Approach Avoidance - The Importance of Preparation
An experienced commercial airline pilot once told me about something called "approach avoidance". He explained that when a person is learning to fly a large aircraft, the most dangerous time is when landing. He must touch down at the right place and at the right speed, or he might taxi off the far end of the runway. A new pilot, he said, is sometimes afraid of landings and for this reason experiences "approach avoidance". Instead of touching down, he noses the aircraft back up and circles the airport again. The remedy for approach avoidance has to do with acquiring the confidence and mental focus to land the airplane. He has the knowledge; the obstacle is his emotions.
I flashed on that story recently while observing a couple of new actors prepare for a scene in class. One of them appeared to be working correctly, but the other one was jittery, mentally scattered. I knew by watching her behavior before the scene that she was going to have trouble in the scene. And so I am taking this opportunity to talk about those important moments immediately before an actor's entrance on stage, or before she hears "Action!" on a movie set.
The rule of thumb is that an actor has only to motivate entering a scene. He does not have to hold the entire upcoming scene in his brain while he is waiting to begin. Acting is not a wind-up toy. An actor enters and, once on stage, the circumstances of the play will ideally dictate what happens next. In other words, after his entrance, he strives to stay "in the present moment". As Laurence Olivier put it (I'm paraphrasing a bit), "You rehearse and rehearse and then, when you go on stage, you have to forget everything you rehearsed so that it can happen spontaneously."
The first requirement before an entrance is to be physically loose. Think of an Olympic swimmer immediately before the sound of the starting pistol. Every muscle is tuned and every part of her brain is focused. This feeling of being at ease is not the same thing as feeling relaxed. You are not going to sleep; you are about to perform. The physical sensation you are seeking is one of alert and focused readiness. Mentally, you want to be receptive - open - to what is about to happen.
Go ahead and get into character. Suppose, for example, your character is supposed to be drunk when he enters the scene. You don't want to wait until you are on stage to connect with the rhythms and physical effects of inebriation. Get into character and connect with why you are entering the scene. What do you want? What is your objective?
Acting choices that do not stimulate you emotionally are wasted acting choices. The moment before "Action!" is not the time to do a character analysis or start with rag-doll relaxation exercises. Connect with the impulse that will launch you into the scene. Mentally deliver yourself to the given circumstance. Scenes begin in the middle, remember, not at the beginning. Is there a strong emotion evoked when you connect with what happened prior to this entrance? Emotion tends to lead to action. Acting is a process of exposing, not of hiding.
Clearly, you are not going to be able to go through this kind of process if you are jittery and worried about what's going to happen once you get on stage. The idea is to replace those kind of thoughts with being in the moment. The correction for mental distraction is to re-direct what you are thinking about. You cannot relax by demanding of yourself that you relax. That will only make you more nervous.
Relaxation is a factor of your mind. Confidence manifests itself in a feeling of relaxation, and relaxation manifests itself in a feeling of weight, centered-ness. When you are confident, you feel solid, connected to the earth. You feel in control and at ease. Knowing why you are about to enter will make you feel confident. Just as that pilot must be "ready" to land his aircraft, and the swimmer must be ready for the race, an actor must be "ready" to perform. Success and failure are self-fulfilling prophecies.
