"You need help when you're starting out. On the other hand, some people are very naturalistic to begin with"
About this Quote
Naughton’s line has the casual shrug of an actor remembering the weird split-screen reality of show business: everyone needs a hand at the door, and then you meet someone who walks in like they own the place. The first sentence is almost a kindness mantra - apprenticeship matters, craft is learned, and no one arrives fully formed. Then he undercuts the comfort with that pivot: “On the other hand.” Suddenly the industry’s quiet cruelty surfaces, the part nobody wants to say out loud at auditions - some performers just read as “real” from day one, and the room responds before technique even has a chance to matter.
“Naturalistic” is doing heavy cultural work. It’s not just “talented.” It’s a style that casts authenticity as destiny: the prized ability to look unacted, to make scripted emotion pass as lived experience. In film and TV, that’s currency. It’s also a euphemism that lets gatekeepers dress instinct and charisma up as something objective, as if the camera simply “finds” truth in certain faces and bodies.
The subtext is both generous and resigned. Help is necessary, but it’s unevenly distributed - mentorship, access, and patience are granted more readily to those who already seem effortless. Naughton, speaking as an actor who came up through a very specific era of screen realism, is quietly describing the paradox of craft: you train to disappear, and some people start out already invisible in the best way - leaving everyone else to hustle twice as hard to look like they aren’t hustling at all.
“Naturalistic” is doing heavy cultural work. It’s not just “talented.” It’s a style that casts authenticity as destiny: the prized ability to look unacted, to make scripted emotion pass as lived experience. In film and TV, that’s currency. It’s also a euphemism that lets gatekeepers dress instinct and charisma up as something objective, as if the camera simply “finds” truth in certain faces and bodies.
The subtext is both generous and resigned. Help is necessary, but it’s unevenly distributed - mentorship, access, and patience are granted more readily to those who already seem effortless. Naughton, speaking as an actor who came up through a very specific era of screen realism, is quietly describing the paradox of craft: you train to disappear, and some people start out already invisible in the best way - leaving everyone else to hustle twice as hard to look like they aren’t hustling at all.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
|---|
More Quotes by David
Add to List
