If you want to become a great actor, do what all great artists do. Regardless of their craft—be it performance, writing, sculpting or boardwalk caricatures—they take time in their lives to soak up the creations of others. Great actors spend their time between jobs reading plays, going to the theatre, understanding the history of art and culture and, yes, watching movies. They watch the classics, the new stuff, the cult hits. (Smart actors even experience bad art, if only to learn what not to do.) Today, we’re going to look at 10 things actors learn by watching movies.
Actors learn a lot about their own craft by watching movies. By actively engaging with the medium, they can explore the technicality of framing, screen acting and eyelines. They can learn about the way actors make interesting choices in filmed work, and how actors’ careers can expand and diversify over a long body of work. Most importantly, actors watchnig movies have the chance to engage with the most influential art form of the modern age, and understand the way compelling stories are told.
Before we dive into our list, a word of advice. Learning from watching movies requires you to actively watch and listen to what’s going on. (We’ve written an article elsewhere on StageMilk about how to actually watch films as an actor.) And while we’re sure you know the basics of how cinema works—especially if, as an actor, you’ve been in one or two movies yourself—we nonetheless encourage you to give anything you watch your full attention. So put down your phone: don’t ‘second screen’ a classic flick and expect it to offer up its secrets as you glance up at the subtitles.
Okay: lights, camera…
#1 How to Utilise Framing
Look at the way actors pitch performances based on the way they are framed. See how they act in a close-up compared to a wide shot, or how movement of the camera can make us feel closer to or distant from a character in a moment of vulnerability. Good actors understand which shot types call for power or subtletly. And sometimes, it’s a case of learning to trust the actor/director partnership and know that you’re in safe hands.
Example clip: Saving Private Ryan (1998). In a rare bloodless moment for this classic film, Tom Hanks’ Captain Miller diffuses a moment of tension between his troops by revealing details of his mysterious personal life—he’s a schoolteacher in a small Pennsylvania town. Look at how Hanks is framed in this speech by director Steven Spielberg: despite the intimacy of his confession, the camera stays far away. The character, like the information he gives over, is almost denied to us. It’s not until the end of the scene that we actually see the character in close up. He moves towards us, the audience, having taken us into his confidence.
#2 Acting with Restraint
Is there anything as intimate in movies as the close-up? They teleport audiences directly into the personal space of a character, allowing us these near-voyeuristic moments of insight as to a character’s thoughts and feelings. As for the actor (and filmmaker), there is so much power that comes from holding viewers in that space. Which is exactly why restraint is so often called for in such moments. In a close-up, the power is the subtletly: a less-is-more approach that makes a performance feel startlingly real.
Example scene: The Bear (2022). At an N.A. meeting, young chef Carmy speaks about his brother’s recent suicide and how it has affected him. It’s a masterful performance from Jeremy Allen White who chooses a simple, no-nonsense style of performance that feels like some long-held confession. It would be so easy (and tempting) to make this speech get bigger and bigger as it reaches its conclusion. The restraint of the actor leads him to the exact opposite. And he draws us closer and closer as a result.
#3 Not Telegraphing the Ending
To “telegraph the ending” is to tell the audience what’s coming with your acting. It often happens when actors forget the moment before or given circumstances, meaning that their character is responding to stimulus that has not yet occurred in the story. When watching movies, observe how fine actors take the audience on a journey simply by letting the story unfold and reacting accordingly.
Example scene: Love Actually (2003). In the most devastating rom-com moment ever, Emma Thompson’s Karen receives a gift on Christmas Eve from her husband, revealing to her that the necklace she found in his jacket pocket has been given to another woman. Her love and excitement quickly gives way to despair—obvious to the audience, but not to her family. Her subsequent retreat to the bedroom completes the character’s reversal of fortune. The audience saw this betrayal coming a mile off. But despite this, Thompson’s choices in the scene break our hearts nonetheless.
#4 The Power of a Strong Eyeline
Know where you’re looking when you act on camera. Understand your eyeline, and use it to your advantage. On one level, it’s a matter of logic: you don’t want to be staring somewhere, only to have the editor cut to the next shot and make it look like you’re ignoring your scene partner completely! But a strong eyeline is more than that. It anchors your character to the other person in the scene and fosters an incredibly strong sense of communication and connection. If your character chooses to meet somebody’s gaze, or break it at an opportune time, it can make a world of difference to their pursuit of an objective, or their status within the moment.
As an example: Get Out (2017). Jordan Peele’s modern masterpiece contains several brilliant, uncomfortable scenes. One of the best is this simple exchange, in which photographer Chris is unknowingly hypnotised by his girlfriend’s mother. The eyelines of these two characters is undeniably powerful, creating a sense of intimacy and connection that is hard to break away from. And yet … that’s exactly what Chris (and the audience) is so keen to do. The eyelines anchor the characters to one another. Right up until it’s too late.
