What is an actor and what it is acting? There could be a lot of answers. I will share my opinion with those who are interested. Acting and actor is just a children game, the game of creation and fantasy.
What is important is the truth, not the acting or the actor, that is if the acting or the actor has truth. In our daily life we act and play different roles most of the time, and the roles that we play don't show to people the truth hidden behind our behaviour. As children we were crying to attract attention of our parents. Even at that time, without the idea about acting we were doing it. I should say that acting is a normal condition of human being.
Then, as time passed, we discovered that these roles we play can provide us a with quick result. Many times in our life we use some sentences that have the subtext behind. If I want to get money from some instituition I need to be as gentle as I CAN, even though I am not a gentle man, and I start to behave differently, I put a false smile on my face in order to get what I want. So this is the perfect acting of life. Then when we go on stage it is completely different and what actors try to do there is really nonsense. I am speaking about traditional and boring way of theatre. HOW CAN A PERSON WITHOUT A DAMAGED BRAIN PLAY THE ROLE OF A BRAIN DAMAGED PERSON? It will never be the same as in the reality, never. You can try but I will never call that ACTING, I will better call it the game of your imagination. For a human being it is impossible to try to reach the exact psychology of another human being. MARLON BRANDO SAID IN AN INTERVIEW THAT WHEN HE WAS DOING THE GODFATHER HE WAS JUST PRETENDING BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE THAT. If being an actor is to make people believe in the role that you are playing, it's not a difficult task because we do that every day, and you don't have to be an actor to make people believe in what you do. People who go to theatre nowadays want to see which one of those actors lies better, because they are used to that in life. But, fortunately, this is not the only existing way of theatre. When people see an actor in a movie who weeps because of some situation, that actor is not weeping because of this. It is written in the script, the actor recalls some personal emotion for to do it, he/she is not being truthful, because he/she says something and thinks something else, just like in life.
Hollywood movies make an impression on people because of the cinema sound and imagery but if you remove that there is little acting.
I believe in theatre where there is truth, where you live your emotions without using a character, a theatre where you can play using your imagination and fantasy, because nobody can be false when using imagination. When you are completely here and now on the stage or whatever you play. No Character to confuse yourself, only you and your game in relation with your partners of the scene. In this theatre the actor should be as truthful as animals, at least try to be, because we are not perfect. ACTOR AND ACTING DOESN'T EXIST, ONLY THE GAME TO USE YOUR CREATION, PHANTASY, IMAGINATION AND SHARE IT WITH PEOPLE IN A SPACE...