All Tips & Insights

A balloon.

At The National Theatre School of Canada around 1970, the director John Hirsch made a speech to the students.

In his speech, talking about the shaping and pacing of a play and the actor’s role in that, he used the analogy of a balloon.

He said you had to be aware of how much air they were taking out of the balloon.

At certain points in the play, scene, or speech only a small amount of air should be let out. At other points more air.

To let out too much air and deflate the balloon at the wrong time is the error to avoid. Too much air too soon, leaving none left.

While preparing an audition recently I reflected on the job my character was there to do in the episode of the TV series. I had started off taking too much air out of the balloon.

I considered why the writers had written that character and how the character’s device served the story.

That informed me to lessen the amount of air I was taking.

When we take the right amount of air out of the balloon in each line, speech and scene the balloon empties naturally.

Leaving the audience happy to watch as it deflates - from full to empty.

(In 1965, Hirsch, founder of the Manitoba Theatre Centre, directed the landmark production of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage starring Zoe Caldwell.)

Acting for camera.

This is the proper title.

At the end of the day when we make movies you are acting for the camera. The acting classes geared for film and TV must have this title.

Yes, read-throughs, first blocking for camera, camera rehearsal, masters, two-shots all include other actors and lots of the set.

But, once the camera is just on you then it’s acting for camera. Television is often called talking heads and that’s done in close-up. Ultimate acting for camera.

The money shot.

It’s not like a play where the audience sees your whole body, all the other actors, the full set all the time. Feature films combine size – a key element of the form - with tight shots.

Your performance is influenced by how you’re photographed and lit. As the shot gets tighter you are being directed more to fit the picture.

How they shoot you influences what your final performance looks like.

What is filmed – by the camera – is then pieced together by the editor and director. If it isn’t shot it won’t be in the film.

You need to do your practice in front of a camera. Learn and master what is specific to acting for camera.

Actors are loved.

Actors are loved by the people.

This doesn’t mean knowing movie stars.

You are part of art and culture and, therefore, play a key role in the life of the society.

People have always gathered together to see and hear stories - stories that reflect life.

Those stories reflect the working day; the life of the people; the weal and woe; the concerns and aspirations.

We need this artistic interpretation of life to help us learn and grow.

As Hamlet says to the Players: ‘…the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to nature…’

Nature being life, and the mirror, our stories, plays and films.

Your significance as an actor is defined by your ability to reflect the human condition.

The media barrage of movie star gossip and drama that can occupy your mind is another thing altogether.

“Actor’s speak.”

You don’t have to make any sense when you talk about your work.

Your talk should reflect whatever you are grappling with at that moment.

This doesn’t mean actors are nonsensical. No.

Directors and acting coaches need to be clear and make sense as they are running the overall in a horizontal sense. Seeing the whole picture. Whereas you the actor are concerned in a perpendicular sense. Up and down with you and your character - narrow – not lengthwise of the whole movie or class.

Your concerns should be how to play truthfully. Voice that struggle.

In that context you don’t have to make any sense. The directors – the good ones – will be able to follow any mutterings, grunts, howls, protestations, ramblings that you make and hopefully translate them to assist you.

When asking the camera operator about the size of a shot you should be clear. Of course. Or telling wardrobe the sweater is too tight. Then you will make sense.

And, when agreeing or disagreeing with your agent on what your fee should be you want to make absolute sense.

But, in the heat of putting up a scene, making sense is not what you should have uppermost in your mind. Getting it right, impressing others. That isn’t why you should be speaking.

When it comes to you actually acting your speaking has to serve you first.

Affecting bridge thoughts.

Bridge thoughts are the thoughts between the lines.

They start at the end of a line and before the new line. They bridge the end to the beginning.

You first receive the impulse from something sent to you – the other actor’s line - and then your brain conjures your response, you breath enough to say those words and then speak your lines.

The thought provoked by that impulse and the new breath makes up the bridge thought. It’s in the space before you speak.

It’s a detailed part of your work.

You may or may not say in words what you are thinking at the beginning of your breath, or what you are thinking in the middle of it. You may even switch completely by the time the words leave your mouth: deflecting it, altering it, colouring it, twisting it, clarifying it, sharpening it, putting consciousness to it.

