When you feel frustrated as an actor it’s usually because you’re coming up against a boundary that exists in your life, in you. (The call is coming from inside the house!) 

These internalized rules, regulations, beliefs, determine boundaries for our behavior and provide limits as to how we interact socially, sexually, etc. and also how we relate to other actors when we’re working.  Some think that these personal boundaries don’t affect their work as actors.  They believe that because they’re playing A Character that these boundaries automatically disappear.  (Or, they’re not aware of these “stops” as boundaries in life in the first place.) 

You are your art.  Your inhibitions, your fears, your prejudices, your beliefs, your memory—these factors and others come into play in your behavior in the moment, and each one is laden with blockages and free zones, and patterned ways of being.  The antidote to all of them, the universal solvent—is the truth.  The authentic response. 

When you’re in a place of truth, you’re in a free, flow state.  And nothing else matters.  Not fears, not judgments, not the opinions of others. Great artists have put Being Authentic at the top of their unconscious priority list. We, the audience, aren’t always seeing what you intend us to see. When we watch your “work” we’re more likely examining who you are, and how who you are impacts how you act.   

David Mamet hits it right on the head when he says in his brilliant book on acting, True and False, that the great goal of the actor is to become comfortable being uncomfortable. 

What makes you uncomfortable? Confronting a member of your family on their bullshit?  Horrible farts in crowded elevators?  People dying on the street from hunger and neglect? Sex with a stranger?  Sex with your monogamous partner?  Fearing to look foolish or inadequate?   

Not knowing what will happen in the next moment? 

The truth will set you free.  (Some clichés are true and this is one of them.) Your impulses, your instincts are at your core.  To stop your impulses in the moment is never the right choice for your work, your art.  (It’s probably not good for your life either, but as an acting teacher that’s none of my business.) Suppression of the impulse you have in any given moment can become so accustomed in our lives that we follow the same habit in our work and never know it. 

Caution can kill you.  Politeness can kill you.  Trying to please can kill you. (All the things your mother taught you were virtues, right? Did they all go to some School For Mothers that had the same universal curriculum?)  Sanford Meisner famously had a huge sign on the wall of his classroom : “FUCK POLITENESS!” 

Try reaching for the truth first. Before you examine your own impulse to determine whether or not your brain deems it "appropriate." See where it takes you.  Just try it on if it doesn’t always come naturally.  Try flying like a wasp up the nose of conventionality. Look for danger.  Look for the opportunity to surprise yourself.  George Orwell said “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” I’m guessing he meant it as a piece of advice for all of us.  Great advice not only for artists, but for educators, for politicians, and at this precise moment in our shameful history—especially for bankers.