The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor

by Larry Moss

That’s what our work can do: we remind people that things can change,

that wounds can heal, that people can be forgiven, and that closed hearts can open again.

Given circumstances are the facts;

Anything the script tells you about who your character is or about what the

character has done before the story starts is part of the character’s given circumstances.

I’ve heard that John

Malkovich has said if he understands his character’s point of view of the world, it gives him a great clue about how

to play all the...

all good interpretive

choices build on the given circumstances—

“My name is [character’s name], and the world is [six descriptive words or phrases].”

given circumstances at the beginning of the scene

end of the scene the given circumstances

given circumstances for your character are constantly changing

Where does the scene take place? Who is in the scene?

What do I as

a character know about the other character...

What are my relationships...

emotio...

What do the other characters s...

Given what the script tells me,...

What do I as a character know about myself that is relevant to the scene (my b...

as I enter? What does my character literally do d...

What do other characters...

H...

they tre...

Characters, like people in your own life, say a lot of things, but we understand them primarily through their behavior,

which is why I said earlier that you have to define a character’s point of view primarily by what they do, not necessarily

by what th...

1940 classic film The Letter,

Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s short story, The Letter

Stella Adler famously said, “It’s not

enough to have talent. You have to have a talent for your talent.”

What did your character try to get from the other person? Affection, understanding, money, power, sex,

information, forgiveness?

The objective is what your character wants in a certain scene in order to try to fulfill their needs.

The superobjective is the engine that propels you through the journey

of the play or film;

Every superobjective has a justification, an emotional reason for its birth.

The Goddess, written by Paddy Chayevsky

the superobjective is intensely passionate; it always comes from deep pain, deep joy,

or deep fear.

Emily’s superobjective is not to become a movie star, it is to have a feeling of bei...

l...

Arthur Miller’s brilliant tragedy Death of a

Salesman,

The opposite of love is indifference,

If you don’t

separate the character as written from your own life you will miss qualities that are imperative to capturing this person’s

person...