Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice Commentary on Johnson et al. (2022)

When the famous 19th and early 20th century Russian director Constantin Stanislavski began directing the realistic dramas of Anton Chekhov, he immediately faced a problem: The actors did not know how to act as real people facing real dilemmas because doing so had not been done in the theater up until then. Stanislavski (1964) used what became known as The Magical “What if?” When actors could not understand why their character did what they did or said what they said or felt what they felt, he asked them to answer the following question: “What if I were to do what my character does? What if I were to say what my character says? What if I were to feel what my character feels? What would motivate me to do, say, and feel as they do?” © 2022 American Psychological Association