Sydney Pollack and Sanford Meisner discuss the significant effort and time required to dispel various misconceptions about acting. Pollack points out that the initial work involves getting the actor to truly focus on the other person. Meisner then demonstrates a repetitive exercise to highlight this point, emphasizing the importance of genuine interaction and observation without falling into the trap of artificially creating variety.
Quotes
“The initial work is a process of getting the actor to really pay attention to the other person.”
“There’s an enormous amount of work and time devoted to getting rid of all kinds of prejudices about what acting really is.”