method acting

[kradeelav]

i was watching a commentary a while back where all the voice actors clearly had a good time and liked each other but the scene is a …. really difficult scene to watch [ for generic violent reasons etc ].

and idk it got me morbidly thinking how voice acting might almost be more difficult to pull off emotionally heavy scenes than live-action-actors in a headspace sort of way?  Considering the latter can ground themselves by seeing the cameras/lights/directors barking at them and clearly know it’s a scene even if they’re doing the full method acting thing - we’re talking a 100% supportive director, everyone can walk away if they needed, etc.

Wheras voice actors need to get the same level of emotion but they need to have the skill to bring up those emotions internally and then almost instantaneously react to that in-character?  You can’t, uh, just walk away from internal stimuli, basically.

And maybe I’ve been hanging out in certain circles for too long lately, but it really struck me how similar it is to a legit kink scene - you know, properly done with a long list of negotiated ground rules, “hard nos” agreed on, safe words, aftercare ready, etc.  You’re hacking around with some pretty raw emotional “code” in your brain, and that isn’t bad by itself, but it can get dark pretty damn fast.  

idk, this is all vaguely tangential to my overall curiosity of the various forms of method acting and how that mindspace works with different mediums? Like comics - the one thing I’ve been consistently complimented on is emotional realness which is (a) relevant as I consider myself an actor first and then a comic artist ….. (b) an iiiiiinteresting comment when there are some, frankly, very dark minds that I step in on a regular basis.  Ironically, I feel like I’m in an unusually stable position with those due to some personality quirks, and I have a similar advantage that a prose writer does - privacy and that while the internal intensity is there, the external reaction doesn’t have to be shown? 

Still.  acting is weird, man.

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#i will say i personally feel comic-acting - when gone all the way - feels more similar to VA acting  #because you do have to *draw* the expression and it does take a lil' out of you  #that weird duality of drawing the character and being the character at the same time