Create an emotion - then hide it

Today’s Words of Wisdom are: Create an emotion – then hide it. This paradoxical point is very much for screen acting. You see, most of us, most of the time, hide our emotions, particularly the negative ones. However we’re feeling inside, we try to retain our self control. How often do we hear people say ‘Yes, I’m fine’ when we know they are far from fine? So we hide our emotions, but we’re also very good at reading the emotions that people are hiding. So, the thing to do is to create a very strong inner feeling of the emotion that you want to convey – and then hide it. The all-seeing eye of the close-up camera will spot what is happening and it will appear realistic because you are hiding a negative emotion, just as people do in real life. You are avoiding the danger of over expressing the emotion in an unrealistic way. Going ‘over the top’ happens when insufficient motivation meets excessive performance: it is to be avoided at all costs. What counts in a performance is the degree of the emotion, not how intensely it’s expressed.

On the stage it’s rather different. There, except in the most intimate of theatres, you have to project and apply a magnifying glass to what you do.

Know the better side of your face

The latest Words of Wisdom are: Know the better side of your face. If you look in a mirror and draw an imaginary line across your eyes and another one across your mouth, you will probably find that the two lines are not parallel. The side where the lines are further apart will normally be your better side. This side will usually be wider, as well, and more mobile and expressive. You will photograph better from this side and it’s the side to favour whenever you have the choice. If you find that your face is quite even and symmetrical (which probably means you are very beautiful or handsome, as we are instinctively attracted to such people) try clicking your tongue to make a sound like a horse galloping. It’s probable you can only do this on one side, your ‘good’ side.

More people are right faced than left faced. Left faced people are more likely to be male and it’s associated with being good at maths or music. It doesn’t seem to be linked to left- or right-handedness. Few people seem to know about this, though it’s important to know about for anyone who wants to make the best possible physical impression. So know the better side of your face.

Never give in

The Words of Wisdom this week are about persistence. One of the main reasons for businesses and other enterprises failing is the lack of persistence – giving in too easily. This is true of sport and the arts as well. As you continue in something you learn and improve, but it does take time. If you start out in life with an aim you may change that aim, or alter your strategy for achieving it. You may develop your tactics, but the important thing (and the one that happens to be my personal motto) is Never give in.

Never give in.

Use your head

The Words of Wisdom this week are Use your head. It’s quite impossible to speak without moving your head but most head movement is completely unconscious. Study people in life and on television. Notice how they all use their head movements to amplify what they are saying and the way they respond to other people’s speech. Observe how head movement may express assent, affirmation, negativity, doubt, explanation, recollection and all sorts of complexities of them and much more. See how head movements associate with gaze, facial expression, gesture and words. By becoming aware of all this you can harness a tool which you can use to make your own performances stronger and showing greater complexity. Use your head.

Remember that the greatest talent you can have is the talent for hard work.

The Words of Wisdom this week are Remember that the greatest talent you can have is the talent for hard work. Whatever abilities you are born or grow up with, they can be enormously enhanced by consistent, incremental, well directed, study and practice. And the converse is also true, talents not exercised and used will, in time decay. Use it or lose it. And you will find that hard work brings its own satisfaction.

Paddle in the Ocean of Truth

The Words of Wisdom this week are ‘Paddle in the Ocean of Truth.’ This is inspired by the great scientist Isaac Newton who, towards the end of his long life, said: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” There is no limitation on the subjects about which plays may be written, and actors need to know as much as they can about as many things as they can. Things such as literature, history, psychology, politics, styles, music, body language – I could go on, and on – read, study, observe and listen. Above all, work on that infinite subject, the variety of human nature. Theatre has the most enormous scope: it can amuse and entertain, but also reveal profound truths. Paddle in the Ocean of Truth.

Follow your bliss

And now for the Words of Wisdom: Follow your bliss. This phrase comes from the American write on mythology, Joseph Campbell. His best known book is ‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ and in it he expound his belief that all the myths of all the peoples of the world are aspects of one overarching myth – the Monomyth.
A search of Google and You Tube will reveal lots of interesting stuff about him and I recommend it. What he meant by ‘Follow Your Bliss’ is that when you find something that enables you to have peak experiences and enter the zone where you feel at one with all of nature then you have found something you should follow all your life. It doesn’t mean just indulging yourself, that soon ceases to be blissful: true bliss enables you to set aside your ego and its petty demands. So, whether it comes from acting, writing, making music, painting or athletics: follow your bliss!