VAM 230 | How To Take Direction Without Taking It Personally
Welcome to episode 230 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Since 2011, I’ve repeatedly stressed on this podcast the importance of developing professionally competitive acting skills if you want to be successful as a voice actor. It’s why I decided to name the podcast Voice Acting Mastery! If masterful voice acting skills are the prime requisite for succeeding as a professional, and they most certainly are, the next most important skill is the ability to take direction. If you are a brilliant actor who can give truly authentic performances, but you’re unwilling to modify your acting to suit the overall vision a director has for a project, you become an impediment to the production, rather than an asset. Allow me to explain.
When working on a production with multiple characters, like an animated show or a video game, every actor in the project has their own idea of how they would like to play their character. Industrious, proactive actors have taken the time to analyze the script and their character’s point of view very rigorously, working out as many details as they can in order to explore the psychological nuances in each scene. And while this might be enough to create standout individual performances, if a director were simply to allow each of these actors to play their part as they saw fit without considering the project as a whole, the resulting performances may not end up sounding like they go together. Instead, you might end up with as many different opinions about how the project should sound as there are performers working on it!
The director’s job is to have a single point of view or focus for the production and to make sure that every actor’s contribution serves that unifying vision. It’s not dissimilar from the conductor of an orchestra ensuring that every musician is playing on the beat, in tune, and with the appropriate emphasis, emotional nuance, and dynamics to make the music as compelling as possible. No one musician, no matter how brilliant they may be on their own, can remain in the orchestra if they’re not willing to take direction and contribute to a unified performance. The same is true in acting.
The ability to take direction and modify your performance so you can serve the production as a whole is crucial if you want to be valuable to a project. However, I have noticed that some beginning voice actors, especially those who have little to no experience in traditional acting environments like theater, have a tendency to take the direction they receive rather personally. Instead of acknowledging the notes that a director might give them, and then doing their best to perform in a way that aligns with the director’s vision, they instead take that direction as a personal criticism. They feel upset and hurt, as if the direction they received was an insult or a judgement.
I can understand why this happens. Acting is about sharing one’s emotional life through the vehicle of a character in service of a story in the hopes that an audience will find it compelling. I’ve spoken often about the importance of an actor being emotionally vulnerable when playing a character, so the performance will be as authentic and believable as possible. If you make yourself emotionally vulnerable, it’s understandable that any director’s request to modify whatever vulnerability you just shared can feel like a personal rejection.
I’d like to take this episode to implore all my listeners not to take direction personally, and to understand that it’s a means to guide you, not a weapon to attack you. To help you understand this, I’m going to be sharing some techniques that may assist you in taking any direction you receive into consideration without becoming upset. Most directors I work with are generous, supportive people who only want the best for their project and for their actors. I know that when they give me notes, even spirited ones, it’s never a personal criticism, but merely their passion for making a project the best it can be. That being said, the mindset I want to share with you will even help you when working with directors who are not so enlightened. It’s unfortunate, but there’s always a possibility that you might end up interacting with a director who’s less generous and more egotistical. There are a few directors out there who can be controlling, emotionally dismissive, or downright rude. I want you to be able to maintain your emotional equilibrium even in the worst of circumstances!
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