Picasso or Cézanne

In my scene study class, we often make reference to prolific painters Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne. These two painters represent a dichotomy on the view of talent and ability that is found in the performing arts. On one side we have Pablo Picasso who was heralded as a young genius having produced his first masterpiece at age twenty. Conversely, Paul Cézanne’s masterpieces mostly came at the end of his career, when he was in his sixties. Cézanne was a late bloomer and when we use words like “talented” or “gifted” to describe someone we are almost always referring to the “Picasso” sense of the word.

This predisposition to the “Picasso” view on talent isn’t necessarily our fault. The very nature of acting, and more broadly the performing arts, leads us to see ability in an almost singular light. When we see a film or play we are seeing the end result of that actor’s work and because of that we often lose sight of all the effort that had to go into that performance. Since we never actually see the actor spending hours pouring over his script or rehearsing his lines it almost becomes second nature to assume that he was able to do it without putting in much effort even though we as actors know better than that.

A vast majority of us, whether we know it or not, are waiting to be told that we are “Picassos” – that we are naturally gifted and no work or training is needed for us. This mentality can be completely constructive as long as we never let it go to our heads. When I first started acting, I would always talk with fellow actors about how much I loved performing a scene and having the teacher point out what did not work so I could become a better actor. The reality of this was that I was really looking for verification of how good I thought I was. I didn’t really want to be told what was wrong with me; I wanted to be told that my work was terrific and needed no adjustments. If anything was wrong with the scene it was surely my partner’s fault and not mine. I wanted it to come easy, I wanted to be special; I wanted to be a Picasso.

Anybody who has tried to recite learned text under imaginary circumstances in front of a group of people will testify that is not easy, the actors who do it well make it look effortless which in turn jump starts the imaginations of thousands of prospective actors. But if all these passion infused people truly knew the effort needed to become that masterful would they still take the bait? Rather than staying behind picketing the idea that we are a long lost Picasso we should be accepting that we are Cézannes. Let’s drop the pressure we give ourselves to be brilliant every time we go in front of our peers and realize that anything we do in class, be it abysmal or amazing, is going to make us a better actor regardless.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites