Image via Flickr by Laenulfean
I graduated from Carnegie Mellon in... Let's just say it was a long time ago. It was fantastic training, and I still use what I learned there every day. But when I think about which lessons were the most important, which ones seared themselves into my brain and changed me fundamentally for the better, one always jumps out:
Commit.
You know what, that deserves to be in bigger letters.
COMMIT.
In every performance situation, especially in auditions, the most common way we actors screw ourselves is by making half-assed choices. We don't want to be wrong or look silly, so we make a choice, but kinda tiptoe around it, so we can say we didn't mean to do it if someone objects. Unfortunately, that strategy guarantees — I mean 100% guarantees — a crappy performance.
When we talk about making strong choices, taking risks, being brave enough to fail, this is what we mean. Whatever choice you make, commit to it fully. It's the only way to find out whether or not the choice works, and whether it works or not, full-on commitment is what every audience expects and deserves.
I'm no Mamet groupie, but I love the book "True and False," in which he says:
Acting is not a genteel profession. Actors used to be buried at crossroads with a stake through the heart. Those people's performances so troubled onlookers that they feared their ghosts. An awesome compliment. Those players moved the audience not such that they were admitted to graduate school, or received a complimentary review, but such that the audience feared for their souls. Now that seems to be something to aim for.
Now, when you have an audition to say one word on a single camera comedy, it's unlikely that you're going to make anyone afraid of your soul. But you can make a choice with that one word, and commit to that choice in a way that shows the decision-makers you're ready for whatever they throw at you.
(But what if you're playing a character who doesn't commit? What if your choice is to be timid, or afraid, or aloof? Commit to that. Know why the character is behaving that way. Know what it would take to shake them out of it. Know what they ARE committed to.)
Here's the great part. When you start committing fully to every choice, you discover something. It's the half-assing that made you feel silly and wrong. When you're fully committed, even the most ridiculous choices can work. So next time you have the opportunity to act — in an audition, in class, wherever — try committing to your choices harder than you have ever before. Walk out onto the ledge. Take a big risk. If you fall, get up and try again. COMMIT.
Then come back and share how it felt!