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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9629895" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Your comparison to acting I think is very apt.If a person is portraying Sherlock Holmes, is that actor solving mysteries? Or are they hip-deep (or deeper...I know how the role can consume a person) in portraying a mystery-solver, entirely separate from whether they are mentally doing the process of solving mysteries?Because that's a thing I said quite a ways upthread, albeit in different words. I think it is quite beautiful to breathe life and weight into a character. Believe it or not, I have done a very little bit of acting myself. (Portrayed Joe the Pawnbroker in my youth ministry's rendition of A Christmas Carol.) As you say, it is an act of brave vulnerability, to put oneself forward like that, to take on the mantle of another soul (fictional or not). But the concern, as far as I can tell, is to vividly, authentically, and sincerely portray a character doing things. A character feeling suicidal depression, for example, does not mean the actor portraying the character is feeling suicidal depression, even though they may be channeling experiences they have had at other times. Or at least I should hope that the actor isn't actually feeling suicidal depression as part of portraying that role, that would be very bad.Yet, on the other hand, it is quite possible for an actor to legitimately be actually feeling the same feelings their character is feeling. For example, if two people meet on the set of a performance, and their characters become romantically involved, it is not too uncommon for those actors to also become romantically involved--or vice-versa, to have an already-involved couple choose (or be chosen) to play the roles of two characters who fall in love.There is nothing inauthentic about the actor portraying a character who is falling madly in love with his romantic partner. But the actor himself probably isn't actually falling madly in love with the person portraying the character's beloved. That distance is entirely reasonable and healthy.But what happens if you have an actor who wants to actually be feeling the things their character is feeling? That, I should think, is a slightly different ballgame. That is precisely the thing I am speaking of though: I want to feel like I, actually me the human currently sitting at this keyboard, is working through the logic and solving the puzzle. That I can also portray a person who is trying to solve something simultaneously is an immense delight to me; it makes the two experiences into one experience. My feelings are my character's feelings. That is of immense value to me.</blockquote>

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