Judith Weston, Coach, Teacher and Author: In real life we don't want anybody to know
how we feel most of the time if somebody makes us angry we don't want to show it.
Film Courage: What is acting?
Judith: Thanks for that question because a lot of people think that acting is lying and that's one
of those things that I think is the most important thing about it is that it's teacher teacher my
special teacher Jean Shelton who just passed away recently used to say that people think
that acting is lying but really acting is being more truthful than you get to be in real life
and that was always the that was always the joy of it for me I always felt like
a little bit of a fraud in real life and I always felt like characters were saying and
doing things that I was didn't dare to do that they were that they were a deeper part of me
so that's what I love about acting is that it's more truthful than real life it's not lying at all
and a very common definition is acting as living truthfully under imaginary circumstances
that's a definition that a lot of people use I did want to mention that when I was learning
acting when I was in acting class back in the 1970s, our God if you, will was Marlon Brando
and in those days you didn't have access to all kinds of ways of finding out about actors they
didn't talk about things and they were interviewed but and Brando was of course notoriously reserved
and but he was going to be on a Dick Cavett a big interview show so everybody in our class we all
stayed home no be no way to record things in those days we all stayed home to watch Brando
on be interviewed on the Dick Cavett Show and he said he said well acting everybody is nothing it's
it's just everybody acts all the time because people never tell you what they really think
so everybody is acting all the time and we're so disappointed to hear him say that because we've we
felt so involved in our craft and so deeply deeply connected to the truthfulness and the of of acting
and finding the truth of the character the truth of the play or film and but what I come to think
is that what he was saying what he really meant is that whatever people say there is subtext to it
okay and that I do think is exactly right that in real life as well as for characters in a movie or
television show or play there's always subtext to what people are saying so in real life people
will ask you how you are and you will say I'm fine and that will be very often a lie right but
there's if you let yourself believe that there's always subject so for example if you ask me how
are you and I might say well I'm shitty but this is my subtext threat this is what I'm not saying
I feel really crappy but I'm going to give you a break and not tell you all about it instead I'm
going to say I'm fine okay so even when that seems like a lie somebody says how are you and I say I'm
fine it seems like a lie but really there's always subtext and that's true for acting there's always
subtext so in that sense I've come around to understanding that that that Brando's definition
of acting is also completely valid why do you say that acting is more honest than real life because
real life is so Bound by the social parameters by what's socially acceptable and characters go
way outside of what's socially acceptable they go into places of deep pain they go into places
of transgression they go into places of of joy and exuberance that isn't really socially acceptable
and in fact let me put this another way a lot of feeling is not socially acceptable when people in
in real life we don't want anybody to know how we feel most of the time if somebody makes us
angry we don't want to show it and we even say to each other don't let that person get to you
don't let him know that he bothers you right and that's a real watch for it for getting along in
the social world is to not let people know when they when they've upset you to not let them know
if they've hurt your feelings to not let them know if they've made you angry to not and very often
to not let them know if they've turned you on if they've made you feel excited in their presence
so and actors get to do that they they get to they get to express things that are very human
things that that in real life are are frowned upon the social parameters are very strict
often so the notion that acting is lying where do you think that came from
from people who don't know anything about acting well I think if you don't know anything about
how what acting is about is really about the subtext then it's easy to think that it's it
it's not that people are stupid for thinking that because an actor is pretending to be in
love with somebody when they're married to somebody else or they're they're they're
pretending to murder somebody when they're when they claim that they're an upstanding citizen so
I could see where where it comes from that it that it has to do with that people would think that
but it's unfortunate it it has to do with not understanding this idea of subtext that that
an actor can be completely truthful with their own subtext and an actor never needs to let go
of their own values or their own yeah their own values their own ethics an actor never needs to
let go of those and I don't know I like to keep telling people about that that that an actor can
be capable of approaching every character without judgment very important for an actor not to judge
their character to to be on their character's side to look for the ways that the character is doing
what they think is best is doing the best they can but without and to understand that as a craft
and it doesn't mean that you have to let go of your own ethics sure but you could say that we
all have certain parts of every character in us whether we act exactly exactly we all have
impulses we all have we all have every impulse every single person has every single impulse in
them somewhere now for some people they're buried so far down that they won't wouldn't
recognize it in themselves for actors they allow those things to be buried less far down so that
they can access them but it doesn't mean that they change their beliefs about what's right and wrong.