This is an article adaption of a recorded interview with Marilyn McIntyre. Listen to the interview here:

This interview delves into the intricate world of acting and the art of bringing characters to life on stage and screen. In this insightful conversation, Marilyn McIntrye, an experienced acting coach at the Howard Fine Acting Studio in LA (and online in Australia), guides us through the multifaceted process of personalisation in acting.

From understanding the story's essence and writer's intent to delving into a character's psyche and leveraging personal experiences, here we unravel the layers of this transformative technique. With a keen focus on striking a delicate balance between an actor's own history and imaginative prowess. The article explores how personalisation breathes authenticity and vitality into performances. We hope this interview offer you an enriched understanding of how actors navigate the terrain of emotions, connections, and storytelling to create compelling portrayals that resonate with audiences.

What Is Personalisation?

Marilyn: Personalisation, okay, boy this covers a lot. I want to say, when we are cast in a role and we have the script (be it a play or a film).

The first thing we have to do is read this script. And you need to read it from the outside. You need to read it, picking it up, not from the character's point of view yet. But you have to understand the story and you have to understand the writer's intent and this is in fact the time that you can and should be judgmental. 

The actor has to understand the story and ‘what's this about?’. The second time you read it you're now reading it from the character’s point of view and that's when all judgement has to go away. That is when personalisation comes into play.

So, we're learning about the story. We have to understand the story, because that affects our process of personalisation. And people go ‘what is that? I hear that term all the time?’ 

We look at this character and we go: 

• ‘Where do I see myself in this character?’, that’s the first little personalisation key there, right? 

• ‘What can I bring to this character?’

• ‘Where does this character plug into me?’, because until it plugs into you it is, of course, not alive.

So, the story will actually lead you to personalisation!

We have to understand that really our most valuable resource… the first part of personalisation, is the self.

There Are Two Parts To Personalisation…

ONE, is connected to the self. My own story.

If you haven't read ‘A Challenge For The Actor’ by Uta Hagen yet, it is in Part Two of her book called ‘The Human Techniques’, Chapter Four, ‘The Self’.

At this point we know the story, we're working on those fictional circumstances, we're looking at every clue in there: Who am I? Where am I? When is this… and all of that stuff but we have to understand that really our most valuable resource right now, the first part of personalisation, is the self.

What's my own story? What are my life experiences? What are my personal points of view that I can recognise? I might have even had something quite like that particular experience in the script, that's happened to me, or I know what that's about.

I see the circumstances and the clues and the given circumstances for the writer, but boy I can recognise things there because of my own life experience, my own resources.

TWO, the other part of personalisation is your own imagination.

Your own imagination. So, you have what's on the page from the writer; that's coming from their imagination. This playwright, or screenwriter, knows it will have to be given over to a director, and ultimately the actors. And it's the actors who bring it to life, off the page.

So, here we are, lots of clues on the page, I have to have people believe me doing these things and saying these words that the writer has presented to me. There's a whole lot of things that details are not provided and can't be provided by the writer.

Sometimes things are very sketchy, that means we have to use our imagination. We have to substantiate every person, place, event, object, piece of clothing, everything. And not just the fact of it, but what are our points of view? What are our feelings about that? There’s not very many things we're neutral about in our lives.

There’s not very many things we're neutral about in our lives.

And so our imagination (this is what's so important), the actor's imagination is what allows what I call ‘The Alchemy’ to happen.

THE ALCHEMY

It is what brings your own story, yourself and the writer's story, their imagination… it's actually your imagination that makes the whole thing come to life. And I think sometimes, interestingly enough, actors can fall short on having a really fertile, fun, detailed imagination. They underestimate the importance of that because truly it is what makes the magic happen.

You know we're all headed towards living truthfully in fictional circumstances, whatever that world may be.

LIVING TRUTHFULLY IN FICTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES, WHATEVER THAT WORLD MAYBE.

I came across two incredible clips with James Cameron, talking about the making of Avatar: The Way of Water. The beauty of what he does is, making it so that for the actors, it's not just motion capture. It's ‘performance’ capture. And it's not in front of a green screen they are working in what is called The Volume. And also when they were shooting underwater, that was real underwater.

