History Main / ThePowerOfActing

[[folder:Film]]
* A couple of scenes in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' qualify, like pretending to fight to distract the guards.
** A [[DeletedScene deleted part of one scene]] has [[ClassicallyTrainedExtra Sir]] [[Creator/AlanRickman Alexander Dane]] "entering the mind" of the stone monster through MethodActing.
* Gary Johnston from ''Film/TeamAmericaWorldPolice''. At the climax, he has to out-act Creator/AlecBaldwin.

** The above incident isn't the only case of this since Touma's shown to be quite good at BS-ing people when wants to. Best shown by the fact that even after a dozen or more volumes, no one's realized that he's suffering from Amnesia (due to the events of the first arc).

* TabletopGame/GraveRobbersFromOuterSpace blends character/in-movie elements with movie-making ones, so a few cards reference how good or bad someone’s performance is; making someone else’s Character a “Third-Rate Actor” for example makes them [[EightDeadlyWords easier to kill]].

-->-- ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' "Master Thespian" Sketch

* ''TheSimpsons'', "Flaming Moe": A one-off character ''[[EmpathicEnvironment summons a thunderstorm]]'' with ThePowerOfActing. As he said:

* Tomlane Belaroth in ''{{Hello From the Magic Tavern}}'' is a stage actor who, over the course of the series, uses his skills to infiltrate the DarkLord's army under multiple identities. When one of his identities is discovered, he covers himself by having another persona kill that one. In front of witnesses. And he's so good they believe it.

* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: If Mephisto the Mentalist's claims are [[UnreliableNarrator to be believed]], 99% of his career as a SuperVillain consisted of a bunch of old {{Vaudeville}} tricks and illusions backed up by a lot of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]] and the judicious use of [[JediMindTrick mind-altering powers]] which were [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers taught to him]] by masters of the AncientConspiracy he serves. He was consistently able to pull a fast one over even his cleverest opponents, convincing them of everything from alien invasions to his own [[AGodAmI seeming apotheosis]] decade after decade. As for the less brilliant SuperHero types, such as the Champion, well, in his own words,

* In ''VideoGame/{{Unavowed}}'', one of the PlayerCharacter's [[MultipleChoicePast possible backgrounds]] is as a stage actor, in which case their primary way of solving social situations becomes using their acting talent to deceive and distract people with tall tales, and they turn out to be extremly good at it. So good in fact, that even Mandana, who is a supernaturally empowered LivingLieDetector, admits that she has serious problems sensing it when they spin one of their stories.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Unavowed}}'', one of the PlayerCharacter's [[MutipleChoicePast possible backgrounds]] is as a stage actor, in which case their primary way of solving social situations becomes using their acting talent to deceive and distract people with tall tales, and they turn out to be extremly good at it. So good in fact, that even Mandana, who is a supernaturally empowered LivingLieDetector, admits that she has serious problems sensing it when they spin one of their stories.

Note that espionage often requires some acting skill, or just being able to bluff and con people, but those are not this trope. This is about acting as for the stage, film, etc. being a power itself - or at least, someone who is attempting a bluff or a con being explicitly referred to as an actor.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': Judy and Nick's climatic BatmanGambit required [[spoiler: Nick to pull off a [[PretendToBeBrainwashed successful performance of succumbing]] to the [[PsychoSerum Night Howler serum]] and hunting Judy long enough for her [[EngineeredPublicConfession to secretly record]] all of [[BigBad Bellwether's]] gloating]].

** This happens to the protagonist of ''Discworld/MovingPictures'': being a movie star somehow allows him to defy physics so that he can save the day. Because, due to magic, he was using Hollywood (or rather, Holy Wood) Physics and Magic instead of the normal kinds.
** Tomjon from ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', due to his godmothers' gifts, can remember every role he's ever played, is able to perfectly slip into any role he's given (meaning his acting will always be completely sincere) and is extremely good with people. One of his friends describes him as being able to use the Discworld's equivalent of the St. Crispin's Day Speech from ''Theatre/HenryV'' to start a revolution in [[BadGuyBar an Ankh-Morpork alehouse]] and have the people inside storm the palace and install him as king.

When acting isn't just a skill, it's practically a super power. For whatever reason, a character's acting can be just as effective against one's enemies as the powers of a FlyingBrick.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', Touma defeated the RealityWarper Aureolus Izzard by convincing him that his powers had no effect anymore, since he believed it, it came true.
** The above incident isn't the only case of this, since Touma's shown to be quite good at BS-ing people when wants to. Best shown by the fact that even after a dozen or more volumes, no one's realized that he's suffering from Amnesia (due to the events of the first arc).

