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What Makes An Actor Interesting? – Briana Packen

Writer's picture: CHARLIE SANDLANCHARLIE SANDLAN

Briana Packen teaches movement classes for actors at the Maggie Flanigan Studio. In this video, Brianna talks about how being off balance makes actors interesting to watch.

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Movement Classes for Actors - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Briana Packen 02

Letting Go of Control and Being Off Balance

It’s important for actors to experience being off balance because, in life, we need to be balanced for very many reasons. Part of that is our existence in society, our interpersonal relationships, and part of being a good actor is someone who shows up on time, someone who is prepared and someone who people want to work with, that takes being in balance and in control, it’s very important. There is this one part of our job that calls for us to be very off-balance, and that happens in the imaginary world.

Briana Packen interview quote

If in the real world we are constantly in a place of being balanced and being in control, which is our default mode as human beings. We move around in a linear way, time is linear, we try to show up on time, we want to have an idea of success that’s sometimes like a ladder, we climb it when we have the sense of being off-balance, there’s a difference between what world you’re in. The off-balance world is only in the imaginary world.



Interesting Actors Live in the Imaginary World


When you walk into an acting space, you need to know how to go into that off-balance place. The way that I help actors do that is using a circular motion. Circular motion is a physical simulation of being off-balance. We use your body to also affect your mind and your emotions, which is that wonderful place where actors where they’re operating from, people would say, “That’s presence, that’s so amazing, they’re experiencing something.” When you don’t know how to do that, your default mode is being in control.


That’s someone who’s a bit guarded, certainly protected and necessarily so, but in the acting world, it’s not an interesting actor, it’s not someone who we can experience something through or someone that makes us want to watch them.

Movement Classes for Actors - Maggie studio - Briana Packen 01
Movement Classes for Actors - Maggie Flanigan Studio - Briana Packen 01

Learn More About Movement Classes for Actors at the Maggie Flanigan Studio



To learn more about movement classes for actors at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, go to our studio website or call the studio during business hours at (917) 794-3878.


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