“To be an interesting actor – hell, to be an interesting human being – you must be authentic and for you to be authentic you must embrace who you really are, warts and all. Do you have any idea how liberating it is to not care what people think about you? Well, that’s what we’re here to do.” – Sanford Meisner on Acting

You might wonder what actors do to learn their craft. Of course, it takes a lot of practice, but to really succeed, an actor needs the right approach. One approach that many actors have had success with is called the Meisner Technique, which was developed by Sanford Meisner, an American theater practitioner.

In some approaches to acting, like Strasburg’s method, the process is very internal, reaching inside to remember actual memories to emotionally connect. The Meisner Technique is different, in that it’s much more external.
Actors focus less on themselves, and more on the other actors around them. This allows them to be in the moment and not in the past. And all emotion is a byproduct of what they are doing and the stakes of their scene. It’s a technique where the emotion behind the words is as important, if not more, than the words themselves. It differs from method acting, which focuses more on the character’s internal thoughts and feelings. The Meisner technique focuses on the other actor, or actors, in the scene.

An actor training in the Meisner technique will participate in several training exercises, each one building on the previous one. These exercises are improvisational, meaning they are without scripts. Students first learn to listen, then learn to access an emotional life, then they learn how to allow their emotions to create behavior, and then finally learn to bring the spontaneous style of improvisation and the emotions of personal response to a dramatic text. The technique develops an open and available instrument, improvisational skills, as well as empowers actors to interpret a script, and create the physical characteristics of the character being played.

Repetition Exercise

The repetition exercise is the foundation of the Meisner technique. It involves two actors standing across from each other, responding to each other with a phrase that’s repeated. At first, the phrase focuses on some physical property, such as “You’re wearing blue jeans.” But as the exercise continues, the phrase becomes more about the actors’ behavior, such as “You look upset with me.” The way the words are spoken changes in tone, intensity and overall meaning as each actor reacts to the behavior of the other actor. This causes the actor to stop thinking about what to say and do, and answer in a more spontaneous fashion.

How the Technique Was Developed

Sanford Meisner began developing his acting approach back in the 1930s, while working with the Group Theatre. Over the next five decades, he would continue to refine it, while he was head of the acting program at New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, as well as a teacher of private acting classes. As time went on, he would drop some exercises if he thought they weren’t effective, and he developed new exercises to help solve some of the problems his students were having. In 1980, a group of alumni decided to preserve his teachings for the actors of future generations.

List of Meisner-Trained Actors

The list of Meisner-trained actors is a long one. Some notable names include:
Keiko Agena
Kathy Bates
Chadwick Boseman
Néstor Carbonell
Stephen Colbert
Charles Michael Davis
Alexandra Daddario
Griffin Dunne
Robert Duvall
James Gandolfini
Jeff Goldblum
Regina Hall
Diane Keaton
Grace Kelly
Natasha Lyonne
Johnathan Majors
Tatiana Maslany
Christopher Meloni
Michelle Meyrink
Carrie-Anne Moss
Joakim Nätterqvist
Michael Paré
Maria Pitillo
Sydney Pollack
Sam Rockwell
Mark Rydell
Amy Schumer
Amanda Setton
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Jurnee Smollett
Ed Speleers
Sebastian Stan
Mary Steenburgen
Jon Voight
Christoph Waltz
Naomi Watts
Wil Wheaton
Chad Willett

Conclusion

The Meisner technique has stood the test of time and has proven to be a highly effective technique for a great many successful actors. Training in the Meisner technique should be considered for anyone serious about getting into the acting profession.

1. Create a non-verbal moment before the lines start. Before the first line is spoken create a response to the moment before. This will draw the viewer in before the speaking even starts.

2. Craft before you memorize. Knowing more about your character, what they want and why they say what they say will make memorization easier.

3. Introduce yourself in your slate – don’t announce or present yourself but think about how you would introduce yourself at a dinner party. Keep it warm and friendly.

4. Be in response to your scene partner. Remember you are being seen even when you are not talking.

5. Keep your eyeline close to the camera. However, don’t look directly into the lens. If you talk to more than one character, use sticky notes to mark your eyeline.

