What We Look for in an Actor

What makes an actor truly great? The actor’s job is to bring a scripted character to life.

Acting technique is paramount to anyone wanting to be a serious actor. It’s quite easy to imitate a character or even an emotion, but where’s the depth in that? How can you sustain or repeat again what you might have found intuitively? Do you even know what you did or how you did it?

The technique, however, will help you find a character, which in turn informs how you approach the text/script/written word. How do you bring the dialogue alive? How do you know what choices to make? The goal of a trained actor is to become a fully realised three-dimensional character, with a rich backstory. I must believe the character you play is truthful and not a cliche, a caricature, a thin external representation of someone who barely resembles a human being. I must believe what you say is real and that you’re not reciting, spouting or commenting.

The very best actors have good technique and exceptional talent. The ability to transform beyond recognition is another skill all great actors must have in order to prove their acting talent and set them apart from their peers.

To be a truly great performer an actor must have so-called star quality and a magnetic power to ultimately hold a stage.