LEAN BACK, LOOK UP

If I could say two things to every actor before their auditions, I would save millions of auditions.

Those two things are:

LEAN BACK

LOOK UP

When I initially work with an actor, these two concepts are consistently the first things I share to improve their auditions.

Let’s begin with LEAN BACK-

If you are sitting during your audition, make sure that your “home base” is leaning back in the chair.

Too many actors fall into the trap of leaning forward through their entire scene. The problem is that once you’re in that position, there’s very little that can occur. You’re stuck. Nothing new physically or emotionally can happen.

And why is that?

Try this little experiment:

Sit in a chair and lean forward, with your elbows resting on your knees. Seems like a fine place to spend a scene, doesn’t it?

Now, very slowly, stand all the way up without taking your elbows off your knees.

...THIS IS THE POSITION THAT YOU’VE BEEN PERFORMING IN!

How can anyone act in that position? Your body is essentially bent in half and doubled over.

So, now you can see how that forward-leaning position stifles physical and emotional freedom. It puts you in a physical position wherein your body is not able to move freely and spontaneously. And, it cuts you off emotionally at your waist so it’s more difficult to deeply feel something.

The act of leaning forward is often an outcome of wanting to please the audience. It’s a very weak position to be in. It’s not “magnetic”. When you lean forward, it very often feels like you are subconsciously saying to your audience, “Please like me!”

Remember, this should be a “selfish” experience.

In love scenes actors tend to want to lean forward towards the person they are attracted to. As if getting closer to the person will show you are attracted to them. In truth, leaning forward physically closes you off, while leaning back opens up your body, making you more available and vulnerable. It’s sexier.

The same can be said for scenes where the actor is playing someone imposing or menacing. Leaning back is a position of power!

Time and time again, I have found that if an actor who is leaning forward is given the adjustment to “lean back” and the opportunity to do the scene again, the second time will always be an improvement; more fun, freer, and new choices will come pouring out.

Please feel free to lean forward in a scene, as much as you like, but make sure it’s just for a moment, and that your “home base” is leaning back.

As for LOOK UP-

Everything you need to know about this can be found in my chapter “ISSUES WITH LINES”.

In a nutshell: Too many actors throw away their audition by having their head in the page far too much.

You’ll never get a job because you said all the words right. But you will lose job, after job, after job, because you put saying the script “word perfectly” over your selfish enjoyment of playing in the scene.

The audience has to feel that the actor wants to be looking up, for that’s where the magic is.

I truly believe that until you are free to paraphrase without anxiety it will be very difficult for you to book work. This is because, even if you have a month to memorize the scene, when it comes time to audition you’ll still make saying all the words correctly more important than having fun playing in the circumstances.

The healthiest way to look at it is, “I want to say it word perfectly, but I don’t need to.”

The following scenario plays out continually at my workshop:

Recently, an actor came to my workshop for the first time. After 15 minutes of studying a scene, he got up to perform it. When he did, he never looked up from the script, and was leaning forward (almost hunched over!) throughout the whole scene.

Clearly, it was not a very good audition. And I can’t see how it was much fun for the actor.

I asked him what his experience of performing it was, and he said, “Not good,” and that he felt he “needed more time to rehearse a scene before performing it”.

So, I asked him to immediately do it again, and gave him two simple notes (and nothing else!):

1. Be up off the page as much as he possibly can; paraphrasing if need be.

2. Lean back in the chair.

When he did the scene again the difference was remarkable! It went from stilted and stiff to alive and spontaneous. It was a terrific audition! The result was astonishing as usual.

LEAN BACK

LOOK UP

Those two concepts can instantaneously change a bad audition into a great one, with no other work done on the scene!