Language of the Face Overview

When I talk about the language of the face, I'm speaking of emotional facial expressiveness, a nonverbal means by which we communicate what we feel and think through specific facial expressions. Knowledge of this language allows you to communicate, manage, mask, blend, and qualify emotions and thoughts. It's the language every successful film and TV actor had to learn, mostly through trial and error.

Over the years, this form of nonverbal communication has either been misunderstood or ignored, leading to myths such as, "it's all happening in the eyes," "if you create it truthfully, it will be revealed appropriately on your face," or "film acting is simply a matter of making everything smaller." These myths have created confusion and frustration for many actors.

Failure to understand or master this form of nonverbal communication will lead to a whole array of acting problems. Ask yourself:

* Does your face unwittingly show every thought that comes into your mind?
* Have you been told that no thoughts are revealed and that your face stays frozen as you try to push your feelings through your eyes?
* Have you been told that you act with your eyebrows or that your face is too busy?
* Are you constantly told to make an emotion bigger or smaller, but fail to make the adjustment?
* Have you ever walked out of an audition feeling frustrated because you were unable to translate directions into an emotional reveal or reaction?
* Does your headshot fail to capture a specific quality that you possess?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you may be missing an essential tool when it comes to TV and film acting. The actor who is unable to control or reveal what he is thinking and feeling through facial expressions is at a serious on-camera disadvantage.

One of the primary goals of an actor should be to understand and create complex human emotions and express them in a recognizable way. Accurate and appropriate emotional facial expressions and reactions, communicated in a more subtle way, tell the viewer what the character is really feeling or thinking, not just what they are saying or doing. They create mystery and intrigue, as well as serve to guide a subplot. In comedy, they often make the joke. In commercials, they not only make the spot work, but if used correctly, they help the spot move along quickly. They also add another layer to your auditions, making them look clean and effortless. These emotion- and thought-based facial expressions allow the viewer to read your mind. It's often been said that one look is worth a thousand words. In on-camera acting, this couldn't be more true.

Over the years, many actors have expressed to me that they feel more comfortable on stage then they do in front of the camera. The reason for this is that most actors have been trained for the stage, which means their main sources of communication are the body and the voice, which includes tone and words. Facial expressions, at best, are overlooked. At worst, the actor is led to believe that if they focus on facial expressions in any way it will lead to cliché or overacting. You're taught to believe that if you create the inner life correctly, the expression will be accurate. If this were true on the most basic level, everyone would be able to clearly read what any other person was feeling and thinking at any given moment.

From personal experience we know this isn't the case. We constantly misread people or fail to have any clue as to what's going on with them. There are some acting and performance techniques that include facial reactions, but the process taught is often too big, or the actor is reduced to "eye acting." The language of the face allows the audience to read your mind, which is a more intimate form of communication. They can't be recognized from a distance; you need to be close up. If you don't understand how facial muscles come into play and expose real thoughts, feelings, and history, and you are only comfortable expressing yourself through your body and voice, you are bound to feel uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Minimizing the level of skill it takes to master this intimate form of communication would be a mistake. Almost every actor who works consistently in front of the camera has had to learn it. That's what film acting is about. It's not just about being "smaller" than when you're on stage; it's about a more intimate means of communication. It's about choosing the thoughts you wish the viewer, as well as the other characters, to read.

I used to believe that an actor's inability or lack of willingness to reveal what they felt was a problem with the actor's craft. I have since come to realize that's not entirely true. The problem may rest in how the actor is wired and what they learned about emotional expressiveness while they were growing up.

When it comes to emotional facial expressiveness and creating facial reactions, the playing field is not level. Research has shown, at birth, many babies have a tendency to fall into two categories when it comes to expressiveness: introverted or extroverted. Depending upon their parents' expressiveness (which can be attributed to cultural or societal factors) and how the children are raised, kids will either continue on the same path or change. Much of what we've learned about emotional expression has come from our parents and close family members. What this means is, if you are wired and raised to be an extrovert, more than likely your face will be extremely active. If you are wired and raised to be an introvert, you will, to a certain degree, be non-expressive. It's what feels natural.

To make it even more interesting, research has also shown that under a moderate amount of stimuli, the introvert actually feels more than the extrovert. With more extreme stimuli, the introvert tends to shut down and the extrovert begins to feel more and their expressiveness becomes less and more specific. If you have ever started preparing for a scene and felt the emotion build, only to have it magically disappear, leaving you feeling empty, odds are you are an introvert.

What does all this mean to the actor? It means that both types of actors (introverts and extroverts) have a distortion between what they feel and what they express. Hence, the overly expressive actor tends to substitute facial movement for emotion, and the non-expressive actor--because they feel more intensely--believes that everyone can read them and any added expression feels like they are overacting.

What to do? Both types of actors must find a balance between what they express and what they feel, so what they feel inside is in direct proportion to what their face is expressing. Both types need to understand what facial muscles are involved with specific emotions or thoughts, and learn how to control them.

According to Dr. Paul Ekman, named one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century based on his research and work in facial expressiveness, "Emotional facial expressions happen with or without your consent." This means that if you experience an emotion it will be revealed on your face and will be read universally by the specific muscle patterns distinct to that emotion, which Dr. Ekman calls the emotional facial blueprint. If they are not, it is because of long ingrained habits or the fact that these emotions are being managed. In other words, some cultural or personal display rules are being followed, or you are trying to lie. For a lot of people, the type of work they do has led them to conceal what they feel. So, trusting that if you create an emotion truthfully it will be expressed correctly on your face is just not true for a lot of people.

We have to remember that other than words, the face is the primary source for reading what a person feels and thinks. Nobody was given a book from which they could learn this. Much of what we learned about emotional facial expression was observed and copied to the best of our ability. So my question to you is: Do you know what your face is revealing or not revealing?

There are three important components to mastering the language of the face. Understanding the nature of emotion, investigating how you personally reveal emotion and knowledge of the emotional facial blueprint.

My advice to all actors--aspiring and otherwise--is to explore, master, and add this means of communication to your acting toolbox. By learning how the face communicates thoughts and feelings, and by studying what facial muscles come into play when you're trying to mask emotions or thoughts, you will then truly experience the difference between stage acting and film acting.