ACT PRESIDENTIAL? HOW ABOUT ACTING HUMAN:

Role of a lifetime: Two top acting coaches on how to play the president (Dave Denison, September 12, 2004, Boston Globe)

The acting workshops of both Batson and Moss are well known for verging into something resembling group therapy sessions. For actors to develop emotional range, both coaches say, they must understand emotion, feel it in a real way, and go beyond faking it. It's fatal for the aspiring actor to be "blocked." Moss believes that applies to politicians, too. The best communicators can get ideas across to the audience "for a reason that's emotional to the person."

"You have to send the idea for a reason," says Moss. "It can't just be an idea, it has to be connected to the body and the sound of the man who's sending it." Kerry's flat, stentorian speaking style gives an audience little clue about his feelings. "He needs to go to a really good voice coach and find how to breathe and how to resonate so that we feel his body is in his voice," says Moss. "I don't even have a sense of his voice. One of the things about Bush is he's got this kind of strident, arrogant tinny quality, but there's power behind it because there's a lot of anger behind it and a lot of fear."

Batson also faults Kerry's lack of vocal range. "If you watch him," Batson says, "he has tremendous physical ease. . .. But that ease somehow doesn't come through the verbal life." [...]

The public associates "acting" in politics with phoniness, and reacts against it. But perhaps what people are really objecting to is *bad acting -- unconvincing portrayals of a leader or emotional displays that seem inappropriate. If Americans tend to see the presidency as a heroic role, people still want someone who seems human as well, even flawed in ways they can understand. "We love actors because they remind us of our humanity," says Moss. "A political figure has to do this, also."

Batson believes one of the things that seemed "jammed" in the emotional life of Al Gore was his apparent need to be right about everything. Kerry risks alienating voters in the same way.

Professional acting coaches insist on the need to summon authentic emotion to express emotion. As Batson puts it, "The great actor digs down and really works to bring a reality to the work. The great politician has to connect in a real way to the people."

Most voters already have a firm idea about the character of the current president. This fall, many will be looking especially hard at John Kerry, searching for a "relaxed sincerity," perhaps, or some kind of authenticity. They will want to know if he seems genuine enough to be the president of the United States. He will need the skill of an actor -- which is to say, he'll need to seem as if he's not acting at all.

While the President's malapropisms and sometimes awkward delivery make him eminently regular, Senator Kerry can barely convince listeners that he's human, never mind remind us of our own humanity.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 12, 2004 5:19 PM