-->"Ah, I see, you expected an emaciated two foot tall golem with huge eyes did you?"

* Baroness Nicola Ceausescu in Paul Park's ''Roumania'' series is a former renowned stage actress who uses her talents to seduce and charm people, and also to impersonate others when she wants to travel in disguise. She is skillful enough to disguise herself as nearly anyone, regardless of differences in gender, age, and social class. In the climax of the third book, she impresses the elite of her country with an opera she has written about her tragic life in order to get people to sympathize with her. Even her enemies who despise her as a corrupt, power hungry [[TheBaroness vamp and wannabe-empress]] are impressed with how superbly she puts on an act to impress people in various situations.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In the ''Wraith Squadron'' books of the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Garik "Face" Loran fills this role in the Wraith Squadron commando unit. When it comes to infiltration, he tells the other members of the team how to not draw attention and seem inconspicuous, while he gets everyone to pay attention only to him and feeding them his made up stories. Having a galaxy-wide famous actor on a covert operations team never becomes a problem, as he's just so good that nobody ever recognizes him, if he doesn't want them to.

* One of (if not ''the'') awesomest moments of Cordelia's in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' was when she bluffed Angelus into thinking that a jug of bottled water was actually holy water.

** In the ExpandedUniverse book ''Managra'', the main villain is a profoundly untalented 17th Century playwright whose stage shows incorporate mind control effects, and whose writing can possess people into becoming his actors. Part of the Doctor's plan to combat him involves performing Shakespeare soliloquies in a Time Lord-technology version of the Globe Theatre which responds mimetically to the performance of the actors, expanding the space and creating illusions of the setting.
* In an episode of ''Series/JonathanCreek'', Carla reminds Jonathan that all the suspects are trained actors who will naturally be able to put up a convincing show of grief for the murder victim. [[spoiler:As it happens, they're not faking their grief (since they were genuinely fond of their dead co-star) but are instead pretending to fight with each other in order to make the ''real'' killer think he's escaped their suspicion. This of course leads to them successfully murdering ''him'']].

* "Master Thespian" from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' aspires to this. His teacher, Chin-Hua, was able to look like Creator/CarlWeathers for a production of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' (despite being an 80 year old Chinese man) through "acting!"

** There's really more to it than that. The acting is not only regarded as good training for the troupe, it actually helps defend their city, by giving the people hope and spirit and producing something of its own mystical power. It's noted by one of the characters that theatre in Japan started as a religious ritual to placate the spirits (and same is true of theatre in Europe, incidentally).

Compare CharlesAtlasSuperpower, AwesomenessIsAForce, MasterOfDisguise, ConsummateLiar, MasterActor.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: If Mephisto the Mentalist's claims are [[UnreliableNarrator to be believed]], 99% of his career as a SuperVillain consisted of a bunch of old {{Vaudeville}} tricks and illusions backed up by a lot of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]] and the judicious use of [[JediMindTrick mind-altering powers]] which were [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers taught to him]] by masters of the AncientConspiracy he serves. He was consistently able to pull a fast one over even his cleverest opponents, convincing them of everything from alien invasions to his own [[AGodAmI seeming apotheosis]] decade after decade. As for the less brilliant SuperHero types, such as the Champion, well, in his own words,
--> “Oh MAMA! Some of the things I pulled on him…? I ought’a be ashamed of myself…I gotta admit, I would’a gone after Champ, orders or no orders. It was… It was just so much FUN! I mean, it was like we were kids on a playground, and I just couldn’t help fucking with him; it was so EASY and so FUN. I mean, it wasn’t like I disliked Champ, or that I wanted to hurt him, it’s just that he was so much fun to heckle! He was like Elmer Fudd to my Bugs Bunny.”
[[/folder]]

* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/DoubleStar'', an extremely unemployed but exceedingly competent actor who happens to be IdenticalStranger to a prominent politician must [[EmergencyImpersonation fill in]] for said politician in order to stave off a diplomatic incident between humans and [[ScienceMarchesOn Martians]].

* In the ''Wraith Squadron'' books of the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', Garik "Face" Loran fills this role in the Wraith Squadron commando unit. When it comes to infiltration, he tells the other members of the team how to not draw attention and seem inconspicuous, while he gets everyone to pay attention only to him and feeding them his made up stories. Having a galaxy-wide famous actor on a covert operations team never becomes a problem, as he's just so good that nobody ever recognizes him, if he doesn't want them to.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** "The Shakespeare Code", where theatrical performance both summons and banishes the MonsterOfTheWeek.

