There is a difference between over-acting and over-REacting. In every day life, we are trained to not react too strongly to things. We have a band of acceptable response levels, we mitigate our language to lessen the impact of our reactions. “You’re pissing me off” becomes “You’re making me a little annoyed”, “I really care about you” becomes “You’re ok”. Keeping within this band of responses allows us to stay safe and in control of the situation. It doesn’t require as much from your partner and it doesn’t require you to feel more than you’re used to. And it doesn’t do too much for your acting to stay in that band! Playing it safe by not fully expressing what’s going on inside is a form of politeness that won’t make you grow as an actor.
Last night, there were some comments that there was over-acting in an exercise. What does that mean? In my book, over-acting means letting out a response that you don’t actually have. Often over-acting won’t be in response to the other person. Often it’s what we think we SHOULD be feeling or what we think it would be GOOD to feel — either for the drama of the situation or in an effort to make their partner feel better.
On the other hand, because we want to stay in this band of “normal” or “every-day” behavior, it’s nearly impossible to fully let out our response to what the other person is doing. We all have a little voice in our head that whispers “what you’re doing is stupid” or “you shouldn’t be doing this” or “you’re not being fair to this guy”. By allowing ourselves to fully react to the other person we free up our internal monitor that checks on what kind of behavior is “ok”. And that, in turn, allows us to really be touched by the other person. By allowing ourselves to fully react, we open up the world of possibilities of reaction. Any reaction that is in reaction to the other person is “ok” and as it becomes more “normal” to have a response, it will be easier to have that response immediately and substantially. If we’re responding truthfully to what the other person is doing, then it will never be over-acted. It will always be exactly the right amount of response.
For students who are not used to or comfortable with their own true reactions, this full response will look abnormal. It may even look forced: after all, in a repetition exercise, nothing is at stake. Why should we get all worked up over nothing? I’d ask a different question: Why shouldn’t we get all worked up?