Actors and Characters

She asked Dutch actors to rate their own emotions and the emotions of the characters they were playing across a range of affective states (from disgust and anxiety to tenderness and pleasure). | In a wonderful set of studies and subsequent book, Elly A. Konijn looked to the question of how much actors are aware of their performance as they perform it, and how much they let the character "take over". | However, the more negative the emotion of the character, the less likely the actor would report feeling that emotion onstage. | She found that positive emotions were often felt by the actors as they played those character's emotions.