Motion picture acting (1947)

Page scan 00048 from Motion picture acting

Record Details:

Title:
Motion picture acting
Date:
1947
Publisher:
New York, Funk & Wagnalls Co
Volume:
Motion picture acting
Leaf #:
00048
Language:
English
Contributor:
Internet Archive
Sponsor:
Internet Archive
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Date Added:
July 19, 2022
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MOTION PICTURE ACTING Walk about your room from object to object, pick up something—a book or magazine—and ex- amine it, read a few lines, then put it down and move on to something else. Do this until you lose that stiff, self-conscious feeling. But do everything you do without the feeling that you are giving a performance. Make it mental — not mechanical. Start across the room and, with no apparent premeditation, imagine someone has called you. Stop in your tracks and turn back to the imaginary person. Let him catch you with the right foot just taking a step and then the left. It should not matter to you in the least which foot is in advance when the call comes. Don't make a "performance" out of it! Think and do it spontaneously. You wouldn't fumble around deciding which foot to use or how to turn if it actually happened, so why do it when you're acting? The trick is not to think of mechanics but of what the person wants. Learn to use your body gracefully, naturally, and form a habit of doing it all the time. Then you can forget it and think the part. Get out of your mind, "How am I doing?" and substitute, "What am I doing?" You are turning to answer someone who has addressed you, aren't you? Then turn with the sole thought of "What does 22