Why am I bringing this up? That film is really about family. That film was able to capture recognisable human emotions in these beings. That's what really captured the audience, I think. People always hear ‘living truthfully in fictional circumstances’, and they're thinking in such, what I call kind of ‘kitchen sink drama’. You may be in a historical period, and there are so many sci-fi things out there... you still have to (within that world) live truthfully. And you still, as human actors, have to find where (in that world) and what, that being is going through. Interestingly enough, it still has to ‘plug into you’. That's how we will be invested in these characters and what will happen to them.

Actors Are The Fire Persons Of Emotion

A lot of people don't understand what we do and we are messengers. We're vessels for something that's outside of us. That we say, ‘okay, I can be the vessel for this. I'm a storyteller. I'm a vessel’.

We are the fire persons of emotion. When the house is burning, people run out of it. When the house is burning, we want to have well-trained fire persons with good equipment to go into that house. Actors have to be physically & vocally well-trained to be able to do everything from theatre to film and more.

We have to be tenderised as human beings, emotionally available, and know what we're doing safely. Because we are going to go into that burning story and emotional minefield. But we know what to do with that. We know how to do that, and we know how to do it safely. And wouldn't you want that? Wouldn't you want that, as an actor? As the ensemble of actors? What the director would want? What the writer would want?

There we are you know actors have to understand if you're really going to do this you have to be willing to pay a price. And we do pay a price. It can be difficult sometimes but I'm going to tell you if you're not paying the price you're not really doing it.

I can't make a judgment on that. I have people in class, you know, sometimes they’re directors, sometimes they're writers, sometimes they are sports people that are transitioning into some kind of acting or performing; sometimes they are, you know, television hosts or broadcasters, singers, who decide they want to take on more acting roles. I always tell them, ‘I'm going to talk to you the way I would talk to anyone else in this class. And I make no judgment on what you are ultimately doing with this.’ And some people realise, ‘I'm not sure I can be the messenger, or the vessel for this, or that I want to run into the burning building myself’. And that is fine! That's okay. I don't make a judgment on that. But I want to make sure that people understand, what it's about. How to approach the work safely, practically.

The ‘Risks’ Of Personalisation

It should not be about putting people in positions where there's ever any kind of psychological issues coming out of being manipulated emotionally.

That's what I love about Uta Hagen. I'm fortunate enough to have been in her Masterclass here in Los Angeles; and Howard hosted them in The Studio that we had (in Hollywood on Melrose Avenue). Howard became very close with her too, [Uta] had a big influence on him. And their work is so practical. It is not something that is designed to put you in your head. It is not something that is designed to do any kind of emotional manipulation of an actor. Or to have an actor feel humiliated… Which can happen by in many different ways. I've seen it happen. I've worked with actors who have come back, after a while, to a class they've been so gun shy…

If anybody says that's personalisation, it is not. That kind of work can be problematical. It can even be dangerous. Acting classes should not be about some kind of therapy. It should not be putting people in positions where there's ever any kind of psychological issues come out of being manipulated emotionally.

I'm saying this now for actors to think about and to be smart. When you're out there looking for people to work with; whether it's a teacher, a coach, a director. Being humiliated, being forced to reveal things that really aren't appropriate in an acting class, or in a workshop, or a Masterclass… being yelled at, that doesn't have anything to do with useful, productive, acting training.

I think there are a lot of people who don't quite understand… I think there are a lot of directors who don't know what it is we do. I always love to have those people in acting class.

Taking Care Of Yourself As An Actor

I did talk about how we ‘pay a price’ and what this means also is that you need to have ‘sorted out’ things in your life, especially difficult issues.

We have all kinds of ‘things’ in our stories and that's just it. It's part of our story. And there can be things in which you will keep private. I think a lot of the really top actors out there are smart about privacy. Privacy is different than secrecy; I think secrecy can somehow get you into trouble.

It's not a bad thing to go to a therapist or a counsellor. I mean, for heaven's sakes, when you have a toothache you go to the dentist. So if you have a heartache or whatever kind of ache it’s not a bad thing to get it seen to.

