An actor must have ready access to any emotion that his or her character may need to convey in a powerful, truthful manner. If there is emotional constriction in the actor, there will be emotional constriction in the character as well.
Acting Techniques - Emotional Accessibility
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The exciting thing about The Power Connection Process is that, once you have mastered the physical and vocal exercises, you will automatically have an incredibly expanded emotional accessibility.
Remember that, if you have a problem expressing an emotion, it is never because you don t know how. You may no longer use the excuse that, because an emotion is outside your actual life experience, it is inaccessible. Whether you are playing a serial killer or a saint, the emotional truth of that can be available to you.
You know how to produce every known emotion, every subtle nuance of feeling, no matter how far removed from you daily life it may seem to be.
As a child, you effortlessly went outside your own experience on a daily basis. Remember how easily you created new worlds from your imagination? Can you remember the emotional richness of that world?
I do. I used to play "Panther Girl" and hunt for panther meat. It was dangerous and I felt that danger as I ran from tree to tree, hiding from the big black cats.
You have access, by virtue of being human, to the core of all existing knowledge. I mean that literally. Anything that has been felt, ever, is available because everything experienced is also recorded.
This phenomenon is known in metaphysical circles as The Akashic Records, which some can liken to an impossibly vast library. The internet is a third-dimensional representation of the Akashic Records.
There are no limits to what you are capable of feeling. Your willingness to consider this possibility of unlimited knowledge starts a process whereby new knowledge will become available to you.
To begin to grow in your emotional accessibility for acting, try accessing a fresh viewpoint about anything at all; you may be surprised at the ideas that just seem to pop into your head. You may awaken in the middle of the night, as have many creative geniuses, to a completely new approach to a problem.
One reason many actors have a problem in expressing certain emotions is that there is an underlying, personal revulsion to that particular feeling, a fear of looking foolish or of being vulnerable. Regaining access to blocked emotions requires a safe atmosphere - this is one of the best reasons for attending a good acting class and the very best reason for walking out of one that makes you feel, in any way, emotionally unsupported. In a progressive class, an actor can work on specific problems without the pressure of performance.
The only way I ve found to clear an emotional block is by confronting the limitation and working through it. This requires courage and is one mark of a dedicated artist.
The Force of the Familiar
To free the emotions, you must dispose of any fear that removing your limitations will damage your work in some way by making you less interesting or intense. There is actually a theory that neurotics make the best actors. However, I find it more stimulating to watch a vibrantly healthy, balanced individual produce the intensity of a neurotic reality (or whatever the part may require) from their own creative instincts, rather than watching the deterioration of a soul for entertainment as I'm aware we have done in the past. There have been stars who were clearly neurotic and their intensity and obsessions were fascinating to us as audiences.
Anyway, back to the task at hand - releasing fears and moving beyond your personal comfort zone. Starting from zero (by letting your unconscious restrictions in body, voice, emotions and mind drop away) will force you to rely on true ability instead of simply manifesting your own neurosis. Oddly enough, the former may seem more difficult than just expressing inner angst or one aspect of your personality, but to be a true craftsperson, with unlimited flexibility and depth, it is worth the effort.
The difference between taking your own page to the stage or screen and starting as a blank slate for the character to be painted upon will be that of one artist, who paints only with red, compared to another who has access to every shade of every color.
Through doing the physical and verbal exercises,you have probably already identified the emotions that are less accessible to you. It is on those you should focus now. Here is the time for looking at personal memory and how it has shaped your perception of what it is acceptable to express.
EMOTIONAL ACCESSIBILITY ACTING EXERCISES:
a. EMOTIONAL RECALL As before, set aside time to be alone and undisturbed.Reach a state of receptive relaxation.
Look again, at the list of emotions or states:
This time, recall every event or experience you can, where each emotion was felt.
Review the circumstances and your reaction to the situation.
Notice, in your memory, how you dealt with what was going on.
Notice in particular any extenuating circumstances that might have changed the way you initially wanted to respond. For example, were you ready to confront a friend over a matter of conflict but, at the last moment decided not to, because of something your friend did or said? Were you told the way you should act, and did you accept it, even though your impulse was to act a different way?
This is not to say that you will never use your old programming in an acting role; to the contrary, your own idiosyncrasies and limitations provide excellent character development material.
However, if you can only function within your current restriction and oddities of character, it will severely limit the roles you may successfully undertake, whereas if you work to release limitations any physical, emotional or vocal tunnel vision in your personality, you are then free to envision totally different ways of responding while still being quite able to pull from old habits and ways of being, should the need arise.
For example, let s say that you become aware of a tendency within yourself to be suspicious of people, to withhold intimacy out of fear of being hurt. That would make you perfect for the role of a character in the same situation, because you could identify with the feelings. However, it would make it almost impossible for you to play someone who is extremely open to intimacy and who risks emotional vulnerability quite often.
This will no longer be a problem when you have mastered your limitations, since a thing learned is yours forever. You are not likely to forget the way you were; you will just choose to be open to new ways of being.
What is Personality Acting?
Personality acting which is when an actor basically plays themselves over and over in different parts, can be very successful in soap operas or sitcoms. Tony Danza made a great living for years, just being his lovable self and developing one of the best senses of comic timing I've ever seen.If you have a naturally strong personality, then acting from that place is a place to start but why stop there? I was very happy to finally see Tony branch out into drama, and present a new side to him that I had not seen in all those years on Taxi and Who's the Boss. (Please don't write and ask me what Taxi is, any of you young whippersnappers out there. In fact, if you want to see some fine ensemble acting, go find a copy of an old Taxi rerun. You'll learn something about comedic timing)
Another actor who, at least in my experience of him, who has always been more of a personality actor is Jack Nicholson. I may get crucified for saying this but the only time I really saw him break out of the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" energy was in "As Good as it Gets" with another great personality actor, Helen Hunt.
By comparison, the Meryl Streep who played Karen Silkwood would never be confused with the Meryl Streep who played Karen Blixen. These two Karen's walked, talked, reacted and even thought differently....that is to say, you could see them going through their thought process and their minds worked differently from one another.
Expand your range by moving, speaking and thinking differently with these exercises!
b. ALLOWING EMOTION
Next, decide on different responses to those past events and enlist the help of your body and voice to express them. This can be a very freeing exercise because it creates a sense of power through emotional flexibility. Try as many different reactions as you wish, being as outrageous as you wish! Have fun with it; throw coconut pie in your Mother s face or transform yourself into Genghis Khan to deal with your agent. Every emotion that you allow becomes accessible, to your work, and to the extent that you allow it.
To evaluate what you've learned from lesson four, journal the following:
Which emotions were hardest for you to connect into and which ones were easier?
Can you trace the ease or lack of ease in expressing specific emotions to situations in your past that may have shaped emotional response?
Acting Lesson Five - The Actor's Mind
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