In Stanislavsky’s An Actor Prepares, the teacher and his student are discussing the art of reproduction versus the art of representation when Paul, the student says:
“How could I have got hold of the art of mere reproduction?” Paul could not understand.
“Let us find out by your telling us more about how you prepared your Iago,” suggested the Director.
“To be sure that my feelings were externally reflected I used a mirror.”
“That is dangerous,” remarked Torstov. “You must be very careful in the use of a mirror. It teaches an actor to watch the outside rather than the inside of his soul, both in himself and in his part.”
This excerpt always grabs my attention and makes me analyze my own process. FYI, it really is italicized in the book– I didn’t just do that. It makes sense though. Watching yourself work trains your awareness of your external display. You can become more of a third eye director, criticizing the ways in which you do express or think you should express your internal life or what you think the internal life of the character is. And many times a performance can become simply an echo of what you trained in the bathroom in front of a mirror.
Personally, I am one who uses a mirror. Not necessarily as a crutch I think. I don’t believe I need the mirror. It’s not an integral part of my process like say script analysis or sensory work. But I do check in with the mirror to look for unnecessary eyebrow/forehead tension, or how my sight lines appear. Sometimes I’ll reflect upon a character choice, and make sure the execution isn’t too tense or exaggerated.
But if you use the mirror, you do have to ask yourself, “Why do I use this thing?” I was surprised to find out a friend of mine NEVER uses the mirror. So in an effort to understand why I use the mirror, I came upon the following realization:
Recently I was on set. And I came across one of my biggest habits and fears: facial tension. All throughout college, I remember teachers saying, “TV,Bitch! Relax the forehead. You’re holding back what’s happening inside.” It was the most extreme close up I’ve ever experienced. The director wanted this crazy shot where the lens was pretty much kissing my nose. And all I could think about was that every eye movement every scowl every twitch was gonna look HUGE on camera. And as those thoughts crept in I could feel my facial muscles tensing up. So I worked on relaxing everything, but for some reason I found this task extremely difficult.
I now think that an internal awareness of relaxation may have helped this situation. I’m sure that if I had a mirror in front of me, I would have been able to visual pinpoint and relax the facial tension, letting the natural expression flow forth. Probably because, unbeknown to me, I have been training a visual connection to my habit. But there was no mirror (well damn, I probably could have used the lens). So developing an internal connection to this habit is the next step. What other visual connections have I inadvertently trained???
What about you? Do you use a mirror? Have you thought about why? Do you have an internal connection to this why?
– TV,Bitch!
