Five Characteristics of Amazing Performers
What are some of the qualities that characterize amazing performers? This is, of course, the focus of top-quality actor and singer training. Here are five qualities I, and the acting teachers I coach, consistently observe in the most evolved creative performance artists. Modern actor training, using multiple methods, gets faster and more lasting results than actor training methods of even 15 years ago. We are learning so much about creative processes. This is part one of a two-part series on this topic. Five more characteristics will be published in part two.
1. Great performers have a feeling of ease in their work.
Great performances look effortless. And often, when things go right, they feel effortless. Of course, this is an illusion. Great performing is a result of a great deal of work. Part of how you achieve a feeling of ease in your work is by regularly engaging in some form of relaxation training. The opposite of a feeling of ease is being filled with tension. Tension is, quite simply, blocked talent. Put another way, tension is the manifestation of blocked parts of your personality -- physically and vocally. The more tense you are, the less expressed you are, the less performing jobs you get. Ways to release tension and achieve a feeling of ease in your body and voice include deep tissue massage, guided relaxation audio programs, yoga, and various methods of voice and breath work. Life is always happening to you. That means, tension arises, again and again. Therefore, engaging in relaxation practices must occur for your entire life as a performer.
2. Great performers are energetically released and expressive.
Great actors are energy masters. Everything radiates an energy vibration. Being a great performer is significantly about harnessing and radiating specific and profound kinds of energies. Saying great performers are emotionally expressive doesn't go far enough. Some powerful energies are not emotional. Speaking in terms of radiating energy is a more accurate and expansive view of creative expression. Energies can be categorized into fundamental "states-of-being" -- Archetypes. Examples of Archetypes include Evil, The Magical Child, The Wounded Child, Spiritual Energy, Silliness, The Messiah, Sexuality, and on and on.
These energies are very real and they alter the way you think, feel, speak and move, depending on which one, or several at once, you access.
As we grow up, we lose access to many Archetypes as we are socialized out of them. Each of us have some Archetypes that are easy to access, and others we have forgotten how to access. Great performers are in touch with, and able to fully and profoundly express, a very wide range of Archetypes. In my work with performers and performance teachers, we use very modern processes for expanding your access to these energies.
The results are startling and often life-changing. Experiencing pure evil, or pure vulnerability, or pure magical energy (etc.) is intense and mind-altering. Great performances are mind-altering. And great performers report feeling like they are in an altered state-of-consciousness when everything comes together. They are! And you can learn to expand your access to all kinds of energies. And the way we do it is safe and super fun (Some approaches to getting “deep” in various acting methods are not safe or fun for many people.).
3. Great performers are highly imaginative and fully committed.
The old-fashioned view of things, in many acting methods, is that there is a giant wall between your personal "truth" and memories and your "imagination." Modern psychologists will tell you it is false to think this giant separation exists. Memories are often not accurate and are totally subjective -- with a high level of fantasy contained in them. And your imagination is not "fake" or "not real." In fact, your fantasy life virtually determines all the actions you take during the day! Amazing, huh? For example, my fantasy of winning an Academy-award may cause me to go to the gym, take an acting class, go to auditions, etc.
So, while it gets useful results to coach some actors to be "simple, truthful and real," there is a more sophisticated approach. To an audience, anything will look "real" if what you are doing and radiating is fully committed and imaginative. And frankly, nothing bores audiences more than naturalism, for the most part. Great performances are wildly imaginative and fully committed, not simple and real. It can just look “simple and real” to the audience. Your work as a performer is to continually make sure you can go too far! Pulling back and doing less sometimes definitely needs to occur, and this isn't nearly as challenging as being wildly imaginative and fully committed. You need options.
Many of us have had our imaginations taken away from us as we grew up. We were told our imaginations are not real, or that our fantasies are ridiculous. We were shamed out of being in touch with the infinite expanse of the imaginative realm. But, you can reclaim it. And great performers are working on expanding their imaginations constantly. There are many exercises in modern training that can dramatically expand your imagination and increase your ability to express yourself from there -- with full commitment. And, I'll say it again, when you liberate your imagination and express yourself in this manner, it is life-changing. And it never ends. Great performers report there is an infinite imaginative world, or worlds, to explore. It goes on your entire career, if you do your work.
Finally, you can be highly imaginative and fully committed and also calibrated for a close-up on film. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Highly imaginative and fully committed does not equate to being “big.” What is being discussed applies equally to theater, television and film. There is plenty of room for nuance.
4. Great performers educate themselves about psychology relevant to performing.
You can be a great psychologist and not be a good actor. But you cannot be a great performer without a deep understanding of human behavior, intuitively or consciously. In our training program, we study various versions of the hierarchy of human needs (Abraham Maslow's is one example). This helps you learn about what people need and want, universally, on the deepest levels. To me, this is basic stuff if you want to have a career and be capable of playing all kinds of characters.
We also study a system of psychology called Archetype Work and The Psychology of Selves. You learn all about why people love and why people have conflicts, as they attempt to "get" those universal needs met. You learn why people are attracted to one another, or to objects and goals. And you learn why people are repulsed by one another, or by objects or goals.
