Learn The Lines

“I would walk the streets of Manhattan, bellowing out the monologues as I rambled. I’d do it by the factories, at the edges of town, where no one was around. What else was I going to do? Where could I emote? That’s what you do when you’re obsessed.” -Al Pacino, Sonny Boy, a memoir

“Actors always want to know how I come up with interesting and creative takes on characters, characters that aren’t like me as I appear in daily life and that aren’t like each other. It’s simple: I let the lines and images connect with my imagination. I don’t worry about consistency; I let myself respond moment by moment, piecemeal, to the character’s dialogue and actions. Then I let my responses take me wherever they go, making mistakes and discarding them until choices start repeating themselves on their own no matter how arbitrary they seem at first. Then I know I’m on to something. But I don’t try to put the character together. I leave it in pieces. The script and story put the character together so my moment by moment performance seems like a creative take on the whole character.” -Harold Guskin, book How To Stop Acting

For the actor…

One of the most difficult things about this profession is the difficulty in practicing your craft. Because it is such a highly collaborative medium, there is some truth in the fact that you need to get the job in order to practice doing the job. Or at the very least, you need other actors and audience. Not easy to assemble. (That’s why classes and training are vital.)

But one deliberate thing you can do, on your own, no matter what, is to just find monologues from great plays, memorize them (exactly as written), imagine yourself saying them, and then roam the streets speaking them out loud.

No doubt all that work that went into selecting, memorizing, imagining and speaking will keep you sharp. It’s also much of the same work you will need to do when you actually get the job. (Or better yet, create the job for yourself and others.)