"Acting Is Easy — Learning Lines Isn’t!"

People often say to me, “Acting must be so hard!” But honestly? For me, acting is the easy part. It’s learning the lines that’s the real challenge.

As someone who’s dyslexic, learning anything new usually takes me three times longer than the average person. Scripts? Lines? Memorization? That’s a mountain I’ve been climbing for years. That’s why I make it a habit to talk to every actor I work with about their method for learning lines. I’m always looking for a new trick, a better approach — something I can steal and make my own.

One of the most interesting techniques I’ve encountered was shared with me by the brilliant Welsh actor, Mark Lewis Jones. We were working together on set, and I asked him the usual question. His answer stuck with me. He told me he records only his own lines — as a kind of monologue, ignoring all the other characters’ lines and cues. Then, for a day or two, he just listens to the recording while going about his everyday life — driving, cooking, walking. After a couple of days, he finally starts to study them more intentionally. By the time he’s on set, he knows the lines well, but they still feel fresh, because he hasn’t rehearsed them with other characters' lines in mind. There’s an authentic reaction when he hears the other actors speak, because in a way, it’s new to him too.

I tried his method — and I’ve got to say, it works beautifully.

If I have the time, I also like to handwrite my lines. There's something about the physical process of writing them down that helps them stick. And no matter which method I use, I make a conscious effort not to lock in any particular inflections. I want the lines to remain alive, responsive to what the other actor brings.

One of my go-to exercises is repeating the same line in as many different ways as I can — even if the tone is completely wrong for the scene. If it’s a dramatic scene, I’ll play it as a comedy. If it’s a quiet moment, I’ll shout the line like I’m in a stadium. It sounds silly, but it helps loosen the line up in my brain. It stops the words from getting rigid, and it keeps my delivery fresh and flexible when the cameras start rolling.

So that’s me — always experimenting, always learning.

How do you learn your lines? I’d love to hear your process.

30th of June