How do you vote for best actor?

Okay, it's Oscar (tm) night. Since I'm an actor, I should pontificate. I'm not making any predictions, but I started wondering how people vote for the best actor categories. Actors talk about "having an intention", "performing an action", and "emotional life". Does anyone examine acting roles in this way, and create value judgments from them? People do sense the emotional life of the character and decide whether it rings true or false. Have I ever heard anyone say "his action seemed unmotivated", or "he's not pursuing an intention"? If I have, the person tends to blame the screenwriter for that absence.

People place a great deal of weight on external changes when they vote for best actor. This isn't news. This year, Colin Firth is favored. Why? Because he has a clear through-line of action? Because he conveys a truthful emotional life for the character? His performance does exhibit these qualities, but I get the distinct feeling people are in love with him because his character stutters, and Mr. Firth does a good job stuttering. People were impressed when Meryl Streep personified Julia Child. Here, external changes to posture, voice, and movement are given great weight. Natalie Portman lost weight. It must be a good performance.

As an actor, I'll credit these performances with the ability to reach those core acting values of intention, action, and emotion despite having to fight through this extra layer of mimicry or mask work or fat or what-you-will. However, weight gain/loss performances are more impressive if done through make-up. Weight is a part of the actual person, but latex on your face and bags of bird seed around your midsection are alien objects that must be incorporated as part of the self in order to make the performance convincing.

One of the most difficult "extra layers" for a film actor nowadays is the green screen performance required for films laden with CGI. We should begin considering how difficult these movies are for actors. More and more of the world around them has to be created in their imaginations.