How much of ourselves reflects through our roles? All of "the self," right? I believe that this is the key which opens the door to greatness, BUT...it is equally dangerous, leading to cardboard characters. Why? I am not answering that yet.
I want you to ask two or three friends to sign their name for you. If you are a teacher, the exercise is really cool as you can post giant poster board or similar on the wall and have all the students sign their names, a little larger for all to see. It is not to practice your Oscar autographs nor acceptance speeches, just your plain ol' signature.
Whether at home or at a classroom, try imitating your friend's signature. Sign it, three, four times and then sit back. No matter if your a gifted forger (remember those school notes as kids?), you are going to see something extremely peculiar. And that is, who you are. Your quirks, your style, the way you squiggle an "A" or massacre yours "V's", or slash your "T's", will show up. That's who you are. Now, when you see these differences and you try and correct them, you will see yourself still fighting to be able to imitate the original signature because the way you write a particular letter is going naturally try to express itself.
The same occurs when you are working on your role. That signature you are "copying" will have your stamp on it, however be vigilant of your personal traits that surface on this signature which do not belong in your performance. It is a form of artistic discipline directly attached to whatever reality the author has put on paper, quite more obvious to the actor when you are playing a historical character.
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