We live in a careless age. The double entendre is intentional. We are careless, and we couldn’t care less. But when we go to the movies, we want the people on the screen to care. We want them to care at 10. That’s because a film world is a fantasy world. We are sitting in the chair in order to experience our disowned self. People who don’t cry, cry at movies. People who don’t laugh, laugh at movies.
An actor seeks to own up to his disowned self. This is the acetic side of the artist I speak about. It doesn’t mean that you’re a monk, it just means that you are aware of the energies in your body. It’s important to get rid of inhibitions in your emotions. It’s different for every actor, but they will all have an emotion which comes more easily. In an acting class, it’s easy to find someone who can flare to anger, and another one who can easily burst into tears. We are in class to discover our own personal range of emotions, and to expand them. It is essential for the actor to explore these alternate behaviors in front of other people. There is no other way to truly become an actor but in acting class. Musicians and painters can often work virtually alone, but not actors: acting is a social skill.
My honest opinion is that acting training is by far the most transformational modality that exists on planet earth.