Acting Techniques To Portray A Certain Character
“You know the circus performer who spins plates in the air you know, and he’ll spin six or seven plates in the air? Acting sometimes is kind of that guy spinning all those plates in the air… but in your head and in your body”. A quote from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman on acting. Hoffman describes the exact situation all actors face when performing on stage, or in film. The actor must concentrate on so much to portray a certain character. Actors must use a process to break down every part of the character, and the characters interactions with the other players in the script. Successful actors use their own modified versions of commonly taught processes.
The basic process Actors use is: finding the character's goal, the others/obstacles, tactics, and expectations. When the actor breaks all of this down they can then bring a character to life for audiences to enjoy.
The first part to finding the character in a script is looking for their goal. The characters goal is what they want to happen by the end of the movie, or play. The actor can become the character by pursuing the goal. To make the character more interesting the actor should not pick a goal that is passive and general. Examples of goals like this are “I want to make them understand” or “I want to be happy. ” these give the character nothing tangible to fight for. How are the other characters going to show they understand. Will they apologize? Will they admit fault? Actors need to find goals that end in a physical achievement these could be “I want to marry Juliet” or “I want my sons to be successful businessmen. ” When a character has something tangible to fight for it makes the actor pursue the goal harder. Fighting harder for a goal gives more substance to a play or movie. This will engage the audience better than if they were watching an actor pursue a passive or general goal. After finding a tangible goal the actor must find the other.
This step is finding the person (or persons) that the character engages with to achieve their goal. Whether the others are helping the character, who the character is fighting for, or the other character is the goal the actor is fighting for. There will always be others in the steps for acting because no goal can be achieved by the stand-alone character the actor is attempting to embody. Willy Loman cannot simply say “I want my sons to be successful businessmen, ” and have them move away, have families, and lead happy lives. In drama victories must be fought for with everything the character has. This gives acting more depth, and gives the audience the satisfaction of seeing the goal be achieved after all the hardship. The others in scripts are what make achieving goals difficult. That is why others and obstacles are put together is because the others are the obstacles the character must overcome. Even if the character uses another character to help them achieve their goal, they must get the character to help by pursuing a smaller goal to convince this character that they should help. The struggles to overcome obstacles, when they are other people, creates dynamics of acting. The actions an actor uses to pursue a goal will always be determined by the confrontations found with the other or obstacle that is in their way.
The next step an actor needs to take in order to become a character is the finding what tactics are used. This is what the character does in order to achieve their goal. This is what brings acting to life, and gives a more natural feel to viewers. It is what makes actors seem indistinguishable from the characters they portray, from an audience's point of view. To simplify this, “John” is trying to get “Will” to move out and find a stable career, this is indistinguishable to when Willy Loman is trying to get Biff to move out. The tactics used for this are the actors own. Tactics are pulled from the life experience of actors. There are only two types of tactics ones that threaten, and ones that induce. These two categories are almost like a spectrum, an actor can use extreme versions of these, or a broad middle range of the two. Good actors can use tactics fluidly and effectively from tactic to tactic as if it were real life. Beginning actors sometimes don’t realize that we use tactics in our everyday life fluidly and effectively, when they discover this it can help the actor achieve a much more natural feel. Tactics come from inflections in voice, body language, and movement. To find effective tactics actors must look into their past, and how they handled situations similar to the character. Actors must then draw from that moment in their life to produce realistic tactics used in that situation. Actors will work all their lives on expanding, and experiencing new things in life to expand on their tactical range.
The final step an actor needs in order to understand their character is finding the characters expectations. This step gives energy and excitement to the dramatic tone of a character pursuing their goals. It gives every dramatic action a character does deeper meaning, and excitement for the audience to see a character do outrageous acts expecting that to achieve their goal that way. Expectations should not be what a character “wants” something; people in the real world all have petty wants, which translated into a performance can create a bland and shallow performance which is not what audiences want to see. Audiences go to the movies or theatre to escape their reality, they want to see absurd things that make their lives feel less shallow and bland. The actor must find that the character should crave their goal, that if they do not get it could result in the worst possible situations. Characters who are excited about their eventual success. Characters who truly believe, deep in their hearts, that no matter what they can achieve the unachievable. The victory a character seeks is nothing ordinary; it is their prime goal in life, and the actor must reach for this. The actor must set the stakes at the highest. If the actor craves the characters goal, and looking on the opposite end, the actor must also realize everything the character could possibly lose if they are not able to achieve the goal. When actors play with the highest stakes that is when performing comes to life, and audiences crawl to the edge of their seat, biting their nails in anticipation to what could possibly happen next.
Acting is often scoffed at because it seems to be an easy task. Memorize lines. Change your voice. Wear a costume. Stand in front of people. Acting is nothing like this, and more accurately described by Hoffman as a plate spinner in your head and body. The actor must evaluate multiple aspects of the character to give them life and substance. Actors who do not dive deep into what the character's Goal, Others, Tactics, and Expectations will produce a shallow and one dimensional character. If actors choose to be shallow then they are disrespecting the audience, screenwriters, and playwrights. Actors need to give justice to these roles, and help audiences escape their reality through plays and movies by giving the author’s character depth, meaning, and truth. A life all characters deserve.
