Pretend you’re someone else

David Tennant’s Hamlet delivers the most mis-quoted line in Shakespeare

 

Acting is a form of communication – and a really important one, because we have to show the best and worst of humanity in the most honest way possible.

My top tips:

1. Let background info you have on the character drive the way you play them, and your performance will seem a million times more convincing. Make it your mission to know your character inside and out.

2. Emotion is what makes an actor. Draw from your own experience to find real emotions. Think about something happy when you have to play happiness, and so on.

3. Don’t think of it as pretending! You need to, on some level, “be” that character. We have much greater range than we think, but sometimes we have to dig deep for it.

4. Finally, however badly you want that part, know where to draw the line! Who can forget Joey from Friends acting on a full bladder…

I’ll be writing more about the specific acting challenges of theatre and film in the next few weeks.