3 Underrated Actions Every Actor Should Explore

To Act = To Do

Actions are the bread and butter of acting. When we are exploring choices for our characters, more often than not we are making choices about what our character does and why they do it. 

The playwright defines the text and the actions that move the story forward, but what about the HOW? The actor decides how the character moves forward in achieving this goals in the story. Often times, choosing those actions is hard. 

Many actors use the different thesaurus books or “actioning” texts to come up with different choices for their characters. A lot times, these books have great words in them but because we are searching for the “right” word, or words that are clever - almost as if we are showing that we are “good actors” by choosing the hard words - we often choose words that aren’t really true to the character. To truly be effective, we have to choose actions that are honest and true to the character. 

For example - if you are playing a young kid, they are more likely to choose the word “run” than “flee” because their word use experience is smaller. They may not know the word flee. Your character cannot choose an action they don’t know how to do. Just because YOU know the word, doesn’t mean they do. 

Choosing the simpler word is often times the best answer any way. They are more than likely the most honest choice in the moment. Simple choices work for every character. 

In my experience, there are three words that actors like to shy away from because they seem too simple. Yet, choosing the simpler words can be really effective so why not explore these on your next piece. I  love these actions as they really dive deep into a character’s honest self: 

To Fight: Almost everything our characters do is a fight for something. The fight for control. The fight for power. The fight for love. The fight for success. The list goes on and on. What is your character fighting for in your piece? What does it mean for them to fight in that moment? It may not be a literal fight or even a verbal fight, but they are fighting none the less. 

To Say: This is really really simple. Yet, too often we never let our characters just say things. Not every single line needs the intensity of an action. We are taught “you have to do something, you can’t do nothing” - which is true. But, choosing does not require extremes. You can just say something. It can really be that simple. This is really important in those big important monologues - think “To Be or Not To Be.” We let the importance of the monologue or the song over power the intensity of the actions. Hamlet is not aware that what he is saying is crazy profound. He is just talking. He is rationalizing with himself. Some lines are important, yes. But does he know they are important when he’s saying them or is he just thinking out loud? Try just saying your text or your lyrics and see what it does. Less is always more. 

To Fear: It always seems to come back to this one in this blog, doesn’t it? What is your character fearing in this moment? How are they handling their fear? What are they doing because they are fearing this thing / person / idea? We do so many things in our daily lives because of fear. Let your character take it for a spin and see what happens.

I wanted to be brief in this post today to help convey the idea of the simplicity of these actions. Actioning does not need to be hard. It can be simple. It should be simple. Let yourself have permission to choose the easiest action. The path of least resistance is usually the one most traveled. If it seems like the easiest action to choose in this situation, it’s probably enough. You can always get more specific should your character require it. 

That’s it for this post.

You’re Awesome. Be Awesome. I’ll see you soon.

Best Wishes!

-Nate