Directing Child Actors Who Have Never Acted Before
The best performances from first-time young actors rarely come from asking them to "act."
If you're a young director working with friends or siblings who've never acted before, the instinct is to give them lines and ask them to deliver them convincingly. That's usually the slowest path to a natural performance.
A more reliable approach: give the actor a goal for the scene, not a script to recite. "You're trying to convince her not to leave" produces a more honest performance than handing over dialogue and asking for emotion on demand. Let them use their own words in rehearsal, then only lock the exact line once it sounds like something they'd actually say.
Keep takes short and specific - one adjustment per take ("a little quieter," "look at her when you say it") works far better than vague notes like "more emotional." And build in breaks. A tired 9-year-old actor is the number one cause of a flat afternoon of footage.
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