"What is Performance?” Performance: A Critical Introduction by Carlson

I really thought that Carlson’s idea that performance requires a conciseness of doubleness was particularly interesting because I feel that the term covers a spectrum of describing performance that I previously struggled with explaining.  Performance has to be for someone or something, an action involved in the doubling that comes with consciousness and with the “other” that performance is not but which is constantly struggles to embody.  It requires some sort of separation and distinction from the performer and the actual person who is the performer.  A stretch of this is still physically me, but what I am doing is not me. 

            I attached a clip from Seth Meyer’s interview with Jennifer Lawrence.  I chose this interview because I think that it does challenge the notion of “performance” holistically the show itself is a performance, but what I want to focus on in particular is Jennifer Lawrence herself.  The purpose of the show is to sort of get to know Jennifer Lawrence the person and what’s going on in her life, not about Jennifer Lawrence the actor physically performing.  But with a very famous actress such as Jennifer Lawrence she has a certain image that she has to keep up and present to the public.  She is fun, loving, and warm and is just so lovable according to fans that don’t actually know her. So it is essential to her career and image that she maintains that even if on the day of the interview she wasn’t feeling that way.  So my question is: Is she performing a persona of herself that her fans know and love to maintain that image? I mean she must be to a certain degree. And I would argue that for the most part almost all celebrities are forced into doing that as well.  They must always be on. Particularly actors have the grueling job sometimes of not only performing obviously in their roles but also when they are presented to the public and media, because if they are just having a bad day, the media would be all over it making assumptions about that person and spreading a negative image of them.  So not only does she have to be at a certain standard of “herself” but the interview is also for the people watching it From that interview she will be judged as to how Jennifer Lawrence she is from people who don’t even actually know Jennifer Lawrence personally.  There is a thin line between what is actually Jennifer Lawrence and what is Jennifer Lawrence putting on a show of herself.  It’s this sort of thing that makes fans feel like they actually know her as a person and even hardcore fans could even begin to think that yes she is always like that, she must be because she isn’t playing a character in a movie.