Finally, we study hierarchies of consciousness and awareness, in the form of Spiral Dynamics and Integral Philosophy. For example, there is the Sarah Palin level of consciousness -- the Traditionalist/Law and Order level. Traditionalists view their moral code as superior to others and often believe in religious mythologies. One level above that is the Rationalist level of consciousness, where scientists often live. They usually attempt to reject mythological moral codes, believing science is superior to religious mythology, valuing logic. And a level above that is the Martin Luther King, Jr./hippy level of consciousness -- The "everyone is equal" level of consciousness. It embraces religion and science. On this level, one might advocate smoking a peace pipe so Sarah Palin and the Atheist scientists can just get along, because “we're all equal. Spread the love!” and so on. There are between 8-12 levels of consciousness, depending on the way you break things down.
These three areas of study have profound results on your performing. One result is that you can see, far more deeply, what is going on in scripts. You can see who characters are far more deeply. Your ideas are more sophisticated and your imagination is increasingly informed by a cutting-edge understanding of the causes of love and hate, peace and war. And that is what all scripts are about. Characters are fighting to get universal needs met, in their unique Archetypal ways, clashing with opposites – internally and externally! And the story may be about one level of consciousness at war with another. Or the story may be about one moral code at war with another.
5. Great performers (and acting teachers) are always "working on themselves," in some form.
Well, at least, the happy ones are. I have met some very well-known performers who do no work on themselves, and they seem universally miserable. The creative artists that do amazing performing and are also happy human beings do work on themselves. I was watching Charlie Rose a few years ago -- an interview of Anthony Hopkins.
Basically, he described his career quite simply. When he was young, he was an alcoholic. He would party all night, beat up his girlfriends, then stumble onto the stage and sell his internal chaos for a living. Surely, the audience was entertained by his alcoholically induced creative chaos. Later in life, he got sober. And his new approach to accessing that kind of creative chaos (which you need to be good) was therapy and various forms of work on himself. And he got to be a happy human being and met a woman he fell in love with. Well, you can choose which path sounds more appealing to you.
Underlying all acting methods that have any value is work on yourself. That's the heart of the matter. That's the juice. Who are you? What drives you? Who are people? What drives them? What makes a person this way or that way? What makes you who you are? Why? How can you adjust yourself to "become" the character if you don't know who you are? How do you know if you are telling the story if you don't know what story you tell, as a “character,” in your own life? How do you know what emotional preparations you need on a particular night if you don't know who you are in the first place? How do you know how far away you are from the character or the story, if you're not able and trained to listen to yourself on the deepest levels?
Maybe today you're angry at your mother. But your character is super happy during a lot of the play (or film). First, you have to realize your anger. Sometimes, it can be hidden. Then, you have to deal with it. Otherwise, the show tonight might be totally off and all the happiness is “acted,” but not experienced. And if you don't know yourself rather well, you might have no conscious idea why your performance is off.
(For a small minority of performers, the idea of “getting to know themselves” is not an appealing idea at all – it seems painful for them. This minority prefers to stay in the imaginative realm while they work. I am able to honor and respect this in my work with those kinds of performers, too. As an acting and voice teacher, I am obligated to meet you and honor where you are in your process. Period. And it’s my job to help you from there.)
Working on yourself can come in many forms. But it's all about learning to listen to yourself on the deepest levels, love yourself on the deepest levels, express yourself on the deepest levels, and how to "adjust" your state-of-being, as needed and on cue. It is amazing how many great actors I've seen fall into traps by stopping working on their work! Great performers always have coaches and teachers, spiritual teachers and/or therapists -- helping them to stay open and connected.
It's a life-long process. It never stops. As a performer myself, I will always have my own teachers (and I have many) available and that I am in frequent contact with. Stay in your work. Stay connected to great teachers and advisors who help you stay connected and honest with yourself – and that point out acting habits that pop up. Because those nasty little acting habits pop up over and over. And soon, you're booking less and you don't have any idea why.
Some performers stop working with teachers to "go out there and do it." And when they come to me after a few years of this, they are often in a very sorry state and clearly have no idea how "actory" their work has become, or how shallow. And haven't we all seen great actors who seem to be imitating their earlier performances? They stopped their work.
For the performers I respect most, and for myself, performing for audiences is an honor. I'm honored to be a performer. I'm honored to help amazing acting teachers become even better. I'm honored to work with all kinds of performers at every stage of their careers. What a world we live in today. There is so much uncertainty; there is so much at stake.
What will you say with your work? What do you want your life, as a performer, to be about? What do you want your contribution to be?
Come take a class or make a private coaching appointment, and let's continue to explore together. Look for part two of this series soon. I wish you joy, joy, joy in your work. As the cast of “Hair” would say these days, “Love, Love, Love!”
Jason Bennett is an acting and voice teacher in New York City, and via Skype, all over the world. You can read more articles he’s written by visiting JBActors.com, “The Jason Bennett Actor’s Workshop.”