Actor: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|Person who acts inportrays a dramaticcharacter orin comica production and works in film, television, theatre, or radio}}

{{otherOther uses|Actor (disambiguation)}}

An '''actor''' or '''actress''' is a person who portrays a [[Character (arts)|character]] in a production.<ref>"The dramatic world can be extended to include the 'author', the 'audience' and even the 'theatre'; but these remain 'possible' surrogates, not the 'actual' referents as such" (Elam 1980, 110).</ref> The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the [[theatre]] or in modern media such as [[film]], [[radio]], and [[television]]. The analogous Greek term is {{wikt-lang|grc|ὑποκριτής|italic=yes}} ({{grc-transl|ὑποκριτής}}), literally "one who answers".<ref name="hypocrite">{{cite web|url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/actor?q=actor|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116145550/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/actor?q=actor|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 16, 2013|title=Definition of actor}}''Hypokrites'' (related to our word for [[Hypocrisy|hypocrite]]) also means, less often, "to answer" the [[Tragedy|tragic]] [[Greek chorus|chorus]]. See Weimann (1978, 2); see also Csapo and Slater, who offer translations of classical source material using the term ''hypocrisis'' ([[acting]]) (1994, 257, 265–267).</ref> The actor's interpretation of a role{{emdash}}the art of [[acting]]{{emdash}}pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role,", which was called this due to [[scrolls]] being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental [[performance art]].

Formerly, in [[ancient Greece]] and the [[Middle Ages|medieval world]], and in England at the time of [[William Shakespeare]], only men could become actors, and women's roles were generally played by men or boys.<ref name="Neziroski 2003">{{cite web|url=http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/narrativelyricdrama.htm|title=narrative, lyric, drama|last=Neziroski |first=Lirim|year=2003|work=Theories of Media :: Keywords Glossary :: multimedia|publisher=University of Chicago|access-date=14 March 2009|quote=For example, until the late 1600s, audiences were opposed to seeing women on stage, because of the belief stage performance reduced them to the status of showgirls and prostitutes. Even [[Shakespeare]]'s plays were performed by boys dressed in drag.}}</ref> While Ancient Rome did allow female stage performers, only a small minority of them were given speaking parts. The [[commedia dell'arte]] of Italy, however, allowed professional women to perform early on; [[Lucrezia Di Siena]], whose name is on a contract of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with [[Vincenza Armani]] and [[Barbara Flaminia]] as the first primadonnas and the first well-documented actresses in [[Italy]] (and in Europe).<ref name="auto">Giacomo Oreglia (2002). Commedia dell'arte. Ordfront. {{ISBN|91-7324-602-6}}</ref> After the [[English Restoration]] of 1660, women began to appear onstage in England. In modern times, particularly in pantomime and some operas, women occasionally play the roles of boys or young men.<ref name="PDF">{{cite web|url=http://www.s-sj.org/pdfs/St-Dusinberre-web.pdf|title=Boys Becoming Women in Shakespeare's Plays|author=JULIET DUSINBERRE|website=S-sj.org|accessdateaccess-date=22 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723174901/http://www.s-sj.org/pdfs/St-Dusinberre-web.pdf|archive-date=23 July 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The development of the theatre and opportunities for acting ceased when [[Puritan]] opposition to the stage banned the performance of all plays within London. Puritans viewed the theatre as immoral. The re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signaledsignalled a renaissance of English drama. English [[Comedy (drama)|comedies]] written and performed in the [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]] period from 1660 to 1710 are collectively called "Restoration comedy". Restoration comedy is notorious for its [[human sexual behavior|sexual]] explicitness. At this point, women were allowed for the first time to appear on the English stage, exclusively in female roles. This period saw the introduction of the first professional actresses and the rise of the first celebrity actors.

Within the profession, the re-adoption of the neutral term dates to the [[post-war]] period of the 19501950s and '60s, when the contributions of women to cultural life in general were being reviewed.<ref name="De GayGoodman1998">{{cite book|last1=Goodman|first1=Lizbeth|author-link1=Lizbeth Goodman|last2=Holledge|first2=Julie|title=The Routledge reader in gender and performance|year=1998|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-415-16583-0|pages=8|url=https://archive.org/details/routledgereaderi0000unse|url-access=limited}}</ref> When ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian'' published their new joint style guide in 2010, it stated "Use ['actor'] for both male and female actors; do not use actress except when in name of award, e.g. Oscar for best actress".<ref name="theguardian.com" /> The guide's authors stated that "actress comes into the same category as authoress, comedienne, manageress, 'lady doctor', 'male nurse' and similar obsolete terms that date from a time when professions were largely the preserve of one sex (usually men)." (See ''[[male as norm]]''.) "As [[Whoopi Goldberg]] put it in an interview with the paper: 'An actress can only play a woman. I'm an actor – I can play anything.{{'"}}<ref name="theguardian.com" /> The UK performers' union [[Equity (British trade union)|Equity]] has no policy on the use of "actor" or "actress". An Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the "...subject divides the profession".<ref name="theguardian.com" /> In 2009, the ''Los Angeles Times'' stated that "Actress" remains the common term used in major [[acting]] awards given to female recipients<ref name="latimes">{{cite web|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jan/18/entertainment/ca-actress18|title=From actor to actress and back again|last=Linden|first=Sheri|date=18 January 2009 |work=Entertainment|publisher=Los Angeles Times|access-date=14 March 2009|quote=It would be several decades before the word "actress" appeared – 1700, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, more than a century after the word "actor" was first used to denote a theatrical performer, supplanting the less professional-sounding "player."}}</ref> (e.g., [[Academy Award for Best Actress]]).

From 1894 to the late 1920s, movies were [[silent film]]s. Silent film actors emphasized [[body language]] and [[facial expression]], so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or [[camp (style)|campy]]. The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience. [[Vaudeville]] theatre was an especially popular origin for many American silent film actors.<ref name=textbook>{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1= John|title=American Film: A History|date=2008|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-393-97922-0|edition=First}}</ref> The pervading presence of [[stage actor]]s in film was the cause of this outburst from director [[Marshall Neilan]] in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures.". In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen.<ref name = brownlow>{{cite book|last = Brownlow|first = Kevin|year =1968|pages=344–353|title = The Parade's Gone By|publisher = University of California Press|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wCD5EH64Qw8C&pg=PA344 |chapter = Acting|isbn = 9780520030688}}</ref>

Film actors have to learn to get used to and be comfortable with a camera being in front of them.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ace-your-audition.com/auditions-for-film.html|title=Auditions for Film: Movie Acting Tips and Techniques|website=Ace-your-audition.com|access-date=22 October 2017}}</ref> Film actors need to learn to find and stay on their "mark.". This is a position on the floor marked with tape. This position is where the lights and camera focus are optimized. Film actors also need to learn how to prepare well and perform well on-[[screen test]]s. Screen tests are a filmed audition of part of the script.

"Since film captures even the smallest gesture and magnifies it..., cinema demands a less [[flamboyant]] and stylized bodily performance from the actor than does the theater." "The performance of emotion is the most difficult aspect of film acting to master: ...the film actor must rely on subtle facial ticks, quivers, and tiny lifts of the eyebrow to create a believable character."<ref name="infoplease.com"/> Some theatre stars "...have made the theater-to-cinema transition quite successfully ([[Laurence Olivier]], [[Glenn Close]], and [[Julie Andrews]], for instance), others have not..."<ref name="infoplease.com"/>