As my students know – I think in metaphors. They pop out of my mouth on a regular basis. One of my favorites is the comparing actor training to athletic training. A lot of actors don’t see the disciplines as similar – as though being a great actor is some sort of mysterious gift that you are born with or not., but being an athlete is something that you can develop. Kobe Bryant’s work ethic was legendary. He was famous for his 5am-7am workouts in high school. No one got to practice before him or left after him. He fine-tuned both his body and his skills. He made sure his body was able to do everything he needed it to, whether it was greater speed or the strength to match up against a LeBron James. He found that type of intense preparation fun! Without that work ethic and a love of the process – he might have just been another talented high school player. That’s the physical side of his training.

For actors, day in and day out work on flexibility, using the breath, emotional access and strengthening the voice is important so they can consistently meet the emotional and physical demands of the work. Do you have an argument scene? Will you be able to take multiple takes yelling at the top of your lungs without damaging your voice? Will you be able to repeatedly access emotional moments and not dry up? Can you handle the tongue twisting dialogue of a medical drama or a Shakespearean play? We stretch, do yoga, study voice, do articulation exercises and work out our imaginations and emotional temperaments every day to get in actor shape – so that whatever the scene requires, our body, our voice and our emotional life is ready to convey it.

What’s the actor equivalent of Kobe’s workout? His famous 1000 shots a day? In the Meisner Technique – it’s our repetition exercises. At least 1000 moments daily of connection and focus, deep listening, and riding impulses. This exercise has the actor repeatedly being affected by every little nuance they receive. Working on these exercises every day removes defense mechanisms and gets actors out of their heads so that being spontaneously reactive is in the muscle memory. It allows actors to feel deeply with no fear of showing those feelings to the camera or audience. As any athlete knows – the minute you engage the intellect on the court is the minute you miss a shot. The minute you think about your performance you are no longer living through something truthfully in the imaginary circumstances. Kobe also made sure to continue working on his strength and flexibility because it’s not enough to just be able to make the shots, you need your body to be able to handle the demands of 48 minutes of running, jumping and physical tussles with opponents. Actors need to be able to handle 8 shows a week and grueling emotional and physical demands.

But there is more than the physical side of basketball and acting. In acting we call it the craft. It is all the stuff you need to do before the opening night or the big game to be completely free and at your best. Crafting means breaking down a script into beats, objectives and actions, using personalization to connect to the stakes and understand the emotions of a scene, and researching to help interpret a character. Actors need to be insatiably curious about those characters, learning how to effectively research the time, place and genre that character lives in or the performance will fall flat. The same way a great athlete spends time breaking down a defense an opponent and referee positions, actors break down dialogue, characters, and storyline. The important thing for both an actor and an athlete to remember is that once the performance begins you can’t be working on any of this – you either prepared enough or you didn’t – and it’s time for the instrument to take over – the muscle memory to step in.

So, at EMAS we are always reminding our actors that they need a finely tuned instrument as well as the ability to craft personally and effectively. It is not enough to just know the plays and understand the opponent, without being strong, flexible, and able to work instinctively – your basketball prowess will only go so far. Actors who have all the craft training but lack emotional availability, a dexterous voice, an expressive body or imaginative stamina will not engage their audience. The story might make sense – but it won’t compel anyone to watch.
I like to leave my students with this quote from the Black Mamba himself:
“Those times when you get up early and you work hard. Those times you stay up late, and you work hard. Those times when you don’t feel like working. You’re too tired. You don’t want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream.” – Kobe Bryant

A lot of people say they want to be great, but they’re not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to achieve greatness. They have other concerns, whether important or not, and they spread themselves out. That’s totally fine. After all, greatness is not for everybody.” – Kobe Bryant.

“The mindset isn’t about seeking a result—it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life. I do think that it’s important, in all endeavors, to have that mentality.”

“A lot of players don’t understand the game or the importance of footwork, spacing. It’s to the point where if you know the basics, you have an advantage on the majority of players.”

Many actors are given gifts. It is clear that with James his dedication and work ethic is what has made him one of the best to ever play.