THE REAL PARADOX OF THE ACTOR: HOW TO CAPTURE IN WORDS THE COMPLEX PARADOXICAL POWER THAT UNDERPINS EVERY EXCEPTIONAL ACTING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This work examines what it is that exceptional actors do when they resonate with audiences, and how to capture these actors’ performances in words. At present, there exists no suitable language to describe poignant acting performances. Hitherto, exceptional performers have been characterized as having elusive qualities such as “charisma,” great “presence,” or the “It-factor.” Since acting is primarily a physical art, it is difficult to express what actors do with dualistic language that values mind over body and neglects that the body also shapes the mind. Furthermore, the history of acting theory demonstrates a distrust toward an art form that resists reductive linguistic appropriation. A compelling example of such an anti-theatrical and dichotomous viewpoint is Denis Diderot’s polemical essay of 1773, The Paradox of the Actor. In this essay, Diderot insists—wrongly, I argue—that the actor’s paradox is that only a robotic, unmoved actor can move an audience because the actor’s mind has complete control over his body and can circumvent the soul. My paper builds on Diderot’s essay, and with holistic language redrafts and redresses what I understand to be the real paradox of the actor.

Through an interdisciplinary approach that observes manifest Shakespearean acting performances and puts them into context with acting theories (such as Stanislavski’s system) and new scientific approaches to acting (such as cognitive neuroscience and Alba emoting), this study finds that a more receptive, expressive, and comprehensive language is needed to describe and give meaning to what it is actors do that inspires audiences.

This paper argues that acting performances that resonate with audiences are comprised of paradox and in-between states that are successfully conveyed through non-verbal communication but inadequately conveyed with dualistic language. This study concludes that a more embodied, inclusive, and generous language that encompasses liminal, non-binary and contradictory states gives means to make visible the invisible paradoxical power that underpins every exceptional acting performance.