How to Memorise Lines Fast with AI: First-Letter Technique & Memorisation Mode

There are many different techniques shared by professional actors on how they memorise lines:

Here’s a few links:

1. Jeff Daniels – YouTube short: string together common prefixes to help you remember where you start and where you end.
2. Bill Nighy – YouTube video: intense repetition; with active recall, where you recall what you went through the previous day
3. Jim Parsons – YouTube clip: flashcards, where on one side you have the cue lines and the other you have your line.

Ultimately learning lines is very personal — it requires trial and error to figure out what works best for you.

However, one popular technique is to transform each line of dialogue into a string of letters using the first letter of each word.

Both Robert Downey Jr. and Pedro Pascal claim this is an effective system for learning lines — see Robert Downey Jr.’s YouTube short and Pedro Pascal’s YouTube interview.

The most comprehensive video on this technique is here: YouTube explainer

Ultimately, these letters act as prompts for the entire dialogue triggering your cue-dependent retrieval system -> part of memory tasked at reconstructing stored information when given small hints/ cues (in this case, first letters).

Indeed, this is also supported by educational studies: What they remember may not be what they understand: A study of mnemonic recall and performance by introductory statistic (Mocko et al, 2026): first-letter mnemonics were better at retaining information that phrase mnemonics (although, author stresses need for contextual understanding to improve application and long term memory).

How can AI help?

Acting Pal (along with Rafy) is one of the very few AI tools that has integrated this technique seamlessly into the app on both IOS and Android.

We’ve created a feature called Memorisation Mode, which saves you the effort of converting your dialogue into a string of letters — the app does it automatically. So when you rehearse with our AI voices and look at the screen, you don’t see the full dialogue; instead, when Memorisation Mode is on, you see a string of letters corresponding to the first letters of each word in the line.

See also

• Best Line Learning AI Apps
• How to Self-Tape Without a Reader
• Top AI Tools for Actors
• Hollywood Already Uses Generative AI

FAQ

What is the fastest way to memorise lines?

There is no single best method, but combining repetition with a structured technique like first-letter mnemonics helps many actors. Turning each line into a string of first letters gives you compact prompts you can use to trigger full lines from memory.

What is the first-letter memorisation technique?

The first-letter technique converts each word in your line into its first letter (e.g., "To be or not to be" becomes "T b o n t b"). Those letters act as cues for your cue-dependent retrieval system, helping you reconstruct the full line when you see only the initials.

Do professional actors really use this technique?

Yes. Actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Pedro Pascal have spoken publicly about using first-letter prompts to memorise dialogue. Many other professionals use flashcards, repetition, and other variants of active recall.

How can AI help me memorise lines faster?

AI tools like Acting Pal automate the tedious parts of memorisation. After uploading a script, Acting Pal can extract dialogue and transform your lines into first-letter prompts in Memorisation Mode, so you can rehearse with AI voices while looking at compact cues rather than full text.

Which apps include built-in memorisation features?

Very few AI tools currently integrate the first-letter technique directly. Acting Pal (and Rafy to some extent) are among the only apps that let you switch on a memorisation mode so your lines are automatically converted into letter strings on iOS and Android.