1. There's tension is the lower lids creating a more intense stare (anger family).

2. Jaw slightly jutting forward and Tension in the ridge of the upper lip (again anger family)

3.  Slight raising of the upper lip (levator labi superious) . In other words slight disgust.

If you look at my book cover below. The center photo in the bottom row, you see the slight disgust. You can tell this by the more intense fold on the side of my nose.
Combine these muscle groups together - the anger and disgust and you'll get scorned, which can appear when you feel you are being betrayed.

Let me hear your thoughts and comments. You can also check out my Fan Page as well faceboook.com/languageoftheface

To learn more about the Language of the Face, check out my website www.languageoftheface.com

If would like to come to one of my seminars "Understanding how your face communicates emotion". You can find out dates and times by going to http://languageoftheface.com/LOF/The_need_to_know.html

"Anne Hathaway" What makes an Academy Award Winning Face?

Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway Les Miserables

What's interesting about this photo is how Director Tom Hooper captured this moving moment. If you look at the actors surrounding Anne Hathaway you'll notice the fear on everyone's face. You can identify the fear by the widening of the eyes and how the brow is lifted and pulled together. It's pretty apparent.

On the other hand, if you look at Anne Hathaway's face, you see her managing it. There is only a slight pulling back of the corners of her mouth. Knowing how much emotion to reveal is critical to making the moment work or getting the job in the first place. It's also the difference between being the star and those who are supporting. Because of everyone else's fear being revealed and Hathaway managing it, her character comes across as strong.

If you get a moment, check out my video " Why as on-camera actors you need to know how YOUR face communicates emotion". 

To get dates and times of the next seminar, go to my website.
http://languageoftheface.com/LOF/The_need_to_know.html

What Makes an Academy Award Winning Face?

An Academy Award Winning Face always conveys the character's inner thoughts and feelings in a way that is recognizable to the audience. As an actor, there must not be any distortions between what you are feeling and what you are revealing. The first step is to be in EMOTIONAL ALIGNMENT!

Actors are in the emotional communication business. To communicate effectively, you must know how you personally reveal emotion. If there is a difference between what you feel and what your face is revealing, the communicates become unclear and booking is very difficult. The farther you are out of alignment, it becomes almost impossible. There are many reasons why many of us are not in alignment with what we feel and what we reveal. The 3 biggest reasons for this lack of alignment most people can identify with are one or a combination of the following:

1. How you are wired
2. The culture in which you were raised
3. Your family's own personal idiosyncrasies

Most actors don't realize that the biggest problem they have with non-verbal emotional communication is they are out of alignment. The worst part of this problem is that it doesn't go away. The reason for this is, you can’t change what you are not aware of. How you express right now feels appropriate to you. To communicate non-verbally you must be in alignment with what you feel and what you reveal.

To better understand and bring to light any distortions you may have, join me for my one-day Emotional Evaluation Intensive. To learn more, please click HERE to visit my website.

Part 2: 3 Devastating Myths of On-Camera Acting

Here's part 2 of the interview. In this clip I go over the 3 beliefs a lot of actors have about on-camera acting.

"It has taken me all these years to learn to do nothing on screen..."

Some experienced actors will make statements along the lines of, "It has taken me all these years to learn to do nothing on screen - I just think it."

Young actors, reading this, joyfully rush in to do the same and find to their horror that their performances don't exist, they are invisible. This is because the experienced actor now puts her thoughts onto her face without realizing it, and thinks she is doing nothing.

- Patrick Tucker's "Secrets of Screen Acting" 2nd edition