Drawn from what is actually said on camera, so you can decide whether to
spend the 6:00 watching it.
Most people are waiting, not listening
They are holding their turn to speak and taking in none of what is being said. It is the most common note in her class and it is a problem in ordinary life too. Naming which of the two you are doing, in any conversation today, is the whole first step.
Her arithmetic is blunt: if all you do while acting is listen, fifty percent of the work is finished. The character work may be thin and the scene may have flaws, and being genuinely there still counts for an enormous amount.
You know what you will say, what they will say, and how you will answer. That is exactly the trap. You have to work as though they might say something else entirely, or the opposite of what you are braced for.
She watched a reel that she is convinced undersells the actor, because all she could see was somebody waiting for their lines. That is what an audience reads: not a wrong choice, but an absence of anybody actually receiving what was said.
In an exercise, an actor who does not expect a second person in the room will walk in and completely ignore them. Not politely, genuinely not register them. Listening is not only about words, it is about taking in the whole environment.
When she has a scene partner deliberately deliver a different line, most actors miss it the first time and answer the line they were waiting for. That is the cleanest test there is of whether anyone in the scene is really listening.
The old instruction, and the reason for it. Lines held tightly turn a scene into alternating speeches. Held loosely, they leave room for reactions, for hearing something for the first time, and for a character who gets distracted by something.
Try repeating back what someone actually said instead of preparing your reply, with friends and family as much as in class. Improv drills it hard. And watch film and television asking one question: can you tell which actors are listening and which are loading their next line.
This is going to be the best lesson you ever got. Are you listening? I hope you are. Listening. It is not just the best actor goal, but it is a great life goal. Often times people aren't listening. They're waiting. They are waiting for their turn to speak. That's all. And they are not taking in what is being said. And it is a great life lesson whether it be for work, business, personal relationships and acting to actually listen. It is the note that I will give more often than anything in acting class.
I will say you're anticipating because you already know the lines. It's kind of difficult, right? Especially if you have studied and know your lines. I know what I'm going to say. I know what they're going to say. I know how I'm going to respond to that. I know how they're going to respond to that. But I've got to listen as if they could say something totally different or I expect the opposite of what it is that they say. Listening is a skill. If all you do when you act is listen, 50% of your work is done. 50%. You might be terrible in your character work.
There might be a lot of other flaws in the scene, but if you're present and listening, it counts for so much. Don't neglect that. I was watching a real the other day and it wasn't very good. And I believe that the actor is better than their real shows because all I saw was an actor waiting for their lines, waiting to say what they were going to say. They knew what they were going to say. I mean, some of my videos you can tell I know what I'm going to say and other ones you can see I'm sort of making it up as I go. I don't anticipate. Anticipation goes hand inand with not really listening and not taking in the environment as a whole as well. I'll do exercises with actors where if they don't expect to see another person into the scene or the room when they enter and I put another person there, they will totally ignore that that person's even there. It's the most fascinating thing. They really don't see them because they don't expect to see them. Remembering to take everything in, hearing things for the first time, responding.
Sometimes I will ask another actor to give a different line to force the actor to listen. Usually they don't hear it the first time. They hear what they are expecting to hear. And of course, as I've said numerous times, the mistakes that we make as actors come from a good place. They come from a place of us wanting to do it right, wanting to be line perfect, wanting you can be line perfect and not anticipate what's happening and not know what you're going to say. If you know your lines, there's a old saying, know them, know them, know them so well that you can forget them. And we really do need you to forget them because it's not speeches that you're making in between when somebody else is talking. There isn't that back and forth. There aren't those also those reactions when we're hearing something for the first time if we our character gets distracted if something else is happening. So it's just it's I see it as a real life problem that people don't listen. If you know that listening is a problem for you, or even if it's not, but you want to work on that skill, practice. Practice really listening.
See if you can repeat back what that person said. Not be preparing your response, the story, the question, whatever that you want to ask. Really taking in what they are saying. Practice, practice, practice. Listen carefully. Improv class. really good for listening. There's a lot of exercises that they will do in class that will force you to listen. Again, repeating back what somebody said. It's remarkable how somebody can just say something and somebody will get it wrong because they haven't really been listening, been preparing their response, they've been distracted by something else. Practice. Really listen to my videos.
No, but yes, but you can also listen to your friends, your family. It can really change your relationships. It can really change things based on how much attention you pay. And watch watch in film and television specifically because we can be close when we watch those and we can just turn it on whenever. See if you can tell when the actors aren't listening. See if you can tell when they are just preparing their response rather than actually listening. I will see you next week. And when you are ready to take a class in person or online, I'm listening. I'm here. And I will see you next week. I say so too much.
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