Unit 11: Acting

Question 1

Actor

Answer 1

An individual who embodies and performs a film character through gestures and
movements.

Question 2

Performance:

Answer 2

An actor’s use of language, physical expression and gesture to bring a character to
life and to communicate important dimensions of that character to the audience.

Question 3

Characters:

Answer 3

Individuals who motivate the events and perform the actions of the story.

Question 4

Types of Actors:

Answer 4

Leading actors
Character actors
Supporting actors
Extras

Question 5

Leading actors

Answer 5

The two or three actors, often stars, who represent the central characters in a narrative

Question 6

Character actors:

Answer 6

Recognizable actors associated with particular character types, often humorous or
sinister, and often cast in minor parts.
•Often play the same supporting roles in many films, but they generally do not achieve
the widespread recognition enjoyed by lead actors.

Question 7

Supporting actors

Answer 7

Actors who play secondary characters in a film, serving as foils or companions to the
central character.

Question 8

Extra

Answer 8

An uncredited actor, usually hired for crowd scenes.

Question 9

Character types

Answer 9

Conventional characters (e.g. hardboiled detective or femme fatale) typically portrayed
by actors cast because of their physical features, acting style, or the history of other roles
they have played.

Question 10

Typecasting

Answer 10

the practice of repeatedly casting actors in similar roles across different films.

Question 11

Stereotype

Answer 11

A character type that simplifies and standardizes perceptions that one group holds about
another, often less numerous, powerful, or privileged group.

Question 12

Cameo

Answer 12

A brief role in a film performed by a well-known person, usually a famous actor, whose
name is often not included in the credits or publicity.

Question 13

Acting Style

Answer 13

Francois Delsarte (1811-1871) believed that a character’s emotional state could be
projected to the audience through a formal set of gestures, postures, and physical
attitudes.

Question 14

Naturalistic acting:

Answer 14

An actor’s effort to embody the character that he or she is playing in order to
communicate the essential self of the character.

Question 15

Stylized acting:

Answer 15

An actor employs emphatic and highly self-conscious gestures or speaks in pronounced
tones with elevated diction: the actor seems fully aware that he or she is acting and
addressing an audience.

Question 16

Impersonation

Answer 16

• actors who seem to disappear into their work

* the ability to transform themselves

Question 17

Personification

Answer 17

actors who remain themselves or always play themselves

• scripts are tailored to exploit their particular attributes

Question 18

Technical Acting:

Answer 18

refers to the mastery of external details of a character such as an accent or physical trait.

Question 19

Method Acting

Answer 19

depends upon an actor’s immersion in a character and can be linked to
the mode of acting described as impersonation.

Question 20

Brechtian Distanciation

Answer 20

refers to the destruction of theatrical illusion for the purpose of eliciting an intellectual
response in the audience.

Question 21

an actors performance consists of

Answer 21

appearance, gestures, facial expressions, and sound

Question 22

“movie brats”

Answer 22

newcomers who had encyclopedic knowledge of great movies and directors.