How An Actor Can Transform Into A Convincing Character

How to develop Mind and Body for a convincing performance

How To Boost Body And Mind For A Convincing Acting Performance

The Beginning

What's an acting

It's a fine art of performing fictional roles in  plays, films, or television.

Who performs?  

A person who portrays a character in a performance. The person is called as an "Actor"

How?

By using his/her power of imagination and living truthfully as an imaginary person and circumstances

What are an actor's tools? 

 Body and Mind

How to use and develop further these tools for a convincing performance as an actor?

The fact:

We all are a common individual and trying to be a good actor hopefully, as per its definition above.

The dilemma 

• We as an individual has a profile, an essence or an *archetype which either is inherited at the birth  or developed as a habit and we display this without being aware of it. This gives each one of us a distinct label of Mr./Ms. "X personility with Y attitude and Z emotions". 
• If we want to be a good actor, this personality of our's will always be the greatest hurdle in creating a new real character and then 'living truthfully as this imaginary person' .  The harder an actor tries to be convincible as a character, more difficult it beomes for viewers to accept him/her as real
• How can you re-fill a glass when its already filled? It will get spilled. Or, how can you write new on a paper or a slate aleady full?  You jst can't. The solution is, empty the glass first, or clean the  paper or slate first. 

So, what an actor should do? 

The Solution

1. Observe yourself keenly- everything you do, your mannerism, how you behace in the diffent life situation and note down
2. Learn how to neutralze yourself with mental exercises. Then kick out "You" making yourself a 'blank' to allow a new character substitute  you. This can be achieved by practicing at least for an hour daily- weird movements, gestures, speech, posture, voice changing all those things whch has created a 'self' in you
3. Apart form learning Sanfords Meisner's acting technique, I strongly reommend to learn Michael Chekhov's acting technique (Join us to learn)

How an actor can develop body and mind?

Developing Body

Starting from the head

• Speak any one liner dialog using eyebrows left, right and then both to express a particular emotion
• Use eyes differently making them large and popping out, narrowing, single eye closure, squent, curious etc
• Make different faces
• Move neck in the different directions while speaking
• Different positions of shouldrs while talking and walking
• Different posture and walking in the different styles
• Creating new mannerisms of hand and legs
• For each of the above there are exercises or you can create your own and start practicg at home

Developing Mind

• The most important single factor for an actor's success is 'A well developed power of quick imagination' to transform him/herself into any character or into a situation
• The power of 'Observation and 'Fucus'  is the second essential factor to learn for a creative actor to give a credible performance
• Make a time table to visit places like garden, bus stops, local markets, museums,zoo, nature to observe and. watch keenly what you see. 
• Note down details and then dream stories on these observed people and things
• Be a dreamer which will definitely help you to practice and develop above mentioned essentials. Read fiction, stories, children books, drama, comedy, action and,  conflict. While reading start imagining as you read
• Transform people, animals,  things in nature, objects into something else and create may be a weird story and dream yourself as one of the characters in that story

(Appology: There are many exercises to develop the above traits. To give the details of each one of those is beyond the scope of this post) 

*Archetype: An inherited display of an  idea, pattern of thought, behavior, etc., universally present in individual's soul, spirit, or mind