I remember hearing someone say that good acting is more about taking off a mask than putting one on, and in movie acting, certainly that's true. With the camera so close, you can see right down into your soul, hopefully. So being able to do that in a way is terrifying, and in another way, truly liberating. And I like that about it.
Interpretation
Good acting is about revealing one's true self rather than pretending to be someone else.
In this quote, Annette Bening expresses that true acting involves exposing one's inner self and emotions, rather than merely adopting a character. The intimacy of film acting allows viewers to connect deeply with the actor's genuine feelings, which can be both a daunting experience and one that brings a sense of freedom.
In practice
During a panel discussion on film, one can use this quote to emphasize the importance of authenticity in acting.
There's so much of our psychological makeup which is impermissible for us to explore because it's inappropriate or perverse or scary. I'm interested in exploring that in myself. I try to be honest with myself about everything that I feel. I'm not saying I'm able to do that all the time, but it's something I'm interested in.
When I look at women, older than I am, in their 50s, 60, 70s, 80s, and I see women that I admire, I think, 'Oh, I get it; that's how I'm going to be.' I'm not scared. I want to be that.
This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.
Science fiction, outside of poetry, is the only literary field which has no limits, no parameters whatsoever. You can go not only into the future, but into that wonderful place called other, which is simply another universe, another planet, another species.
To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. To be naked is to be without disguises.
I absolutely want to have a career where you make'em laugh and make'em cry. It's all theater.
I write scenes - often quite long scenes - mainly because I still get seduced into writing six lines where one and a half will do.
Good writers borrow from other writers. Great writers steal from them outright.
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