What is Character?
People new to acting often mistakenly believe character is a fun voice, or a facial tick, or a way of walking.
They see Daniel Day Lewis and think "now that is acting!", and they attribute his incredible performances to his accent, or his ability to live in the wilderness for two months (The Last of The Mohicans) or how he literally learnt how to make a dress FROM SCRATCH for The Phantom Thread (admirable, but not entirely necessary for acting).
By attempting to emulate Mr Day-Lewis' craft from the outside-in, we impose certain characteristics and ticks that we 'think' suit the character, and then feed off that to create our 'character'. Unfortunately, that is when we most often see 'acting'.
This is bad. As we know, 'Acting' is yucky. And Daniel Day-Lewis is definitely not 'acting'.
So what's the difference?
I love this quote from UK actor Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler, Star Wars: Rogue One, The Night Of):
"Character isn’t a way of behaving, it is a way of seeing”
Immediately, your focus as an actor is moved from the outside (a self-conscious space, not conducive to creating work that is free and impulsive) to the inside.
For your homework, instead of trying to figure out how your character will interact with a prop from the outside, fill your head with thoughts that the character might have.
Get to know how they think, what point of view they have on particular things.
Are they homeless? Maybe you're walking down the street and you see a secluded spot out of the elements and you think "That would be a great place to crash tonight". You might find yourself walking differently, treating certain objects differently...
All of a sudden, your behaviour is informed by a real, genuine, honest thought!
So next time you get a role, or have an audition, let your imagination run wild, see the world in a different way, a way you wouldn't normally look at it.
After all, Stories are complicated. Although we understand the complexities of our own stories, acting is a way to try and understand the complexities of others.
