When I started my career as an Asian Chinese actor in the Netherlands, I used to rehearse in front of a mirror. I would spend hours acting in front of a mirror and would feel confident in my skills. But when I had an audition for an acting gig I had to face the camera, nothing really worked. I went blank. I wasn’t the same person as in front of a mirror.
I don’t want you to repeat the same mistake that I did at my acting auditions. I suggest you to stop doing this one thing if you want to break into the films and television industry.
STOP ACTING IN FRONT OF A MIRROR NOW!
I am going to tell you why you shouldn’t act in front of a mirror and what you should do in order to become a good actor instead.
Why practicing acting in front of a mirror will hurt you.
The downsides of performing in front of a mirror i.e.,
No Truthful Performance
In a mirror, you’re not getting a truthful performance because you’re looking at yourself. You’re not looking at the person and not even imagining the person that you’re performing the piece to.
You’re not truthfully living in the moment as Method acting master Lee Strassberg would say.
Besides that you are your best audience when you’re looking in the mirror. You’re going to give yourself the stare and intensity that you want and not necessarily the feedback that you’re going to get when you’re in an audition room playing with another actor.
Seeing your face and how you are responding can be a crutch for a lot of people. And they get used to seeing that friendly face looking back at them that knows all their inner secrets. But when they remove that from the equation, they tend to have a difficult time performing.
Also, a casting director wants you to be honest with your reactions and emotions. So, you need to dig into the scene and be truthful in the way you respond with your lines and dialogue. If you’re mugging for the mirror or trying to make the look of emotion, then you’re not being truthful to the performance.
Loss of Focus
If you want your acting to really have a great performance, you have to be 100% focused on your character, your motivations, and the life of the character. You don’t want to be distracted by outside circumstances especially not by the reflections of your mirror image. Registering, judging trying to adjust what you see is not living truthfully in the moment of the scene that you supposed to play as truthfully as possible.
When you’re looking into the mirror you’re only half focused on your acting and the other half of you is focused on what you look like. So you’re not devoting 100 percent of your attention to either one.
Plus, when you’re looking in a mirror, you don’t notice things like how often you blink. When you turn down to look at the page, you don’t see that in the mirror because your focus goes down to the page and then back up.
So, What Should You Use Instead of a Mirror?
CAMERA!
If you really want to be critical of your performances, I suggest that you do self-tapes. Put a camera in front of you, set up some lights in your room, set up a backdrop, and do a self-tape. Not as an audition. Just to rehearse your monologue or your song.
I guarantee you when you watch that self-tape back, you’ll notice all the little quirks you will hear when you’re off the pitch in a song. You’ll see when you’re looking down at your script over and over again. You’ll see when your eyes aren’t connecting. You’ll see when you’re not being honest with your emotions. It’s a much more fully fleshed, engaging experience that gives you honest feedback.
And you don’t have to worry about having a super fancy camera. Use your smartphone’s camera to practice acting. Just prop your phone up on a tripod stand, hit record, and perform your scenes, monologues, or whatever you’re performing. I recommend that you use a back camera instead of a selfie camera so you don’t look at yourself when rehearsing. It allows you to focus on your character, life, and the environment of what’s going on.
After you’re done, you can stop recording and watch it to evaluate your acting. You can play the video again and again to see your performance. Then you can record again to improve and repeat the process.
Another benefit of using a camera is that you’re now watching yourself the same way that the audience, a producer, or a casting director would watch you. When you are using a mirror, nobody is going to see you through the same lens you see yourself. They’re always going to look at you through the lens of a camera. This also helps you when you are going to an audition in person because you’ll have practiced being in front of the camera.
To Wrap It Up
Use a camera and record your acting performance and watch it after you’ve performed so you are truly in the moment whilst you playing your character.
If you insist on working with a mirror then yeah ….
It’s not a bad idea to use a mirror when you’re trying to learn how you look or when you’re expressing an emotion and want to research your facial muscle’s and expressions.
What I recommend is to take a look at the script, drum up the emotion and if you’re a Lee Strassberg Method acting fan dig into your sense memory, and then look in the mirror.
It helps me learn if what is registering on my face matches the intensity level of the emotion that I’m trying to express. And sometimes when I look at my own face in a mirror, I come up with more ideas of where this character can go.
But you must practice your monologues and scenes without a mirror because the mirror is going to take you away from the truth, takes you out of the moment you are actually in. It can’t to tell you the full truth because you are too busy with registering your acting work whilst you should be in the moment and live your character thruthfull.
So Use a camera to record yourself, evaluate your performance, and improve !
If you are looking for more acting and rehearsing tips, feel free to ask in the comments. I’d love to share the things that I’ve learned as an Asian Chinese actor in the Netherlands with you.
