No matter how many awards you have under your belt, you are never too old to learn something new about acting. Learning acting is a continuous journey. The more you practice the more you improve. There are certain basic rules which every actor should try to follow. These rules have emerged over the years and are as important to acting as grammar is to a language. This article will briefly introduce you to some of the rules of acting. Try to follow them while you are on stage or on camera, to deliver a more refined performance.

1. Enrich your acting with real life experiences- They say that life is the greatest teacher. All of us come across different experiences in our lives. While some of them sweet and happy, some are also painful and sad. No matter which emotion you feel in any situation, all of them teach us something and leave a profound impact on our lives. While acting, you have to portray different characters in different moods. If you have experienced the emotion which you have to portray on camera, it would be much easier for you to understand the character and empathize with it. Therefore, if you live your life fully, exploring each emotion and feeling, you can become a more sensitive person and a better actor.

2. Be real while acting- While this may sound like an oxymoron, you got to be real while acting. Your portrayal of the character should look genuine. Many new actors get extremely excited and try to give their best while acting. While their intentions are noble, they get carried away and start overacting. When you are acting, don't try to act. Instead be the character. Feel the mood of the scene and get into the character. Forget you are on the set. If you empathize with the character, you can bring it to life and it won't appear as if you are acting.
This rule is very important for those who do theatre. You should never acknowledge your audience, even if they applause on your acting. Act as if they are not there. Acknowledging the presence of your audience will slightly lessen the impact of your acting.

3. Perfect your pause- Silence is said to be golden. A small pause, a little moment of silence, between your dialogues can dramatically enhance the impact on the audience. However, it's very difficult to tell how long should be the pause. An unnecessary pause at a wrong place can ruin your dialogue. The length of the pause depends on the importance of the revelation you are going to make. Something which is going to have a big impact on the plot should have a longer pause.

4. Don't overdo your negative character- If you are playing a negative role, it's very important not to go over the top. You should try to make your character real. So do not act like a psycho unless you are playing one. Try to bring vulnerability in your character. Be the guy whom people will love to hate.

5. Work on your delivery- The audience should be able to understand your dialogues, if it's going to have any impact on them. It is very important for all actors to make sure that their dialogue delivery is correct. If you speak too quickly, your speech would be slurred, your words would be mixed up and nobody would be able to understand anything you are speaking. If you feel you are having problems with your dialogue delivery, you can go for some speech therapy sessions. It should help you in gaining control over your rate of speech and developing better voice modulation.

These were some of the most basic rules which can help you in becoming a better actor. Always remember that acting is not an exact profession, and therefore these rules are also very flexible and can be modified as per the need of the situation.