(Orig printed in Japanese--This is the English version with some screen shots from the orig article)

Caryn Shalita is an actress. But for her, acting is more than just a career; it's a way of life! And she speaks quite passionately about her chosen profession on her site at http://www.caryn.com/. The opening comments on Caryn's homepage are thoughts about the nature of acting and the effect it had on the lives of both her and those around her:

Maybe it's the natural human impulse to want to be a voyeur...to look into places where we're not supposed to....but my favorite kinds of films are the kind that make you feel as if you have a special vantage point, looking through a peekhole of someone else's life and living and breathing every moment with them. As an actor, I have the ability to let people experience that kind of suspended reality...the joy...the rush...that sense of intense being. That is the gift I am lucky enough to have to give the world.

An "impulse" is a driving, psychological force that is beyond rational thought. The adjective form of the word is "impulsive" and it nearly always has a negative connotation. "Voyeur" is a word that comes to English from the French word voir "to see" and its strongest meaning is "a person who receives sexual gratification by watching others engage in sex". However, commonly, as is the case here, it merely means to receive an elicit thrill from seeing something you shouldn't; hence the following sentence. The "places" Caryn refers to here are not explicitly stated though they are implied by context. I.e. the intimate moments of people's lives that are shared through movies, television, and other drama. There is a slight error in this paragraph; "peekhole" should be "peephole", although the difference is only technical. Both "to peep" and "to peek" have the same meaning - "to furtively look at something through a small opening or concealed location." The similarity in meaning in combination with the fact that "p" and "k" are not dramatically different sounds, makes it an easy mistake and all but unnoticeable in reading it. A "peephole" itself immediately conjures images of holes in picket fences or holes drilled into locker rooms. The meaning here, of course, is metaphorical. To understand "suspended reality" you first have to understand another phrase - "the suspension of disbelief". This is a movie industry term in reference to a film's ability to captivate the audience into believing that otherwise unlikely or unbelievable events are indeed possible (especially in Science Fiction). Here, "suspend" means "to stop", usually for a period of time - in this case, the duration of the movie. In "suspended reality", not only is there the literal meaning that implies that in drama, reality is "stopped", there is also an added nuance borrowed from "suspension of disbelief". That of being captivated to the point that drama and reality blur. The most common meaning for "rush" is "hurry", but in this case it is referring to a feeling. The elation that you feel from succeeding in a goal, from a daring action, from a really good party, or even from drugs - that is a "rush". It is short for "a rush of adrenalin" which refers to hurried manner in which the chemical flows into your blood stream in such situations. "Gift", as it is used here, means an innate ability bestowed on you by some manner of deity. The way Caryn uses "..." in this excerpt represents dramatic pauses, like those of natural speech. On the Internet, in contrast to most textual media, sentence structure, punctuation, and written conventions in general are thrown out the window in favor of more natural spoken English.

However, despite the obvious joy Caryn finds in acting, not everyone close to her felt it was a serious endeavour:

I would be asked not how was my job going, but "How's the acting thing?"
"Thing?" As you can imagine I was thrilled at being taken so seriously.

When used in this way, "thing" has a diminutive effect because it implies that "acting" can not be classified as work. The second quote, '"Thing?"' is Caryn's reaction to what was said. When part of an utterance is repeated in this manner, it usually indicates surprise or disgust. In this case, Caryn clearly finds the statement disagreeable. The second sentence is clearly sarcastic and Caryn's intended meaning is the opposite of the literal one.

The scope of Caryn's site goes far beyond the small sample presented here. In addition to being a place to share her art (including real time streaming video!) it is also a venue for actors and the arts and entertainment scene. Other area include the "WWWomen's Arts/Entertainment Ring", the "Actor's Area" discussion group, and Indie (Independent) Film Information, not to mention the newsgroup and mailing list that Caryn runs. So whether you are an aspiring actor or a veteran viewer, this site has something to offer you as you improve your English!

To: Caryn Shalita <caryn@caryn.com>
From: Sean McLennan <mclennas@cadvision.com>
Subject: A Question about Acting.

As an actress, of course, you have to be prepared to play any role -
a wide range of socio-economic classes from a wide variety locations.
Language use changes so much between different groups of people, even
just within a single country speaking a single language!

First, I have to disagree with this a little. The fact is, not every actor can play every role, although I'm sure you will find many mediocre ones who claim they can. There will be some languages, socio-economic standings and entire cultures that an actor will more naturally identify with than others, and therefore they will be better suited to play those kinds of parts. So the range of an actor is more based on the personal experiences and background they can bring to it--for example, I don't think I could learn to "feel" like a Mexican and perform in a role better than an equally good actor who actually had real ties to Mexican language and culture...do you see what I mean? So the "range" is really only as wide as the actor's extended life, and therefore a little less foreign-seeming than in the scenario you described.

Do you ever have difficulty making the transition from yourself to your roles in terms of language use?

Not really, because language is such an important part of defining a role, that I think it's something an actor considers when deciding whether or not the role appeals to him or her. When you take on a role, you spend a lot of time in that space, so that space better be a place you really want to explore in detail. Language is actually a helpful turning key in the process of finding that other person inside of yourself. How you talk is as important as how you walk --and both tie in to how you think, which is key to establishing motivation for why a character behaves in certain ways. We use language to do many things for us--, express our wonderment or surprise, exclaim our joy, mask our true fears, communicate with the world around us. As an actor playing a given role, my language would dictate my interaction with the world around me, so it would be my job to get so comfotable with the language, and the space it occupies in my life as that character, to the point where I am barely even conscious of it. After all, we don't really pay that much attention to how language dictates our interactions in everyday life, so overattention to this matter would read as false, and the contradiction of the everyday reality we experience would be subconciously unsettling, if not obvious.

Is it something that you consciously control, or is it something natural that is part of the gift of acting?

I think it is definitely a gift to be able to exert the kind of control over the "Self" that a truly good actor needs to have, but I also think, that like most other things in life, a gift is only revealed through practice, and maintained by constant use. I went to college at Columbia University, and of course, the bars were plentiful on the Upper West side of NYC, and we hung out in just about all of them at one time or another. Senior year, coming up on graduation, I wasn't really interested in dating, but never seemed to lack for men trying to see if they could change my mind. Never one to be mean, I wanted to be able to be friendly, yet still keep a distance. So I decided one night to be from London, starting talking with the accent and all (I have close family friends who are from London so I had a lot to draw on) and before I knew it, I was a whole other person with a whole life story other than my own. What amazed me was that that guy left the bar totally convinced that I was some chick from London--and although I was coming up with all of this stuff on the fly, he never once suspected that I was putting him on. He left the bar, happy I think, and I was saved from telling him to go take a flying leap for trying to hit on me. I think the key to success in acting endeavors that require alteration of natural patterns of language is a lot of study ahead of time and total commitment throughout the performance. Some Method actors need to walk around town and talk like their characters, "be" their characters even when not on the set. I happen to think I'm lucky in that I was born with a gift of easy access to my emotions and am able to find a place inside of myself again any time I need to, especially if I've been there before and made it a point to remember the directions! Now if I could just learn north, south, east and west--no doubt, my entire life would change!

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