Acting & Casting

Acting TechniquesTerm
Acting techniques are the trained systems actors use to build a truthful performance — Stanislavski's system, the Method, Meisner, Chekhov, Adler and others — each with its own route to emotion, action and character.
Body DoubleTerm
A body double replaces an actor in shots where the face isn't seen — close-ups of hands, nude scenes, back-of-head shots or skills the actor lacks — so the audience believes it's still the star.
CameoTerm
A cameo is a brief, often uncredited appearance by a recognizable person — a star, the director, the author of the source — whose recognition by the audience is the point.
DeadpanTerm
Deadpan is comic delivery with a blank face and flat voice: the actor plays absurd material with total seriousness, and the gap between content and expression is the joke.
ExtraTerm
Extras, or background actors, populate a scene without lines — crowds, diners, passers-by — making the world feel inhabited while never drawing focus from the principals.
Method ActingTerm
Method acting, developed by Lee Strasberg from Stanislavski, has actors draw on their own memories and sometimes stay in character off camera to produce emotionally real performances.
Stunt PerformerTerm
A stunt performer executes dangerous physical action on camera — falls, fights, car hits, fire burns — often doubling for an actor under the stunt coordinator's direction.
Voice ActingTerm
Voice acting is performing a character with the voice alone — for animation, games, dubbing or narration — where timing, pitch and texture have to carry the whole performance.
Character ActorTerm
A character actor specializes in distinctive supporting roles — eccentrics, villains, oddballs — disappearing into a type rather than playing the romantic lead.
Meisner TechniqueTerm
The Meisner technique trains actors to live truthfully under imaginary circumstances by reacting to their partner moment to moment, built on the famous repetition exercise.
CastingTerm
Casting is the process of finding and choosing performers — from the breakdown and open call through auditions, callbacks and screen tests to chemistry reads, negotiations and final approval.

Glossary

14 terms

Actor: An actor is a performer who embodies a character through voice, body and behavior; on film the performance is built in short takes and scaled to the size of the shot.
Bit Part: A bit part is a small role with a handful of lines — a waiter, a cop, a receptionist — that is credited but barely affects the plot.
Cast: The cast is everyone who performs in a film, from leads and supporting players to day players; the crew, by contrast, works behind the camera.
Command Performance: Command performance originally meant a show given at a monarch's request; critics now use it for a commanding lead performance that dominates the entire film.
Cue: A cue is the signal for an actor to speak or move — usually the last words of a partner's line, sometimes an action, a sound or the director's call.
Hitting a Mark: Hitting a mark means an actor landing precisely on a taped spot on the floor so they stay in focus, in the light and in frame.
Lead Actor: The lead actor plays the protagonist — the character the story follows — and usually receives top billing.
Off Book: An actor is off book once the lines are memorized and the script is no longer needed at rehearsal.
Stand-In: A stand-in takes the actor's place while the crew lights and rehearses camera moves, so the star can rest; stand-ins never appear in the final shots.
Walk-On: A walk-on is a tiny role in which a performer crosses or appears in a scene with little or no dialogue, more noticeable than an extra but smaller than a bit part.
Principals: Principals are the performers with real speaking roles, as opposed to extras; in call sheets and contracts they are treated separately from background.
Screen Test: A screen test is a filmed audition, often in costume and with a partner, to see how an actor reads on camera and with the rest of the cast.
Talent Agent: A talent agent represents actors and other artists, submits them for roles and negotiates their deals in exchange for a commission.
Child Actor: A child actor is a performer under legal age, whose working hours, schooling on set and earnings are regulated by special labor laws and handled with a guardian present.