1. Chapter 8
Characterizing –
the inner life

2. The actor should build an
inner life for the character.
After all, each character is a
REAL PERSON in the play.

3. How to build an inner life
of the character?

4. To build a character completely
on externals is to make the
character a MACHINE not a
PERSON.

5. The actor’s goal
should be to
make the
character a
person which can
only be done if
the personality is
real .

6. The Method

7. It is based on the teaching of
Lee Strasberg (1901-
1982), adapted on the work of
Stanislavski

8. Was an American
actor, director and
acting teacher.
He is considered the
"father of method
acting in America,"

9. THE METHOD means that the
actor must become the
character and somehow live
the role by taking on the
character’s personality in
REAL LIFE.

10. Stanislavski said that actors
should try to act as if they
were EXPERIENCING the same
thing the characters were
experiencing.

11. Understanding and communicating
the inner life of a character will lead
to a characterization that seems
more real, more genuine, more honest,
and more convincing than one that is
based only on the outer appearances of
a character.

12. Acting As If

13. “What would I feel If I
were really doing this?”

14. This is usually accomplished by
what is often called remembered
emotion. You use your imagination
to remember a similar situation in
your own life and then let that
memory reproduce the feeling you
need.

15. This doesn’t always work as well as it
should, for three reasons:
1. You may not always be playing a character
who feels things the same way you do.
2. It tends to encourage actors to act within
themselves or to underplay the expression of
a feeling to such an extent that they are
feeling is not always very clear to people in
the audience.

16. 3. You must constantly use your
imagination to think about two things:
• The feeling in the scene
• The feeling in your own life that you use
to make it happen

17. If you act as if the obstacle is
real, you will automatically
respond naturally to that obstacle
as you try to reach your
objective. As if can be used even
for characters that are types, for
even the most stereotype
character has an inner life.

18. Sympathizing with your own
character

19. While acting as if builds most of the
inner life role, it will not always build all.
You may often be asked to play
characters who are not all like you. The
playwright has already determined what
the character is like when the script was
written, and you have already analyzed
what the playwright requires.

20. But it may still be difficult for you
to sympathize or share that. When
this happens, you may be tempted
to respond as if you were in the
situation instead of responding as
the character would in the situation.

21. HOW ?
• Know more about the
past of your character.
• Use interior monologue
by duplicating what the
character is thinking
then speak it to your
own self.

22. Playing Age or Handicaps

23. Handicaps refer to the physical
disability of a person. Older
characters often face physical
obstacles that prevent them from
moving normally. The most
convincing way to deal with this kind
of characterization is to act as if you
faced the same obstacle.

24. Find the obstacle that prevents
normal movement, then
concentrate, act as if you faced the
same obstacle, and try to overcome
it. You will find that you produce the
same characteristics, but that they
are more convincing because they
grow out of something genuine.

25. How?
• Act as if you are facing the same
obstacle.

26. Playing Comic Characters

27. Comic characters often are the
funniest when they are not trying to
be funny. The best way to play a
comic character is often to play as if
things were real. Find the character’s
objective and act as if you really
want to reach that objective.

28. The more you keep trying , the
funnier the scene will be, precisely
because you are trying, the funnier
the scene will be, precisely because
you are trying, the funnier the scene
will be, precisely because you are
trying to act as a character rather
than trying to be funny.

29. The best way to play a comic
character is often to play as if things
were real. Find the character’s
objective and act as if you really
want to reach that objective. The
more you keep trying, the funnier
the scene will be, precisely because
you are trying to react as a character
rather than trying to be funny.

30. The End 