What makes a good actor? (Honest opinions please)

I think I judged the actress playing Patralekha too much on her acting. I feel most of us judged her for her poker face and lack of expressions in scenes that are supposed to be impactful. But honestly, I would rather take this

Than this

or this

Like, what on earth are these expressions? It's seems like her expressions depict either lack of acting, or over-acting. I mean, if there is something beyond over-acting, it is this. 

That leads us to my question now, what is good/great acting? It is when you feel like the actor playing the part is not present, but the character itself is in front of you. Good acting goes beyond just dialogue delivery. It is taking the part and the dialogue and making the audiences feel something with them, be it love, angst, hatred, humor or anything. 

^Look at this expression. Any viewer who sees this can understand what she's feeling - anger and disbelief.

^Or this, where one can understand that she's wary and she's challenging. The anger is still there, but it has been controlled given the situation and the place.

Whereas a bad actor, makes acting feel like acting. The one who is unable to express their feelings through their eyes or even their body language. They are either blank, deadpan on screen or they are too over the top and make us cringe. Another mark of an average/bad actor is the usage of their facial features - especially the eyebrows and the forehead. When an actor constantly uses their eyebrows and not their eyes to express, the expression ends up looking muddled. Eyebrows definitely play an important role while depicting a particular expression, but the over usage of it only makes it worse. 

Also, a good actor will let themselves feel whatever they're going to express, whereas a bad actor will just have a vague understanding of what the expression should look like and will scrunch up their face in various ways to somehow get an expression, which results in something like this

No matter how terrible a character is, if the acting makes up for it, the show is still enjoyable. If the actor/actress who plays the negative character very well, we might enjoy the face-off between the protagonist and the antagonist a bit better, we can empathise with the character if needed, and if there is a redemption arc, it would make us even want to root for the character. But if the acting is terrible, then the entire beauty of the episode is spoilt, no matter how many heartwarming moments between other characters are there. This kind of acting makes you cringe, and it most definitely makes you want to skip the scene or even the entire episode, no matter how good the other actors are.

In this post, I've compared Ayesha and Aishwarya because both of them are relatively new to the field, and for both of them, this is a big break. I'm not claiming that Ayesha is a top-notch actress who aces every scene. She does have her bad moments. Especially during her confrontation and anger scenes, she has this habit of pursing her lips a lot and huffing unnecessarily. She also enunciates words where it is not necessary. But I do admire how she went from an inexperienced, average actor to an actor who can hold her ground against versatiles like Neil and Kishori.

And yeah, though I do enjoy the dialogues delivered by Sai or anyone who puts Pakhi in their place, I definitely do not enjoy the scene because Aishwarya's cringe-worthy acting makes it hard for me to focus on that scene. 

I didn't make this post to bash anyone or praise anyone. I just wanted to write about what I thought was good acting and bad acting. I also wanted to know your opinions on what makes a good actor and what makes an actor bad. Your answers would definitely be very helpful as I'm writing a research paper on the same topic - What makes a good actor? So, please put forth your honest views😃

Love,

Niya🤗

Originally posted by: LadyWhistledown

I think I judged the actress playing Patralekha too much on her acting. I feel most of us judged her for her poker face and lack of expressions in scenes that are supposed to be impactful. But honestly, I would rather take this

Than this

or this

Like, what on earth are these expressions? It's seems like her expressions depict either lack of acting, or over-acting. I mean, if there is something beyond over-acting, it is this. 

That leads us to my question now, what is good/great acting? It is when you feel like the actor playing the part is not present, but the character itself is in front of you. Good acting goes beyond just dialogue delivery. It is taking the part and the dialogue and making the audiences feel something with them, be it love, angst, hatred, humor or anything. 

^Look at this expression. Any viewer who sees this can understand what she's feeling - anger and disbelief.

^Or this, where one can understand that she's wary and she's challenging. The anger is still there, but it has been controlled given the situation and the place.

Whereas a bad actor, makes acting feel like acting. The one who is unable to express their feelings through their eyes or even their body language. They are either blank, deadpan on screen or they are too over the top and make us cringe. Another mark of an average/bad actor is the usage of their facial features - especially the eyebrows and the forehead. When an actor constantly uses their eyebrows and not their eyes to express, the expression ends up looking muddled. Eyebrows definitely play an important role while depicting a particular expression, but the over usage of it only makes it worse. 

