You often hear movie fans rant and rave about a certain actor or actress in a particular film or TV serial. Either you hear a ‘Gosh! He was shocking!” or a ‘Wow! He was amaaaazing! – how brilliant was he/she?” And it is that latter comment I wish to spend some time on. When a critic states a particular actor is ‘amazing’, what exactly does that mean? Amazing in terms of what? Accent? Body language? Delivery? The chemistry with other actors? And is the word ‘amazing’ really appropriate?

I often use terms such as ‘believable’ or ‘convincing’ to describe an actor’s performance, but even vague phrases such as this are subjective in nature. They were only believable to me. So how does one measure an actor’s performance objectively? By the success of the film in general? How many Oscars he/she wins? How much money they are paid?

Admittedly there are a variety of factors, but I have devised a test that (hopefully!) might shed some light on what it is to truly say a performance was ‘amazing’.

“Does the actor/actress immerse themselves into the role to the point where they are no longer distinguishable from their real life personas? Is their performance memorable and/or influential on popular culture? Has their performance changed the way the public perceive them as an actor in general?”

There are really three questions that comprise the test, and I will use this to determine some truly great performance pieces cinema has witnessed in recent years.

On a point of clarity, by ‘immerse’ I mean ‘deeply involved – do they become their characters?’ By ‘distinguish’ I mean ‘does one forget the actor playing the role and believe the character they’re playing?’ By ‘convincing’ I mean ‘are the audience persuaded by the portrayal?’ and the third question targets whether they have soared in popularity as a result of their performance; have they made their career any more successful?’

The origin of the test is a ‘mix and match’ of techniques Russian actor and theatre director Stanislavski (1863 – 1938) invented for his students. It’s popularly known as ‘method acting’, and a majority of actors will employ these techniques in order to achieve ‘believability.’