From Stage to Screen Quotes

“The inner monologue is so central to the screen actor’s craft that it’s worth clarifying what I mean by it. Part of the way we make sense of the world is with the help of the little voice in the head that gives us a running commentary on what’s going on out there, beyond the confines of our own skin, and sometimes about what’s happening in here – inside our bodies and minds – as well. By silently speaking our thoughts we process what’s happening. (And if you think you don’t have a little voice in your head, it’s the voice that’s saying to you ‘that’s ridiculous, there’s no voice in my head, I don’t know what he’s talking about’).”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“The first challenge for stage actors wanting to live truthfully in imaginary circumstances is that it is really difficult to be unaffected by the presence of a group of observers. Mark Twain is usually credited with originating the quotation ‘dance like no one is watching . . .’. How many people can truly dance, in front of others, like no one is watching? We are social animals. We can’t help being influenced by the attention of our fellow human beings and wanting to shape how we seem to them.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“I described the experience of being watched and of consciously adapting one’s behaviour in order to manage the impression one creates. Now let’s look at it from the point of view of the observer. Imagine you are watching a man in a railway station who’s trying to get his money back from a machine that has swallowed his cash but not given him a ticket. He’s infuriated, pressing random buttons vigorously and cursing the machine under his breath. At a given moment he becomes aware that you’re watching and starts to feel foolish about conducting an altercation with a machine. So he sighs wearily and rattles the handle as if to say ‘this is tiresome but I’m mature enough not to let it get to me’. You spot the change: he is no longer living truthfully in the circumstances. Or to be more accurate, he is still living truthfully in circumstances that now include the fact that you are watching. The awareness of this has altered his behaviour. He may not acknowledge that he knows you’re watching him, but you see the change in him nonetheless. You might even be able to pinpoint the exact moment when he realizes you’re watching, even though he doesn’t look at you. He was being; now he’s showing.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“We become so accustomed to this state of affairs that we come to think of acting as synonymous with ‘performing’ – that is, putting on a show for the benefit of those watching. This is reinforced by some linguistic confusion around the word ‘acting’. To the general public it means pretending or lying. Professional actors, of course, know that acting is actually about telling the truth. After all, what do we mean by ‘bad acting’ other than that we don’t believe what we’re seeing? And yet, most of us probably implicitly consider engaging directly with an audience as inherent in acting. Meisner’s greatest contribution to acting was probably a philosophical one. By defining it as ‘living truthfully in imaginary circumstances’, he took performance out of the equation.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“Adrian Lester: ‘Essentially the job of an actor is the same (on stage and on screen). It’s the same imaginative leap, the same honesty. Your truth and application of truth, the moment-to-moment reality, is exactly the same.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“Sir Ken Robinson, noted educationalist: ‘You will never do anything original, unless you are prepared to fail.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“Developing yourself There are profound inner qualities that you should aim to grow in yourself. You need to cultivate the ability to be uninhibited, to commit, to give yourself freely to the now. This is about so much more than a technical proficiency. It’s about a whole approach to life. Let me give you some examples of what I mean. You’re walking down the street and something catches your eye in a shop window or down a side turning. Ordinarily you might dismiss it and walk on by. Don’t. Go and look. Practise following your impulses. Catch the moment of curiosity and get used to respecting it. When you feel the impulse to do something but also feel embarrassed: do it anyway. Train yourself to take risks and get used to conquering the number one enemy of good acting: embarrassment.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“The intellectual actor For many of those who aspire to be actors or to become better actors, the biggest challenge is to stop thinking and start feeling. Our education system trains young people in thinking and the prizes are given out for analytical skills. But fundamentally this is a cerebral engagement, impassive and rational. And this kind of education – especially at degree level – is often in direct opposition to what actors need to cultivate in themselves. For much of our lives, we are served well by the ability to think logically about what’s happening and make considered, rational decisions about what to do. Indeed, for most professions it’s essential. I’m guessing we would all rather be operated on, or have our taxes done, by someone with the rigour of thinking to be able to analyse a situation and come up with a reliably intelligent plan of attack. But the foremost job of an actor is to commit to the fictional world of a drama and this is not a cerebral activity. The qualities that will really make a performance – spontaneity, impulsiveness, emotional availability, unguarded vulnerability – are neither logical nor intellectual. And these are things we can deliberately cultivate in ourselves. Nicolas Cage: ‘I invite the entire spectrum, shall we call it, of feeling. Because that is my greatest resource as a film actor. I need to be able to feel everything, which is why I refuse to go on any kind of medication. Not that I need to! But my point is, I wouldn’t even explore that, because it would get in the way of my instrument. Which is my emotional facility to be able to perform.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“The best acting is incredibly simple. Hugh Bonneville: ‘Both disciplines – stage and screen – require you to listen, look people in the eye and tell the truth.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“We probably all know from seeing more than one production of the same play, if you put the same words in the mouths of two different actors, you will see two wholly different human beings with two different journeys through the same story. And this brings us to a central fact about acting: there is no right way of playing a scene. There are wrong ways certainly – ways that don’t ring true or don’t give sufficient weight to what the story needs. But there are many, many pathways through every story and every scene that do the job in terms of narrative development and simultaneously create a unique, credible human character with a rich inner world.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera

“Judi Dench: ‘Acting is not what you say, it’s what you don’t say.”
― Bill Britten, From Stage to Screen: A Theatre Actor's Guide to Working on Camera