As a rough percentage, how much of acting is actually acting? To explain what I mean, as this is something I've been curious about, let's say that in one scene, we have a woman brushing her hair aside with her fingers to get it out of the way, and in another scene on a completely different series, we have a man pulling up his pants that have slipped down a bit after, say, a big fight scene or a slipping and falling scene. Are these actions of brushing the hair aside and pulling up the pants part of the script? Or are they not part of the script and it's just the actors doing that which in turn makes it look natural, anyway, since we do that in everyday life as it is. I know there are members here who have acted.
Those movements will 99% of the time not be part of the script. They'll be a bit of improvisation on the actor's part, mixed with movements that they will instinctively do.
I mean, I would say most of it is acting. Whether it's scripted is a different story. Some, not all, but a lot of actors put themselves in the mindset of their characters so most actions they do that are not in the script are still in character. That's not even including improvised lines that ended up making it into the final product that aren't necessarily in the script but add to the character. Scripts are generally written with dialogue and basic actions. Sometimes there's an indicator of tone. If a script wrote every detail of the action they needed to do, it would be very odd. It's not like it never happens but it's usually up to the actors to figure out thinks like posture and movement or facial expressions. If we go by "oh well, they go by the script and that is acting at it's purest form" then I urge you to go and look for your nearest children's theatre production to watch those because you'll never find something closer to reading a script. Sure, you get that one kid who's a natural actor but roughly 80% of the time you get a kid who says their line and stands still in one spot until it's time to say their line. This also doesn't really account for what a director might also ask from an actor for a performance. I'm pretty sure there are directors who would definitely say "oh and when the action scene is done, flip your hair and turn around line a badass" maybe not word for word but the general idea. Minor movements I wouldn't really count? I mean there are basic things any human does without knowing that ends up making things look natural. Like scratching your nose cause you're itchy or shifting your glasses cause you moved your head over too fast. Maybe an actor flubs an exact line and instead of saying "Oh Joe, how could you say that to your mom?" they say "Joe, why you talk like that to your mom?" and they keep that take cause it was delivered the best. I don't think it makes it not acting. In one instance with me, I ran Annie when I was in 8th grade as one of the orphans and on final dress rehearsal and I was supposed to go up and fake punch another kid to start a stage fight. I kind of leaned forward too far and actually punched the girl in the face and she tackled me down and started actually fighting me on stage and EVERYONE was like "wow that fight was convincing" as I'm holding an ice pack to my eye because... yeah. If you really wanna get technical I suppose breathing isn't a part of acting, blinking isn't always a part of acting, being alive isn't part of acting....
What I've noticed with women who brush their hair aside with their fingers isn't usually an action in the script. From my own personal experiences on set, they do it so that the camera is able to capture their full facial performance without the interference of hair in their face. Directors and writers help guide the actor into pulling off the required actions and emotions needed for the scene, but it's up to the actor when it comes to make them believable. Like cstar said, what you described are basically minor actions, and they are rarely scripted. If an actor does that, it's just to keep them in frame and ready to continue the scene. Sometimes the actor may just fiddle with an item or do a small action to help keep the scene as natural as possible. If not scripted and not repeated by the actor after that take this may cause a few problems sometimes as this creates CONTINUITY ERRORS. But back to the original question. anything that and actor does while performing could be considered acting. If they're on a stage or being recorded in anyway, it's still acting. Doesn't matter what they're doing or even if it's all improv, acting is so broad a term that it could be anything the actor does.
