Judging a scene as we see it.

We tend to judge scene work as we see life, not as the script gives us.  We always want to trust our instincts when reading a scene, but I think it is always helpful to take a step back and see what a different point of view could look like.

You have heard before that “life is not how it is, but life is how we see it”.  Like I have said in previous blogs, if we think life is hard, then we tend to have that point of view of life overall.

For example, I have a student of mine that is a working actor; but in the past, he had a belief that every guy that got the girl had to be a douche bag.  With that being said, anytime he would get a scene that the character got the girl, he would try to play the character as a douche bag.  He had to let go of that belief so he could start creating real human beings and not characters.  After he changed his belief, he also went from single to being in a happy relationship.

Safe and Comfortable

If I gave four different actors the exact scene, most of those actors are going to play that scene to what is safe and comfortable for them.   If one actor is comfortable with being loud and mean, he may lean that way.  If the other actor is comfortable with being quiet and subtle, he may find a way to play the same scene quiet and subtle.

My best advice is to take a look at your life and write down your beliefs about the world and people, write down the way you group people.  Do you think groups of people are all the same?  Are all cops bad, or is all of one race dirty, or all liars? Do you think that all women lie?  This lumping of people into groups is complete judgment.  Take a look at your past and figure out where these beliefs are coming from.

Remember that life is not how it is, but life is how we want to see it.  Try to go out into the world expecting love, peace, and community.  Find a reason to smile every morning.  If need be, spray paint it on your wall!  Ok, maybe just write it on a piece of paper and stick it on the wall right in front of you when you sit up in bed in the morning.  Either way, your happiness is no ones job but your own.