On Leaving And Being Maaaaaaaaaaaaad

In a class recently the question came up of if it was ever OK to just leave a scene, to just walk on off.

My gut reaction and answer was "Yes, if you need to leave, leave. If your character wouldn't stay, go. Don't be dishonest about that.".

But then I thought: how often do you want to leave because your character wants to leave and how often do you want to leave because you're having a bad time up there?  Everyone has and will experience a scene where it feels like you're playing against a brick wall. That stuff just happens. You will be that wall someday. It's fine because there will always be more scenes. Learn from it and keep playing.

 But that said, when there's no traction, or no agreement, or there's deep confusion, or reality got fucked up, or whatever, it is an awful feeling. A cocktail of confusion, indignation, frustration , fear and embarrassment    It's easy to let the annoyance or frustration bleed into the performance. And that's dangerous territory. It's as heady as you can get.

At the risk of giving advice to go even more in head... if you are not having fun in a scene, you need to be vigilant about making sure that you're not letting your bad feelings affect your work. Don't bail on scene as a "Fuck You". That's awful stuff.  Even when you're pissed off, wait. especially when you're pissed off,  treat everything you're getting as a wonderful gift. Go into hyper-YES mode. Just getting mad and bailing will sink the scene and lead to that souring of chemistry that can leave a stink over a whole set.

Your answer to anger has got to be love.

But if your character has no reason to stay, leave. If there wasn't any relationship or dynamic between the players keeping them there well... what was the scene in the first place?