1.

Stop pretending and doing things that are ‘make-

believe’ or unrealistic.
One of the biggest things that drew me to acting as a child and draws many people to
the work when they are young, is the idea that you get to tell big, fun stories, to be a
part of those stories and to pretend for a little while that you are someone else…. And
without getting in trouble for it! (Yes, as a kid I could make up fabulous stories and
pretend all sorts of things… which usually ended up in detention or being

grounded!  ) But with acting, this suddenly made it totally legit and it became a good
thing. The problem is when you go into “pretending mode” or decide that now it’s time to
start “acting”. This is when both speech and movement become unnatural, you get stiff
and become hyper-conscious of yourself as a performer. Instead, try to find the
truthfulness in the moment, and be that kid who is telling the fabulous story and doesn’t
want to get caught! The kid isn’t thinking, “Wow, everyone is going to be so impressed

by my performance.” Self-conscious adults do.   

“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”

~ Sanford Meisner

2. Stop worrying about your face.

Another one of the biggies that comes up when I’m coaching new actors is, “What
should I be doing with my face? Should I raise my eyebrow on this line and tilt my head
on that line?” In our normal day to day interactions, when you are speaking naturally
with another person, you simply don’t do this. You just get on with the conversation, and
if you are fully engaged, the emotions, and therefore your face, takes care of itself. One
way I will demonstrate this in a one-on-one private session is to immediately say
something a little outrageous to the other person while the camera is rolling –
instinctively they react! It’s both beautiful and amazing because then we can just play it
back and talk about what happened and why. Be in the moment. Listen to your
scene partner. Your face will take care of itself.

“Be in the moment. Period. Just be there. Because if you get all like, ‘Oh, I got
to do this big thing.’ It just never works. It just doesn’t work. You’ve just got to
let go. If it happens it happens. If it doesn’t it doesn’t. Whatever you do is
okay, just be truthful, honest, real. And that’s all you can ask for.” 
~ Robert DeNiro

This brings me to the next point…

3. Acting is reacting. 
It’s so easy to get caught up in what you think you should be doing, what your next line
is, how to say it, how you look, and what people are going to think when they are
watching you, but really, at least 50% of acting, if not more, is reacting. Read that
again. Your lines are always a response to something that has happened in your (your
character’s) world. Even if you have the first line in a scene, it’s because something just
happened to make you speak. If you want to stop ‘acting’, start listening. Start paying
attention to what’s going on with your scene partner, what they are saying, and how that
makes you / your character feel…. And then let it show. In day to day life we are
conditioned to hide our emotions and not to react, but when the camera is rolling, that is
exactly what people want to see! 

“Movie acting is primarily listening. If you’re really engaged, that’s all the
movie audience wants to see is you processing what’s happening in your
world.”
~ Richard Gere

4. Know your lines really really well but don’t lock

them in. 
You can’t act truthfully, or have any freedom in a scene if you don’t know your lines and
you are constantly worried about remembering them. You have got to know them
almost backwards and forwards if you want to have room to play. But one of the traps
that new actors tend to fall into is repeating their lies over and over in exactly the same
way. This ‘locks in’ a read on the line and makes it really tough to change. What are you
going to do if your scene partner starts to yell unexpectedly? Or cry, whisper or  laugh?
You can’t deliver your line the same way you’ve rehearsed it if it’s not truthful to the
moment and appropriate to what’s going on. Or worse yet, what if the director asks you
to change your read in an audition and you can’t? There are a hundred different ways to
say, “Where have you been?”. Imagine saying it to a sibling who ducked out of a family
gathering for an hour…Imagine saying it to a spouse who has been out all night with no
phone call or text…. Imagine saying it to the same person if they come in drunk? Or
covered in blood? Or pissed off?

For more on learning lines read:

5. Don’t demonstrate. Rely on the script.

Another dead giveaway that someone is ‘acting’ is when they try to ‘demonstrate’
something instead of just doing it or being it. I had this experience with a new actor that
I was coaching who did something absolutely bizarre when we were working on his self-
tape. When I asked him why he did that, he told me it was because the character he
was portraying was suppose to be ‘crazy’. Yes, that’s true, it was in the character
description, but it was also in the script! I got him to look at the dialogue and look at the
actions of this person and tell me if this was the behavior of a mentally stable person –
we both agreed that it wasn’t! He didn’t need to absurd tick he had decided do, instead,
just to stay true to the lines and the actions as laid out in the scene… it was already
crazy enough. Trust the script. Follow the script. If it’s well written, it’s going to do a lot
of the heavy lifting for you.

“The foundation of acting is the reality of doing.”

~Sanford Meisner

6. Watch yourself and watch your gestures.

The only way you’re going to improve is to watch yourself, critically, again and again.
And yes, I know, this can be uncomfortable. One of the big things to watch for is a
‘nervous habit’ or unnatural gestures that many new actors tend to adopt. For me, when
I first started doin on-camera work, I use to look up and off to the side constantly, and
on-camera, that is such a big movement that you effectively leave the room! One of my
girlfriends use to have a nervous habit of brushing her hair behind her ears every 10
seconds, literally.  Was super annoying to watch! Another guy I knew constantly made
such big arm gestures that the director finally had to have him sit on his hands and
tighten up the shot. But it’s hard to see these things, and then modify them if you don’t
watch yourself. 

Get into on-camera scene study if you can where you can be recorded and watch
yourself. (I know, tough in COVID era!) Check for your own nervous habits and
excessive gestures and then make a note to work on them.

7. Study great actors, but never try to mimic.

If you want to get better at anything, one of the best ways to do that is to study someone
who is doing it exceptionally well. Watch Academy Award winning movies and
performances. Start to pay attention to how the things mentioned above are utilized by
the actors and in the scenes. Notice the subtle nuances and how often the most
impactful performances come out of the smallest of details. Pick a few actors who’s
technique you really love and see what you can learn from it without trying to mimic
them – there is no art in that and it will just come across stiff an unnatural.
“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of
somebody else.”
~ Judy Garland

8. Forgive yourself. 
Above all, be gentle with yourself. Yes, study, train, work hard and try your best, but the
bottom line is that this is both a profession and an art. You’re going to fail miserably
sometimes and you’re going to be a really ‘bad actor’ every now and again… oh well!
Improve if you want to. Change if you want to. But this is not brain surgery, no one is
going to die (probably) if you suck, and there will always be another role, another
audition, another chance!

I hope these tips have helped you, but keep in mind they are a starting point. Acting, like
any other skill and craft evolves with practice, over the course of your life and your
career. Personally, it’s something I am passionate about and could talk about or write
about for days. Above I’ve tried to give you the most crucial elements and tips to acting
naturally to help you get started in your career right now.

Acting is a very unique profession in that if it’s done well, it should be imperceptible
– people should forget that you are an actor and you are doing your job. The whole
point of it really is for people to forget about ‘you’ and to only see the character.