After part 1, I hope those of you who were lost have found your path with your ‘roadmap’ that is the script at hand.

“When I was younger, I wanted to complicate everything,” Hopkins said. I don’t know how many of you can relate to this but I sure can. Our mind usually focuses on making things as perfect as possible, and with that, comes complexity. Trying to pick out every detail of everything is good… It is excellent, it can be so beneficial in bringing a character to life… up to a point… Beyond that point? It gets complicated. That is usually when you are trying to get it perfect. It becomes an obsession, a not-so-good one.

So! How do we avoid the trap of complexity? Usually what makes it so complicated is your mind. You think, a lot… too much…  “He should be like this… maybe not…”, “She should react like that… but that doesn’t make sense, maybe she wouldn’t do that…”, “He is too plain, I need to find more depth… Let’s add A, B, C, D… E, F… Great!… …Oh owww… why is it so hard!!!” You get the idea. Well to avoid complexity is quite simple really, as Hopkins said before, don’t analyse too much!

I know, sometimes if we don’t feel like we analyse enough, we feel this creeping sense that we might miss out on something. So how do we deal with it if we feel like there are still gaps to be filled? To do that, Hopkins relies on his instinct to do the rest of his job for him.

I remember what my acting teacher usually said to me when I blocked myself from doing something. “Trust your instinct,” she said. Sometimes we overthink and we forget how amazing our instinct is. It takes time to follow your instinct, but it comes with a great price of creative freedom. Now, “trust your instinct” might sound hard, how about rephrasing it to “stop thinking and just let it happen.” Easier isn’t it?

So remember, the next time you analyse your script and begin to sense that it is getting complicated, take a step back from thinking and dive into doing. Allow your instinct to take the wheel and explore the world of a character.