It depends on the implementation of actors. If an actor is represented as a thread/fiber then an actor is responsible to call `receive` method from time to time. The only example of such an approach I know in the C++ world is Just::Thread Pro library. But even in that case, a message can be ignored if a user writes the wrong if-then chain (or `switch` statement).
But actors often implemented as an object with callbacks those are called by actor framework at the appropriate time. List of callbacks can differ from state to state.