WHY is the most important word in an actor's vocabulary.
You don't pick up cues, you pick up impulses.
The only way to deal with yourself as an actor is to follow the emotional truth of what you have to do under the imaginary circumstances. And as you develop you become confident. You come to believe in what you're doing and trust it because it's out of you.
The foundation of acting is the reality of doing.
Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
The American actor is very lucky. Why? Because so little is asked of him.