“The foundation for film acting is stage acting”
– James Lipton
I’m writing this article for acting students who pursue acting classes for film and television, so that I might help dispel the myth of having to keep your acting ‘small’, or more internal for film. The idea that stage actors are too ‘large’ and loud to act in film, is erroneous in my opinion. Acting is acting is acting.
Although there are technical considerations for both stage and film performances, we cannot ‘act’ for a camera, and we cannot ‘act’ for a stage. Whether it’s a theatre role or a film role, the process and journey of acting are the same. As an acting teacher at Cindy Tanas Actors Studio, I work at liberating the essential qualities of the acting student, before imposing technical constraints or limitations. The focus in our Toronto acting classes lies in freeing the actor ‘internally’ and ‘externally’, before acting for the camera.
The difference between a film camera close up, medium or wide shot, and a 50 seat, 250 seat or 500 seat theatre stage, lies in the degree of intimacy. When standing 2 feet from someone, we typically do not make huge gestures or speak loudly. Alternatively, if standing in a wide-open field twelve feet apart from someone, we do not whisper or speak intimately. The natural impulse in life is to organically adjust your voice and physicality to be seen and heard. As it is in life, so it is in acting. The principle is the same because acting mirrors life.
There certainly are some technical considerations on a film set as well as on a theatre stage that should be considered when acting. These considerations however, are final touches that add refinement to your overall acting process. In our Toronto acting classes, the acting student works towards creating a body of work that is authentic and believable on camera – therefore dropping any need for artifice or slick camera tricks.
Just like you do not want to have your attention on the audience in the theater, you do not want to have your attention on the camera either. Your attention is always on the other actor and the space you are in. As an actor, you listen and respond organically as you attune yourself to the intimacy of the dialogue, the other actor, and the physical space between you.
Whether an acting class for film/tv or for theatre, the acting student will need to learn to be fully embodied and expressive from head to toe. At times these expressions may be grand sweeping gestures, and at other times, they may be subtle and nuanced mannerisms. The body of the actor, the ‘actor’s instrument’, needs to be open so that a flow of uninterrupted energies in the form of impulses and emotions can move freely towards expression. See my article on the movement of energy through the body in the actors process here: https://cindytanas.com/the-actors-instrument/the-four-bodies-of-the-actor/
Below are a few links to performances in film where the actor’s body of work was largely expressive, while working within a smaller frame. Take note of how the actor is not playing small, is free to express him/herself organically, and is not being too “large”, for the film medium. These talented actors have learned to connect to something deeply truthful and larger than themselves – an idea that is universal as it impacts human beings socially, historically or psychologically. It is this Truth that undergirds every acting performance, whether on stage or in film.
“The aliveness is within your own body and there is no earthly reason to fight it.”
– Rumi
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Barrie and Collingwood locations in Ontario.
Watch the amazing Viola Davis in Fences
Watch Heath Ledger in Batman.
Watch Samuel L Jackson
Watch Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Collingwood and Southern Georgian Bay.