Acting is one unknown moment followed by a new unknown moment. If you can predict it or know it,

it's not the moment, it's your mind.

 

Most actors, at some point, are taught script analysis which, by its nature, leaves the actor outside of their instincts, emotions and talent. Instead it leads the actor to the barren land of ideas. I say barren because ideas are without life. It's why I often say the head is dead.  

 

Over the years I've seen actors with more words/ideas on the margins of a script than what's written on the page. The actor is now under great pressure and obligation to bring these ideas, which have nothing to do with what will be happening in the moment, to life. I recently heard Joaquin Phoenix say his ideas never work. I concur. I've never had an idea, no matter how excited I was about it, work. I've also never seen any ideas, my acting students have brought into class, work.  

 

​Ironically, what also gets in the way of actors, aside from ideas, is technique. Many actors hold onto their technique for dear life and in the process lose the life of the moment. The moment becomes sacrificed in the name of technique. How can you possibly know what's going to happen until it happens? Clearly, you can't. It's why it's called being in the moment! 

 

Then, what's the solution? You have to have a way of NOT "acting" and a way of NOT "knowing."

This is where great actors are born and this is what my art of NOT acting class is all about. 

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"The moment informs and forms you."

Robert Colt

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