It’s better to acknowledge the things within yourself that need to be looked after. You may never make peace with them, but acknowledgement is the important thing: that's part of my story… today it's acting up a little bit more…

When You’re An Actor Who Has Trauma and PTSD

In my era, I was in high school and college when the Vietnam War was going on. Half the actors from Odyssey Theatre Company (where Tracers came out of) and John Defusco… that was all Vietnam Vets who did that. There were some really creative things that came out of that so you can take that pain and actually use it creatively. But you'd have to work on it, you couldn't you couldn't just pack that aside and think it's going to be okay. You'd have to be really proactive about it, I think.

I also think that teachers and coaches have to pay attention to someone who is looking to have an acting class (or being an actor) as a way to work on themselves psychologically and emotionally. They're looking at that work as some kind of therapy. And I've only encountered that a couple of times.

Privacy VS Secrecy In Acting

One's personal resources are YOUR sources, YOUR resources, and you don't need to to share them with anyone.

In fact, most of the time they start to lose their potency. I think mine don't because I'm a teacher and a director and my heart's… it's not just on my sleeve, it's kind of just dripping down the front of me. I’ve had a previous student see me after attending another acting school and she shared that she left a class because “I was hearing things that I shouldn't have heard. I was being burdened by things that I didn't want to know, because it's an acting class, it's not a group therapy session.”

Now, things can be revealed by actor on their own. And that's a whole different thing…but even then, it's a fine line, it's a really fine line.

It’s an acting class, it’s not a group therapy session.

I think that privacy…there's something that's an agreement, in terms of being able to have an agreement to privacy but there's no such thing as an agreement to secrecy. I mean, secrecy is a solo thing. Privacy has to do with you and someone else, and so there's an understanding, there's an agreement. But with the other thing, you’re in a bubble.

As children learning about secrets… the idea of ‘keeping a secret’ is is not a good thing, if someone's telling you to keep a secret. It's not safe, it's a burden on that person. Whereas privacy is like a protection, bolstering yourself, to be comfortable in yourself. There's something that feels a little bit more unpredictable and possibly dangerous in secrets.

In secrecy you have to intentionally hide something, some information, some fact. The chances are very good with something that's private there's gonna there's probably some people that know that but there's an agreement.

There's an agreement that it's private, but I'm not gonna burden you with a secret. I mean if you have to talk to someone, talk to a therapist for that.

The Line Between ‘Comfort Zone’ & Going Too Far

I don't like that word ‘Comfort’ when it comes to acting because when we're really doing it, it's not about being comfortable.

In Performing Arts and Sports, we can be prepared, and we can be confident… But I just hate that word comfortable because when we're in the middle of doing it, it's not about being comfortable. Because that's the actors needs and wants, that's the actor's agenda, which is getting in front of what should be the character's agenda.

We have to serve the character's needs and we have to tell the story. And sometimes it is really difficult and and we go, I get where this character plugs into me. It's not on my most evident power strip, that has eight outlets. It's over here, on this other single plug that's under my arm, that I keep covered up. Because I have to, I have to go through life and be okay. But I know where that plugs in… I say to my actors ‘how fun is it to, in a fiction, realise you have to plug into that part of you? That, in fact, you know what that is. Because I've examined that part of my life and do a great job and friggin get paid for it! How fun is that!?’

where are we emotionally in the story no one's responsible for that except the actor.

Now, you better make sure when you're finished with filming that day or if you're rehearsing for a play or you have a performance that you have some tools in your tool kit that help you pivot where you are, that help you clear the slate. And music is one of the fastest, easiest, most accessible ways to do that. Because you do have to take care of yourself and there will be residuals. There will be residual stuff going on. You have to take care of yourself.

I think it's really hard in film, when there are really long shoots, if you're doing a major role (or even a supporting role) and it's shooting out of sequence. We are responsible as actors to know what's already happened, what hasn't happened yet, where are we in the story. But where are we emotionally in the story no one's responsible for that except the actor.

And that's hard because you can be living with a character for a long time. I mean, just look at Austin Butler who I know, and actually, Howard sent him to me way back just to get the audition for Elvis. But he was in that so long, he's had a hard time dropping that dialect. But yes it can take a toll, when it's a long time. It's really difficult on some of those films that take months to do, it can take a toll on relationships. And I don't think you can have any kind of support system or family there.