Changing the actual words you speak during that breath and time.

The brain works at such speed - keep learning how yours works.

It’s useful to explore and experience these minute, specific and rapid thoughts that flavour your speech. In your preparation you can write down, say out loud, or visualize these unwritten thoughts.

It stimulates your imagination.

This bridge thought work is tied to both your inner monologue and subconscious work.

Agents work hard.

Talent agents are under as much pressure as anyone else.

The good ones work very hard to get you auditions and to get you paid as much as possible.

There are many talented actors ready and willing to work yet fewer roles available. This is the competitive nature of the acting profession.

These are difficult times.

First and foremost, agents work for themselves - and why not? They’re in business and want to be successful.

They get their work through the casting directors who work for the producers. The agents provide and regulate the flow of work for you. They are part of the system that is the movie business.

They work hard to keep good relations with the casting directors and the producers, so you’ll continue to have a chance at landing jobs.

They keep up with the changes in the economy and how it affects the movie business, new rules coming out of contracts, changes in distribution, genres, taste, casting procedures, and everything else that goes on in the business.

Just because you didn’t get a call for an audition recently doesn’t mean your agent isn’t working.

Try and learn to appreciate what they do.

Paul Robeson.

Why do proprietors of casting studios in Toronto hang posters of Hollywood movie stars on the walls?

You may have your own thoughts on Marilyn and Marlon, but do you need to be looking at them just before you enter the audition room?

It’s distracting. You’re trying to focus.

And, as a Canadian you’re already under so much American pressure.

Do you need to see videos showing scenes from the acting classes offered at the casting studio?

It’s humiliating to say the least.

Anyone who knows anything about the difficulties of being an actor in the movie business will know that when you audition you need all the support you can get.

Meaning simple décor. Neutral colours.

It would make it easier for you to take your place.

I suppose if they have to hang a poster at least make it a poster of Paul Robeson.

‘All rise!’

That’s what they say in court when the judge enters.

Well, they do on TV.

You might, like many actors, ask what you can do to be a better actor when you’re not filming or in class.

Observing. That’s something.

Go to a court room, hospital or police station. Take a seat and look and listen. Stand around and see what you see.

All types you play on TV.

In the halls before court’s in session you’ll see the accused, their families, the expensive lawyers in their expensive shoes and the cheaper lawyers in their cheap shoes. Cops in uniform, detectives in suits giving hard stares, court officials.

Go sit in court.

You can’t go inside the Emergency ward, but you can wait in the waiting room. Lots to see and experience there. People in pain. The health care system naked and bare.

Go to Obstetrics and see the babies. See the mothers. See the nurses. Listen to the crying.

Drop into a police station for a real reason or a made up one. Ask a simple question. See what the cops in the station are doing. How the desk sergeant behaves.

Watch a cop direct traffic.

More movie types.

You’re observing yourself and others all the time as part of your work. These three particular workplaces can give you a specific experience.

Always an actor in front of you.

Whether acting in an audition, on set, or in class, a real person is always in front of you.

So, there’s no need to pretend.

Try to catch their attention.

Really try.

It won’t be easy to attract the attention of a famous actor; in an audition the reader will usually have their head down, so getting him to lift his eyes will be a challenge; your fellow actor in a scene might be nervous and have ‘The plexis up.’(eyes glazed over, locked in position).

Your fight to reach any actor in front of you is immediate.

Can you get the other actor to blink, blush, smile, hesitate, or give a tell, as you send your line? What is there about the other actor that you like and more importantly what is there that you don’t like?

The difficulty in trying to reach the actual person in front of you is everything. – puts you right where you want to be - in the hot seat.

The camera loves that.

American accent.

You do have to have it to work in American movies.

Years ago, in acting class, the actor/director Adam McDonald came up with this handy line to practice your American accent with:

I'm sorry but I think it's about time you get out of the house right about now.

An actor’s story.

Taking actions to protect yourself so you can do your work is good.

Being dogmatic usually not.

My recent audition experience as an actor shone a bright light on that.

I don’t read breakdowns as they divert me and the three unplayable adjectives bore in my mind like a buzzing bee. Fine. That’s part of my process and I stand behind it.

It’s specific and mine and I like it.

