Hailey's comments

10 Reasons Why Mark Westbrook Hates Method Acting with a Passion: 1. It’s not about you 2. It’s anti-practical 3. Unnecessary focus on emotion 4. Confusing scenic truth with truth 5. Fake work 6. Psychosis 7. Self-indulgence 8. Cult of the teacher 9. Out of the scene 10. Not fun Do I agree with Mark Westbrook? I honestly don’t know. I think it’s more than just a matter of yes or no. All I know is that method acting is *brace yourself* only one of many acting methods; it’s simply an idea. It works for some actors, others (Mark Westbrook) not so much. What I don’t I don’t understand is how someone can possess such a strong hatred towards an idea. How can I agree or disagree with something that I don’t understand? Perhaps I do agree. Unlike the majority of my classmates, I agree, to an extent, with the following statement: acting is action, not emotion. In order to portray any character to an audience an actor must have both motion and emotion. However, one without the other is just plain silly. From an audience member’s point of view, acting is most definitely about the external action, and yet, can there really be an action without the internal emotion behind it? That is my question. Perhaps I disagree. I believe that people generally have control over their emotions, or rather, the ability to hide them well. If we didn’t, I would most definitely be insane. If we were not capable of containing our feelings or at least temporarily silencing them, wouldn’t we all be? In all truth, it’s our thoughts that that we struggle to control. I think that the imagination is the most powerful of all weapons. Isn’t that why humans are the dominant species? These thoughts can often be linked to emotion. I think that a strong actor can recall emotion from experiences and apply them, through action, to their character. But that’s just me. What do I know? I’m fifteen, and my name is not Mark Westbrook who clearly knows (or thinks he knows) everything about method acting.