What Rishi and Irrfan Can Teach Us

Losing two actors of great caliber in a space of 48 hours has stunned the showbiz and movie audiences all over India. Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan, on the face of it, will appear to be as different as chalk and cheese. One who was born into stardom, and the other who struggled every inch of his way up. One with looks to die for, and the other with looks that defy all standards for being a movie star. One who shone on with startling transformations in his craft over 40 years, and the other who packed a lifetime of work in his last 10 years.

We are forced to be actors in all our jobs. We have to be polite to co-workers when you would really like to give them a piece of your mind.

An air hostess, who would rather throw the hot coffee on the face of the passenger who is unreasonable and unruly, has to smile, and say, “Sorry, sir. I will take care of this.” That is an example of what Prof. Alicia Grandey of Penn State University calls ‘Surface Acting’ in her 2003 paper called “When ‘The Show Must Go On”” published in Academy of Management Journal. 

“In surface acting,” says Prof. Grandey, “…employees modify their displays without shaping inner feelings. Doing this entails experiencing emotional dissonance, or the tension felt when expressions and feelings diverge.”

Elsewhere, such a behaviour where the employee conforms to display rules to keep the job, has been called “faking in good faith”.

Many years ago, check-out employees at a departmental store in Hong Kong went on protest against a management dictum that once the items bought by a customer were all paid for, the clerk should make eye contact with the buyer, along with a wide smile, while handing over the bill and the credit card back. “It is fake, It takes too much effort…We don’t feel good doing that” were some of the reasons given by the protesting employees.

Organisations know that a good fit between the job and the person will lessen the need for acting. Yet, they impose the rules, but are mostly impervious to the effects of surface acting on their employees. Uniforms (we defer to a police constable at an accident scene, we relax when the mechanic checking your car is in ‘Toyota’ overalls) are the beginning of dictating an ‘acceptable’ behaviour towards customers. ‘Display’ rules and norms of behaviour put out by companies are emotion-agnostic.

In effect, dealing with the emotional dissonance that comes with surface acting is entirely left to the employee.

 But for their proximate deaths, the delicious exercise of comparing Rishi Kapoor and Irrfan Khan would never have a context. What comes through in all their performances is authenticity, with absolutely no faking. Rishi’s energy as a bell-bottomed hipster in Khel Khel Mein (1975) mutates and explodes in the character Rauf Lala’s intensity in Agneepath (2012). Whether as a dacoit in Paan Singh Tomar or the desperate husband seeking revenge from his own adulterous wife in Blackmail, Irrfan’s credibility has you rooting for him all the way. For both actors, it is this authenticity that makes all their performances seem so effortless. Both Rishi and Irrfan were telling us, “I love doing this. If you like it, that will be a bonus.”

When you align your feelings with your actions, you perform ‘Deep Acting’. This is less tiring because it is emotionally less draining. An employee who is doing something that militates against his/her basic feelings can achieve this orientation through long experience, by changing yourself with the times, as Rishi Kapoor had done. Rishi had to shut himself out from all the noise made by the other illustrious actors in his own family. Alternately, you go only for roles that your real self relates to, and then the actions happen from deep within, appear natural, uncomplicated and sincere, as it did with Irrfan Khan.

The two actors, in their own ways, have given us two ways of staying blissful in the midst of grave provocations at work.

 A good intention to feel empathy for a customer may not be present in some employees, and in others who don’t identify or accept themselves in the role, there may be no will to act. What about those who cannot regulate their emotions at work? A Deep Actor’s strong belief prevents any negative feelings that may affect the display of correct behavior, making such a person’s surface acting appear even more authentic.

Deep and Surface acting, says Prof. Grandey are two dramaturgical approaches that effortfully modify displays. Note, all acting takes effort.

One leaves you tired, angry and frustrated. The other keeps you in control at all times.