Fencesitting is uncomfortable, so make a choice!

A popular phrase you hear in acting classes is make strong choices. I would always eagerly nod my head along in agreement, sure choices sound good and strong ones sound even better.  But, in all honestly I never had any idea what that meant.

It took many years of working as a reader in casting offices for me to finally figure out this whole choice thing.  I'm pretty sure it means to have opinions about what is going on in the scene ... right? 

Every scene in a film is there for a reason and every line is important, if it wasn't then it would be cut.  One phrase I absolutely hate is that's just a throwaway line.  I'm sure if you asked the writer they would disagree.

If every moment is important, then you should have an opinion about every moment, especially the moments when you aren't speaking.

A wonderful example of this is Ed O'Neill's audition for Married With Children.  The scene started with him coming into house after work.  The moment before he came inside Ed stared at the prop door and let out a big sigh.  This moment was not in the script, but it showed he had strong opinion about what coming home after work meant to Al Bundy.  Because of this sigh, he got the part.

Some choices work, but some don’t so you have to be flexible with dropping a choice you made when asked.  I see actors get so caught up with choreographed moves or accents that they can’t drop them or they stumble through the scene once told to change it.

I was a reader at an audition that involved a lot of physicality and one actor’s choreography involved approaching me and ripping the script from my hands.  The CD immediately stopped the audition.  He may have been worried about my safety or the fact that I needed the script for my lines, but mostly he stopped him because the actor stepped out of the area that the camera could catch.  The actor was so frazzled after being stopped and told he had to change his movements, he had a hard time completing the scene, forgetting lines that he knew a minute earlier.

Make choices, but be flexible with them.  Plus, you get the added bonus of looking directable.

The worse choice you can make is to not make a choice.  The forgettable actors are the fencesitters who are worried about making the wrong choice. Don’t fear incorrect choices, you aren’t selecting the Holy Grail here and I promise you won’t rapidly age and have your face melt off because you chose poorly.

Form strong opinions and go balls to the wall with them!