You’re in a play.  Rehearsal ends and you and your scene partner decide to grab a bite to eat together.  After your meal you decide to work through the lines to your “last date” scene.  You quietly begin talking, exploring the script together, just talking, like the married couple who decide to divorce over dessert in the play. 

Now you’re on stage in the same scene in front of an audience.  But the audience is now several yards away and you must include them by making physical and vocal choices ample enough for them to see, hear and follow your story.  You are also influenced by and make adjustments to your performance based upon the feedback you receive from the audience.  In the restaurant you were talking with just one person across a table.  Onstage you talk to your scene partner and the audience at the same time.

On-camera, there is no audience to respond to so you are free to just talk as you had at the restaurant.  It’s life-sized.  There’s no need to perform or put on a show.  The camera will zoom in at will literally bringing the audience to you!  It’s just you and one other person quietly talking in a very important, highly emotional situation with deep stakes for each of you.  Your job is to bring your passion, intelligence, humor and deep understanding of the emotional circumstances of the scene to an audience of one, a foot away.  This preparation is what will allow you to commit yourself completely to the emotional life of your character and to the world of the script.  The camera will record everything you think.  Trust it.  This is the time to act like no one is watching. 

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Don’t show us what you’re doing.  Just know deeply what you want, find your scene partner’s soul in their eyes, listen, feel and respond. 

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There are a lot of distractions on set but your commitment to your character’s need must be unwavering.  You need to deliver flawlessly with a camera in your face and a guy holding a boom mic above your head while dozens of people move equipment around and fuss with hair and makeup after each take on an always tight schedule.  You’ll also have to wait around a lot and be ready to be amazing whenever they call you.  Oh, did I mention you may also meet your scene partner that day with only a brief blocking rehearsal before you shoot the scene?  Last minute script changes are not uncommon either and you will likely be shooting scenes out of sequence to maximize the use of each location and end up shooting the end of the film before you shoot the beginning.  That’s a lot to deal with but hey, if it were easy everyone would be doing it.

Let me know if you think acting on-camera or acting on stage is harder and why in the comments below.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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All my best,

Philip

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Philip Hernandez is a respected acting teacher and singing coach in NYC. He is also the only actor in Broadway history to play both Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert in Les Miserables. He created principal roles in Broadway’s Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Paul Simon’s The Capeman. You may also know him from his many television appearances: The Blacklist, Gotham, Blue Bloods, The Path, Bull, Nurse Jackie, Elementary, Person of Interest, Law and Order, Hostages and Damages to name a few. For information about acting lessons CLICK HERE or singing lessons CLICK HERE. 

Follow him on twitter @philip24601, on Instagram @philip24601 and on Facebook at @philip24601.