Natalie, my wife, told me this bizarre but true story from her childhood.
Her dad went to the local pub one night and came back with a dog.
It was the 70’s; things like this happened back then.
At first, all seemed well with the dog.
But then things took a turn for the worse.
While Natalie’s dad was at work, it would start playing up with the rest of the family.
It started snarling and barking and generally looking like it might attack. It became a regular occurrence that the family would be pinned against the wall trying to appease it.
All this would happen while Natalie’s dad was at work.
When he came back home, the dog would revert to being nice as pie. It would look at him with those big dopey eyes as if butter wouldn’t melt.
But as soon as he went to work the next day, the dog would kick off again.
Natalie’s dad didn’t believe this at first and thought they were exaggerating, then one day he came home from work early and caught the dog red handed.
Natalie was a baby at the time and was crawling around the floor whilst the dog had laid siege to the kitchen and had pinned Natalie’s mother, brother and sister to the wall.
Natalie’s dad took one look at the situation and did the only thing he could to protect his family. He jumped the dog and wrestled with it on the kitchen floor until it had piped down.
What a sight it was; a grown man in what looked like a dog wrestling competition.
So, there you have it…the champion dog wrestler.
This story got me thinking about character. The dog was showing two very different sides of its personality to different people. Isn’t that what people tend to do in real life?
Have you ever known someone really well and then they did something that you didn’t expect?
When this happens people tend to say ‘that was out of character for them’.
The truth is that we all have different sides to our personalities, and characters are no different. Bear this in mind. Always look for the hidden side of a character’s personality.
Now, if you want to know more about this and how to get into the acting industry from scratch then I have a treat for you.
Next month, I will be holding my special live seminar on How To Become A Professional Actor From Scratch.
You won’t want to miss this if you are in anyway interested in becoming a pro.
All the details can be found here:
https://www.briantimoneyacting.co.uk/live-seminar/
To your acting success!
Brian