Is Acting Talent Inborn or Learned? What Should Do If Not?

A Big Dilemma for Beginners

Can  An Actor's Creativity and Talent Be Taught or Is It Inborn?

 

Beliefs

Good acting comes naturally and it's "inborn"
No, not necessarily. Good acting can be learned

I think, like with any talent that one has to have a certain amount of natural ability towards such in order to be good at whatever event you wish to pursue.

Examples:

Hollywood

Imagine Al Pachino as the leading scorer of NBA game, and Micheal Jordan as an actor.
Each was great within their own field of expertise through a seemingly natural endowed gift towards that particular talent, hence, it's technically both.

Bollywood  India

• Watch great TV live incredible shows of Indian Idol of singers, Jhalak Dikh La Ja of dancers and The Voice Kids of singers. It's both, inborn talent and the result of most rigorous training and practice.
• Watch classics of Bollywood oldies like Dilip Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Meen Kumari, Nargis who never took any training and then the group of contemporary star actors like Khans, Akshay Kumar, who had both talent and training

However, I strongly believe, acting can be learned. Sure, there are actors with inborn talent but acting can't be satisfactory until you feel it and to feel it you have to practice it.

My personal formula for the best way To be a good actor 

Is to practice acting by

1. Just lie: lie a lot . make stories that don't exist and make everyone believe in your stories. That will help you to improvise scenes and with your character.

2. Observation: Observe people with varied attitudes and practice copying their physical movements, voice, reactions and emotions. For this visit regularly, public places like bus stops or railway stations, market, museums, zoo etc and spend time watching

3. Imagine and Dream: A. Develop power of imagination by creating new stories on what you have observed like backstory or new stories on shapes, emotions, actions, family, happenings etc.B. Write 10 words (any) on a paper. Close your eyes and put your finger on any one. Now, create a story related to that word and then play that story in front of a mirror or in front of friends (play this game with your family or friends)

4. Magic "If": The easiest and most effective technique to learn acting is called magic "If". In simple term, it's imagining "If I'm so and so (The character) in this given situation in a scene". Read, learn and practice it daily. It's almost forty years since I first put my first steps on the stage to perform as an actor and I still practice, of course, now for camera  magic "If" in free time.

Finally: Then go on learning on your own and practicing it till you die

I remember the comments of 2 top acting coach whom I met during my long coaching career.

"Acting is a talent and skill that cannot be taught – only nurtured and developed” 

“Some actors will always be crap, no matter how much training they get".

Talent is inborn, skill is acquired. If you really want to fly high because of talent alone, try to analyze and mingle with 2 categories of actors and learn-

A. Only talented and
B. Well-trained actors with passion

So what’s the final verdict then?

The truth is that – based on numerous survey and findings – some individuals really are born more creative than others. The rest of us will have to continue nurturing and developing our creative minds in hopes that we’ll get to the level of those gifted people.

But hey, we’re artists nonetheless and it will be hard to push any artist, whether“talented” or not into trusting only "opinions" behind being an actor over our passion and determination.