The actor's job as Stanislavski saw it in its simplest form is to bring the life of the human soul to the stage. Not the life of the character's human soul, the life of the actor's human soul. Warts and all. Especially the warts.

For me, acting is more about personal revelation than anything else. Abdomen-ripping, not-for-the-faint-of-heart revelation. A public, forehead to foot, layer by layer, scalpel slicing of oneself until everything that was inside lies piled in a steaming heap at one's feet. Not a pretty picture (apologies to any aspiring actors who hoped acting was about hiding behind masks) but a picture that (good) audiences demand and deserve and one that begs a thousand questions; the most often asked being: How does an actor do that for an entire film or play? The answer is: he (or she) doesn't. He does it only for a moment.