Also, a good actor will let themselves feel whatever they're going to express, whereas a bad actor will just have a vague understanding of what the expression should look like and will scrunch up their face in various ways to somehow get an expression, which results in something like this

Especially this one ☝️ 

No matter how terrible a character is, if the acting makes up for it, the show is still enjoyable. If the actor/actress who plays the negative character very well, we might enjoy the face-off between the protagonist and the antagonist a bit better, we can empathise with the character if needed, and if there is a redemption arc, it would make us even want to root for the character. But if the acting is terrible, then the entire beauty of the episode is spoilt, no matter how many heartwarming moments between other characters are there. This kind of acting makes you cringe, and it most definitely makes you want to skip the scene or even the entire episode, no matter how good the other actors are.

In this post, I've compared Ayesha and Aishwarya because both of them are relatively new to the field, and for both of them, this is a big break. I'm not claiming that Ayesha is a top-notch actress who aces every scene. She does have her bad moments. Especially during her confrontation and anger scenes, she has this habit of pursing her lips a lot and huffing unnecessarily. She also enunciates words where it is not necessary. But I do admire how she went from an inexperienced, average actor to an actor who can hold her ground against versatiles like Neil and Kishori.

And yeah, though I do enjoy the dialogues delivered by Sai or anyone who puts Pakhi in their place, I definitely do not enjoy the scene because Aishwarya's cringe-worthy acting makes it hard for me to focus on that scene. 

I didn't make this post to bash anyone or praise anyone. I just wanted to write about what I thought was good acting and bad acting. I also wanted to know your opinions on what makes a good actor and what makes an actor bad. Your answers would definitely be very helpful as I'm writing a research paper on the same topic - What makes a good actor? So, please put forth your honest views😃

Love,

Niya🤗

Amazing post

Look, I said we shouldn’t talk about Aishwarya’s personal life of actions. So this is keeping all that aside, as viewers  notice stuff and can put out our views on it. 

I am not saying Ayesha is the greatest actor but she does know her ways around the feelings she needs to express.

About Aishwarya, the main problem I feel is too much of her mouth gestures. Sometimes she over does it and her expressions have literally frightened me. 

She does good acting offscreen ,I dont know why she goes blank when she comes onscreen....If you see her few videos you will find them better but when she comes to Pakhi's role she lose the plot.

My genuine view

Loved your post and I agree with you. For me a good actor / actress is someone who doesn't need any dialogue to express his / her feelings. Their eyes or body language is enough for the viewer to understand what he / she wants to convey. When an actor / actress is enacting be it a comedy, sad or happy role and if we too feel like laughing or  crying alongwith them then that means the actor / actress is good. Whereas an actor / actress is unable to convey his / her feelings through their facial expressions and have to literally make cringeworthy faces then he / she is bad. Since, the viewer is not able to feel the emotion at all. I was watching a show on Colors today and the child artist is so good. When she cries she makes us cry too. 

No offense but I feel that Pakhi is not the apt character for Aishwarya. If given a lighter bubbly kind of role she would have atleast made it watchable. 

Frankly speaking don't know much about acting... But I really don't get her expressions, what is trying to say or feeling.... Few examples like " when virat said he will leave the house along with sai" she is supposed to give sarcastic smile but I felt she is happy, another scene during amay track, when chavans are in loudspeaker and sai Shivani are talking to amay, virat gives an expression to Kaku ninad and pakhi like " dheka sai ka plan types" there both Kaku and ninad have expression change but pakhi none.... these are few examples

Frankly speaking sometimes I feel it's CVS mistake also than actress, their mix up of original and copy paste without sink is making the charector pakhi more dilusional than RK from KD.... For example in devi's gift throwing scene, RK didn't feel bad so once she opposing emon, it looks like the flow but here pakhi literally cried ( atleast her expressions look like that) and next moment she is against sai which makes her more dilusional.... And most of her expressions are like "you cheated me" like when she got to know Mohit helped sai or pulkit supporting sai instead her expressions should be angry... So I really can't point out whose mistake is this sudden expression changes CVS or actress... I might be wrong but it's only my observation and take ....this is my genuine take , no hard feeling for actress or offscreen stuff...

Even I don't find Ayesha or Neil are perfect, at some points we can see Ayesha and Neil expressions are upto mark but rest of expressing are good , we can atleast relate and go with the flow of plot.... But pakhi actress gives expressions during dialogue with is relative to only that dialogue but don't go in flow with her character.

