A Free Mini Workshop from BOPAS: Finding Authenticity

So many actors ask, “How do I be more authentic?”The answer is simpler — and harder — than it sounds.

Authenticity comes from being porous. Your job as an actor is not to control, impress, or perform — it’s to stay open. Open to what’s happening around you, open to your scene partner, open to the moment as it unfolds.

Sanford Meisner famously said that acting is “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.”That truth doesn’t come from forcing emotion — it comes from listening, responding, and allowing yourself to be affected.

In auditions especially, remember:

You are not in a white room with a reader.

You are in the world of the scene.

Feel it.

• If you’re outside, feel the wind on your skin.

• If you’re in a public place, see the people around you.

• Notice the sounds, the smells, the atmosphere.

• Make the imagined circumstance real for you

  
  

Your body and nervous system don’t know the difference between “real” and “imagined” — so give them something specific and alive to respond to.

Your greatest gift is your imagination.When you use it fully — sensorially, emotionally, truthfully — authenticity follows naturally.

That’s a great place to start!