Acting - What is it? How to do it? Why do it? | David Wenham | TEDxSydney

I was once a lawyer I was a criminal lawyer I represented a number of notorious criminals I also developed a $2,000 a week cocaine habit my marriage broke down and I was sent to jail for concealing knowledge of a rather large importation of drugs before I was a lawyer I was a priest and before I was a priest I was a soldier in fact I've been about ten different soldiers I've been a policeman back for policemen I think I've been as skinhead I was god only once I've been married more times than Elizabeth Taylor and I've been a father to more kids than I can remember my name is David and I'm an actor [Applause] what is acting why do I do it what's the purpose of it why would someone want to spend their entire life essentially trying to become someone else well from when I was very young I've always loved to make people laugh you know putting on silly walks or ridiculous voices shoving things up my nose whether they be pretzels or carrots or Frankfurt's pulling my pants way above my waist up to my chest to transform into hairy high pants or by doing the opposite by pulling them way down here towards my knees to transform into Larry Lowe pants you know simple comic techniques almost always guaranteed to get a chuckle but as time went on my inclination to make people laugh began to grow into something else acting now the best definition of acting that I've come across is from acting teacher Sanford Meisner who said acting is behaving truthfully in an imaginary situation behaving truthfully in an imaginary situation there are newly performance that I can pinpoint as an indication that my motivation to act was more than just a desire to make people laugh was a school performance of Shakespeare's Henry four part one I was cast in the wonderful role of Hotspur the courageous impetuous leader with a hot head and before each of the performances the three performances I found a quiet spot behind the lecture theater next to a large old oak tree I'd have my wooden sword and I'd wave my wooden sword vigorously towards the defenseless oak tree and I'd swing my arm so vigorously that my breathing would increase and I'd nearly hyperventilate but importantly while I was waving my wooden sword a Nelly hyperventilating I was also beginning to visualize exactly what my character was about to describe which was the end of a very long bloody battle and indeed when the time came for me to burst through the theater doors as Hotspur I was in a sufficient state of mind to be able to accurately recall the horrors I'd psyched myself so that I could behave as truthfully as possible as Hotspur in an imaginary situation which was the lecture theatre posing as the king's court in London now is only twelve I hadn't yet been to acting school but without without consciously thinking about it I was instinctively utilizing an acting technique now there's many different variations of this technique one that some people have heard of is the method or method acting now there's many other techniques too after I finally did graduate from acting school one of the first plays that I performed in was a beautiful play by Dennis Potter called blue remembered Hills it's about a group of seven year olds who played together in a forest one afternoon in the north of England and all the seven-year-olds are played by adult actors now hours before each of the performances I'd go to a very rough brick wall near the theater and I would bash my elbows and my knees against the rough brick wall and then I'd scraped my knees and my elbows against a cement pavement causing numerous scabs to occur and then later that night in the theater in very close proximity to the audience as Willy my character I'd begin to pick my scabs and little bits of flaky scab that fall to the floor some big crusty bits had become embedded under my fingernails and sometimes even a little trickle of blood had run down my elbows or down my knees and in this way I was using an external technique to allow me to get into the mind of a seven-year-old and behave truthfully now that's just a little snapshot of a couple of different ways of how acting may be approached but why do I do it and what's the purpose of it well actors throughout history are essentially storytellers and through stories we share our passions our dreams our heartaches our heartbreaks our sorrows and our joys stories are universal they help us understand ourselves better and find commonality with others now some of the stories that I've been fortunate enough to being involved in telling have been based on real people and real events and some of these stories have had reverberations that have continued to ripple long after the final credits have rolled the significance of the simple act of storytelling has been healing for some and inspirational for others now the clearest example I can give of this is a little-known film that I did called Molokai it's the story of a Belgian priest Damien who volunteered to go to Molokai which is an island in Hawaii in the 19th century and work with leprosy patients now at the time anybody who is even suspected of having leprosy was sent to Molokai essentially to rot and to die but Damien volunteered to go to Molokai and he went and he built the people houses he constructed a sewage system he organised schools he taught music and because of him that community became a place to live rather than to die I played Damien the film was shot on location in 1999 at the time the government had long stopped sending sufferers of leprosy to Molokai however there was still 55 patients as they referred to themselves who were still living there now myself and the director Paul Cox lived with them in their community for five months and up until that point cameras of any description had been banned in the community but Paul slowly started to gain the confidence of the people and one by one the patients came to Paul and offered to put themselves on screen in the film so people could see what this horrendous disease does to a body and a face and Paul tweaked the writing of many of the scenes so I as father Damien was working with these people and acting and reacting to people who had truly lived the same story we were telling and these were my favorite scenes where I found it easy to behave truthfully now a year after the film was completed Paul and I returned to Molokai to screen the film for the patients now there was nowhere physically in the community to actually screen the film so an arrangement was made to fly each of the patients to what was known as top side of the island now a short flight about eight to ten minutes and to small aircraft made numerous trips and each of the patients were either assisted or carried on and off the aircraft at each end and a makeshift screen was erected in a community hall and the film was screened these people had never seen themselves on the screen before let alone even a photograph of themselves and yet here they were on screen telling not only their story but story of generations before them now needless to say there were numerous tears after that screening some tears of sadness but overwhelmingly they were tears of pride and joy they were proud to have been involved in telling such an important story of their history and their culture and I feel privileged to be part of their storytelling that's why I'm an actor stories can change us stories can change our outlook stories can change our thoughts stories can change our mood stories can change our opinions and sometimes a story is a little ahead of its time in 2001 well before the global financial crisis and well before the banking Royal Commission I was in a film called the bank I played Jim Doyle who was a loyal bank employee and he was also a computer and mathematical genius but Jim surprise surprise he uncovered corruption within the bank now the head of the bank found out that Jim knew and Jim then was immediately fired but Jim being the computer and mathematical genius that he was he embedded a virus into the bank's computer system that affected every one of the bank's trades and ultimately Jim succeeded in bringing down the entire bank and when he was asked why he did this Jim just Cooley was responded I just hate banks sometimes it feels really good to tell a story it's cathartic I'm an actor why because I love to tell stories stories make us human thank you [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 98,764

Rating: 4.9297724 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Entertainment, Culture, Film, Film Studies, Passion, Theater

Id: PvXehZX81Fw

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019