How Well Do You Know Your Character?

You are given a script.  Your character is close to your height and weight and is your sex.  That is why you were chosen.  Now it is up to you to make choices to define and understand your character.  You find out that the role you are playing is that of a professor of mathematics.  He or she is living in New Jersey and is currently working at Princeton University, middle aged, have a wife and three children. Your hair is brown, eyes are blue.  The character drives a Saab.

The facts are known but these are just statistics.  Does the professor cheat on his wife?  Any phobias?  Does he love one child more than the other two?

These questions can go on and on as you pick apart the script looking for clues.  These questions carry with them deeper questions.  For example, why does he cheat on his wife?  Why is the professor afraid of using erasers on the chalkboard and prefers to have a damp washcloth handy instead?

Our job as an actor is to find and ACCEPT our characters flaws and idiosyncrasies, then play them out truthfully.  Not to judge them.  Judging them only defuses and debilitates the role.   The only rule that we as actors should follow is if that role causes us to go against our morality or principles.  If we allow that to happen for any reason, we lose touch of who we are.

David Wayne