Fix One Acting Habit at a Time: Small Improvements That Add Up
Fix One Acting Habit at a Time: Small Improvements That Add Up
Watch back ten of your own self-tapes and you will probably notice something. The same few habits show up again and again.
Maybe you rush the last line. Maybe your shoulders creep up when a scene gets emotional. Maybe you nod on every sentence, or glance down before every big line. You did not choose those habits. They just happen.
Most actors try to fix all of them at once, usually the night before an audition. That rarely works. There is a better approach, and it comes from a book that is not about acting at all.
Habits are patterns you can rewrite
In Designing the Mind, Ryan A. Bush compares our automatic reactions to computer code:
"Our unwanted psychological tendencies really do break down into what can be compared to software algorithms."
(Ryan A. Bush, Designing the Mind, Introduction)
It is a useful way to look at acting habits too. A habit is a small automatic program: when the scene gets intense, my shoulders go up. When I reach the last line, I speed up to get it over with. Once you can name the pattern, it stops being a mystery and becomes something you can work on.
Bush suggests starting by "acknowledging the current state of your mind and envisioning the ideal one." (ch. 1, "Overture to Psychitecture") For an actor, that means being honest about what is on your tapes right now, and picturing what you want to see instead.
Small, steady changes
Bush uses the Japanese word kaizen, which he describes as "continuous change for the better." (ch. 1)
The idea is not a dramatic overhaul. It is one small improvement, then another, kept up over time. For habits, that means picking one and working on it until it fades before moving on to the next.
A simple habit-by-habit routine
1. Find your top three. Watch three or four recent tapes with fresh eyes, or ask a coach or trusted actor friend. Write down every habit you notice. Pick the three that show up most. 2. Name the pattern. Write each one as a trigger and a reaction:- "When I reach the final line, I rush it."
- "When the scene gets emotional, my shoulders rise."
- "When I'm unsure of a line, I look down."
- Rushing: breathe before the last line and let it land.
- Shoulder tension: check your shoulders when you hit the emotional turn and let them drop.
- Looking down: know that line cold, then keep your eyes on your reader through it.
Why one at a time works
When you try to fix everything, you end up thinking about yourself instead of the scene. Your attention goes inward, and the performance gets stiff.
When you work on one habit, most of your attention stays on your partner and what your character wants. The change happens in the background, a little more each time. Over a few months, three or four stubborn habits can quietly disappear.
Where ActorLab fits
Habits are easiest to fix when you can run a scene many times and watch yourself back. ActorLab's Scene Partner reads the other side whenever you want to practise, so you can do the extra reps that small improvements need without waiting for a friend to be free.
Pick one habit this week. Just one. That is how it starts.
Quotes are from Ryan A. Bush, Designing the Mind: The Principles of Psychitecture (2021), Introduction and chapter 1.
Related Posts
Match the Master: A 10-Minute Continuity Practice for Screen Actors
On set, every angle has to match the master shot. Here is a solo, ten-minute practice for repeating the same physical choices take after take, with nothing but a mug and a phone.
Hamlet's Advice to Actors, Applied to Your Self-Tape
Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare had Hamlet coach a troupe of actors. Two of his lines are still the best self-tape notes you will get. Here is how to use them.
Listening Is the Job: What Uta Hagen and Cathy Haase Teach About Self-Tapes
Two acting teachers, fifty years apart, say the same thing: the scene lives in what you hear, not what you planned. Here is how to put that to work on your next self-tape.