The Flip Side of Neurolinguistics
by After stomping on the science of neurolinguistics in a previous article, the author, an actor himself, takes a look at the positive side. He takes the reader inside the actor’s mind to take a peek at his processes which make the character the viewers see. Neurolinguistics does point out the lies we tell each other on a daily basis. There is a supremely useful side to neurolinguistics and here it is.
I recently penned an article which described, rather woefully, my opinion of neurolinguistics. Within the text of the article, I praised Lie To Me (NBC) and The Mentalist (CBS). I put forth the concept that both shows demonstrate that each of us lies to the other frequently.
This is true. Neurolinguistics IS the basis for both shows, and while the networks’ “take” on the subject demonstrates a generally negative aspect of human behavior, I would be remiss should I overlook the positive aspects of neurolinguistics. Yes, the study of neurolinguistics reveals the lies we tell each other daily.
Neurolinguistics is also the professional actor’s primary, and most consistently reliable tool. After all, the actor’s job is to tell a convincing lie.
The character that the audience finally sees on the screen, or the stage, began as a word on the page. The actor’s job is to take the text on the page before him and imbue the words with feeling. This takes research. It takes creative thinking of the highest form. It demands of the actor that he come to understand the character so well, that the words he says are backed by the feelings the playwright intended. Once he has the essence of the character’s motivations, life history, education, and goals the actor can begin to demonstrate the writer’s intentions for that character.
By way of neurolinguistics, whether the actor realizes it or not, the final character emerges. In a way, the actor temporarily re-maps his own brain to conform to the way the character thinks. Once this happens, the character’s thoughts can be transmitted to the audience by way of the script. As neurolinguistics posits, the thoughts are reflected upon the face and the gestures of the person speaking. The neurolinguistics (thought manifested as gesture) built into everyone translates as a “readable” emotion to the audience.
One component of this telegraphing of emotional states can be brought about by the interior monologue. All of us think all the time. We cannot “not think.” The actor taps into this feature common to us all by overriding his own interior monologue with the character’s interior monologue. Each moment of the play, mapped out by rehearsal, carries with it a section of the character’s interior monologue. As events change around him, so does his monologue: his character’s reaction to those events. In a key role, the interior monologue will likely span the breadth of the play, and will have changed a great deal by the end of the play.
Liked it
