major acting help!?

Question

so im in acting and i have this scene to do and its really depressing and sad and anyway, i have to open the scene trembling and i continue to tremble throughout the scene and i don't know how to do it without clearly faking it cause i can shake uncontrollably but thats not trembling thats more like having a heart attack or something lol help?

also, i need to laugh hysterically in the scene at something that is NOT at all funny and i have a hard time laughing in acting anyway.....how can i do this without being fake?

Answer 1

Try getting into character. I assume your character is either very scared or cold or both so feel it. If you can't feel what the character feels, then try thinking of something that would make you feel the same way. Put up that 4th wall, ignore the audience so that you don't crack a smile and laugh... I'm sorry but it sounds juvenile when you say laugh hysterically as if you have no control over it. You absolutely do. Put yourself where the character is and be in the moment.

Practice your scene. Get together with whoever else is in this and be serious about it. No messing around. No radio playing in the background, no younger siblings interrupting, get to work. The more you practice the less funny it will be to you. The newness wears off and getting into your character will become easier.

If you don't take it seriously then you will laugh.

my two cents,
Marianne

Answer 2

You got some pretty good advice there. Actors have these problems all the time. One 'technique' is to try NOT to do the action. Take crying for instance. You're supposed to 'cry', and you're having a hard time doing it. So devise A SET OF ACTIONS wherein you try hard NOT to cry. When that moments comes, it is PERCEIVED by the audience that you ARE crying. So create the actions (acting is 'doing') where you try to 'stop trembling' (instead of 'showing us' that you are trembling, which is bad acting), and the audience will 'see' someone who is 'trembling'. If you don't find what you're supposed to laugh at funny, try 'substituting'. You think of a situation that DID make you laugh hysterically, and think THAT is what you are watching/hearing. You will need to repeat (rehearse) this several/many times before you begin to see how it works. If you have questions about it you can email. Break a leg.