Aaron Eckhart:
“Highlight the qualities that are similar to your character.”
Aaron Eckhart reveals two big acting secrets
(by Carmichael Phillips)
“The goal of acting is to make it personal.”
Aaron Eckhart has an impressive collection of film credits to his name, including The Dark Knight (2008), Olympus Has Fallen (2013), Sully (2016) and Midway (2019). As a working actor, over several decades, he also acquired some valuable lessons about the craft of acting.
Eckhart shared two big acting tips in a recent interview he did with BAFTRA Guru.
The first is that actors should never attempt to be someone else entirely, when playing a character. They should instead, according to Eckhart, find ways to connect themselves to the character.
“I think an actor should not worry about genre, not worry about trying to hit a mark or try to be somebody other than themselves.”
Eckhart continued:
“The goal of acting is to make it personal. Everything is personal. If you’re not like your character, you have to find that part of you that is, and you have to focus on that. It’s all about personalization.”
“You cannot be somebody else, but what you can do is highlight the qualities that are similar to your character.”
“You cannot be somebody else, but what you can do is highlight the qualities that are similar to your character.”
The second big tip Eckhart shared was the importance of interacting with the other actors the same way his character will interact with their character. According to Eckhart, you should build your off-screen relationships, with the other actors, for the benefit of assisting your on-screen relationships.
“If I’m working with a child and I’m playing his father, then, from the second I meet him, I am my character. But I don’t tell him that.”
“If I’m a villain, and this guy has to hate me, I’ll make him hate me.”
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