I thought this was interesting.
When I did the Hoffman Process it turned out I have some talent at acting and improv, so I took an acting class locally, and the instructor actually asked for my picture, as she thought I was good enough to do commercial work. I felt a weird resistance to it, which I couldn’t quite put my finger on.
And I think Brando here has done it: acting is lying. Its very essence is insincerity. It is pretending to be someone you are not. And you can learn to portray emotions convincingly that I think you don’t feel. I think many Hollywood actors feel they are much more passionate than they actually are. What they are is sentimental, and sufficiently talented at mimicry that they can do suitable imitations of deep passion.
I was able to portray a lot of emotion without feeling any of it, and I think that is how it works for most of them.
I am deeply uncomfortable with the role actors play in our culture. We admire them without knowing them. Cloaking their real selves is the essence of their craft, so we can never be sure the person we think we know–smiling, friendly, seemingly open–is real at all. We admire them for the roles they play. It is but a short step from that lie to admiring the soap opera actor Barack Obama for how well he is able to act “presidential” without any real character, any real beliefs, any real compassion or caring, any honor, and any actual dignity. Hell, people seem to be taking mediocre actor Hillary Clinton as the real McCoy. We don’t even demand good acting from our politicians. Just good enough for the masses.
I recollect that in traditional Chinese culture, which had a sort of caste system, actors were right at the bottom, far below farmers and the learned.