OBLIGATIONS TO THE LARGER WORLD

 
When the actor plays the part of a king he knows it to be an illusion and has, in a sense, an advantage over the king in the outer world who is not necessarily aware of any illusion. Both, however, are equally helpless in their failure to find the Real.

No one condemns the actor who plays the part of an emperor or reformer as a hypocrite, for although he appears to be what he is not, his honesty is taken for granted because his audience knows that he is acting a part. But there are many outside the world of stage and screen who, in actual life, do not appear as they really are. The former are on the screen of their creation, the latter are behind the screen of their creation.

There are specific claims and privileges as well as specific duties and potentialities that no actor can afford to ignore. An actor who may be technically faultless in his part, is yet trivial and worthless if he tries to evade his inherent spiritual potential.

The film world cannot escape its obligations to the larger world on which it makes so substantial an impression; and these obligations demand that its spiritual potential take precedence over the desire to make money. The script writers, the producers and actors should realize their spiritual potential instead of looking at their art as merely or mainly a business.

The more vividly they realize this, the more dignified and satisfactory will the result of their efforts be; and their inner account with themselves will be vastly gratifying, even though the same might not be said of their account in the bank. If the film world cannot or will not give the greatest importance to this spiritual potential, it is a failure.