PS: I might be wrong

I have said this honestly many times, that I don't know much about acting skills and stuff. So ,I hardly comment on these stuffs.

After I joined the forum, I began to learn and notice stuff. It is true,that the first one who blew me away was Neil obviously, he is fabulous. But other than that I didn't use to pay much attention.

But as time passed, I did notice what everyone was pointing out at. I am not into this stuff, and don't know the depth of analysis for acting as you pointed out, but yes, the difference can definitely be pointed out here is what I feel regarding the way we actually need to be felt vs what we feel in real.

Thanks for the tag!

Considering I haven’t watched the last two episodes (because it disturbs me to see the zillat arena in action again, without surety of a comeback ), I don’t feel qualified to comment on the caps you have shared. 

Based on previous episodes, I find Ayesha and Aishwarya on par with their acting skills. Pakhi has less variation in scenes, as she is either sad, shocked or angry. So I won’t judge her with the same scale as Ayesha, who is a lead and falls short in certain important emotional sequences. She has a strange habit of breaking down sentences when angry that comes across as quite odd. For eg. “Aap jo. Baat baat pe. Mujhe taane. Marte rehte hain. Kabhi aapne. Socha Hai. Ki mere dil ko kaise lagta. Hoga?” *Insert weird sniffling in between after each pause”. 

But this same Ayesha aced the worried wife sequence shown recently in the shoot out scenes. I don’t know if she would revert to the same sequence of dialogue delivery, but she is growing as an actor and that’s pretty visible.

With Aishwarya, I said it earlier and I will say it again - she is doing what’s needed. Her character does not demand sympathy from the audience. It is MEANT to be frustrating, so that we cheer internally when Sai insults Pakhi. Pakhi is not a negative lead. She is the second lead, who will throw a pity party and raise everyone’s BP. There is very little variation or scope for nuanced acting in this character, so you really can’t track growth like in Ayesha’s case. 

Neil does a good job in emotional scenes, but he can also lean towards the dramatic with finger raising and “bas, XYZ” every couple of episodes.

What makes a good actor? It’s a person who imbibes and dons every little bit of their character convincingly. Who makes you forget that they are acting and playing a role in each scene. A person who catches the nuance of their role perfectly.

The leads in this show are new and will learn with time. I won’t call any of them good actors at present. They just get the job done and for now, that’s enough for me. 

Before beginning I just wanna say that I don't know much about acting and following thoughts are coming from a normal avg Indian audience. Thoughts are totally my personal opinion.

Last cap of didi reminds me of only one line

'Bolo zubaan kesari'😛

Jokes aside, I do agree with all your points. Ayesha(1 movie 1 show with not much SS) is comparitively less experienced than Aishwarya(3 shows and 1 webseries). Ayesha is not an excellent actress, but the improvement in acting is so clearly evident in her case. 

Like if today I see the initial episodes, I can say that Ayesha was less emotive then but now I feel for Sai. Her tears make me cry as well.

This show happens to be the third ITV show I will be watching after KRPKAB and Ishqbaaaz.

 The former show had Supriya Pilgaonkar playing the grey character, and man she was terrific. She made me hate Ishwari but also a fan of the actress. 

Ishqbaaz had many vamps and all of them were too good in their craft. I could not imagine other actor/actresses playing their character.

But the 'grey character' in our show does nothing but make a Stone face and add extra O2 to dialogues. Pakhi and RK are supposed to be similar with both of them being very layered. But Aparajita played RK so well, that even after not understanding the language, I could kinda figure out what she was feeling and could see through(or atleast try to) layers. In hindi version, I desperately need some subtitles.

In the beginning, I found Ayesha's acting quite thanda and I always wondered how will she play a fierce character like Imon. But now I have zero doubts.

Aishwarya can still improve and make us look through Pakhi's layers, if she is willing to.

I have just penned out my personal thoughts. No indirects, bashing or trolling is involved.

Thanks for tagging, you are a sweetheart❣

Not a fan of Aish at all she is pretty looking 

But acting she is sometimes wodden and expressionless

Without the dialogue it's difficult to understand emo from just face 🙈🧐

One my fav actor in grey role is Jenny who is also my fav actress. So mostly she is my referral point

I did like shrenu in ek bhram until the characters was grey ..that switch btw cunning and innocent is phenomenal 

So I do find Aish not upto the mark and hence j am.losi g interest 

For the story to remain interesting the antogonist or lead negative character also has to be good