"And above all, don't act!"

Some encouragement, criticisms, & suggestions about acting from director Charlie Chaplin:

Remember, they're peeking at you.

Don't lay an egg.

Make it simple. Make it sincere. All this lousy singsong. I loathe that singsong. It hurts me.

          Break through.

Don't give the audience the impression you've just read the script. It's phony now. We don't talk that way. Just state it. Don't make it weary....We don't want acting. We want reality. This will be maudlin as hell if you act. 

Only use your hands when you want to make a point--that's when it becomes effective.

I don't want any of the conventional business of the usual cinema traitor. Just get yourself used to the idea that you're a rascal who isn't an out and out bad one, but simply hasn't got any moral sense. Don't put on a savage look. And above all, don't act!

Just ever so little more vigor in that fling of the arm, Tom [Murray]...Yes, that's it. You've got it.

Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Because when you make a mistake, they love you. 

Trying to make you act is like writing love letters on butcher paper.

Sources:

Lillian Ross, Moments With Chaplin

Dawn Addams, Films & Filming, 1957

Louis Delluc, Charlie Chaplin

Adolphe Menjou, It Took Nine Tailors 

Jerry Epstein, Remembering Charlie

Harry Carr, Motion Picture Magazine, 1925