Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
French stage and early film actress Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet
Actors in samurai and rōnin costume at the Kyoto Eigamura film set
Members of the First Studio, with whom Stanislavski began to develop his 'system' of actor training, which forms the basis for most professional training in the West.
Two masked characters from the commedia dell'arte, whose "lazzi" involved a significant degree of improvisation.
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of a role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. This can also be considered an "actor's role", which was called this due to scrolls being used in the theaters. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.
David Garrick in Richard III on stage
Henry Irving in The Bells, 1874
Playbill cover for the Shubert Theatre presentation of John Hudson's Wife
Helena Modrzejewska, a Polish-American actress, by Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, 1880
