Aaron Marcus, an actor with 33 years of experience, explains why you should never correct another actor's line on set. An extra once approached a principal actor to fix a performance, but that's the director's job, not yours. Only offer advice if they ask.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you're not familiar with my work, I've been a full-time actor and a commercial model for over 33 years. I recently just worked on an ABC pilot, just shot a feature film, worked on House of Cards, worked on Rectify, Gotham. I've just done tons of TV shows, commercials, feature films, independent films. And what I want to share with you in, in this particular quick tip video. And by the way, if you haven't subscribed yet, make sure you click the subscription button and also the notification button, and that way you will always be notified every time I upload a new video. And also feel free to share this with other people throughout your social media. I mean, that's the whole point of doing this, is to help inform other people and try to help others and start a discussion. You know, maybe you can help share some information with comments below as well. If you're watching this on YouTube. So I was working on a feature film and it was a really interesting situation. I had signed an NDA, so I'm still not allowed to talk about any details at all. But in this particular situation, the director had this really interesting idea and he was giving people some lines. There were some principals and they gave us some additional lines. So there are a lot of extras around and we're shooting the scene And in between takes, one of the extras walks over to one of the principal actors and said, hey, you were saying the line wrong. You messed up some of the words. And I just want to let you know, please don't ever, ever, ever correct another actor on a set or in rehearsal or at any time in your life. It's not your job. And I stayed very calm. I felt like I wanted to help this woman. I wanted to help protect her a little bit. I wasn't sure if she was kind of shaken by it, but I turned to the extra. And it's not because she was an extra. It could have been even any of the principals. And I said to her, if there was any problem with the read and if people didn't like the dialogue, the director We'll come over and let her know. It's really not your place to tell the other actor what she should or shouldn't be doing. And that's a really important lesson. And look, I know, or at least I think, the woman had the other actor's best interest at heart. You know, and she just wanted to let her know, look, I heard you do the line this way a few times, and now you changed it and you changed some of the words. So I'm assuming that her heart was in the right place and she was just trying to help her out. But if an actor is not asking for help or isn't struggling and reaching out, leave it alone. Because— and what I said to the extra, it was exactly right. If there was an issue, if there was a problem, then— You would have said something. The director or somebody, maybe the first assistant director, somebody will walk over and say, hey, just wanted to let you know, this is the line. And it's as simple as that. You know, who knows? Maybe, you know, the actor was doing the line using some different words. Maybe the director loved it. Maybe the director thought, hey, you know what? That sounds more natural than what I gave to her. Maybe it's more impactful. Maybe it's stronger. Who knows? What's going on. But trust me, the director is not just, you know, sitting around smoking cigars and a hot dog. I mean, they are watching every single take incredibly carefully. And you've got the script supervisor who is checking out every single word that is said and having discussions with the director to make sure that he or she is okay if there are any changes at all. So anyhow, I just wanted to let you know about that because it's just— It's not your job. You're stepping into something that you shouldn't be stepping into. Once again, the only time I would ever offer another actor anything is if they asked me. They said, hey, I'm struggling here. Do you have any ideas? I'm having some problems with this. Any words of wisdom? Anything? Yeah, of course. Then you do something. Otherwise, let the person be. Let them do their thing. Anyhow, I just wanted to share that with you in case, once again, you think you're doing something really nice for somebody. Please don't ever do that. I also just wanted to let you know and to ask, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time, hire people to help me out with the YouTube channel, and if you could make a donation to help support it, to keep it up, keep it running, make it look Good. Continue to make it look good. I greatly appreciate it. There is a link below if you are watching this on YouTube. It's a PayPal link, goes straight into PayPal. Even if you don't have a PayPal account, you can still use the link, and whatever you can, uh, help out with would be great, whether it's, you know, $5, $10, $50, whatever is, is comfortable for you, whatever you would like to give. I greatly appreciate, um, getting the donation just to help support The Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel. So anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I hope you found this helpful, and I look forward to talking with you soon. And if you have any comments about things that you've seen take place on a set that you feel, you know, really shouldn't be happening, please leave a comment below. You don't even have to give any details at all to, you know, give us any indication as to what the set was, what the, you know, What kind of project it was. Just share the information because that's why I'm doing this stuff, just to try to help other people. Thanks so much. See ya.
