It's so simple, yet so complicated!! Trying to explain an emotional process is akin to an enforced, conscious definition of what happens to you internally when the hair on the back of your neck stands up - or you get goose bumps - or your heart starts to race.
In my last post, I talked about how learning to drive a car moves from conscious application to muscle memory - and I blithely remarked that the actor needs to do the same thing with lines and emotional connection. You learn the lines, make emotional associations and voila!!
What I forgot to mention was that the actor is dealing with turning fantasy into reality - while the perspective automobile wrangler is dealing with reality all the way. The actor, on the other hand, has to move through the "unreal" scenario of the script in a completely natural state. So before lines and emotions become part of muscle memory, you, dear actor, have to be comfortable in the skin of the character and the environment in which that character lives.
We are talking about the use of imagination to move you from your reality to the living, vibrant reality of the script. And it's the quality of imagination that distinguishes between run of the mill acting and great work. The gifted actor (think Meryl Streep) morphs. She becomes. If you watch "Doubt" and "Julie and Julia" back to back, you can't help but be astonished at the astonishing transformation Streep goes through and how different the two characters are.
But I'll betcha dollars to doughnuts - Ms Streep knows all about associating lines with emotion and letting them become part of her own, personal flesh and bone. I will likely keep relecting on these reflections in upcoming posts!
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