Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg was the American acting teacher who developed and systematized Method Acting at the Actors Studio, training some of Hollywood’s most celebrated performers through his influential and controversial approach.
Legit Acting
Legit Acting is industry shorthand for legitimate acting — scripted dramatic performance in film, television, and theater, distinguished from commercial and non-scripted work.
Minor Performer
A Minor Performer is any performer under 18 — a legal designation triggering comprehensive protections including work hour limits, studio teacher requirements, Coogan Law financial protections, and parental presence requirements.
Moment to Moment
Moment to Moment is an acting practice of staying fully present to each specific moment of a scene as it unfolds — responding to what is actually happening rather than executing pre-planned reactions.
Motivation
Motivation is the specific reason behind a character’s actions and words — the ‘why’ that grounds behavior in genuine psychological truth and makes a performance feel real rather than arbitrary.
Objective
An Objective is what a character wants to achieve in a scene — the specific, active goal that drives their behavior and generates dramatic tension through conflict with other characters’ opposing goals.
On Book
On Book describes a performer who is still referring to a script during rehearsal — a normal early-rehearsal state that transitions to ‘off book’ as lines are memorized before performance or filming.
Physicalization
Physicalization is the process of discovering and embodying a character’s specific physical life — their walk, posture, and physical habits — giving a performance specificity and presence beyond the words.
Playing the Action
Playing the Action is an acting approach in which the performer focuses on what they are actively doing to their scene partner — a specific verb like ‘to comfort’ or ‘to challenge’ — rather than on how they feel.
Sense Memory
Sense Memory is an acting technique in which a performer recreates the physical sensory experience of an object or environment without the actual stimulus present — training the body to make imaginary circumstances physically real.