An actor is a professional figure who still suffers from poor general recognition. Far from the world of the big Hollywood stars, there are thousands of passionate actors, who work for small productions or for theater companies, who pay for their desire to undertake this profession often considered as a hobby.

In reality, the job of the actor requires multiple skills and also requires certain skills and a particular training that allow him to perform at best each character that is assigned to him. People ask what is best way to become an actor? Visit our what is best way to become an actor page to learn the best way to become an actor.

Who is an actor

An actor is a professional who plays one or more roles while acting out a script.

An actor has the goal of interpreting a character and identifying himself with it so much that he is able to convey to the public the sensations of the character he is performing.

The highest level an actor can reach is to be able to capture the attention of his audience throughout his performance.

When the audience sees the acting performance if they can perceive the emotions the actor is feeling (or at least simulate very well), then it means that the actor has achieved his goal.

What an actor does

It has just been said that an actor himself plays a role.

But when an actor plays a role, behind it there is a whole world that is still unknown to many.

A professional must be able to convey the emotions of the character he is playing to the audience to the point of making him excited.

Each type of actor is different and the ways of interpreting the characters are also slightly different.

Actors in TV series and cinema, for example, must reflect more the naturalness, or rather, how people behave in everyday life (unless the character requires the opposite).

A theater actor, on the other hand, must be much more expressive, exaggerate his facial expressions, gestures and voice, in order to be able to reach the audience better.

The reason for this is very simple; a theater actor acts live and the spectators enjoy the show from a certain distance from the stage, so the actors must be able to make the audience in the dovecote feel emotions too.

Each character that an actor plays is part of a story, therefore all the roles played have their own logic and purpose: each is characterized by the intonation of the voice, the attitude, the clothes, the facial expressions and the emotions that must transmit.

An actor when acting must:

convince the audience that he is a certain character who feels real emotions, both internal (ie joy and sadness) and external (physical pain), in other words he must completely identify with his character;

transmit emotions through facial and body expressions;

improvise and adapt to sudden changes;

he must act in a natural way, in order to be able to surprise the audience every time he expresses a strong emotion;

be able to fully identify with his role through a series of techniques and exercises;

to match emotions, gestures and facial expressions to better interpret his role.

When an actor plays a role he uses; one’s body; a certain gesture that can belong to the character he has to interpret;

a certain voice (especially if he is a theater actor) applicable to the character;

facial expressions to express emotions;

the script in order to make the character coincide with the story.

When an actor is assigned a role, it may happen that he is asked to make changes on a physical level, such as losing or gaining weight or much more simply growing his hair or cutting it.

We remember the actor Christian Bale who in order to play Trevor Reznik, the protagonist of the film “the man without sleep” had to lose so much weight that he bordered on anorexia.

The moment an actor gets a part he is given a script, he has to learn his lines and with the help of the director, he has to understand what type of character he has to interpret until he understands the psychological implications.

It takes time to identify with a character. There are many techniques for making an actor play a role (for example the Stanislavski method).

The lines of the script must be learned by heart to have a logical thread in the plot; this however, does not mean that sometimes the director does not leave very specific parts in which the actors can give vent to their interpretation and improvise.

To play specific parts of a film, an actor may need to implement his skills by taking dance classes or learning to play a sport before he can play a part or a certain scene.

Although an actor must be able to shoot any type of scene, it can happen that in potentially dangerous scenes, they prefer to be replaced by stuntmen, or actors specialized in shooting scenes containing stunts or actions that require certain skills.

If you decide to pursue an acting career then you must be aware that this profession has many positive things, but also many negative implications such as moments of great shortage of work alternated with moments of great activity.

Even though TV and film actors mostly work within a set, they still need to be willing to have very flexible schedules and be willing to travel.

In fact, the scenes of the films can be shot outdoors in the middle of the night, or during sunrise or sunset and the actors must be ready to face very particular times.

Long trips to mountainous places like the Alps or exotic places like Hawaii will not be rare and the scenes can last from a few days to months.

As mentioned before, however, most of the scenes, even if shot abroad, are made inside the film sets, in which it is possible to reproduce a long series of artificial settings that have the purpose of simulating both reality and external and internal.

For theater actors, however, it is slightly different. For them all the works are carried out inside, on the stage of a theater both from the first rehearsals to the implementation of the plays.

They must be willing to tour both in Italy and abroad for the various theatrical tours and therefore be willing to stay away from home even for months.

What certainly applies to both categories of actors is the flexibility of time and travel. Actors in fact work at particular times, on any day and on any holiday.

Very often they work on Christmas and New Year’s Eve, so their passion must be so great that they are willing, in part, to sacrifice their private life.