THE EMOTIONAL AUDITION

How does an actor access great emotion?

Well, let’s pick one and talk about “sadness”.

A fellow I know told the following story…and swears it’s true!

He had an audition where he was expected to cry. Having no idea how to do that, and not trusting he’d find it in the moment, he came up with a plan.

“Onions make you cry,” he thought to himself.

So he put some onion in a plastic bag, and hid it in his pocket.

As he was reading the scene for the casting agent, he saw that the “crying” section was coming, and realized he hadn’t put the onion juice on his finger yet. He snuck his hand, as subtly as possible, into his pocket as he continued the scene. He rubbed the onion on his finger and then stuck it in his eye.

He then grabbed his eye in pain and screamed!

...Onion juice hurts.

Now imagine it from the casting director’s point of view:

“How did his audition go?”

“Quite well actually, until for some inexplicable reason he fumbled around in his pocket, stuck something in his eye, and began screaming”.

We’ve all had moments where we were faced with bringing off an emotion we weren’t sure we had. We start off with the best of intentions. We hope against hope that somehow the emotion will just “be there”, the way it was when we did it in front of the bathroom mirror the night before.

A lot of times the audition goes as follows:

We sit in the waiting room thinking about something awful, like the death of a beloved pet, till we’re good and unhappy. Then we think to ourselves, “I’m not feeling it. I’m about to get called in and I’m still not feeling it.”

So we decide to “fake it till we make it.”

“I’ll just act like I’m sad, and hope my emotion catches up with me.”

Then, when the scene begins, suddenly the depression over Fifi’s death disappears as we’re forced to say words that have nothing to do with her getting hit by that car.

Either way the end result is you covering your face with your hands and shrugging your shoulders. “Boo hoo.”

Yeah, that’ll trick ‘em. Ugh!

The mistake you make is in thinking you’re not sad.

Every person has every emotion in them all the time. Simply because you are human you have the seed of every emotion in your stomach.

Imagine them as seeds. What is a seed? It’s something that carries the promise of growth, of becoming something bigger than itself.

In your stomach is a little seed of sadness, anger, sheer joy, etc. There’s one seed for every human emotion.

And any of the seeds can grow into a very powerful emotion if you have faith that they’re there and that you can access them.

There is a well-known parable that speaks of “the faith of a mustard seed”. The mustard seed is very tiny. Among seeds sown in a garden it is generally the smallest. But as a plant, it reaches ten, sometimes fifteen feet in height. So even though the seed is small, it has faith that it will grow into a huge mustard tree.

Even if you’ve never experienced great sadness, you still have the seed of sadness in you, and, if you have faith, that seed can grow as large as you desire.

Now, when you want a plant to grow, do you tug at it, trying to wrench it out of its seed casing and pull it into a tall plant? No. That would never work. And yet that is how so many actors attempt to “acquire” an emotion. They are desperately trying to yank that emotion out of themselves in order to show it to the audience. They contort their face as though they could squeeze the tears out.

You must remember, for the most part, real people don’t want to feel. In real life, no one wants to experience a powerful emotion like anger or sadness. They don't want to cry. They don’t want to “make a scene”. It’s embarrassing and makes them feel vulnerable. It’s scary to feel grief.

So what do real people do with their emotions? They push them down.

Watch someone talking on the news about the death of a loved one. Most often their face barely moves when the first tear comes out. Their voice becomes choked, and they stop talking. This is their struggle against crying. They are pushing down the tears.

When you are in a scene you must only be thinking what the character is thinking. Anything else will just pull you out of the scene’s reality. Is the character thinking, “Now, if I could just cry here on this line, that’d really impress the hell out of them. Uh oh, I’m not crying enough.”? Obviously not.

Ad the good news is: When you push down an emotion, it grows STRONGER.

So before every emotional audition, remind yourself that you want to feel, but that the character doesn’t!

Concerning “acting techniques”; I think for the most part they can get in the way of the magical and playful process of achieving great emotion.

In the Stanislavski technique, they talk about using something from your real life as a substitute for what is in the scene. I think this is fine as part of your research and rehearsal in a role, but come the performance I firmly believe it is only the character’s thoughts that should be in your head. You ARE the character. Any other thought puts a wall up between you and the character.

Other teachers will tell you to plan the thoughts you will have in the moment when the emotion is needed. This is totally illogical!

You can only have an emotional reaction to something that surprises you. You must want thoughts, images and feelings to surprise you in the actual performance of the scene. It is only in that way that you are able to do a scene many times, and every time it is completely spontaneous and emotional. (Read the chapter "THINK THE THOUGHTS, SAY THE WORDS". It is essential that you have faith that you have the character's thoughts, feelings and images. …And, in a highly emotional scene, they're BIG ONES.)

Here’s two points that can make things easier for you:

First, I believe that emotion is physical.

When you are very upset about something your heart rate goes up. Well, guess what! At an audition your heart rate is way up! That's a gift to you! Use your heart beating fast and plug it into the seed of whatever feeling you want to grow. Pretend your heart is beating fast because of the circumstances in the scene!

Secondly, just by walking into the audition room, you will feel some strong emotions. I don’t know about you, but when I stand up in front of a group of people I automatically feel very vulnerable and uncomfortable. Well guess what! In an emotional scene your character should be feeling vulnerable and uncomfortable. Use it! Make everything a gift!

So you see, just by walking in the room, you've got everything you need. Now just approach the scene as if it's really happening and see what happens to you!

So now I’ll talk you through a “sad” audition:

The night before, simply accept that your body will spend the night collecting tears in your stomach, thereby making that seed of sadness stronger. You don’t have to “do” anything to help it.In the waiting room, acknowledge that seed of sadness in your stomach.

Now your vulture will probably say, “But you’re not sad, you’re tired and crabby, and you’ve got laundry to pick up later.” Do not let this throw you. If that’s how you’re feeling, go in with that. At least it’s authentic. And why couldn’t the character be feeling that at the top of the scene. In other words, tell yourself, “I’m going to just take it from where I am. However I'm feeling is a fine place to start this scene."

You must plant the seed in honest soil if it is to grow. That means start the scene completely honestly. No attempting to show them how upset you are. That’s the same thing as putting the character beside yourself. You must slide that character over so you are filling the exact same space as him.

The scene will take you where you need to go. Let the writing (or the circumstances) work it’s magic. Just go on the journey of the scene. By doing this you will feel a great weight of responsibility lifted from your shoulders.

As you begin the scene, own the fact that the sadness is in your stomach. Push it down.

As the scene progresses, know that the sadness has moved up to your chest. Push it down.

The emotion will naturally grow in intensity as it reaches higher. Stay completely involved in the scene.

Now the sadness is in your throat. Push it down.

At the appropriate moment the sadness reaches your face and pours out your mouth and eyes.