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Playing a character other than the one you have been working on your whole life (yourself) is more difficult than just doubling efforts. It takes a set of techniques that most people do not develop. These characteristics, in total, are what separate actors from your everyday person. You may have some of each of them but if you do not have all of them you will have a tough go at acting.

Empathy

Supposedly something every woman has, empathy is the first step towards being able to inhabit a character. No character will be just like people you know and even fewer will be just like you. You need a strong ability to empathize to be able to genuinely play certain characters. Most people are too worried about their own lives and do not have much room for others' emotional lives. The actor must be able to put his or her own issues behind them and take on the life of another. Most people are in their own heads so deeply they could never honestly understand anybody else.

Lack Of Self-Consciousness

Even if you do empathize with your character, you will not be able to show it through your portrayal if you are too hung up on yourself. To really be that character you have to let most of yourself go and have the character be your focus. You need to forget about your wants and needs and completely involve yourself with the character's desires. The problem with self-consciousness often lies in the actor clinging to the desire to not look like a fool or otherwise embarrass themselves. Once you let go of your desires then you get closer to a great portrayal.

Relaxation

Unless the character you are playing is a nervous wreck all the time, you need to be relaxed. Characters live in their environment all the time and have become accustomed to it. Their everyday life is banal and does not induce nervousness or hyper-awareness. To be able to be spontaneous and more precise in your portrayal you need to be just as comfortable in those surroundings. You need to be as relaxed as your character would be. You can empathize fully, let go of your self-consciousness, and yet be hamstrung by your inability to be calm and collected in your scene.

Concentration

The reason the above states are important is to allow you to be focused on the important areas of the scene. You need to concentrate on the crucial parts and let your body become a tool rather than hindrance. If you are nervous you have to use part of your focus to calm yourself where it should be squarely pointed at your characters objective. Once you can be empathetic, lose your self-consciousness and relax you can then concentrate like your character would if they were a real person. They put maximum effort on getting what they want. They take the easiest steps possible and contemplate next moves when previous ones fail.

It is easy to write about what you need to do, but it is harder to actually do it. An important first step is recognizing what you need to do so you can make some mental preparation for tackling the issues. What these all have in common is they can all be improved with repetition: practice. Add countless days of rehearsal along with a dash of self-confidence and you can handle any issues that are in the way of your best acting efforts.