Bit mystified as to why "weeping & wailing" seems to often be the criteria by which good acting is judged?

I'm thinking of 2 good examples from recent months in EE Adam Woodyatt cried a river after Lucy's death & got tonnes of praise for "good acting".Similar is now happening with Kellie Bright for doing much the same.

I'm not belittling either of these actors- I think they're both great, but why is the particular emotion of appearing miserable so often used as a marker of good acting?

And how do you define "good acting" anyway??

An actors job is to convince an audience that he/she is actually living the life of the character in a story. So if an actor can convincingly portray an emotion that is as raw as grief then it's generally considered a job well done.

Agreed. Crying convincingly is one of the most difficult things to pull off. Some people notably Dev in Coronation Street are bad at it. Kellie Bright does it very well. Adam Woodyatt is great at crying. I think it is the mark of a good actor.

Yes but there are other emotions to convey. One of EE's biggest actors, Shane Richie is an absolutely FANTASTIC cryer, but certainly on DS he isnt widely regarded as a good actor.

Take another Actor who's regarded highly here- Maddy Hill. We havent seen her doing a good bawl, but she seems a good actress, simply because her delivery is so good.
She just sounds so natural when she delivers her lines, you'd never think they were words written on a page given to her, she delivers them with real ease, like theyve come out of her own head.

Maddy Hill is good I agree. She comes over as very natural in her role. One of the things I think which is difficult to pull off is "giving birth" without laughing. I don't think I've seen Shane Richie cry. I can't stand Alfie because of his cheeky chappy annoying character.

This is something I think 16 year old Mimi Keene pulled off impeccably. Realistically doing a portrayal of giving birth seems to be a good challenge for an actor and I think she did really, really well. The emotion you could feel from her in those scenes also was so effective.

Given that she's 16 and will have little direct experience of such an event I think she did marvelously!

I think Deirdre is worser than Dev at crying.

Crying
Giving birth
Being Drunk

I think these are hard to do

It's a difficult one as I think portraying grief through crying is very difficult to do, so should be part of what makes a good actor. However, that is only one part of it. As mentioned with Maddy Hill, it's also a natural delivery of lines that's important. Someone like Michael French , who's a superb actor is David onscreen, as is Lindsey Coulson . I also think another good indicator is chemistry with other actors.

I've always heard that it is much more of a challage to be a comedic actor. Its harder to make people laugh than it is cry. Maybe not so much in soaps as the comedy character is usually just playful.

It's a very good point. Acting, like beauty o's often in the eye of the beholder - it annoys me when people cast their opinion that an actor is good or bad as fact.

There are some actors (not necessarily soap) that I recognise must be technically 'good' as they obviously have the respect of their peers as they win awards voted on by the industry and casting directors hire them again and again. But they do nothing for me. As far as i'm concerned the mark of a good actor is whether I have felt moved by their performance - either to anger, tears, frustration, mirth.

It does seem like weeping and wailing are often the barometer by which actors are judged which seems a little limited. I have to disagree about Woodyatt and Bright though as I think the most powerful performances have been in the quieter moments - Woodyatt's body language in the episodes straight after Lucy's death was masterful in conveying his feelings and I've been praising him to high heavens for decades - certainly since the Cindy/Wicksy triangle.

I'd certainly say crying is part of it - it is a hard thing to do but really isn't the be all and end all. A mentioned before, I think Ian and Linda's feelings have been conveyed more in the quiet moments, the way they hold themselves, the look in their eyes than the 'loud' overyly dramatic stuff.

It is about believing that they are a character. As you mentioned, Michael French is incredibly. Every cell of his body is in character, even when he isn't saying anything and David Wicks is totally different to Nick Jordan even though there are little physical differences such as clothing or hair styles. To a certain extent it is easy for an actor to seem 'different' in roles if they are using different accents, period costumes or caked in make up - much harder to convey differences when they are using the same accent, are dressed in similar ways.

Yes, this is the same for me. They don't have to weep and wail to bring me to tears or be one of life's jokers to make me laugh. A facial expression, body language, a line, a look can be far more effective.

Yes, and it is a skill that Linda Henry also has in droves. That woman can convey so much pain or mischief with her eyes without ever saying a word. Recent examples, her delight in needling Phil at Sharon's hen night and then reaction to Phil describing how sex with her made him feel before the shooting.

Being 'still' is an acting tour De force in itself but a much less showy one than weeping and wailing and so it is often overlooked.

David Neilson was sublime during the latter part of the Hayley s/l. Very subtle.

I think Charlie Brooks was another one who was excellent at this. I don't think anyone but the audience knew just how lonely she was, how much pain she felt when she was rejected, and how hurt she felt to never really feel part of a family. Her scene with Michael when she returned from her travels, her longing for one kind word, broke my heart, and yet she never verbalised this, it was all there in her face and body language.

Love both of them. Good acting is a really difficult thing to put your finger on, but it's the way an actor inhabits a character, makes it seem completely natural, and a lot of that is in how they react to the characters around them, even when nothing seems to be happening.


Weeping and wailing - the shouty crying thing - is what all soap actors do when they're given their Big Story. It's awards bait, but it's not the mark of a really good actor. The best actors can do all that, but don't need to. They can move you to tears without even a word, and barely moving a muscle. Linda Henry's brilliant. David Neilson's in that category as well.

Indeed he was I also love that way that Alison King cries, fighting back the tears in some of her scenes with Peter( also very good at emotions and crying) it is actors like them that keep me enthralled.

I think conveying being drunk is a hard one. It's not about falling about, it's more the failed bravado of drunkenness that needs to be conveyed.

Yes, Chris Gascoyne catches it perfectly. The subtlety of being drunk but trying to hide it comes across very well

I remember reading somewhere that the trick to portraying a realistic drunk is to act that you're not as that is what most drunks do - they desperately try to behave normally, to pretend that they are not drunk by speaking very slowly and as precisely as they can etc but fail to pull it off. But the delicacy needed for that (to pretend to be something whilst pretending you're not) is incredibly hard and i'm not sure i've explained it very well!

Chris Gascoyne is a very convincing drunk, as was Ted Shackleford as Gary Ewing.

We've just crossed - me saying virtually the same thing. I wasn't being a copycat honestly!

The mark of a good actor is an actor that can truthfully portray a character.

Crying isn't all that. I'm an actor and it's difficult for me to work myself up to that point, but others can turn it on - doesn't mean they're better, just lucky.

Anyway, I'm much more affected if someone doesn't cry when they should, or are trying not to.

Some actors have a charisma that transcends their character. I'd say Sarah Lancashire is the best I've seen. Linda Henry is very good at crying scenes, she can really turn the tears on.