Hunting for Truth

There’s something to be said of the wisdom of actors. I just listened to Ben Kingsley describe acting as tribal, and actors as hunters, eager to find the truth of the play, the truth inside their part. It’s a stretch for the imagination but, it felt right to me as he explained.


He said that as an actor, being trained formally, you feel that you want to hunt, want the thrill of it, want the adrenaline and the fear and the kill. You want to get out there and you want to pull back your bow and fire it. But instead you’re given a bow with no arrow, and you're told to pull it back, over and over and over again.

This teaches patients, this teaches stillness and if you’re confident that you’re are a hunter, that you have an important place in your tribe then you will happily be still, you will happily watch and learn, and pull your arrow-less bow content to perfect what you know you were born for.

that is the moment the hunter in you can be let out because then you have the coolness to temper the fire

And when you find yourself so patient, so content, so complete with no arrow, no thrill and no kill, then that is the moment you’re ready for the arrow, that is the moment the hunter in you can be let out on the stage because then you have the coolness to temper the fire. And for all those time when you wanted an arrow and only received a bow, you’re grateful.

hates when people come to into any encounter with preconceptions

I want to learn patience, tolerance, to be at one with myself, not to be at odds with myself. Ben said something else interesting as well, when asked what turns him off he said he hates when people come to into any encounter with preconceptions. It’s my own fault and it’s the fault of many people I know, and I hate seeing it in myself far more than in others.

Well, I know that I have a lot to learn, there’s a lot I can gain from just watching and being patient.