Motivation
Suzie at a “NAFA Chat” by Bruce Beresford on Micromanaging.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ I say, ‘Your salary.’
Actors seem to need to know the right questions to ask and are required to do a lot of their own character and script analysis. It’s our job (as actors) and we study for this: to figure out the character’s ‘objective’, the ‘super objective’, the character’s goal, etc., etc. — whomever you listen to or with whom you study. Then the Director has his say — ideally before the actor has read his mind!
This is a full-time job and one must research and become the character and not over-intellectualize. Oh dear, ‘the intellectual actor’. You may think this is a compliment, but it’s not! You must come from the gut and above all — truth.
"Performing for the Camera"?
When I say to some of my newer actors in class “stop acting”, they often respond that they are, indeed, in an acting class. So?
If you catch somebody ‘acting’ in a move, that actor is doing it wrong. The moment he’s caught ‘performing’ for the camera, the actor has blown his cover. He’s no longer a private character in a private world. Now he’s a highly paid actor on contract to speak these lines for the public. Good-bye illusion. Good-bye career."
—Michael Caine, Acting In Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making
So? Stop acting. Even in acting class!