Making the change from acting on the stage to acting on the screen

As an actor on stage, the actor is playing to an audience that is probably about 20 feet away (at the closest). This requires a certain level of energy, and effort to be made to tell the story effectively to the audience. While actors often strive for realism in the theatre, they must still communicate with the audience in a clear way that expresses the emotions the character is feeling. This often leads to bigger movements and gestures, and keeping volume up, even during very intimate moments.

Now if the average theatre audience is between 20 and 75 feet away from the actor on stage, film puts the audience as close as a few inches. The audience perspective is not based on the audience’s distance from the screen, but the camera’s distance from the actor. This means the actor does not need to worry about expressing feelings and actions to people who are 75 feet away! He or she can bask in realism with most of the acting being done with the face. This also allows actors to whisper, and speak off thier voice, as normal humans often do.

Alex D. Baggett – Acting Student, Musician

One of the fundamental differences that actors have described to me is in regards to the relationship with the director.

In the theatre, the actors and director will work together in a room for up to 6-8 weeks with few or no distractions and really discover each other’s perspectives on life, the universe and everything, as well as developing characters and “finding the performance”.

In film and TV, you’re lucky if you get more than a couple of days of rehearsal time. You barely know your director before you have to start performing. One actor friend told me about his experience of doing a day player part on a major soap opera – he wasn’t sure that he even met the director! He was shown his marks by an assistant, he did his lines, got no feedback and then was told he was done and he left. He had no idea if he had delivered what they were looking for.

These two relationship dynamics make for a very different experience of performing for the actor. In the theatre context, if the actor has a question or an idea about something, he or she goes straight to the director, “I’ve been thinking that my character would be really into macramé”, they discuss it, they try it out and they build the performance together. In film/TV, by comparison, the actor’s never quite sure what is going on, they’re always looking for reassurance and they rarely ever get it. They feel insecure, lonely and ignored – the total opposite of working in a theatre context. This is the hardest challenge faced by actors making the transition from stage to screen.

Brian Barnes – Director in post on 1st feature

On stage (plays), you are acting all the way through from your entrance until your exit. You interact live with your fellow actors. Your choices affect their choices to some extent and you carry scenes together. There is no interruption if you make a mistake. There is also more projecting of voice and body language to communicate your role. You can somewhat also react off of the energy of the audience, depending on the stage and material.

On camera (movies), sometimes the movie is shot out of sequence due to logistics. For an actor, he will have to recall what he did the previous scene in the script, even if that moment was shot a few days ago. If the scene was not shot yet, he will have to refer to what the director needs out of him. The director will want a couple of different takes as options in editing. There is a lot of setup for a shoot so a stage actor will need to have a lot of patience. Because the camera captures every actor’s subtle movements, a stage actor not used to film will tend to overproject his voice and body.

Ryan Omega – Line Producer for the Labyrinth of Jareth, Casting Director, Psychic Consultant and LARPer

Alex is absolutely right about the difference between stage and screen acting, but I’d like to focus on the challenge presented by the difference. Most of my acting experience is on the stage, but in the few films I’ve done I found the challenge came from a different set of choices that a camera presents as opposed to a live audience.

With a camera in your face you’ve got to make a decision regarding every single facial gesture and to what degree you’ll commit to it. It is amazingly easy to overact in such a situation when you’re used to doing live theatre. Something that works for an audience member looking at you from a distance where your nose might appear to be its actual size might not work when your nose is the size of a Buick up there on the big screen.

Everything is correspondingly bigger, so a look of startled surprise that worked for you onstage will come off as way too big on film.

The challenge is to tone things down, but not so much so that nothing is communicated.

It’s really tricky.

David Durham – Actor, comedian, producer and often . . . waiter. Ain’t that the way of things?