Some actors thrive on this kind of attention and some directors love these kinds of actors. But really, what a director wants is the best possible production and I for one do not believe you can get there telling people how to say things.
The way acting works is you feel everything in every moment and --if you happen to get into a long series of moments -- no one line is going to matter. Because you are a living, breathing, thinking, feeling person -- entirely different from the person you are off stage. The problem with line readings is that they are the function of the actor -- not the character.
And audiences can see it. They may not be able to determine if an actor is giving a line reading instead of feeling or thinking. Look next time you see a play and see which actors are engaged -- who have something going on behind the lines and the blocking.
I got a note last night that, "for the third time", I was doing the line wrong. I was inflecting up and not down. I asked what the director wanted. He replied "a declarative statement."
The problem with line was that I was thinking too much about the previous notes on how to deliver it -- to give the proper line reading -- and it ended up cold and dead. I was cold and dead in that moment -- the character not me. The character had ceased to exist. Killed by an insecure actor believing that a note on inflection, delivery or the dreaded Line Reading. Line readings kill actors little by little -- that is if they brought any life into the part they play.
Many actors believe a director who says, "Just learn your lines and blocking and I'm happy". You're not happy. You're dead inside. Like my career.
Actors: if a director insists on giving you line readings, make sure to have a family emergency early on in the process. Get the hell out.
Directors: if you hire actors you trust and let them breathe life into a role it's not like working at all. If you made a bad choice in casting, get rid of the actor and find the right one. You are doing no one a favor by keeping an actor in a play if little is working.
Me: two more note sessions. Oh, and try not to say: "Why don't you call my phone and read the line
exactly the way you want and I'll copy it exactly" in front of people.
The line reading killed the moment, threatens to kill the creativity every time it is given and has nothing to do in this world where directors are supposed to create safe places for actors to create.
