The student may well ask, "What are we to copy, and whom are we to
copy?" Don't copy any one; don't copy any individual actor, or his
methods. The methods of one actor--the means by which he
arrives--cannot always be successfully employed by another. The
methods and personality of one actor are no more becoming or suitable
or adapted to another than certain gowns worn by women of fashion
simply because these gowns are the fashion. In the art of acting,
like the art of painting, we must study life--copy life! You will
have before you the work of great masters, and you will learn very
much from them--quite as much what to avoid as what to follow. No
painting is perfect, and no acting is perfect. No actor ever played a
part to absolute perfection. It is just as impossible for an actor to
simulate nature completely upon the stage as it is impossible for the
painter to portray on canvas the waves of the ocean, the raging storm
clouds, or the horrors of conflagration.
The nearer the artist gets to nature, the greater he is. We may
admire Rubens and Rembrandt and Vandyke and Gainsborough and Turner,
but who will dare to say that any one of their pictures is faultless?
We shall learn much from them all, but quite as much what to avoid as
what to emulate. But when you discover their faults, do not forget
their virtues. Look, and realise what it means to be able to do so
much, And the actor's art is even more difficult! For its execution
must be immediate and spontaneous. The word is delivered, the action
is done, and the picture is painted! Can I pause and say, "Ladies and
gentlemen, that is not the way I wanted to do this, or to say that; if
you will allow me to try again, I think I can improve upon it?"