Quote:
Originally posted by QuikSand
Give me a year to train and get ready, and then throw me onto the cast of E.R. (or whatever), and I suspect that I might very well be able to hold my own. And if not the difference between what I could do and what the "professionals" can do is certainly a much narrow difference than in the athletic example.
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I completely disagree.
I've done acting as well - college theatre, mostly, and it's not my profession by any means. I've done some community theatre; acting, some directing. I like to think I'm a nearing being a decent actor, but I'm a dabbler. So much for the background.
I've gone through a number of productions with people who step up the same way as you're suggesting - auditioning for a role, putting a few months into it before performances. And yes, the writing of the role will make people laugh, there will be moments of well-done pieces, there will be those two minutes where the actor/actress will hit things right. When people talk about "anyone can do that" - they're right. You give a couple of guys off the street a day and a scene from the Odd Couple, and you'll get laughs. That's not the actors, that's the material. You give those same guys the whole script and three months; you'll get the same laughs - and probably a lot of silence in the parts between great lines where the character is supposed to be. And that's with a great script.
That's a pretty straightforward comedy. Try Rumors (or any farce) where timing is needed. Try Much Ado about Nothing, where there's also something of a language barrier with the audience. Try drama. Try Hamlet. Try being a /character/ and not yourself in the role.
One reason people think acting is easy, is because of what sells. What sells and what entertains in Hollywood, on television - is empathy. There needs to be a connection between the actor and the audience, the audience needs to connect with the people on stage. There has to be some kind of personal identification with the character, the audience member should see himself/herself in that character. If you see "yourself" on stage/screen, of course you're going to think it's easy to do it yourself. Try talking to the actor afterwards, and finding out he's 20 years older (or younger) than you thought, and speaks normally with an entirely different accent.
Another trouble is typecasting, especially in Hollywood. You see the same person in the same role over and over again... it looks easy, since they're doing the same thing. It's not. You don't believe me? Go find a high school performance of something. Then go see a community theatre performance. (I'm not talking the Alliance Theatre or the Fourteenth Street Playhouse - I'm talking someplace where nobody's getting paid, and it's done for the love of the art.) Then see something in a semi-professional theatre; then something else off- or on- broadway. The differences between these performances is like night and day - like the difference between a sunday beer league softball game, AA ball, and the major leagues.
Do all that and still don't believe me? If you're near New York (or anyplace with a large theatre district), find a show with decent reviews starring someone you've seen in films - the range that 75% of actors who make it in Hollywood can show (and yes, there are always a few who get by on good looks and sex appeal) on stage is fucking amazing.
Still think it's easy? Try. It's the investment of a few months to act in most community theatre productions, give it a shot. It's extremely hard work - there's no skate time. You can't let up for a moment, even though you've done the same act night after night for weeks on end. And if you're not 100% on your game every night, you - and the audience - will know it.