Subscribe now to and start applying to auditions!  Backstage
Experts  Why Actors Need to Let the Lines Do the Heavy Lifting
• Share:  Why Actors Need to Let the Lines Do the Heavy Lifting
“Throw it away more.”  Nearly every actor has heard this
direction either on set, in acting class, or during an audition,
but how many actors really understand what this particular piece
of direction is getting at?  Telling an actor to throw away
their performance, their delivery, or certain lines of the
script more simply means that the actor isn’t letting the
writing do the work. The actor isn’t placing enough trust in the
writing or in their self. Thus, the actor’s performance becomes
too much, putting the actor in danger of overacting, of getting
bigger, louder, and all in all, not delivering the nuanced
performance that they are capable of.  One of my clients went in
for a role of a tough street punk on a popular Showtime dramedy.
Granted, the office she went in for was notorious for being
nasty to actors, but the n