The First Lesson for Any New Actor Isn’t About Acting at All

by Chris Peterson

One of the first things a new actor needs to learn is how to listen.

I don’t mean looking at your scene partner while waiting for your cue. Actors get very good at pretending to listen while mentally preparing the next line. You can usually see it happening.

I did plenty of that when I was younger.

I thought acting meant making choices. Big ones, preferably. I wanted to show that I had done the work, understood the scene and had something interesting to offer.

The problem was that I could become so focused on my own performance that I stopped paying attention to the person standing across from me.

A director once stopped me during a scene and said, “Chris, just listen to her.”

That was the whole note.

It took me longer than I’d like to admit to understand what he meant.

When you’re new to acting, there is already so much going through your head. Lines. Blocking. Projection. Notes. Whether you’re standing in the right place. Whether the director liked what you just did.

Planning everything can make you feel safer.

But scenes get boring when actors decide everything ahead of time.

If your scene partner changes the way they say something, that should matter. If they hesitate, get angry, laugh unexpectedly or suddenly become quiet, you should hear it. Maybe it changes what you do next.

That’s where some of the best moments come from.

I’ve seen actors perform beautifully rehearsed reactions to lines they clearly weren’t hearing anymore. The pause is in the right place. The facial expression arrives right on schedule. Maybe there’s even a tear.

But you can tell the whole thing was planned.

The same problem kills comedy. If you’re waiting to deliver the funny line exactly the way you practiced it, you’re probably missing half of what makes the exchange funny in the first place.

Young actors sometimes feel like they need to constantly show us something. You don’t.

Listen to the other actor. Let them affect you. Then say the line.

You still need technique. You still need to know the text, understand the scene and hit your mark.

But once you stop worrying so much about showing everyone that you’re acting, the scene usually gets a lot more interesting.