The Actor Uncovered by Michael Howard

Author:Michael Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE BODY-BRAIN

When the actor is most concentrated, working most truthfully (enriched by his understanding of the psychology of the character and by his own choices), the body is most apt to respond on its own, to encourage, to insist, and to push the actor to risk. If we’re truthful and we’re present, our body speaks, sometimes amplifying, and sometimes in opposition to, what is written. These physical responses can reveal interesting information about what is happening to the character.

There is another dimension to body response. Humans have a mysterious way of getting information that is absolute and which arrives with a certainty that cannot be denied and which usually demands action. It does not come from what we understand as the conscious brain. “I don’t know what it was, but I just felt uncomfortable,” or “I don’t have a reason, but I don’t trust him,” or “Something told me …” or “I have a gut feeling.” And the best: “I just felt happy and I don’t know why.” There are many instances in which our responses, our sensibility, arrive powerfully from somewhere within us other than our thinking-brain. We might even insist that we have a “sixth sense” about somebody or something. It is not our conscious evaluating process that creates the response. Perhaps the best example is falling in love at first sight—when the body, not the mind, leads the way.

Children are marvelously attuned to unreasoned body responses. They rely on and respond to sudden physical feelings—about food, about people, about noise, about music. Ask a child, “Why don’t you like him, dear? He’s your uncle,” and you will not get a logical response. I have been rewarded while reading the newspaper by a five-year-old son, who, for no discernible reason, rushed over and kissed me. There were things that that child’s body needed to express, and he had no filter that prevented him from behaving.

What is important for the actor is that he bring to his work a body with all the doors unlatched and all the windows open so that he can catch every wisp of what comes from the body-brain as well as what comes from the thinking-brain.

When actors try to explain their spontaneous behavior, the tendency is to sanitize, to make their responses less animal, less raw. By sanitizing, they remove from the given situation the most basic, personally connected, and—more important—behavior-producing action.

In a rehearsal, the body, like a child’s body, should be allowed to lead the actor beyond what has been decided ahead of time. Rather than trying to articulate the reasons for our surprising reactions, it is better to explore the body for the response: lean farther in, lean back, shrink farther away, or confront aggressively. Get up and dance because you are given good news—the body will be grateful. If the body response is positive, be willing in the rehearsal to kiss your partner for no discernible script reason, or just hug him. Such exploration, of course, should not include uncivil behavior toward the other actor.

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