Actors are just playing a role, and people know this, but they can still be influenced by factors like the character’s personality, the performer’s skills, and their body language. Studies found that different images of the same actor with happy, sad, confused, or closed-off expressions can make people feel differently towards them. 

Only an expert who knows the acting process can help us understand why audiences react differently to various performers. That’s why Bored Panda reached out to Matthew Harrison, a world-renowned acting coach and founder of The Actor's Foundry. He has taught thousands of actors and helped build many successful careers in Hollywood and around the world for over twenty years. 

We asked him why there are certain actors that people seem to dislike so much. He told us that the “reason an audience member will react badly to an actor and dislike them falls under three categories: 

1. The performer is simply just not good.
2. Something about the essence, chemistry, personality, and vibe of the actor that an audience member finds distasteful.
3. Or that the characters the particular entertainer tends to play are unattractive.

An extremely interesting thing that Matthew explained is that “acting is the art form of life.” Audiences don’t just passively view plays, movies, or shows; they tend to get immersed in the story. That’s exactly why folks pass moral judgments about characters, identify with them, or even try to analyze their feelings.

Matthew explained that current audiences have “become extremely educated in human behavior, whereas audiences of the 1970s or 1980s didn’t have access to YouTube, social media, and the plethora of memes exposing real human behavior. So when an actor pushes, fakes, or plays cliché ideas, people have become extremely educated at catching them in a lie.” 

“So acting today has become hyper-realistic. The great actors of our time are spontaneously living in the circumstances of the story, the movie, the TV show, and the play. Within the context of the text, the strict understanding of their character’s actions and emotions, the actor has to surrender to the story and let accidents fly.”

“Which is why [great actors] are so good. They are never caught in a lie, are never caught presenting ideas, they are never showing you their homework, they are never faking anything. In other words, you never catch them ‘acting,’” Matthew shared.

A big reason why we might engage so heavily with what the actors are doing on screen is also because of mirror neurons. Neuroscientists explain that these neurons get activated when we observe an individual doing something or expressing an emotion. It almost makes us feel what they are experiencing.

Matthew also added to this perspective, explaining that “our animalistic brains respond to the other animals in front of us. We may have slightly forgotten this in our modern societies, but just like dogs react to what’s in front of them on a visceral level, so do we.”

“If an actor is faking it, pushing emotion, thinking about their performance, and not actually being the character, then they are not in their animal mode. So the audience, who are animals, get very uncomfortable with the strange thing in front of them that looks and talks like an animal but isn’t actually being one.”

“So for all these reasons, you just can’t trick an audience. The real test of this is putting an actor on stage. You absolutely cannot fake it because the audience is right there in front of you. If your heart is supposed to be broken, it better be broken. If you were dying, you would better be dying. If you were falling in love, you had better be falling in love,” he shared.

All the posts you see here are about bad actors and why people tend to dislike them. On the other hand, there are so many incredible performers that most folks seem drawn to. We asked Matthew Harrison about the qualities of some of these great entertainers.

He told us that “audiences might like an actor because they are very skilled at living truthfully in a scene, maybe they simply have an interesting personality or chemistry, or they happen to be very attractive.” 

He also explained how some “actors can be highly skilled, and good at breaking down a script, analyzing their characters, finding the emotions of the character, connecting to the other actors on stage or screen, and delivering a very nuanced performance.”

As you’ve probably understood from all these comments, being an incredible performer requires so much more than just reading lines from a script. That’s why, even though there might be tons of aspiring actors, only around 2% are able to make a living doing it. It’s estimated that nearly two-thirds of performers give up after their first year of acting.

That’s why Matthew explained that “aspiring actors need to know that there’s no such thing as talent. Talent is a lie and psychologically disproven. Actors need to find the skills, sharpen their tools, and [keep practicing].”

“What makes acting effective is when an actor has done ridiculous, exhaustive, and rigorous homework. They have to have an unbelievable ability to understand human psychology to better be able to break down scripts, know story analysis, and understand the character.”

“The actor needs to be emotionally connected to themselves and be a tireless researcher in their own emotional triggers, memories, and imagination. Ridiculous rigorous preparation followed by complete abandon, and that is very hard and is the reason why some actors just can’t pull it off,” he shared.

Who knew that acting required so much more than just showing up and speaking memorized lines? It’s understandable that different people may be fond of or dislike certain performers. Now that we’ve learned the extent of what goes on behind the scenes, it might help us be a bit kinder towards these actors. They’re doing it for our entertainment, after all.

We’d love to hear from you about actors you love and possibly dislike.