I was working on a semi-amateur film set, once, and we got a star from the 60s or 70s to come in and she was complaining her head off that we didn’t have a teleprompter and that she had to remember her lines (harumph!)
I’m not exactly when teleprompters are or aren’t used but, when it comes to film, you’re not just replacing the role with the next film, in the previous film the person really just read some text off a screen while being told vaguely what emotion to have, and then they left and went to the next job.
It’s probably reasonable to say that 90% of acting, on TV and film, is simply to be comfortable in front of a camera and to be able to read off something like you’re saying it naturally. If you can add a little bit of emotion on top of that, well you’ve achieved another 1%, now go hit the gym to get the remaining 9%.
Oh, and from my own (very limited, very amateur) experience on stage: Each role, it felt like I did it only once. All the rehearsals, every performance… They’re all just the same performance. Even the ones which went extremely differently.
I’ve heard him tell this story before. Piano players who play it when they seem him quickly realize the song is repetitive and not all that amazing. Billy Joel and other players usually lock eyes and he kind of nods like “Yep, that’s what made me all that money…”
For the actors its actually easy. It’s like being a musician, the adrenaline of being in front of an audience never really goes away and there is always something new to focus on because each performance really is different, if only in subtle ways. The human element keeps it all fresh. That and practice and discipline, just like any other performing art. I am not sure that I was actually that good of a director when I was directing, but I used to try to get to the point in rehearsals where everyone was sick of running the show as quickly as possible, because I felt like that was when we could start finding the really interesting stuff. Once you have gotten through the obvious the truth starts to show itself, and finding that truth can be really interesting.
Of course, we usually didn’t have that kind of time, and finding the spontaneous fresh and obvious choices can be lively too. Acting is an interesting art form that way.
It’s everyone who isn’t on stage that has to worry about going nuts. I still have every line of dialogue and every song from Cabaret (my first professional musical) memorized. Fortunately I love Cabaret. And Little Shop of Horrors. But some of the less polished productions I worked on, or the one time I did a two week run of Brigadoon…torture. The things you do for a paycheck. I did read a lot of really good books this way though.
Memorizing lines is a skill that gets better with practice. It’s not actually like building muscles, but it’s helpful to think about it like lifting weights. The more you do it the more you can do it. You just sort of compartmentalize.
Most Broadway actors would cut off their right hand for a 2500 show run. A part is a part.
Unfortunately Producers was the exception not the norm most Broadway shows are either limited runs with big time movie stars in the lead, or are not successful and close after a few weeks. So if you are fortunate enough to land a role odds are you’ll be on the street looking for work before too long.
Also, Broadway is dark on Mondays so everyone gets a day off once a week.
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I see there are comparisons to live music acts. Most stand up Comedians you see have been doing the same act for 5 or more years. That’s why they HATE when their stuff is out online. The exceptions are the Chris Rocks and Amy Schumer’s of the world that hire teams of writers to develop a whole new set for them every so many years.
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Master Thespian: Oh, Baudleaire, I’m afraid we’ve played this acting thing too far. You’ve made worm’s meat of me! Adieu… adieu… remember me. Look! The face of death is near! And so… I flail!
Baudelaire: Master! I have killed my protege! How… how… how… how will you ever forgive me…?
Master Thespian: [ stands ] Very good! I was merely acting!
Baudelaire: So was I! I’ve fooled you again!
Master Thespian: No! It is I who fooled you! For I am dead… and merely acting alive!
I heard something similar about Barbra Streisand. Supposedly, when she’s belting out some incredibly intense phrase, she’s usually wondering if she should have Italian or Chinese for dinner.
But the point of that supposedly is that after you master your material (you perform it so well you CAN’T make a mistake), you can dismiss the part of you making the effort. That actually FREES your performance, and you get new insights into the material from your subconscious.
No matter how mind-numbing it may be for a theatre actor to put in the same performance of an entire play in front of a live audience and their fellow actors 100 times in a row over the course of season, I’m sure it pales in comparison to how mind-numbing it is for a film actor to put in the same performance of a single scene in front of a blue screen and a tennis ball 100 times in a row in the course of a day.
On long running shows, you also have vacations and changes to the cast. Mrs. Cheesesteak worked on Beauty and the Beast for 5 years, and not a week went by where there weren’t changes to the cast or the backstage crew so you had people subbing into roles they were taught but don’t perform all the time, and backstage crew that are learning the ropes.
It is a challenge, though, keeping on top of your game. The Mrs. would get supremely pissed at actors who phoned it in, she’d get home and I’d hear “That lazy so’n’so, you call that crap a tour jete?” She was very aware that in the audience were people for whom this show was a huge deal, this might be the only Broadway Show they ever see in their lives, or could be the show that turns them into a lifelong fan of live theater.
I’ll also point out, that once they learn the show, there is no line of dialog that an actor has to say more than 8 times a week. A McDonalds employee can say “Hello, welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order” that many times every 15 minutes for their entire shift.
In Spain, pretty much any bit that’s not sung is subject to morcillas*, improv added on the fly. Coming up with those requires the actors to remember where they are (if touring) and to pay attention to the audience (whether touring or in a fixed location).
There was a comic (Eugenio) who became famous for a delivery which went beyond deadpan and into ready to be buried; when asked about it, he said “it may be the first time you hear that joke, but it’s the zillionth time I tell it.”
lit “blood sausage”. The cheapest possible form of meat-like product, it’s very little meat and a lot of filler, yet adding a bit of it to an otherwise-meatless dish can improve that dish a lot.
When I saw The Lion King, the actor playing Mufasa was phoning it in. Everyone else was having a fun time leaping about, and this guy was just reciting words. Quite disappointed by that.
On the other hand everyone in the Aladdin stage show was amazing. The show itself was mediocre, but the performances were not at fault.
For me, the kind of job that had me doing the same thing over and over again during the course of a working day (like McDonald’s employee, or assembly line worker) would land me in a padded cell way quicker than being a stage actor doing the same show night after night.
Of course, some people CAN’T do it. Some don’t have the ability to maintain that focus.
These people are known as “unemployed actors.” If you aren’t a professional who can keep it up, you will rapidly find yourself replaced by someone like Matthew Broderick, a consummate professional who CAN maintain the focus.
It’s an innate talent. You either can do it or you can’t The ones who can do it very well totally amaze me.
If a great movie actor never gets on stage, it’s because they can’t do it, or they can’t really get along with doing a show with other people.
For a totally jaw dropping experience, catch Avenue Q. How do stage actors play off of puppets, totally ignoring the one or two other people on the stage speaking for and manipulating that piece of felt? I couldn’t do that in a million years.
