*this post is inspired by the recent announcement that the balloon boy saga was a hoax. his parents met in acting school. enjoy.*
(a monologue)
I used to always say that I hated actors. This meant I hated artifice, pretense, and facades. I hated attention-getting melodrama. I hated the praise lauded on acting as talent, hated the money society heaps upon the movie industry and those who work in it, hated the numerous and tedious hours of interviews devoted to questions stroking already overblown egos, hated the number of people who called acting their “passion” when it seemed they were actually driven by pure and simple narcissism. I hated stage actors especially. I hated art exaggerating life. I hated that acting is seen as elitist, as something only a certain few can do well.
We all act, every day. (All the world is a stage.) As a teacher, I act like I don’t curse or do drugs. I act like I support the behavior of other teachers whose behavior I didn’t agree with. In public, around certain people, I act like my grammar is worse than it is. I act like I care. Around my family, I act like a peacekeeper and diplomat, usually refraining from contradicting their political or religious views. So what conclusion I’m coming to is that one of the reasons I profess to hate acting so much is that I hate it in myself as much as I hate it in others. I pride myself on being a “genuine” person but too often I am anything but, just to not be accused of being difficult or unpleasant—or worse, pretentious. We all act every day in various different ways and settings. People act like they’re fine, like they agree with you, like they’re coming. They act like they’re confident, and it is disturbing for everyone, I think, when they realize that their parents and all other adults in the world are just acting like adults.
We all act because we all imitate. It’s innate to imitate words, facial expressions and behavior. What kills me is when people continue to act in situations where there is little reason for it. I hate being treated as a member of an audience when I am a participant in conversation. I hate being expected to read between the lines of an acquaintance’s script. I hate when people act so much like others that they forget who they really are. I hate when people care more about the attention of strangers than they do about those who truly care about them.
Of course, there is validity in acting. People can learn more about their true selves through acting, just as they learn more about their hometown by moving away from it. I’ve been emotionally moved by images on film that were constructed in their set, speech and movement precisely to move me. I appreciate the medium of film to tell a story through a combination of action, image and language. I appreciate actors who make me believe I am watching a real person instead of the actor. These days, I usually refrain from saying I hate actors because I think most people get the wrong impression about what I mean by it. I don’t say it, but for the aforementioned reasons, I still think it. I hate actors.
[And scene.]