What is the Real Meaning of Acting?
Famous actors give their definition of acting
(By AM Staff)
You’re an actor. You do acting work. But how would you define acting?
Surprisingly few actors could actually put what they do into words, if they were suddenly put on the spot and asked about it. Most, after briefly bumbling over their words, would come up with a definition that would make their acting teachers cringe.
Even the dictionaries don’t provide a clear description. One dictionary describes acting as:
“the art or occupation of performing in plays, movies, or television productions.”
They leave out the fact that actors also perform in commercials, voice overs and at live events.
Wikipedia describes it this way:
“Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character”
There is no one solid definition of the craft of acting. Everyone describes it differently, based on their own, unique perspective.
Here’s how some of your favorite actors describe it:
“A large part of acting is just pretending. You get to work with these other great make-believers, all making believe as hard as they can.”
(Jeff Bridges)
“Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.”
(Meryl Streep)
“I think the word ‘acting’ is a bad word for what we do. If we’re doing it correctly, we are ‘being’. And that, I think, is the single hardest thing for any person to do.”
(Dennis Haysbert)
“Acting is not pretending. Acting is becoming. It’s surrendering to the spirit of whatever that character is.”
(Bill Duke)
“In all cases, acting is listening.”
(Eric Roberts)
“Acting is, for the most part, creating a world and believing that world that you create, and being committed to the world that you create. It’s all from what I imagine, all from what I’ve drawn from my own life.
(Danny Glover)
“I call acting, ‘3-D Anthropology’ or archeology”. Actors are out there, digging away in the mineshaft of the collective emotions of human beings. And the actors sort of have to bring back their findings and put them in the glass case of a motion picture.”
(Tom Hiddleston)
“The foundation of good acting, I think, is good reacting. That’s where it starts.”
(Viggo Mortensen)
“Acting is reacting. You can’t react if you’re not paying attention, if you’re not listening.”
(Reid Scott)
“Acting is about exposing. It’s about taking off the mask.”
(Viola Davis)
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