Do you think acting is easy?

Whenever I see a few scenes, I try to enact them in front of the mirror. Just a few expressions or dialogues. I tend to think it is not so hard. I feel we are all actors in some way or the other. All the lies we say with a poker face? Isn't that acting? The way we ignore some people even though we are aware of their presence? Isn't that acting?

I feel all it takes is the ability to remember dialogues and work on our physique as per the character. Of course, also the ability to let go in front of the camera and act without appearing to be conscious.

I am not saying we can do all kinds of roles. (Most professional actors also can't do all kinds of roles, they have a certain kind of roles that suit them) So I am saying we can all definitely act convincingly in some roles. Do you feel the same?

The question is "Do you think acting is easy?"

Ignore the poll question. Typed that by mistake.

Easy hoti toh Bollywood waale nahi kar lete?😆

Camera ke saamne hard he.

I get you Ponymo, we all put on an act upto a degree that which comes naturally to all of us, to keep peace, to keep things on an even keel, to avoid complexity in daily life and so on - as a social animal - but it comes naturally (okay some tend to wear thicker veils but it's just degree and it comes from their own self)..

But the professional acting is a different world, and what makes it difficult in my eyes is - the actor leads a life of his own, and has to shape-shift themselves as per their understanding and the demand of the character and deliver it no matter what, and not only do they work for embodying a character they seek to make a connection, they seek to make the watcher feel something.. and it's not easy at all. To put yourself aside as a person and to embody another, and channel the character through yourself feeling them as a different person who you sometimes couldn't even be able to relate with even remotely, or who is so relatable that it brings up your own wounds in life - wow, that looks liberating, but also very difficult. I wonder what actors go through sometimes... and there are great meta films that delve into this.

Although most people will disagree with me, I think acting in real life only goes so far, we just put on the mask that we can wear the weight of, otherwise it breaks sooner or later. Different people have different thresholds, but.. it's different for professional acting.

It's the same basically, but.. the actor wears more, and sometimes, they are more vulnerable and succumb to the illusion of it as if life isn't already full of illusions.. And it can create some great inner crisis that we may not be able to grasp.. We all put on an act in an attempt to protect ourselves or in our various millions of attempts at understanding life or some other hundreds of reasons.. And I feel like professional acting gives people a chance to understand life, and playing so many characters their job is to dwell on life 24 x 7, and you can let out and act out whatever's suppressed and also find something meaningful that widens their horizons... that is why I feel they're blessed..

In a temperature of 40 degrees, under powerful lights and a crew of over 50 people, you're working with a co-actor you don't get along with and you have express your love to that person, whilst sweating profusely - with the director yelling instructions and 50 people watching you.

Yeah, it's very easy.

Immediately after this shot, you move to a green screen sequence, you are pretending to climb a mountain there - and end up meeting the Devil. You are running away from the Devil, but need to talk to him constantly as you have to solve a riddle.

Sounds easy?

Your fictional mom just died. You have to shed tears. You're really tired. It's 3 am in the morning. And, it's snowing. It's an exterior shoot. You have to cry and let it all out.

Easy?

Some movies are easier than others. Romantic comedies usually are considered less stressful and demanding. Action movies are more demanding with more days and it's logistically complex.

So, it depends. A movie like Badhai Ho would be easier to pull off than a movie like War, say. But then again, acting is an art where you have to make the audience feel what they are feeling. That's not easy to do. In real life, we almost never succeed.

Rehearsing in comforts of your home, when you're your own director and scriptwriter, is vastly different than doing it as a professional. That's the difference between a professional and an amateur.

An amateur or an outsider always thinks it's easy. You go, put on make-up, dance around, shed tears, laugh, and pack up, right? No. It doesn't work that way.

You go there, put on make-up, except you realize that the shoot needs to be wrapped up in 4 hours. It's a 5-minute long scene in movie terms. The lighting setup is complex. You're waiting for 2 hours. The director isn't convinced yet. The producer is yelling at the director. Director is taking it out on you.

The camera rolls. You fumble your lines. You're supposed to seduce your co-actor, whilst remember complex lines and also remembering instructions from the cinematographer on where to sit, where to stand. You nail it. Director is happy. Except the focus-puller messed up with the focus. You do a re-take. This time the timing is off. Then, your co-actor fumbles his or her lines. Then, you end up laughing because you found something funny. It's gone well over 5 hours now. The director goes for one last shot.

By this time, you're exhausted. You'd rather go home and sleep. But no, you can't. You need to finish the take. And, pretend to be all fine and dandy, and seductive.

It's easy.

And also, when the professional actor is working on the set, they have so many disturbances/challenges - many people among the crew, there are lights, there's cameras, there's so many people even if they're working together, there are so much set stuff IDK but can only imagine.. and to stay in the character for months with so many interruptions... wow, that's too difficult..

Not easy definitely but with right mentoring and practice one can learn it easily I feel.

Acting like oneself is easy but is that really acting. Sometimes I think acting is easy especially when you see the younger bunch we have. But when you see people like Amitabh, Soumitra,Surekhaji,Nawaz,Amruta,Shabana,Tabu, Gintanjali,Supriya PathakManoj Bajpayee and Pankaj Tripathi acting out a few scenes in ways you didn't even think was possible you truly get what they say about how actual raw acting can't be taught or bought. You either have it or you dont and its definitely not easy.

Now if you can think SOTY level is actually 'acting' then all of us here can do a better job than all those 'students' 😆

Acting isn't. But over-acting is! 😆