About Acting Everyday
![A person sleeping under the nightsky](https://actingeveryday.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/fairy-tale-night-music-1180921.png)
About the author
Hi, I’m AT. 👋 Writer and chronic overthinker with a Master’s in Humanities from YorkU. I’m also an introvert with a pantry full of coffee and a mind full of questions. Like why do we lie to ourselves? How do we stop? Should we stop? Why does it matter?
I’m fascinated by the myriad ways in which we say things we don’t mean, deceive ourselves (and in turn those around us) without fully understanding how or why we do it. And the theater of it all. 🎭
I’ve spent several years studying self-deception and performance in the age of social media — and now I’m sharing it all with you.
About the blog
The Acting Everyday Blog is inspired by my graduate research on performance & self-deception.
I created this space to continue exploring big questions outside the academic world, make complex ideas accessible to a wider audience — and help other introverts feel more heard and seen. 🤝
My goal is to provoke curiosity and critical thinking by sharing new perspectives. Because I believe change begins by challenging our beliefs and assumptions.
Everything you read here is 100% human-generated. This is not my full-time job, so if you like what you see, subscribe to get new posts straight in your inbox! Once a month. No paywall. 🙌
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What's the fourth wall? 🤔
The fourth wall is the imaginary barrier that separates actors from the audience. They know it’s there, we know it’s there. But the wall sustains the fiction; it keeps them out of our world, and us from theirs.
To break the fourth wall is to disrupt the fiction.
In film, it’s when the actor acknowledges the audience for comedic or dramatic effect, sometimes probing their conscience during a moral dilemma.
For example, in The Irishman, Robert De Niro breaks the fourth wall by looking directly at the camera more than 5 times during a moral conflict. As a result, the audience is not only confronted but implicated by simply bearing witness.
Check it out. 👇
Source: The Irishman, 2019 – uploaded by SceneMaker, YouTube.
How does this relate to YOUR life? 🫣
What if you wore a mask long enough that you forgot it was on?
Join me as I explore this question — even when it gets uncomfortable.