Have you ever been told by a director or acting teacher that you’re doing too much? You’re not alone. Many new actors (and experienced ones) have heard that phrase. But what does it actually mean? A director is usually implying that the performance is exaggerated in a way that doesn’t feel truthful. In other words: You’re overacting.
But what exactly is overacting, and how can you avoid it? Here is what you need to know to avoid falling into this trap and give an authentic performance.
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Sometimes referred to as “chewing the scenery” or “hamming it up,” overacting is when an actor “exaggerates an action, tone, reaction, characterisation, or performance with the intention to convey an emotion that is already obvious,” Samuel Hollis writes for StageMilk. This results in an unnatural performance.
Director, filmmaker, and actor Darious Britt says “one of the most common problems actors have is to indicate emotions or show emotions.” Rather than simply being present, the actor feels as if they need to use certain expressions or physical gestures to show the audience that they are feeling something. This leads to “very clichéd physical expressions,” Britt says.
Robyn Paterson, founder and director of the London Meisner Company, says overacting is “where there’s many effects, but with no cause.” Essentially, the actor is doing a lot expressively, but there is no real intention behind their actions.
On the other hand, acting and voice coach Mel Churcher, who has worked with actors such as Daniel Craig, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley, and Jet Li, dislikes the term “overacting” altogether. “It’s not a term I use,” she says. “Acting is either real and alive or not real to the receivers. Acting is believing.”
The biggest clue that someone is overacting is that their performance looks unnatural or, according to Nicole LaJeunesse in Videomaker, “exaggerated and unrealistic.”
Overacting could manifest in many ways, such as big facial expressions, a lot of gesticulation, speaking too loudly onscreen, and melodramatic displays of emotion, such as weeping hysterically upon receiving bad news or shouting at full volume when angry.
Those things are not always signs of overacting, of course. It depends on the context. If the actor is present and truthful to the personality of their character and the context of the scene, then those expressions could be justified.
Overacting is considered bad acting. It can “distance the audience from the character’s reality,” according to Theatre 33.
Britt argues that it can be patronising to audiences. “[When you overact], you’re spoon-feeding information to the audience,” he says. “You’re basically pandering to the audience. And when you do that, they will hate you for it.”
Overacting is “particularly common with novice actors and when theatre actors transition to the screen,” LaJeunesse writes.
Actors in training may overact because they are keen to demonstrate the new techniques they have learned, leading to more of a focus on showing rather than being present in the scene. Or they may be nervous, resulting in them overcompensating in their performance.
Actors used to theatre may have a hard time translating their performance to screen.
“In theatre, actors need to project their voices and portray clear expressions that are readable even from the balcony seats,” LaJeunesse writes. “However, the camera is, of course, much closer. It captures more subtleties.”
Britt says the two main reasons for overacting are when an actor tries to create an emotion and when actors don’t listen to each other. Other reasons, Hollis writes, include wanting to be good, trying to elicit a specific action from your scene partner or the audience, trying too hard in general, not being present, and lack of self-awareness.
Paterson says there are many reasons someone may overact, but the two main ones are that “they fear they’re boring so they need to be on or to entertain” and “they’ve worked on the scene and they want the audience or the casting director to know they understand what’s going on.”
“Whether people believe in you or not depends on the medium and the genre,” Churcher says. “What you might call overacting onscreen could be marvellous for a musical, or a panto, or a drag act, or outdoor theatre.”
Another obvious area in which overacting may be appropriate is in specific types of comedy, such as slapstick and farce. Even in heightened comedic situations, however, it’s important to bear in mind that “your character does not know that they are being funny, nor are they trying to be funny, and the behaviour they exhibit is completely normal to them,” Hollis writes. The humour of Will Ferrell’s character Ron Burgundy, the narcissistic news anchor in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, for example, is in his oblivious self-confidence.
Exaggerated performance may also be appropriate in some shows for children, in order to maintain high energy levels to keep the young audience engaged.
Some actors have made what may be considered overacting their trademark, with great success. That includes Jim Carrey, whose ability to distort his facial expressions and physicality has helped him in roles including the title character in How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Samuel L. Jackson also often uses what may be considered overacting as a stylistic choice to deliver high-intensity performances, including one famous line in Snakes on a Plane.
One extremely heightened performance that has divided critics is Faye Dunaway’s portrayal of Joan Crawford in the “wire hangers” scene in Mommie Dearest, in which Crawford berates her daughter for using wire hangers. “Dunaway does not chew scenery,” Variety wrote in its review of the film. “Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole.” A 40th anniversary review in the Guardian, however, said “it says a lot for Dunaway’s brazenly deranged delivery that her shrieks still rose above the din [of laughter in the cinema].”
Here are some tips for how to stop overacting in its tracks:
- Focus on listening to your scene partner rather than how you are going to deliver your lines.
- Think about your character's intention. What are they trying to achieve, and how are they trying to do it?
- Follow your instincts in the scene rather than preplanning. It can feel scary to let go, but try to be present.
- Get to know your character inside and out, including creating a strong backstory. That will give you more confidence to trust in the moment.
- Consider taking a Meisner class. The Meisner Technique is “an acting method that trains performers to respond truthfully and instinctively to their scene partners in the present moment rather than relying on preplanned emotions or intellectual analysis,” Paterson says.
- Study Uta Hagen and Stanislavsky, the methods of whom will guide you in your journey to acting realistically.
- “Do whatever you’re doing,” Britt says. “If in a scene you’re supposed to look out of a window, actually look out of the window. Don’t show me that you’re looking out of the window.” If there is no window on set to look out of, an actor might practice looking out of a window at home, noting how this is usually a subtle, rather than exaggerated movement. Then on set, they would do the same, this time imagining the window and picturing what they can see through it.
- Be aware of your physicality. Are you moving for the sake of it or is there a real intention behind your movement?
“There is no big and small acting,” Churcher says in her book The Elemental Actor. “There are only drives, situations (which may be extreme), and needs that you respond to truthfully and with the energy you would use in life. If you are told it is too much, hear ‘untruthful’.”