This is one of my favourite acting ideas. I heard it first in an early interview with Jeff Goldblum and he had learned it from his teacher Sanford Meisner.
It’s the idea that as actors one of our key jobs is to put our focus outwardly, on the world, the task and, most beautifully, on our scene partner.
They say there’s nothing more captivating than watching someone tying their shoes. They are unselfconscious and completely wrapped up in their simple objective- tying their shoe.
This is the gold standard we are going for as actors. We want to honestly have our focus, energy and intention on doing something.
I say ‘honestly’ because we must fight the natural human urge to be liked and thought of as good. And there’s the extra thing for actors of auditioning, where we have to somehow forget we are seeking to be cast.
Part of acting is learning to ‘honestly’ place our focus.
That’s it.
It’s riveting when someone does that. Don’t worry about being interesting, get interested.
