Criticism

Actors can be strange people. We need attention more than most. We tend to want to be actors in the first place because we’re looking for praise. We need a laugh from the audience; we need them to clap because it means that they love us. Despite what you might say, I believe that every actor starts out this way, but there must come a time when vanity isn’t enough of a reason to continue down this path. There must come a time where you do it for love of the art, because if you can’t take criticism, you can’t be an actor. I’ve worked with so many actors who were very talented, but couldn’t take criticism. I’ve seen people cry when told to do something differently. If you want to be an actor, that can’t happen.

I want to be an actor because it’s an art that cannot be mastered. It cannot be truthfully repeated on command and it’s never the same thing twice. I tend to get bored with things that I can do perfectly every time. It’s the struggle against failure that keeps me interested. It’s the idea that no matter how good I become, I’ll always have room to improve. Understand right now, where ever you may be in your career, that if you think you can’t improve, you will very quickly be proven wrong. You see it all the time in the transitions of student actors from high schools to colleges. It’s called Big-Fish-Small-Pond syndrome. An actor finds that he’s the best out of two-hundred, and is suddenly stunned when he discovers that he’s among the worst of two-thousand. All he’s ever known was a high school director who praised his talent and never questioned his choices. When you think about it, the college outcome was inevitable.

Great directors never praise too often. Great directors never tell you what you should be doing; they lead you to your own conclusions. They guide you down the pathway to making your choices. Not listening to the director is your choice as an actor, but always remember that the director is the ambassador to the audience. They are in charge of how this story will come across to an audience. Remember that directors aren’t out to make your performance worse. That makes them look bad. A great director is there only to help you improve upon what you are already bringing to the mixture. But also be aware of the difference between destructive and constructive criticism.

As actors, as well as humans, we have to learn the take criticism in stride. We have to learn that it isn’t ourselves that’s being attacked, it isn’t our personalities that have come under fire; it’s our choices. Criticism stems from disagreement with decisions you’ve made and in our line of work that doesn’t extend into our personal lives. So remember as you go through your careers that it’s okay to disagree with criticism and to stand by your decisions. Remember that acting is considerable a noble profession because no one can master it, there are only those with more experience, there are no experts,

They say that those who can’t do teach. I don’t believe that’s true. I believe that those who can’t do or teach become critics.

So until next time, Sin Boldly!

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