There's an odd habit that I've noticed in young American actors, mostly women, that gives me the impression that they copy each other; they shake their heads negatively, negating their positive action. I think they do this instinctively in an effort to connect to the thought, whereas, if they didn't perform by instinct, and understood the purpose of the action (what is my need, what is the verb that best describes my need), their heads wouldn't be bobbing back and forth, their heads would be still; they would be concentrating on the need to reach their partner with the thought.
There are many examples of this error. I happened to see Ginnifer Goodwin in Something Borrowed. If you view this film, you'll notice that she doesn't do it consistently, but in the two snippets below, she provided good examples of this error:
Another pitfall of ignoring the action occurs when the actor understands the pain of the character and tries to convey that pain. The unfortunate result of this choice is that the actor performs the quality of the pain in an effort to show it to us. The result of this error is indicated acting and a reminder of Uta Hagen's apt caution that there's a big difference between having sympathy for the character or participating in the actions of the character. Mira Sorvino in the film, Between Strangers made this error almost throughout her entire performance. The snippet below is a good example of her error. She tried to see the images by looking away from her partner, instead of finding the action, and trying to get her partner to see what she sees in her mind's eye. She did do it once when she said, "What have I done?" It was more effective even though her overriding choice was to consistently zero in on the pain. Notice that Klaus Maria Brandauer looked directly at her with specific actions throughout the scene.
Please note that I'm aware that some actors instinctively perform specific actions, and that I'm repeating myself when I state that technique provides a foundation, a support for one's talent so that it can feel safe to soar, to risk, to be able to uniquely express oneself instead of being stuck in a cliche that we've seen hundreds of times.