* "Master Thespian" from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' aspires to this. His teacher, Chin-Hua, was able to look like CarlWeathers for a production of ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' (despite being an 80 year old Chinese man) through "acting!"
* One of (if not ''the'') awesomest moments of Cordelia's in ''Series/{{Angel}}'' was when she bluffed Angelus into thinking that a jug of bottled water was actually holy water.
** Also when she pretends to be a police detective to infiltrate, alongside Wesley, a demon fight club
* Invoked/played with in ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' episode, "The Chokes".
* Used by Sophie in ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', despite her being [[BadBadActing a terrible actress]] when not running a con.

* Skyler White, from ''Series/BreakingBad'', has used this to her advantage a number of times: faking going into labor to avoid getting arrested for a shoplifting her sister committed, faking a panic attack to convince a locksmith to get her into Walt's home, [[ObfuscatingStupidity faking being a dumb blonde]] to help an old boss get off the hook for cooking his books, just to name a few examples.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder: Real Life]]

* So crucial a trope in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' that it becomes a plot point. Realizing that "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king," Prince Hamlet has a theatrical troupe visiting the Danish court stage ''The Murder of Gonzago'', whose plot mirrors almost exactly the backstory of ''{{Hamlet}}''. Upon hearing the line "None wed the second but who killed the first," Queen Gertrude becomes uneasy (and remarks "The lady doth protest too much, methinks,"). Then, when Lucianus pours poison into the ears of the sleeping King Gonzago, King Claudius is so stricken with guilt that he abruptly gets up and leaves. This is proof enough for Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the murder of his father.

** Tomjon from ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', due to his godmothers' gifts, can remember every role he's ever played, is able to perfectly slip into any role he's given (meaning his acting will always be completely sincere) and is extremely good with people. One of his friends describes him as being able to use the Discworld's equivalent of the St. Crispin's Day Speech from ''HenryV'' to start a revolution in [[BadGuyBar an Ankh-Morpork alehouse]] and have the people inside storm the palace and install him as king.

Compare CharlesAtlasSuperpower, AwesomenessIsAForce, MasterOfDisguise, ConsummateLiar. Contrast BadBadActing.

Not to be confused with MasterActor.

Despite how good the character's acting is said to be, it's still as likely as not to involve StylisticSuck.

* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: If Mephisto the Mentalist's claims are [[UnreliableNarrator to be believed]], 99% of his career as a SuperVillain consisted of a bunch of old {{Vaudeville}} tricks and illusions backed up by a lot of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]] and the judicious use of [[JediMindTrick mind-altering powers] [[EnlightenmentPowers taught to him]] by masters of the AncientConspiracy he serves. He was consistently able to pull a fast one over even his cleverest opponents, convincing them of everything from alien invasions to his own [[AGodAmI seeming apotheosis]] decade after decade. As for the less brilliant SuperHero types, such as the Champion, well, in his own words,

* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: If Mephisto the Mentalist's claims are [[UnreliableNarrator to be believed]], 99% of his career as a SuperVillain consisted of a bunch of old {{Vaudeville}} tricks and illusions backed up by a lot of [[GenreSavvy Genre Savviness]] and just a smidgen of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower mind-control tricks]]. He was consistently able to pull a fast one over even his cleverest opponents, convincing them of everything from alien invasions to his own [[AGodAmI seeming apotheosis]] decade after decade. As for the less brilliant SuperHero types, such as the Champion, well, in his own words,

* So crucial a trope in ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' that it becomes a plot point. Realizing that "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king," Prince Hamlet has a theatrical troupe visiting the Danish court stage ''The Murder Of Gonzago'', whose plot mirrors almost exactly the plot of ''{{Hamlet}}''. Upon hearing the line "None wed the second but who killed the first," Queen Gertrude becomes uneasy (and remarks "The lady doth protest too much, methinks,"). Then, when Lucianus pours poison into the ears of the sleeping King Gonzago, King Claudius is so stricken with guilt that he abruptly gets up and leaves. This is proof enough for Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the murder of his father.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': Judy and Nick's climatic BatmanGambit required [[spoiler: Nick to pull off a [[PretendToBeBrainwashed successful performance of succumbing]] to the [[PsychoSerum Night Howler serum]] and hunting Judy long enough for her [[EngineeredPublicConfession to secretely record]] all of [[BigBad Bellwether's]] gloating]].