The Art Of Acting By Orson Welles

moray mair | Life in a cultural petri dish | June 12, 2012

Orson Welles remarked, on the art of acting, that an actor only creates a truthful performance by looking into his or her own character and selectively taking things away. Like a sculptor with stone.

There is a villain in each of us, a murderer in each of us, a fascist in each of us, a saint in each of us, and the actor is the man or woman who can eliminate from himself those things which will interfere with that truth.

This comment is from a public talk Welles gave towards the end of his life and preserved in this video clip from the 1995 documentary by Vassili Silovic and Oja Kodar, Orson Welles: The One-Man Band.

Orson Welles is always worth listening too.

Via Open Culture