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I love Meisner's concept of getting into the character to the point of being the character, and not acting. In fact in his book, On Acting, he actually says "no acting please" to his students, which means that actors should never be conscious of acting. Instead they are the character. The book sort of chronicles what it was like to be in his class. Eric Morris expands on this in his book "No Acting, Please." He talks about removing nervousness (the actor's worst enemy), through what I see as a sort of mediation, just prior to going on. His class is described as a sort of marathon retreat, where actors come face to face with this reality of being a character, sometimes resulting in deep emotional self encounters. In terms of writing, I would see this as going beyond the actor to see the character and put yourself into that character. Actions and dialog have to be real, and not acted out. What would that character actually say? What would they actually do in the given situation? I think good actors appreciate writing that reflects the reality of the character in the moment. When they don't have that, they will tend to make up something more real, if they are good.

Jon, I am so much about this in my teaching as I push the writers I work with to dig, dig, dig into their characters. In the Prep workshop, I present a bunch of character engagement techniques, some of them traditional like biographies and questionnaires, others a bit more adventurous like character sit-downs, monologues and interviews. There is outside-in writing, where it's more about the writer imposing his/her take on the narrative. And there's inside-out writing, where the writer goes into the story, immerses him/herself into the lives of the characters, and THEY guide the creative process. The latter is preferable for a zillion reasons, not the least of which is the writer is better equipped to craft authentic, multilayered characters with whom actors can relate and understand.

A while back, I read Michael Cain's book Acting in Film. It has some good stuff in there about how he prepares, challenges that pop up on set, ect. He even talks about factors in the script that affect how he rehearses, if I remember correctly.

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