23. The Actor's Craft and Writing: How to Not Be Self-Indulgent

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:     

The first of several episodes exploring the craft of acting and showing the corollary between mistakes both actors and writers make. In this episode, the first three don'ts are laid out, which are:

1. Don't rush.
2. Don't be self-indulgent.
3. Don't anticipate.

UP NEXT

Next week, join us for more overlapping principles, including:

4. Don't Indicate
5. Don't be a Talking Head
6. Don't be a Dump Truck

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SPECIAL THANKS

The Mission with Zena Dell Lowe would like to thank composer Carla Patullo for the original music she graciously permits us to use in the intro and outro of this podcast. To find out more about this amazing talent, go to  www.carlapatullo.com

Transcript

Ep. 23 Transcript 

Wed, 11/4 8:35PM • 15:20

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

anticipate, actors, craft, writers, indulgent, acting, character, rush, story, lines, stage, corollary, scene, boring, setup, audience, felt, establish, writing, temptation

SPEAKERS

Zena Dell Lowe

Zena Dell Lowe  00:00

INTRO: Hello, and welcome to the Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story. 

Zena Dell Lowe  00:11

TOPIC INTRODUCTION: Last week, we started talking about the craft of acting, and some of the things that writers can glean from the craft of acting and apply to their own craft in order to improve their overall product. And today, we're going to continue that discussion. Now, here's what the interesting thing is. When I came up with this idea, what I was really trying to do was figure out when I read somebody's stuff, when I read something that somebody has given me, what are some of the problems that I typically see? What are some of the usual problems that, for lack of a better word, make it painful for me to read their story? And as I contemplated this, what I realized is that every single thing that I identified had a corollary in the craft of acting. And that's how I realized, boy, if writers understood certain aspects of the craft of acting, and could think about their own writing in terms of that, it might actually help them become better writers. 

Zena Dell Lowe  01:14

I'm hoping that the writers will be able to apply something that they learn here in one of two ways. One is by drawing comparisons. If this is the thing that actors shouldn't do, then this is how it applies in the realm of writing. The other possible way to apply it is to increase your understanding of the acting process. And then, you're thinking through your own writing, infusing your story with those things that ultimately help actors on the other side of it. Now, I know that might be a little hard to wrap your brain around if you're writing a novel, because you're not thinking in terms of it ultimately being performed on stage or in a film or a music video or what have you. Nevertheless, most of us, when we are reading a novel, no matter what kind of a novel we're reading, we are picturing it in our head, kind of like a movie. It makes sense, then, for you, as you're writing your own novel or story in whatever format you are, to try to picture it kind of like a movie. And I think when you do that, then you'll automatically see characters in your head and you'll automatically start thinking more visually, which is ultimately the end result of many of the points I'm about to make. It's all about learning to think more visually. It's all about communicating more effectively in a visual sense. And I believe it's what takes your writing to the next level. So, here's how it's gonna work. 

Zena Dell Lowe  02:49

PRESENTATION: First of all, I have made a list of 12 things that actors should not do if they want to become experts at their own craft. So, if you're an actor, these "don'ts" will be useful to you. You'll learn something about the craft of acting simply by what we talk about here. But in addition to applying these things to actors, the 12 "don'ts" that actors should not do, I'm also applying them to writers. I'm trying to find the corollary that connects the two disciplines so that you, if you're a writer, can see how this would work for you. Now, you should also know that we're not actually going to get through all 12 of these today. It's going to take a little bit, and I want to really take my time to unpack these, because I think they're super important for your craft. It's a paradigm shift in terms of how you see your craft that is practical, that is immediately applicable, and that makes things come to life in a way that perhaps they never have for you before. So, let's get started. 

Zena Dell Lowe  03:49

Here's number one: don't rush. So, here's something that happens almost inevitably, certainly when you have somebody new to the craft of acting. But it's something that happens even to people that have been in the game for a while. And it's this tendency, this temptation to want to rush things on stage or in a scene, or if you're in a movie or whatever. It's a tendency to rush. And as I was thinking about this, what I realized is, I think it happens because actors get self conscious when they're on stage, even if they've been on stage 1000 times. And they kind of think they're boring. They're afraid that whatever they're doing is boring, and they want to hurry up and get to the good stuff. They feel like, you know what the good stuff is? It's the lines that the writer gave them. So, they rush their behavior and they hurry to what they think is the good stuff. Unfortunately, they miss all the gems, because again, I think they're afraid that they're boring.

Zena Dell Lowe  04:57

And so here's a couple of things that we need to know The first is, human behavior is not boring. In fact, that's what story is about. We are fascinated by behavior. If we can see people doing what they would normally be doing, they're actually very interesting. This is true for any creature on earth. Why do you think we watch so many nature documentary shows? Why do you think we watch documentaries about real people? Why do you think that we go to zoos, and sit there and watch an animal? And if they're sleeping, okay, it's boring if they're not doing anything, but the minute they start doing something that is normal for their behavior or for their species, we're riveted. We'll watch them all day long. Human behavior is interesting as long as it's authentic and true. So, the first rule of thumb for any actor when you're on stage is: don't rush it. Don't hurry. Take your time. Take your time to establish the setting, to establish the scene, to take in your environment. See, what happens is, if you're rushing and you enter the stage, you're not really seeing what's there and we know it. We know it, we're the audience. We know that you didn't really look over and see that thing that is ultimately supposed to shock you and scare you, or whatever. We know that you didn't even really see it or take it in. So, take your time. Take your time to reveal character relationships. If you're in a scene with somebody, a lot of the banter that goes on, a lot of that is solely for the purpose of establishing and revealing character relationships. And we want that. We like that. We're into that. It is interesting to us. We are not bored by that. Resist the temptation to believe that you are boring. It will be one of the best things you've ever done for your craft. When you're auditioning, take your time. Don't jump right into the lines. Take your time at the top of the scene to do whatever your character would do, to be in that moment, to be in that space. You take your time. And then, when you do start the lines of dialogue, don't feel like you have to rush back with a response. Now sometimes you need to jump right in and respond because that is what is true to the scene, but what I'm saying here is that you don't always have to respond, boom, right then. You need to have your character take in what they've heard. You need to have them get up and move around and scratch their head and pour themselves a drink. You need to have them turn over a chair because they're really, really mad, and you need to have them scream, and then they turn around and respond by their line. I don't know. I don't know what your character needs, but I know that you don't want to rush it. You want to make it true. 

