Bookfilter: How acting affects humans
March 14, 2018 8:36 AM Subscribe
I'm fascinated by acting (professional/amateur). Specifically, how does becoming a different character affect actors' sense of self and their relationships with other people?
Can you recommend a novel (or possibly a well-written, story-driven memoir) that examines this question? I'm not interested in how being a (rich/famous) actor affects relationships, but rather how acting itself affects them. What is it like to become a different person? Does the actor's self-identify become confused? How do people around them handle these changes?
Can you recommend a novel (or possibly a well-written, story-driven memoir) that examines this question? I'm not interested in how being a (rich/famous) actor affects relationships, but rather how acting itself affects them. What is it like to become a different person? Does the actor's self-identify become confused? How do people around them handle these changes?
They don't deal specifically with the profession of acting, but books like The Talented Mr Ripley and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil deal with 'acting' and reality, and the madness that ensues when the line between the two becomes blurred.
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 9:30 AM on March 14, 2018
posted by Jellybean_Slybun at 9:30 AM on March 14, 2018
The Mask of Apollo by Mary Renault will give you a wonderful insight into an actor's life.
posted by JanetLand at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2018
posted by JanetLand at 9:56 AM on March 14, 2018
Best answer: What an interesting question. I am an actor, and though I've generally avoid novels about actors and acting because they tend to traffic in the dumbest and most reductive tropes about the profession - making believe will eventually drive you crazy! actors are just liars who get paid! it's narcissism! it's not difficult! it's glamorous all the time! - especially when it comes to women. But two books immediately come to mind.
Meg Howrey's The Wanderers might seem like an odd answer to your question - it's a sci-fi novel about space exploration - but in the character of Mireille, Howrey wrote a portrait of a young actress that felt exactly true to me. Moreover, each character in the book wrestles explicitly with what the difference is between pretending to do a thing and actually doing it. This is, in some ways, the central question that every actor I know is preoccupied with. What makes rehearsing different from performing from living, etc. Highly recommended.
I found The Confessions of Edward Day less personally resonant than the reviewer above does, but it did get a few things I feel about acting as a profession breathtakingly correct.
Two other recent novels you might like touch on the subject: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and Mister Monkey by Francine Prose. I didn't love either, but for reasons unrelated to what they have to say about acting as a profession, so maybe give those a look, too?
posted by minervous at 10:02 AM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Meg Howrey's The Wanderers might seem like an odd answer to your question - it's a sci-fi novel about space exploration - but in the character of Mireille, Howrey wrote a portrait of a young actress that felt exactly true to me. Moreover, each character in the book wrestles explicitly with what the difference is between pretending to do a thing and actually doing it. This is, in some ways, the central question that every actor I know is preoccupied with. What makes rehearsing different from performing from living, etc. Highly recommended.
I found The Confessions of Edward Day less personally resonant than the reviewer above does, but it did get a few things I feel about acting as a profession breathtakingly correct.
Two other recent novels you might like touch on the subject: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff and Mister Monkey by Francine Prose. I didn't love either, but for reasons unrelated to what they have to say about acting as a profession, so maybe give those a look, too?
posted by minervous at 10:02 AM on March 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I am an actor. I don't have any book recommendations for you, but I can tell you that in my experience, the effect of becoming dozens of different people has been a gradual expansion of my compassion and empathy. To play a character, you have understand the choices they make, and you have to understand why the character believes that those choices are the right ones. You must immerse yourself in other ways of thinking. I find myself treating the people I meet with more respect, more compassion, more able to see things from their point of view.
posted by moonroof at 10:13 AM on March 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by moonroof at 10:13 AM on March 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
Adding to WCityMike's comments: You might also want to read Sanford Meisner On Acting. There's video of him teaching, which I think will convey the technique better, but the DVD isn't inexpensive. I studied Meisner Technique for two years and it's difficult to get across in print - the exercises can seem deceptively simple when described but are challenging to master.
posted by jocelmeow at 11:35 AM on March 14, 2018
posted by jocelmeow at 11:35 AM on March 14, 2018
Best answer: Well it's not a book but I'm hoping this doesn't get deleted because I think the content fits your criteria 1000%, but the Netflix documentary Jim and Andy is exactly about how Jim Carey's sense of self was completely rocked by "becoming" Andy Kaufman while shooting Man on the Moon, how his identity became confused, and how the people around him handled those changes.
posted by windbox at 8:57 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by windbox at 8:57 PM on March 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
This is neither a memoir nor fiction, but there is a chapter in The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk that talks about drama as therapy for trauma, and I think it's a nice little exploration of how powerful and in fact healing acting can be.
Also the movie Synecdoche, New York might be of interest to you.
posted by MiraK at 9:26 AM on March 15, 2018
Also the movie Synecdoche, New York might be of interest to you.
posted by MiraK at 9:26 AM on March 15, 2018
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posted by jeszac at 8:41 AM on March 14, 2018