Irakli Kavsadze: What We Believe About Acting

IRAKLI KAVSADZE is a famous Georgian actor based in the United States

An actor is a feeling: a pain, a joy, a pride and many more, yet he exists in one space, the space of love

If you look at things unphilosophically, you tend to simplify things, because going deeper leads to more difficulties. I prefer not to discuss any issues superficially; as an individual grows, changes, and ages, so does everything. Things have histories; first it was a tree, then someone sawed it, someone made a frame out of it, someone took a photo and bound it... The deeper you look at it and the more you dig, the more you will discover; it is also a brain exercise; an approach that is superficial always leads to problems.

The same is true for actors; when they work on a role, they get completely inside of the character’s head, every muscle and action, including aspects the author doesn’t mention. E.g. if the author writes that Yoram is lame, the actor should start searching beyond this information and ask questions: What makes Yoram lame? Did he become lame accidentally or was he born lame? An actor creates the entire story in his head so that he knows everything about the character, brain impulses determine posture and physique; To be an actor, you have to dig into the character and find the last nuance; Walk back in time, travel to his childhood, see what type he was, how he moved...

It was my teacher, Gizo Jordania, who taught me to carefully observe people on the street, remember them, and then keep this memory in the pocket. Yes, the actor has his “pocket”, and he uses that memory to embody different characters at different times. As a result, we are perpetual observers and we discover that we are also philosophers, psychologists and not only that; today we are policemen, tomorrow we are doctors, then the robbers, athletes, prosecutors, kings; in short, we are everything.

In De Niro’s role as a boxer, could he be perceived as Robert De Niro? In Al Pacino’s role as Corleone, could he be perceived as Al Pacino? - No, since they both transformed well; The director gave the plot, and the actors created the rest. The director gives the contours and the direction, and the actor fills in the details; Although the director addresses the actor a lot, to be successful you have to go beyond what the coach says. There is so much more work to be done on yourself as an actor, whether that be speech or anything else; that is why it is such an interesting, deep, comprehensive profession.

My first feeling of understanding what and why I was doing on stage came probably after my hundredth performance; That’s right, all of this requires maturity, because the more you play a role and work on yourself, the more you learn and understand everything. Education is also very important. Our theater had one talented girl who had been performing since she was 16 years old, later, she decided to get an acting education and temporarily leave the stage; Of course, we supported her decision. Two years later, she finished her studies and returned to the stage, while we were working on Don Quixote at the time, I watched this young girl in rehearsal, and I noticed that there was already another actor on the stage that knew the art of acting; this is school, something more valuable than just the desire to become famous.

An actor is a feeling: a pain, a joy, a pride and many more, yet he exists in one space, the space of love. A person who does not love and respect this profession should leave this space and go do something else, because this profession is directly related to the people to whom one devotes themselves, makes them happy and stays happy because of their happiness. In the end, for a simple formula, the artist has to do and think a lot before he can make the audience happy and, in turn, make himself happy; there is a trade-off, but still the actor feeds and fuels it.

It happened to us that we got injured during performances, lost our minds, but still played on, so that the audience did not even notice it. When we were performing Dracula, I passed out twice on stage, when I regained consciousness, I was still unsure of where I was, but as soon as I heard music and saw the actors, I was able to continue. There is also a subconscious code which goes back to the audience members, who attended the performance for you. Our other actors also had similar cases, they continued on with the performance, and our choreographer also performed with a broken leg. The reality of what is happening at this time is beyond all explanations, and even a professional may not be able to fully comprehend it, and his talk of love and sacrifice may seem like worn-out phrases. I can only say that you are somewhere else, in another dimension.

Irakli Kavsadze as King Lear

(CREDIT: Graeme B. Shaw)