Zena Dell Lowe  08:01

Now, the corollary for writers is basically the same. Take your time to really establish the scene, to really establish the relationships. One of the things that I read just last week is they had a scene in a coffee shop, and they introduced all the characters, boom boom boom, right in a row, not with particular actions. And then they had a few lines of dialogue that got to the setup of whatever referred to the plot. So, the only lines of dialogue that they had directly related to the plot elements of the overall story rather than allowing casual conversation that felt organic, that would naturally lead to those conversational elements. So, what happened is, it felt very rushed. It felt very forced. It felt very unnatural. So, you really want to take your time to reveal character relationships, to reveal all of those things, to let your conversation unfold organically and naturally, etc. Which is not to say that we want to be self-indulgent. 

Zena Dell Lowe  09:14

Which leads us to number two: don't be self-indulgent. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, it's not all about you. Sometimes actors make the opposite mistake. Instead of rushing, they take too much time, which slows down the rest of the story. So, even though you don't want to rush, you also don't want to make the mistake of thinking that your character is the only important part of that story. You are a part of the bigger picture. so you have to find the rhythm that fits with the bigger picture. Don't be self-indulgent. Acting is not a solo sport. It is something that you do with another character. So, you want to make sure that you're interacting with the other characters. I have had to act with people before who never even looked at me on stage, because they were just in their own head. They were only worried about themselves and what they were doing. But the problem is, that is self-indulgent just as an actor, because now you're not giving the other person anything to work with. When you're acting with another actor, you want to really give them something to work with. Don't be rude. I mean, it's the same in real life as it would be on stage. Somebody that's not giving you the time of day, it's very difficult to communicate with. And if it's supposed to be like some sort of romantic thing or something, but this person isn't even looking at you and talking to you, it makes it very difficult for you to conjure up the correct or appropriate emotions for that particular scene. So, don't be self-indulgent. Be present. Engage with your fellow actors. Be aware of them. 

Zena Dell Lowe  10:49

Now, for writers, you have to remember as a writer that there are other things going on. And what happens to writers a lot of times is, the only person that has anything going on at all is the main character, and everybody else becomes a prop for that character's purposes. But the other reason this sometimes happens is because writers start focusing too much on message. The minute you get into message, you become self-indulgent. It ceases to be about the story and it starts to be propaganda. It starts to be you thinking you're a preacher sent to save your audience. And that is the worst thing possible for an audience member. We do not want to be preached at. We didn't come there to be preached at. We want to understand human beings in the context of the story. And guess what? We'll learn things because of that, but the minute you get into trying to teach us something, we hate you. So, don't be self-indulgent. Avoid that temptation. 

Zena Dell Lowe  11:53

Okay, number three: don't anticipate. So, this is a big one for actors. It happens when actors are rushing and they are not truly in the moment. They are not truly taking the time to establish where they are, who they are, what they're doing. And that becomes a problem, because in those situations, they start to anticipate. What do I mean by "anticipate?" What I mean by that, is that no longer does it seem or feel like the characters are coming up with the lines in that moment. That's one of the best things you can do as an actor, is discover your lines in the moment, even though you know them, even though you've memorized them months ago. If you're in a stage play, you know those lines backwards and forwards. You have them memorized. But the key is to try to discover them each night in that moment, to not anticipate what it is you're about to say, to not anticipate the gig that's about to come, or to not anticipate the gun that's about to go off, but to make us believe that it just happened for the first time in that very moment, because you are so present. You're not looking ahead. You're not anticipating whatever is about to happen. Now, the same is true for writers, and we apply it in the same way. You do not want to anticipate whatever is about to happen. This comes down to the idea of setups in a lot of ways. You could almost argue that a setup is anticipating what's to come in the future. It's a way of preparing for that. But the best setups are barely noticeable. The best setups the audience misses as a setup, because it actually plays into the narrative in some way, so we don't see it coming. But see what happens is, if you do a bad setup, then guess who else is anticipating? Your audience, because now we know we've been set up, and we know that whatever we've been set up with is going to come back to play at some point in the future. And so we're waiting for it. We're waiting for it. And guess what? We can't even enjoy the rest of the movie. We can't be in the moment because we're waiting for that thing to happen. And then, God forbid you forget to go back and put something in that the audience is expecting. Now, when the movie is over, we sit there and go, "Wait a minute. Well, what about this? I mean, what happened there? Where did the character go? They left. They never came back. What's going on with that?" And we critique it and rip the thing apart because you set us up to anticipate something that was to come but then you didn't deliver it. So, you see how bad it can be in both writing and acting to anticipate. So, at the end of the day, everything we're learning here is about how to make it ring true to your audience. Make it ring true. And these are three primary things that you should avoid doing so that you can make it ring true. 

Zena Dell Lowe  14:55

OUTRO: We have a lot more principles coming in the episodes ahead, so I hope you'll join us again next week. Until then, thank you so much for joining me on the Mission with Zena Dell Lowe. May you go forth inspired to change the world for the better through story.