#5 The Courage to do Nothing
For this point, we’re going to go back the very early days of cinema. in the 1910s/1920s, Russian filmmaker Lev Kuleshov demonstrated a trick technique to his students. He’d show them three clips of an actor staring at A) a child’s coffin, B) a beautiful woman and C) a bowl of soup. “How sad he looks at the child! How in love he is with the woman! And how hungry he looks when confronted with the soup!” The trick? It was exactly the same clip of the man each time. He wasn’t acting at all: simply being filmed with a neutral expression while the audience’s brains made the connection between one image and the other.
As an example: The original clips (c. 1910-1920). Take a look for yourself. While we’ve probably spoiled the ending by revealing the trick, it remains a great example of restraint on camera, and how sometimes simply being on camera and maintaining the eyeline creates a more complex and realistic performance than anything you could dream up. It’s often why directors have you hold at the end of a scene before saying “Cut!” They want toget a few neutral moments on camera they can use to splice into the rest of the scene.
#6 Making Bold Choices
Bold choice, gold choice… Just because film thrives on subtlety in performance doens’t mean it has to be an entirely quiet and safe space. Some of the greatest actors of all time delivered performances that clashed with an audience’s sensibility, even their understanding of what film acting should be. The trick with bold choices is to ensure that they balance out with other, less bold choices. And that, at all times, they fit within the larger genre or story world.
As an example: There Will Be Blood (2007). One of the best films of this century, helmed by the great Daniel Day-Lewis and a supporting cast of equally talented players. Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview is charming, tyrannical, heartbreaking and, at the end of the film, quite delusional. His famous “I drink your MILKSHAKE.” scene was actually quite divisive when the film first came out. But the choices he makes perfectly capture the degradation of the strong-willed businessman. He’s an absurd figure, forever damaged by money, hatred, drink and unlimited power. The descent into childish violence is uncomfortable viewing, and entirely the point.
#7 Breaking out of Type
Ever feel like you’ve been typecast? Ever feel like your brand is strangling you, and you’ll never escape the types of jobs your agent sends you for? Well, look to film for inspiration on how to shatter the mould on the kinds of roles you might pursue and play. Cinema loves an actor reinventing themself. And such roles are solid reminders that your mould-break might be one choice role away.
As an example: Uncut Gems (2022). Adam Sandler set the world on fire in this thriller from the Safdie Brothers—easily one of the most stressful movies of all time. While there are echoes of his earlier comic roles, the commitment to the character Howard Ratner is absolute, and the film allowed many people to rethink their opinion of an actor most are quick to dismiss. As a bonus, check out his more serious work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent Punch-Drunk Love (2002).
#8 How to Watch (and Make) a Film
The more films you watch, the more literate you will be in how you view them. You’ll pick up more of the meaning, make more connections with other existing work, and understand the intersection of technology and art that informs the medium. This is important for two reasons: first of all, you’ll have more fun with the movies you watch. You’ll get more out of them! But the second relates directly to your work as an actor. Film literacy is a language unto itself—it’s why we can watch a film from any culture, made in any time, and get something from it. It’s also the language spoken by directors, producers: your potential employers. If they know you understand that language, they will be more willing and excited to hire you for their projects.
As an example: Lost in La Mancha (2002). This documentary, which began as the making-of Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited adaptation of Don Quixote, is possibly the best movie about movies ever made. The production filmed for just a handful of days before being cancelled by its insurance company—after a perfect storm of injured actors, destroyed sets and acts of God rendered the project impossible to complete. Take a look and revel in the passion and madness it takes to pull a film together. Perhaps you’ll even get inspired…
#9 The History of Storytelling
With the exception, perhaps, of video games, cinema is the most influential art form in the world. It’s certainly the most dominant at this point in history. The more movies you watch, the more you’ll understand the ins-and-outs of storytelling, how it has evolved over the last 130 years, and what drives the narratives in which you might find yourself acting. All actors are storytellers; it stands to reason you understand how the media you star in functions around you. Only then will you be able to keep up with the advances in technology … and be ready for what’s next.
As an example: Hugo (2011). This film, directed by Martin Scorsese, is a love-letter to cinema itself. To watch and enjoy it is to begin to understand why we all sit in the dark of a cinema and share stories in the first place. It captures that time of magic and discovery in the early days of film, where visionaries like Georges Méliès saw the potential in the medium as something that wouldn’t just tittilate or entertain. It could be used to share incredible ideas, and capture imaginations of millions around the globe.
#10 The History of Everything
For our final point, let’s step away from acting. As a human being, you stand to learn everything about the world by watching movies. Expand your mind, challenge yourself culturally and politically. Stray outside of your comfort zone and watch unexpected things—silly, inspiring, boring, horrific things. Watch old movies, watch movies with subtitles. Hell, watch a foreign film without subtitles and pick up the story from visuals and emotions alone!
Film history, like all of human history, is not a linear path. It’s a web: it connects and to everything before and after. Follow one thread and you’ll find yourself connected to so many other things worth your time and effort. Keep following, keep connecting. Keep watching. You’ll never want for things to delight you, and that challenge you to grow.
Good actors are inquisitive human beings. They’re curious, question-asking people. They’re not driven by money, or fame, but by ideas. Let us leave you with this clip from Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: An Odyssey (2011) to bring it all home.
Happy watching!
