In NYC last September, early one jetlagged morning, I found myself musing over an extremely interesting conversation held a few days previously in London with Sandy Nairne, (director of the National Portrait Gallery). It concerned the nature of ‘truth’ in portraiture of actors. Is the ‘real’ portrait of the actor when he or she is caught unawares, perhaps even vulnerable, and therefore un-masked? The idea being – following this argument through – that an actor seen performing, or in character, is basically pretending to be someone else, is therefore ‘constructed’, and so by definition cannot be truly present as him or herself. The idea of the ‘essential’ self remaining hidden if the actor is portrayed ‘in character’ runs counter to the tradition of portrait as revelation. Here are some notes I wrote when mulling this over.
My experience runs counter to this view of ‘truth’ in portraiture of actors. An actor can, when working deeply, bring a self into his or her skin, which is radiantly true to the core. The ‘everyday’ self is not necessarily more true. A quality of aliveness that comes from connecting with a fictional character who embodies a reality more articulate and distilled than is possible in daily life, can in turn reveal something in the actor that otherwise remains hidden.
Furthermore, to some degree we all - whether professional actors or not - consciously or unconsciously act a part we have slowly constructed (or had thrust upon us) over the years; a ‘self’ that we confuse with an essential nature. We do it more or less well, of course, but are often unsure about who we ‘really’ are. (Anyone who has been told ‘just be yourself’ when being photographed will recognise the quiet panic that ensues.)
The fact is that we create ourselves anew in every fresh situation. An actor does it more consciously, slipping into a parallel skin called a ‘character’, but drawing on his or her experience in order to render this fictitious ‘other’ authentic and believable.
It is this that explains, to some degree, the phenomenon of charisma. It is a kind of focused state of being where the self comes to the surface and radiates outwards, where most of us are – energetically speaking - in a state of retreat from our own skin. The conscious visibility or accessibility in an actor’s face helps us to feel we ‘know’ the person; an experience that confronts actors repeatedly when strangers come up to them and treat them as their closest intimates.
My grandmother – who was an actress in the 1920s – used to say to me ’If there is something that you want to do or be just ACT as if you already are. In time you will become that which - at the beginning – you pretended to be.’
This insight has fuelled many of my decisions and given me a fluid sense of how we are not fixed entities; we can write our own stories and gradually become our ‘true’ selves.
PORTRAIT OF JOHN LEGUIZAMO "IN CHARACTER" BY SALLY POTTER.
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