A large budget can enhance the quality of the filmmaker’s story, but the budget has nothing to do with the actor’s talent to deliver the performance. In acting, it’s not about the venue, it’s about the freedom within to access character and emotion.
You can put an actor on an empty stage with a single light and the actor’s gift will emerge — because an actor needs only access to their imagination.
In fact, the more limits or boundaries you put on an actor, the more creative the actor will become. This is how great direction works. The director will give you a new way to act the scene and it is your freedom that will allow you to deliver it in such a way that the direction becomes genius. A great actor understands this flexibility. Your freedom allows you to inspire greatness in others and which brings the project up as a whole. This is true for writers, artists, poets, musicians and any artistic expression born from the gift to create.
All that an actor has is the sense of their own internal freedom to express; this freedom delivers confidence, depth, and the euphoria of a process that happens because it comes from you, and is held by you from within.
So how do you tap into your own freedom to create?
When you release judgment of yourself and your process, you are free to tap into the creative process. The less judgment you put on yourself in the process, the more freedom you will gain. The less you judge the script, other actors, or the direction, the more inspired you will be to deliver a performance that makes an impact.
Over the next two weeks, observe your judgments and begin allowing yourself to be more neutral to your process. Forgive your judgments and put them aside. Focus on the enjoyment of the process itself, and take the risks necessary to experience that source that lives inside – let the internal light within you, your instincts, be your guide.
