The Acting Technique That Helped Launch Careers

What do Grace Kelly, Robert Duvall, Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Naomi Watts, and James Franco have in common? All of them studied a technique that helped them launch their stellar careers.

Almost anyone taking acting classes in NYC will inevitably come across that technique: Meisner. If the Meisner helped these Hollywood superstars, then it must really be exceptional.

So how does the Meisner technique work? Developed by the late Sanford Meisner, the technique trains an actor to access his or her impulses. That causes the actor to draw out real behaviors and responses to circumstances. It is applied to improvisation with another actor, interpreting a script, as well as other basics on acting.

The Meisner technique uses one fundamental exercise called Repetition. In the exercise, two actors sit across and respond to one another using a repeated phrase. If one actor says, “You look unhappy with me,” the other actor responds on impulse.

Basically, the Meisner technique helps achieve two things. First, it gets the actor to stop thinking what to say or do in the given situation. Second, the actor responds to the situation physically and vocally in a spontaneous manner.

The technique, of course, does more than just have two actors respond to a repeated phrase. By taking an acting class teaching the technique, one might find oneself joining the leagues of big names someday.