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March 11, 2006:    When does an actor stop acting?

Have you ever talked to an actor? I refer to an actor with some experience. The sort of person whose face is a façade. I have seen those who act and direct show snobbery, spin on a dime and convince you they are your best friend. I don't believe them, of course, but many might. It is a wonder, isn't it? An actor does not stop acting anymore than a lawyer stops "lawyering." Actors, like some lawyers, lie for a living. I often imagine lying for a living. I often puzzle over actors, wondering, "Where is your real life?" or "Do you have a real life?" HOW does this work in REAL life for you? Does it work at all?

Should any reader act, please clarify for me and for others when the acting stops and the person you are begins.

I see through an actor. I always have. This is disturbing because unless an actor is superb at their job, I am disappointed in what I am watching that includes acting. Very few actors can BECOME the role they are portraying, and I have been told that those actors often have difficulty getting OUT of character. Isn't that confusing?

Have you ever met an actor who you can see through? Face to face, as they are as sincere as your Aunt May, when you are thinking, "B.S!" I have. I find it irritating beyond belief. Do they know we see through them? I think they do, or the smart ones do.

I have done business with actors, of course. I never let on that I know they are acting when talking seriously to me, supposedly sincere. I listen; I "ride the wave," of the performance and even play my part, as if I am reading lines with them. Because I work closely with character, I often fall into the performance as I speak to them, but only for the time that I am with them. If they even get up from the table for a cup of coffee, I snap back into reality. Once I snap back into reality I am so very sad. I am sad because there was a wasted performance, and my time was wasted, as was the actor's.

An actor who is "found out," is usually one mad individual! They are fuming, in my experience, when they realize you just let them perform and never believed a word they said. I wonder, "Why is that?

Do they feel they have failed? It is US whom they tried to B.S.! Why get angry with us? I have even had them SCREAM at me when I didn't take the bait! I am talking about REAL screaming here, not shouting.

My grandfather told me a few things to remember. One was not to lie because you must lie again to cover that lie and lie again to cover that lie, etc. True enough. He also told me that much time could be wasted in life if one moves around the truth. He explained that one would repeat mistakes and repeat mistakes until one faces situations head on and deals with them. I understood him to mean that if one could not solve a problem one way, try another, don't repeat what didn't work the last time.

If we do this, we do two things: We move past the situation and on to what is next to learn and deal with and we don't waste time or get bored by repeating mistakes. I tell you this because I find that some actors come back to give us another show! I have seen them return with another angle, another way of approaching the SAME point in the same character! (If they were to switch characters, we might think they are multiple personalities, right?)

This is where things get very sad for me. The failed actor is now furious. Instead of backing up and trying to be themselves, and using truth, they are out of ideas. They have failed at some old exercise they did in acting school and they think they received an F. This is where they don't want to see us, those who were not fooled by the show they treated us to twice, not once.

I fail to see how one can live life this way, but many do. I'm sure everyone knows one or two bad actors. Have you noticed that actors have terrible personal lives? We don’t have to wonder why, do we? No, we know why, it is because they probably acted their way into the relationship and sooner or later slipped out of character. What is the answer? I don't know. For me, there is only one answer: Don’t go back for a third performance.

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