How intelligent are actors? Thespian genius

Thespian genius. It is probably not a term you have seen before. I have just written it for the first time and I don't recall seeing it anywhere else, either. We don't normally associate acting with high intelligence. This may be because some actors, in interview, don't appear all that smart. However, how smart an actor needs to be depends on the kind of role they play, the kind of acting they do: in particular the divide between film/tv and theatre. Theatre actors need to be a whole lot smarter than film actors.

Let us look at what a theatre actor has to do. They have to learn a lot of lines. This may be many indeed: Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is about 1600 lines of poetic writing to learn, if you are playing the lead role. There are not just lines to learn. You must learn your movements, your reactions, the appropriate tone and pitch, volume and delivery of each and every line. You may have to learn an accent, or a new style of walking. You not only need to know your lines: you need to know what other people's lines are - what your "cues" are, that is what you expect them to do and say before you react. Acting requires each actor to learn the contents of a couple of hours of life. This demands a powerful memory, as a minimum requirement. It also demands powers of concentration and focus: you must always be aware of what is going on - is it as you expect? Is your cue approaching? Is everyone in the right position? All of this observation must go on without it showing in your face or movements: you must always be "in character" - that is, you must always seem to be someone other than yourself. Your way of speaking may not be your own, your rhythm, your phrasing, your style, may all differ from your real voice. Your reactions and emotions are likely not to be your own, but those of a character who may respond in ways you do not. It is a true trial of the mind.

Yet actors are often not thought of as thinkers. Why is this? It is because the most famous actors in the world are film stars - and the demands of a film star are much less than those of a theatre actor, as detailed above. Or at least different. You don't need to be "in character" as a film star, for hours at a time. You don't need to concentrate for more than a few minutes, before the end of the take. You don't need to get it right every time, like a theatre actor does: if you make a mistake, you can shoot again. A theatre actor doesn't have that luxury. In short, a film actor can get away with being a lot less competent than a theatre actor. That is why many film actors who try the stage dissappoint audiences. Audiences expect the slickness that a good film editor and director get out of a film star's performance - but the film star often doesn't have the skills to deliver in that way, on the stage, where there is nothing but him or her and the character to hand.

Then again, a stage actor has to project his voice, to reach the back of the audience. Some stage actors react larger than life so that people will see their reactions. A film actor is more subtle. There is no need to project, the microphone will pick it all up; the actor should never be other than lifelike in his reactions and responses, because the camera sees all. So just as film actors don't do stage, sometimes stage actors don't travel well to the silver screen.

Both kinds of actors need an emotional memory: the ability to recall their emotional states on cue, and, if not feel them again, as some do, at least show them. That is not easy, for most people.

When the average person tries to act, they usually fail badly. Acting is not as easy as it looks. An actor's performance may look as easy as being yourself and having an ordinary conversation, but there is great skill involved, in that.

Why do I write this post? Well, when I was much younger, I was an actor. My family didn't understand this pursuit and thought it beneath me: that I was better than that, in their eyes. They thought that acting didn't make good use of my mind. I don't think they understood the true demands of acting. Most of my work was theatre - and so required a high level of mental commitment from me, as it does from all actors. I believe I learnt a lot through acting - about myself, about others - and about not being afraid. Actors need courage. In particular theatre actors need courage. The stage can be a very threatening place. There is an expectant audience out there - and they will witness every mistake or slip up you make. I never made one in all my acting career, such was my focus and attention. However, I did become involved in someone else's mistake.

I was playing the 10th Juror (if I recall correctly), in the late 80s, in Reginald Penrose's Twelve Angry Men (which you may recall was made into a film with Henry Fonda), at Cambridge University. We were playing in the round, with the audience in front of us, and behind us. We were on stage the whole time, with no respite in the wings. There were no wings. It was the most exposed piece of theatre I ever did.

Anyway, we were sharing the stage with a very confident young actor. A man who had been a star of the National Youth Theatre, in England. He seemed to feel that he was truly great. I won't name him...but just characterize him. No-one else on stage had his pedigree - but we all had something else which he lacked - enough humility to focus on our work and do our best. This key difference showed its worth one night. You see, this cocky actor just wasn't paying attention and, in one scene, he gave the wrong reply to a cue - and skipped the play forward several pages of script in one response. Suddenly, everyone was in the wrong position, doing and saying the wrong thing - and a key element of plot had been left out. It took an instant for it to dawn on me and one of my fellow actors what had happened. He looked at me, with eyes that said: "Let's handle this" - and we did. We both proceeded to improvise a scene to fill the gap that had been created. We threw lines at each other and caught them and responded in a suitable way so that all the missing information and plot elements were filled in - and then we passed seamlessly back into the body of the play, where everything should have been. It took a few minutes, but they were the longest minutes I had ever spent on stage.

Do you know what the best part of this was? No-one in the audience even noticed. We had repaired the scene without anyone doubting, for a moment, the truthfulness of what was occurring.

Theatre actors have to be able to handle that kind of thing. It is not something that can be done without high intelligence.

So, the next time you hear that some young man or woman is acting, don't think that they are "wasting their gifts". Acting is a gift all of its own - and a challenge for any mind, if you take on a large role, in a complex production, on the stage.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, my scientific child prodigy son, aged six, and his gifted brothers, as well as genius, prodigy, savant and giftedness in general go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html )