"One tries to be an observer as an actor and indeed as a director because the small things, the give-away things are what are really interesting to a performer"
About this Quote
Suzman is smuggling a whole acting philosophy into the word "small". She frames performance as a kind of surveillance: the actor isn’t just emoting, they’re collecting evidence. The "give-away things" aren’t grand speeches or scenic breakdowns; they’re the involuntary leaks of character - a rushed breath, a hand that hovers before it touches, the micro-panic behind a joke. Those details are where a person stops performing and starts betraying themselves. For a performer, that’s gold.
The intent here is practical and slightly admonishing. She’s pointing at a skill that separates competent acting from the kind that feels alive: disciplined observation. Notice how she widens the job description - actor, observer, director - as if the performer must constantly switch lenses. Acting becomes less self-expression than fieldwork. You’re not hunting for "big feelings"; you’re studying behavior and then recreating its contradictions.
The subtext is also a quiet critique of theatrical vanity. If you’re chasing applause beats, you miss the truth hiding in the margins. Suzman’s "really interesting" is pointed: audiences may remember the fireworks, but they believe the flickers.
Context matters: Suzman comes from a stage tradition (and an era of heightened political and social theater) where craft and psychological realism had to coexist with spectacle. Her line reads like rehearsal-room wisdom, but it’s also a worldview: people reveal themselves accidentally, and art gets sharper the closer it listens to accidents.
The intent here is practical and slightly admonishing. She’s pointing at a skill that separates competent acting from the kind that feels alive: disciplined observation. Notice how she widens the job description - actor, observer, director - as if the performer must constantly switch lenses. Acting becomes less self-expression than fieldwork. You’re not hunting for "big feelings"; you’re studying behavior and then recreating its contradictions.
The subtext is also a quiet critique of theatrical vanity. If you’re chasing applause beats, you miss the truth hiding in the margins. Suzman’s "really interesting" is pointed: audiences may remember the fireworks, but they believe the flickers.
Context matters: Suzman comes from a stage tradition (and an era of heightened political and social theater) where craft and psychological realism had to coexist with spectacle. Her line reads like rehearsal-room wisdom, but it’s also a worldview: people reveal themselves accidentally, and art gets sharper the closer it listens to accidents.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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