WHY DO ACTORS TRY TO THINK LIKE CHILDREN?

I'm talking about well trained theater actors, not movie stars.

One of the many goals that serious actors try to achieve when they're in performance is a sort of regression to childhood. The idea is that human imagination and spontaneity is at its best when one is a child. Intellect doesn't really get in the way. Emotion and action are close to simultaneous. And kids have fun. Wherever they are.

Yesterday, a pal of mine from work emailed me a link to a bizarre YouTube video of a little French girl concocting a story while she tells it. Of course, it's cute and all, but it's also really weird and cool. The story has no rhyme or reason; it just sort of progresses, quickly, as she comes up with moment after moment after moment. And it makes no sense.

But that's okay. It's a marvelous romp. Check it out. But first, here are some viewing rules:

1. Do not turn off the sound. Listen to the French.

2. Read the English subtitles, and FOLLOW THE STORY. Even if you don't understand what the crocodiles have to do with Winnie the Pooh.

3. WATCH THE ENTIRE FOUR MINUTES AND EIGHTEEN SECONDS OF THE VIDEO. You must watch the whole thing.

4. Do not lose focus or be distracted.

If you do not experience a sense of surreality along the lines of watching The Wizard of Oz with the sound turned off while Dark Side of the Moon plays in the background, you're an inhuman monster.

This is pure childlike imagination. It's what every actor, indeed every artist, needs to have in his toolbox.

Dig it:



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