Actors and their Amazing Capability to Act (IR)

        So, it's been a while since I've blogged about acting. It's one of my many hobbies and I can't help being interested. So, yesterday I auditioned for our school's fall play, "A Haunting We Will Go". I've always absolutely loved auditions for plays and musicals because you get to read the lines for all sorts of characters so that the directors have a good idea of your capability to act. So, in all of the plays I've been in, I've ended up being cast as the innocent and good character. Since people have only seen me act in those happy-go-lucky roles, no one has ever really seen me act in a villainous role. Of course, I'm not saying I would be a good fit for a villainous role (Ha! During the auditions for "The Wizard of Oz" in  10th grade they had me read for the witch at on point... It was quite an interesting experience), just that it is possible for even me to act villainous in certain roles.
         The point is, this got me thinking about just how amazing true actors can really be. I mean think about it - some actors can play the most pure, innocent characters as well as the most evil, lunatic and annoying characters. It all depends on perspective. I found this article online called "13 Actors Who Can Play Any Role". It has a list of some actors and actresses who do indeed have a huge range of acting experience - actors such as Natalie Portman, Johnny Depp (I don't see how he couldn't be on this list), Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, and many more. Of course, these are only a sliver of the amazing actors out there. Someone who I personally would add to this list is Anne Hathaway. From a humble daughter in Ella Enchanted, to a troubled mother (with a powerful voice) in Les Miserables, to a full-on villain in The Dark Night Rises, Anne Hathaway can play a huge variety of roles, performing each part with a certain air that is unique to her and her alone. Some actors truly have an amazing capability to act. And that is something that I admire greatly in them.
        Actors and actresses also tend to have a knack for memorizing lines. This is something that intrigues me immensely about acting. When your director hands you a 200-page packet script for a play that you decide you will learn in a week, some may think it impossible, and so may you. That is until you sit down for hours on end and come back a week later fully prepared to put down your script and start spouting lines ("Wizard of Oz" anyone?). Memorization abilities just come to people in a real variety of ways. Some people can literally look at a paragraph for fifteen minutes and then exclaim the words flawlessly a moment later.
        By the way, I've also been reading into my most recent unit of AP Psychology quite a bit, so I may start ranting about memorization from here on out. You see, there are all sorts of ways to memorize things, and people just have to find what's right for them. Personally, I am a true visual learner. I memorize lines in plays and such by looking at a phrase, covering it, and repeating the phrase aloud (or in my head if there are people around). Then, I read the next phrase, cover it along with the first phrase, and recite both phrases until it comes naturally. I then continue to repeat this process over and over again throughout whatever it is I am memorizing until I can say it all correctly and in the right order. This is why I absolutely hate it when I am talking to another actor in a play and they change the words around so that it is not exactly as it is written. Normally, a mistake like this will pass off as nothing, but sometimes it doesn't work out so well. Like in "Seussical the Musical", a musical that is made up entirely of rhymes. Once when I was performing in this play, another actor said their lines too quickly, before I could finish my own, therefore causing the rhyme scheme to fluctuate, announcing quite brightly to the audience that there had been a mistake. Yeah, I don't like it when people stray from the script.
        Not all actors are visual actors. A lot of them are audio learners. One time, one of my friends who is into acting was in a play with me outside of school. She was having trouble memorizing lines so I decided to help her. Long story short, we discovered that she was by no means a visual learner, but an audio learner. She was able to learn her lines by following my method of phrasing memorization, except with me reading each phrase aloud to her and then having her recite the lines until flawless. Once you find your ideal method of memorization, the hardest lines to memorize can become possible again.
        So, the point of the matter is, actors have an amazing capability to act. Whether they be a well-known professional or a down-to-earth newbie, acting sure takes a lot of hard work and confidence to express yourself openly to the world. And it looks like my long rant has come to an end. Until the next time! ;)

Here is the link to "13 Actors Who Can Play Any Role":

http://screen.answers.com/movies/13-actors-who-can-play-any-role