What are some good tips for an actor to really be in the moment during a scene?

Question:I already know a few but I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I already know a few but I am always looking for new ways to improve my craft.

Look into your partner's eyes.
Breathe.
I use this mantra when I find myself distracted or drifting: "Just this now."

I am not an actor and you can take my tip with a grain of salt. I think you have to become the character yourself and see how the character would react to the situation in question. You will also have to see what would please the audience in general. Occasionally, improvisations and ad-libbing would help too when you are rehearsing. Good luck to you.

notice your character and his/her surroundings. Know how you feel in the moment, whether you like the people you're doing the scene with (through the character's perspective) and your relationships with the other characters. You need to give and take by listening as your character to other people and respond to them as your character, being in full touch with your emotions. Study the scene more too- know the location, what you're wearing, what you're doing, etc. The best way to be in the moment in the scene is to feel what your character is feeling but enough to focus as your character on the other character and your relationship with them.

Find the truth in the scene, to do this relate the scene to a situation you have experienced. If you have can not relate the scene to anything in your life then you have to use your IMAGINATION!

If you can find the truth, you will find the moment.

To be in the moment you need to just not think about your lines or your acting. Just let it come naturally , be the character and let the character act. Remember where you are and aways have inner conflict.

you need to research the character well and become the character even if it means staying in character for days

Work toward developing the "Fourth Wall". If, after knowing the lines & blocking inside out, developing the character in every way possible, knowing what your character wants or needs in each scene, - your focus should be so intense that it would be a great shock to your system to have someone yell "Cut!" Concentration on the REALITY that you have personally discovered: within the scene, within your character and the others within the scene, within each moment that occurs even between characters with whom you are not speaking at that moment, the sub-text of the scene and each moment, are a few examples. Imagining what the 4th wall looks like, in as much detail as possible - going as far as touching the items you "see" on the wall, the texture of the wall and the floor and what it smells like, or sounds like when you drag your hand across it, etc. Whatever makes that 4th wall real to you should be used in establishing it.

IMHO the ultimate goal for all actors should be that the audience feels as if they are looking through a keyhole while watching them perform; that in a sense, they are intruders upon intimate moments of reality.

A tall order, but something worth working towards! :D