Last week, we talked about the fact that what books jobs isn't how well you know the lines, it's the delicious, juicy acting that happens on and between the lines. So all you have to do is nail the stuff between the lines, and let the bookings roll in, right?
Easier said than done. Because the stuff between the lines can be tricky.
In classical acting training, actors are taught to disregard everything but the text — ignore the stage directions, even ignore the punctuation. And most stage scripts don't have much of that stuff. (Well there's plenty of punctuation. But with a few exceptions, it's not integral to the scene or character.)
But in on-camera work, scripts and sides are packed with visual descriptions of what's happening on screen, some of which relates to the acting. That's because the script is a guideline not only for the actors, but also for the set, prop, costume, art, and lighting departments. You should always read the non-lines, because it will give you valuable information about the scene. And then, as in theater, you can forget about most of it. Except when you can't.
Sometimes, there's important non-verbal action in the scene, like a kiss or a punch, that can't be ignored, because it fundamentally affects how the characters behave afterwards. If you ignore that kind of direction, you hurt your performance. (You don't usually have to act those moments out fully in an audition, you just need to give some indication of what happened and let it affect you.)
But often, there are emotional descriptions or very specific suggestions about a sound, gesture, or facial expression, etc. that a character makes that don't dramatically affect the outcome of the scene. And while you don't want to ignore these either, because they give you valuable information, you also don't want to get too attached to them, because they can get in the way of making the character your own. Instead, you want to figure out what the writer is trying to accomplish, and find a way of doing it that's true to you.
Here's an example. I had an audition today for a scene in which the stage direction said my character makes a 'tsk' sound in the middle of a line. But every time I got to that part of the line, I cocked my eyebrow instead of going 'tsk.' That's just what felt authentic to me. I could have forced myself to do exactly what was in the stage direction, but I didn't need to, because I could see that the purpose of the 'tsk' was to give my character a little moment of nonverbally passing judgement on the character I was talking to, and I could accomplish that just as well — and in a way that was more true to me — with a cocked eyebrow.
It takes a little practice to build your confidence in making those decisions. Once in a while, you may make a choice to do something different than what's in the script, and a decision-maker might ask you to do it again as written, and that's totally ok. It's all part of shifting your thinking away from 'getting it right' and toward offering your solution to the problem of who this character is.
So your homework (Have you noticed I always give homework? What's with that?) is to play with the idea of making the unspoken acting moments your own. Invite a friend over and take turns reading. Go too far to see what happens when you get it wrong. Try it in a small way in your next audition. Take a risk! Then come back here and tell us how this shows up for you.