In this week's Topic Thursday video I spoke with Dr. Jeff Watson, lecturer in philosophy at Arizona State University. We talked about how answering the question "Who am I?" can lead to some interesting insight into the process of creating a character. The life of a struggling actor is often characterized by a feeling of “lack.” We often feel a lack of opportunity, a lack of jobs, and a lack of income. I have spent many days despairing over this perceived lack, wondering when it will finally break. When will I finally feel okay? When will the opportunities to get paid and to share my art with others present themselves?
You hear from actors time and time again that they act because they have to. They act because they need to. This need is where the feeling of lack comes from. It comes from the absence of something that is needed. The easiest perspective to have of this feeling is a negative one. It is easy to look at the desperate need to act as a curse. I often wish I had been cursed with a passion for orthodontics or banking instead. But, there is a better way to view our “need” to act. I was reading Søren Kierkegaard’s Works of Love, and he gave me a new perspective. In this passage he is talking about Christian love, but I think it applies to our love of our art as well. It is a little lengthy but I promise it will be worth it: “How beautiful it is-that what betokens the deepest poverty likewise signifies the greatest riches! Need, to have need, and to be needy-how reluctantly a man wishes this to be said of him! And yet we pay the highest compliment when we say of a poet-“It is a need for him to write,” of an orator-“It is a need for him to speak,” of a girl-“It is a need for her to love.” Alas, even the most needy person who has ever lived-if he still has had love-how rich his life has been in comparison with him, the only really poor person, who lived out his life and never felt the need of anything! It is the girl’s greatest riches that she needs the beloved. It is the religious man’s highest and true wealth that he needs God…It is the same with the recognisability of love by its fruits, which, for the very same reason, when the relationship is right, are said to press through out of need-an indication of abundance.” What our need really is, is an abundance of love and passion for our art form. The greater the feelings of lack when we aren’t acting or the greater the feeling of needing to act, the greater abundance of love we have. So what we sometimes view as poverty, we can now view as an indication of our wealth of love. Anytime I have had one of my melodramatic crying and despairing sessions, my dad has always told me that he wishes he could have the passion for something the way I have passion for my acting. What I saw as pain from a “lack,” he saw as an indication of great passion. My dad was wise enough to recognize how lucky I am to have found something I love to do so much. So, the next time you feel like your life is lacking enough opportunities to act, try to view that feeling as an indication of how lucky you are “to have felt the need” of something. Better yet, go out and create your own outlet for expression. Comment below with your own creative ways of expressing yourself and fulfilling your own need to act. |
AuthorMorgan Tyler is a Los Angeles based actor. She is graduating from Arizona State University in December with a degree in Philosophy. Archives
January 2018
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