Generosity: It Takes a Special Actor

by Mario A. Campanaro

Generosity: It Takes a Special Actor

by Mario A. Campanaro

"We have to realize that we're beautifully complicated, we're imperfectly perfect, because we're human. And human beings are complicated. I don't think that there's anything anyone can say that can convince me otherwise. We are. We love to believe that what we see is what we get, but one of the things we have to remember is whatever we're getting is not necessarily what's really going on.

Whatever is being executed, whatever actions someone is taking, or whatever someone is saying or not saying does not necessarily mean that's what it is. There's a whole world going on internally in all of us that is one big, great secret that only we know, and we make these choices about how much we're really willing to reveal to others.

A lot of that is all about the environment that we find ourselves in, our relationships within that environment, our comfort level, our safety level, and who we are, why we are, and how we are within that environment and relationships.

And I think the wonder in all that, for actors, is that it allows us to ask questions. It allows us to want to know. It demands us to explore, and it requires us to discover. It asks of us to have an open heart to try to understand from one human to another what brings a human being to want what they want, why someone does what they do, and why and how someone one goes after and responds it the way that they do.

And then that really asks us to explore the whole historical events that a human being has gone through, which brings them to the here and now moment. This is the reason why that person is who they are based on where they are and who they are with, and what brings someone to want what they want, why that person wants what they want, and why and how someone goes after it or responds what they do, and why someone goes after it and responds the way they do.

But it's never usually easy. It's never usually clear-cut. It's never usually black and white. Unless it is.

With that said, no matter what, it really asks for us to know and understand whatever we witness, observe, and take in, for an actor to want to really try to know, or understand, or learn, or discover, and then experience.

Now to want to learn and understand takes generosity. It takes an open heart and open mind. In our work, that generosity not only extends to humanity itself, character development, and storytelling, it also extends to those you work with. You are reliant on them. You need them. What we do is collaborative. And in a world that is all 'me, me, me', the actor has to be able to go past that selfishness and embrace 'us, us, us'.

I don't know anything about sports, but one thing I can assume is that you need to depend on another in order for the success of that team to occur. It's not a one-man job. And if you are your own team, you're still dependent upon your opponent.

It really is a wonderful mirror for the actor because it is so important for the actor to remember it's not just about them. It's about the other. It's about being dependent upon your partner. It's about allowing yourself to be generous in spirit with your partner, an entire production, because that's how the team wins. And in this case, for art, that win is about creating truth: truth of story, truth of the human condition, truth of the trials and tribulations of what people go through in our lives, generation from generation.

And so it's so important for us to try to get away from an egocentric nature about our work being about how good we are, or how much we're succeeding, or all the things that are important for us as a business, but not so much as an artist when it comes to our work. That stuff needs to be put into a compartment, and then it's really got to be about how I can be generous in spirit towards my partner or partners in order to make this thing happen, to live this thing that's on a piece of paper.

And I think that takes a very special actor. I think that takes an actor that has a very open heart. I think that takes an actor that is so willing to give and so willing to be vulnerable in whatever situation he or she finds themselves in, in pursuit of the truth of that situation.

And you can see it. You know when an actor is there. You know what an actor is giving. You know when an actor has a generosity of spirit. You see it in their eyes. You see it in their soul. You see it in their energy.

And it's the thing that gets us from sitting back to leaning forward because there's something magnetic about it, and that magnetism is our ability to relate to them, to understand somewhat, somehow, what they're going through. And that's what the generosity of spirit does. It's this magical energy that brings a collective to a commonality of the human experience that transforms us, that moves us. But there's got to be a generosity."