Using Daydreaming as a Tool for Acting
When people ask what is acting I ask them, what is life? What is being human? What is living, breathing, experiencing, suppressing, expressing and emoting? Despite what some people may think, acting isn’t putting on a hat and pretending to be another character. Maybe in Year 7 drama class that’s what it was, but true acting is an entirely different craft. It’s a confronting, beautiful, daunting, vulnerable experience. Through certain characters and scripts, you’re given the opportunity to explore parts of your soul that you might not want to address. The parts of you that you’re ashamed of, the parts of you that you’re not proud of.. the parts of you that you don’t want to revisit and the parts of you that are still in mourning. You’re also given the opportunity to explore the parts of yourself that are beautiful, vulnerable, romantic and carefree. Through use of personalisation, you connect the words on the page to every cell in your body and bring that character to life.
Let’s talk fantasies now. Whilst this might not be a common practice in most acting classes, it is something unique I have explored with my students and am finding incredible results with.
As humans, we are a collective. We all have everything inside of us, and are capable of (literally) anything. The only reason we don't act out on most of our urges is because we are empathetic creatures with emotional and social intelligence. For moral and ethical reasons, we generally think things through before acting out on them. In real life, there is a consequence to our actions and we don't want to hurt other people and experience guilt. But in a FANTASY, there is no consequence. It's a safe space to explore the parts of yourself which you would otherwise never explore.
When it comes to acting, I want my actors to give themselves permission to explore the other side. Don't let who you are as a conscious person, get in the way of exploring a deep, dark part of yourself that you're not even aware of yet.
Regardless of age, gender, lifestyle or upbringing, we all have them. Whether you’re fantasising about confronting someone, proposing to someone, quitting your job after a bad day, breaking up with someone, hooking up with someone or hey, even killing someone who has done something abominable. We’re human and we experience these fantasies, we just don’t talk about them. I cannot stress enough the importance of being aware of your fantasies and giving yourself permission to tap into them without self judgement. So, the big question. How does this help my acting? What is the point of being aware of my fantasies? If you get a scene, and your character is a cold-blooded axe-murderer who also cheats on his wife, you might (on a conscious level) stop yourself from tapping into that mindset because it's too far removed from who you are as a person. That's when you have to accept it's not far removed from who you are. It's actually very much a part of you - it's just a part of you you have yet to explore. It feels impossible to connect and successfully portray this role, because you are none of those things on a day-to-day basis. This is when we introduce fantasy as part of your personalisation.
Have you ever had an experience (and yes, this is confronting) where someone has done something vile to you, or someone close to you? And have you ever thought about hurting them?
Most of the time, the answer is no, and that you still can't connect to that. So then we dig deeper beneath the psyche and find another way to connect.
Have you ever watched the news, and seen a mass murderer smiling after killing 300 innocent school children? Did you have an emotional response to this? Have you ever watched a mass-attack occur, in a place where someone in your family frequently visits, and did your imagination go to the possibility of them being there at that time, and dying? And in that brief morbid fantasy, did you have an emotional response to the attacker and want to end their life?
Morbid I know. But again, we are human, and these are the things we don't openly talk about.
Most of the time, the answer to this question is yes. So whilst you can't connect to the fantasy in your personal life, you become aware that there is another way to tap into that fantasy and connect. It's just using more imagination.
Now what if I were to say, your character is a serial cheater and sleeps with multiple people whilst in a committed relationship. Maybe you can relate to this, I don’t know, but let’s say you don’t. How do you connect to something so far removed from who you are? First, you need to accept that even in a committed relationship, you can still get passing crushes on people. Why? Because you're human. Whether your crush is Ryan Gosling, Megan Fox, an Instagram model, the barista who makes your morning latte or the new gym instructor. We are emotional, sexual creatures and for as long as we are living and breathing, we will be attracted to people. It's just a part of life. So first things first - don't judge yourself and don't feel guilty for experiencing something very much human.
So, if this was a character. Sure, you can't connect to being a serial cheater, but you can connect to having a harmless crush on someone, or finding someone attractive. Tap into a fantasy where you take things further with that person. Do you feel a bit guilty, a bit risque or just really pleased? Whatever truthful response comes up for you in that fantasy, use it for your character.
There is ALWAYS a way to tap into a character, the only limit is yourself. Don't let logical thoughts get in the way of exploring another side of being a raw, intricate, truthful human.
Acting isn't pretending. Acting is being human.
The good, the bad and the ugly.
Bec x