One of our tasks as actors, arguably the prime task, is to commit. “What am I fighting for?” is a more passionate re-phrasing of “What’s my intention?”. The purpose of the re-wording is to remind the performer that it’s not enough to know what you need. You must commit to the pursuit of that need.
A lack of commitment is painfully obvious in fight scenes. You can put all of your energy into executing the proper technique in your choreography, but until you enter the scene and commit to the tenacious pursuit of a goal, fully experiencing all of the success and failures along the way, your fight will lack “Zah!”.
Working your drills is not enough. Becoming proficient at choreography is not enough. Commit to the goal.
—
Tomorrow: how to practice this in class.