You know, when you're off in some foreign country and you can't leave, they make you stay there. But you end up with 10 days without filming and you've got to figure out how to continue to live a full life. So you don't just get sucked down into this world. I mean, there's a reason Daniel Day-Lewis does not do a lot of films.

Preparing For ‘Long’ VS ‘Short’ Roles

When playing a small role, with limited information, can I just play me? Or do I have to come up with an entirely different character?

When I’ve done coaching with students I’ve told them: ‘you have to understand, in this little scene here, in this story, you cannot do the pizza delivery guy as if you're doing Hamlet.’ You do need to know: why you’re going up to the mansion here, and you're expecting a good tip, so you're going to be very nice about how you present the delivery. Or is this, you know, the grubby little house that you're figuring they're half stoned in it. I mean that's about as far as you can go.

So yes, you very much bring yourself to it. But the biggest mistake is people try to do too much. I mean, I tell a story about that wonderful actor who also does some teaching, Michael Kostroff. He talks about the first job he got (because this really addresses this) and he had to be a Night Watchman/ Security Guy at a kiosk graveyard shift. And all it was in the script is: the car drives up and the security guy asks for the name and the license. Checks it off the list, hands it back and says “okay, good to go” and presses the button. And there it is. I mean that's it!

Well, he had a newspaper folded up and a pencil and he was sitting there, working on this crossword puzzle. And then that would have turned into the list or the clipboard but he was involved with that and the car drives up and he goes through the steps of letting the car in, very simply. Well, he got the job. He said ‘why'd I get the job?’ and was told ‘because you're a security guard on the graveyard shift you're doing your job and you're doing a crossword puzzle’. He understood if that car didn't drive up there, he'd be doing his crossword puzzle. That's the whole thing, that's the hint. That's it right there!

This is where you learn how to be a smart actor. What is it you need, people don't quite always understand, how to do the the most productive and efficient script analysis. Unless it impacts something about this character, in this story and in this scene, don't worry about it.

I watch actors look at their notes, that they've put down and not understanding, that if you're still having to read the notes in your analysis then it's not helping you. You start to learn, if you don't need something, get rid of it!

Unless there is indication of something else, I’m just going to use my own story.

Unless the script impacts it, use what you know. But then, on the flip side, people use themselves, and when I ask, ‘where were you born? where'd you grow up?’ and the say ‘right in Iowa and on a farm…’ Okay, so the clues in the script read pretty much like you're from the Northeast… Inserting yourself in the character when it doesn’t match the script is incorrect use of personalisation. That's serving the actor and not the character. Everything we do has to serve the character and the story.

Personalisation In Rehearsals

How can I effectively incorporate personalisation into my rehearsal process? That's what rehearsal is about, trying to figure out, you know, Sherlock Holmesing the script.

I look at the script, I can't tell you the number of times I've missed things, but when I coach, it's very collaborative. I’ll look at the details in the script and ask questions, and see where those details can plug into me. I have to make some decisions about these details. And I don't want to give general information and that's scary, I have to find where this lives in me.

And these moments of personalisation, it's going to live a little differently every time. You can't push for something, you can't obligate yourself to do something, you might address this and it just hits you in a different way sometimes.

What is Endowment?

That's all kind of connected too with substitution and transference. Endowment, I always think of that more with inanimate objects. When I'm supposed to endow this glass as a goblet that I'm picking up. Or I have to endow this string of pearls from the 99cent Store as being one of the surviving pieces of jewellery that came from my family who all perished in Poland. And suddenly it's important in how you handle. It is important because you've endowed it.

When I’m endowing a person, I am just making some decisions that help me have greater specificity and allow me to strengthen what's going on with this relationship history, but also right now. And you don’t have to tell anyone how you choose to endow an item or a person, you keep it with you.

Conclusion

Huge thank you to Marilyn McIntyre for offering such valuable insights into the art of acting and the importance of personalisation in bringing characters to life. We cannot underestimate the power of the balance between personal experiences and the actor's imagination, underlining the collaborative nature of acting and the necessity of privacy and emotional well-being.

Listen to the full podcast here: