As I’m writing this, I have just gotten back home to Los Angeles from New York City where I spent two weeks at the beginning of the year filming two different roles for two different TV shows (will share more soon). In one of the roles I played a bad-guy– the character was intimidating and violent, he was involved in organized crime, and made the world a darker place. The character I played after that was a good-guy (a rarity for me!) who did everything he could to help those in need and bring healing to the hurting. As I reflect on the two seemingly opposite characters I played, I am forced to think about what kind of character I play, not on screen, but in my real life. Am I a good-guy? Am I a bad-guy? How can I be sure?

As I looked at each of these characters and where they ended up, I realized their roles were entirely determined by the choices they made. The decisions they enacted throughout their lives ultimately created the definitions of their identity, the roles of “good guy” or “bad guy” they would ultimately become. Choices matter, as they are the infinite pieces that have slowly built and created who we are and who we become. We aren’t born the hero or the villain, we become them one. choice. at. a. time…

In a couple months I’ll be releasing a small book project that details my personal acting method called Acting From The Intellect, in which I explore how to more fully understand and inhabit a character to better play them on screen. One of the ways us actors do this is by investigating the choices a character makes and look deeper into the “why” behind their decisions. When we do this for a character, we can understand and even begin to predict what choices they might make in any given situation. The choices that ultimately make them who they are. But this is a practice that is a valuable exercise (even for non-actors) for each of us to do individually for ourselves. We start by asking why we make the decisions we do and more importantly ask what kind of roles those choices are leading us to play.

So why do you make the decisions you do? Are you making the choices of a hero or a villain or something else? What role are the decisions you’re making leading you to play? These are questions worthy of asking ourselves as we seek to live better stories.

- Nathan