ACTORS, HOW ABOUT STRIVING NOT TO STRIVE?
I’ve been banging on about knowledge and knowing over the last couple of weeks.
Because, when it comes to acting in an accent, how you frame the search for knowledge really matters
Striving for knowledge for knowledge’s sake is so incredibly unhelpful to us as artists.
Reaching desperately for that which is outside ourselves only serves to disconnect us from ourselves.
All that striving and reaching can lead to an abandonment of who we are, a rejection of the truth of ourselves.
And isn’t acting supposed to be about looking within? About revealing who we really are?
Isn’t it supposed to be about uncovering and inhabiting? Rather than adding layers on top?
As an actor, I know you know this. But can you honestly say that you still let this thinking lead your approach to acting in an accent?
Because, in my experience, something really unhelpful tends to kick in when it comes to acting in an accent: people revert to that old school (or perhaps I should say ‘back to school’) approach of knowledge to know rather than knowledge to embody, of knowledge to prove rather than knowledge to enrich.
And does that sound like an approach that’s going to aid an honest connection with ourselves and our characters?
How about, instead of striving for knowledge, you search for it? Feel for it? Make space for it?
How about you allow for a process of curiosity led discovery?
How about, instead of abandoning yourself, you abandon the strategy of striving to add or improve?
You aren’t lacking.
And, besides, this work is about uncovering.
Uncovering yourself and uncovering the character. And closing the gap in between.
Stripping back on the striving might be a great place to start.
“Working with Maeve is wonderful because the whole process is acting first. Rather than just focusing on making the right sounds, she helps reveal how an accent necessarily affects a speaker’s whole attitude and mindset. After a course of lessons with her, I had built a personalised checklist and numerous samples from which to work from, as well as a number of resources to aid troubleshooting. But it is all geared towards unlocking the character first and foremost, making something grounded and credible.”