Now that you’ve made your choices, how do you generate these emotions and make them readable to the public? And in doing so, does the actor feel the emotions, or does he simulate them? These are the questions often asked about the representation of emotion.

It stands to reason if you want to affect the audience and move them, you, playing a credible character, must feel these emotions. But you have to feel them in such a way that they are conveyed to the public. The degree to which you feel each emotion will depend on the method used to achieve this feat and your ability to master it.

The actors involved in what is called “the Act of Method” use affective memory to generate emotions. Here, the actor remembers a specific event in his own life that produced the required feeling. For example, remembering a fight you had with another high school student might arouse the emotion of anger. Remembering the death of a loved one can generate the emotion of pain. The actor must replay the experience leading to the desired emotion and relive those moments in his mind. Thanks to this method, the required emotion is revived.

There are advantages and dangers in this type of emotional generation. Usually, the emotions derived seem real and deeply moving, more for the actor than for the audience. There is a tendency to internalize these emotions so much that they are not fully obvious to the viewer. The method makes producing emotions seemingly straightforward, but at a price.

You will find that emotions take time to evolve naturally and resist abrupt changes when deeply embedded in their memories. This is one of the reasons why few method actors succeed in comedy. Changes happen too quickly, and the method actor usually lacks the emotional agility required. Likewise, the process of the method takes precious rehearsal and production time because the team and the actors wait for the actor to call out the right emotion.

Actors using the method are likely to develop an attitude of “good” feeling lenient, which gravitates towards the feelings closest to them and more comfortable to generate. The performance then becomes that which depicts the reality of the actor and not that of the character. You can see how it can stifle the imagination of the actor and limit the search for emotional truth. The method can also put a strain on the actor’s psyche. The use of past events, some of which are forgotten, can lead to situations where it affects the actor’s mental stability.

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