Andrew Scott is one of my favourite actors- and someone (dared) ask him how he remembers all those lines.
Even though this is every actor’s least favourite question- Andrew managed an answer that has stuck with me.
He said that generally actors have no problem remembering swear words. If their character really get’s to give it to another character in an outburst or argument, the indulgent part of every actor has ZERO trouble remembering that sequence.
The same goes for any text that an actor finds silly, gross, weird or unusual in some way.
What’s really happening is the text is causing an emotional movement in us. We are creating an emotional map; physiological reactions that embed the specifics of the text in our brain. It seems to live there ‘rent free’ as the kids say.
The game then, Andrew says, is to make every word your character says as interesting as the swear word. Our job is to connect to each and every word so they fall out of us as effortlessly as that weird part you could recite in your sleep.
We can’t force ourselves to remember things- it has to resonate emotionally for us. Brute force won’t do it, we must soften and connect.
Soften and connect- now that’s a pretty good way to be in general, don’t you think?
