Introduction Acting Good and Bad The Anxiety of Influence What is Acting? Mental Battles Acting is a Three-Stage Process Acting is a Holistic Process Summary SECTION ONE - The Evidence The Actor's Brain Self-related Thought Modes of Thinking Default Mode and the Self The Paradox of Control You Can't Take Preparation into Performance Rethinking How We Learn Summary Memory How Did You Ever Learn All Those Lines? Types of Memory Processes of Memory Text and Memory Memory and 'Mood Congruence' Elaborative Encoding Your Brain 'Specs' Working WITH Memory Summary Character Thinking About Character Thinking Metaphorically Who am I Anyway? Changing our Preparation Predicting Behaviour My Character Wouldn't Do That Summary Imagination Types of Imagination Getting the Body Involved Summary Emotion Feeling or Emotion? What is Emotion? Maybe I'm Feeling? Starting from the Body 'Trigger' Memories, Sense Memories, Emotional memories (Possibly) The Greatest Acting Performance You Do The WHOLE Emotional Experience Mindreading? SECTION TWO - Putting Things into Practice Stage One: The Big Picture Find the Big Picture Two Different Processes Keeping All Your Options Open 'Actioning' and its Discontents How Do We Really Get What We Want? Stage Two: Alternating Brain States From Default to Task-oriented Mode The Importance of Reading Mind and Body Language The Importance of Keeping Options Open The Importance of Doing Things Badly Stage Three: Performance brain Staying in Task-oriented Mode Setting the Right Challenges Staying in One Time Frame Bibliography Index.