Aaron Marcus shares two on-set stories about actors telling other actors how to deliver lines. In one, a co-actor suggested a different delivery; in another, an extra corrected a principal's line. Only the director can request changes, and unsolicited direction creates tension.
In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you what you should absolutely never say to another actor. You also, if you watch this to the end, you'll get a great bonus video. A slate can make or break your audition, and here are 2 great tips that will be very helpful to you. Okay, let's get going. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. In this video, I'm going to be sharing 2 stories with you about situations where actors said something to other actors. One was directed to me, and yeah, I'm going to tell you about that one. So here's the very first one, and this was actually directed to me. I was working on a project and another actor that I had this scene with said, hey, you know, you really might want to try saying it like this. And I can't tell you how angry I felt in that moment. Look, an actor should never tell another actor how to act. An actor should never tell another actor how to say the line. And look, I didn't want to create an issue on the set, so I tried to be as calm as I could, and I looked at the other actor and I said, you know, if the director has a problem With my delivery, the director will let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to continue saying it the way that feels right to me. And that stopped the person. But man, look, it's one thing if an actor says to you, you know, I'm kind of struggling here a little bit. Do you have any suggestions, any ideas? Yeah, that would be a great time To offer some ideas if you have any, but to just basically tell another actor how to say their lines— don't ever do that. Here's another situation that I experienced. This was on a feature film, and it was a very unusual kind of situation. It was great, but it was a little bit unusual, and there were about 6 of us who were principals in this one particular scene. And the director, who was just incredible, he was also the writer, and he had this idea where he wrote out a one-liner for each of us just to say, just to try out. As it turns out, they never made it into the, the project itself. And so we, we all did that, and while we were doing it One of the extras walked over to one of the principals who I was standing next to, and she said to this actor, you skipped a word in there that was told to you, because she was able to hear what the director said. And the woman who— the actor who I was sitting— standing next to She looked a little bit confused by this. She seemed kind of taken aback a little bit, and she didn't say anything, but I could feel that she was struggling in the moment. She, she wasn't— she hadn't been in the industry that long, so I thought I would step in just because I didn't want it to really throw her off, and I certainly did not want this to happen again. And I looked at the extra And it was a very similar kind of thing. First of all, I felt really angry, and I also felt protective of this other actor. And I said to the extra, I said, hey, you know what, if the director has an issue, I'm sure he'll say something. And then that stopped it as well. But it's like, it's not— it's not the other actor's place to tell another actor what to do, whether they made a mistake, whether they dropped a word. I mean, who knows, maybe the director liked the fact that the entire sentence that was given to her wasn't used. Maybe he thought it sounded better, maybe he didn't care, but whatever it is, please don't ever tell another actor how to act. I did promise a bonus video, and if you look up here, it's, it's all about slating. And how it can make or break your audition. And here are 2 tips. It's going to be really helpful to you. A couple other really quick things. Don't forget, if you haven't subscribed yet, click the notification— after subscribing, click the notification bell so you always know when I upload a new video. I do try to do this once a week if I can. And if you like the video, certainly give it a thumbs up and please share the video with fellow actors. So we can continue to build a great channel of actors sharing information and helping each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