I can suss out the genre, the point of the scene and the job of my character by reading the text. But, this time I didn’t let that be my guide.

I peeked at the breakdown and read two adjectives. The text was warm and eloquent, but my two adjectives were cold and ruthless. I jammed the scenes against the writing and jammed my playing against the writing.

But, dogmatically, I wasn’t going to go back and read the whole breakdown. I knew better.

As soon as I got home I did read the whole description and the first three adjectives were warm, eloquent, charismatic. Further in the description it says a ruthless side.

That’s the bit I peeked at.

Then, and this makes it a real actor’s story, casting sent my agent a note saying John did a good job and could he re-do the audition but make the character warmer.

I guess if I get cast it will be a happy ending. I may get cast – I might not. I might not have got a second audition.

What lesson is here?

My colleague said, ‘If you peek at a breakdown you have to read all the breakdown.” That’s funny and apt, but probably not the lesson.

I didn’t let what I know – text and its guide to playing – be my guide. And, I didn’t stick to my guns by not reading the breakdown.

It felt like I followed an old, negative pattern in my brain that I could see clear as day when I read the whole breakdown. Hard to describe what that pattern is, but I knew it like an old friend. An old friend I don’t want to see anymore.

Also, seems like there was dogmatism there. Me insisting I’m right – trying to force the text against its will – despite the quality of the text in front of me.

It’s a difficult life being an actor. Auditions remain difficult throughout our career.

An actor writes…

Stumbled upon a thought - an insight, for me.

I've heard the phrase "approach an audition" many times before i.e., "how do you approach an audition".

Over the last year, I've been taking an easier approach to auditions, not really forcing anything. Just observing it, approaching it quietly, talking to it, letting it come to me.

Some are more skittish; some are friendly and just run up to say hi.

It's been working for me, so I've continued doing it this way, and now I feel almost like a wrangler, or a hunter, or perhaps an animal preservationist.

Notably, each audition is different, so requires a different approach.

But none of them can be rushed.

Though for all, I do feel a distance closing, and a need to observe it a bit from a distance, study it, before getting close enough to put it in the net.

An arrow.

When you send a line it can be like sending an arrow.

You could send that arrow right through the other character and out the other side into a wall ten feet behind.

Or you could send the arrow just to their chest, letting it stick there… hurting. The arrow could fall well short.

How do you draw back the bow? Rapidly, or slow and deliberately? Is it your first time shooting an arrow? Are you a professional or a civilian? Are you defending yourself or attacking to rule?

What tip do you have on the arrow? Is it poisoned, an ancient stone tip, high-grade steel, thin and razor-sharp, serrated?

You must play sharply. That’s how we live - like a series of very specific arrows shot from very definite bows.

See it. See what you mean, want and how you send it – your line of text.

‘I go, I go; look how I go,  Swifter than an arrow from the Tartar's bow.’

A peaceful pocket of time.

Observe when you’re in time and it’s peaceful.

You’ll be in thought then.

Seeing you thinking on screen is something we want. Try to learn when you’re in time and to identify different blocks of time.

Time can be like being on a train that is carrying you along. Which train; which track?

Waiting can be peaceful. It is for me. If I go to a store with a friend and they go inside to shop I love waiting outside. The security of knowing they’re inside; the security of knowing they’re coming back out. I wait, in peace.

Time stands still for me.

That zone of transported time is useful to experience and be able to reproduce on demand.

As an actor you know about Time. Keep exploring it.

This particular time – a peaceful pocket – is just one specific time block. Something that I observed.

A read-through.

Some words are written to be read and some words are written to be said.

When we say, “Let’s read the scene.” we mean, let’s speak it - let’s play it.

Text is written in words and you can get diverted when asked to read by thinking you’re reading. No.

A read-through actually means a speak – act - through. Always. You’re an actor not a reader.

Actors don’t read. Other than at an event where you’re reading a statement, notice or poem.

Patsy Rodenburg’s book is called The Actor Speaks.

Asking questions.

When preparing a scene you should ask questions.

The answers aren’t the point; the point is the “asking of the questions” and getting your mind active. The questions will stimulate your imagination, one of the best fuels to keep your confidence fired.

Any new idea that you conjure will always be with you. You don’t have to hold on to it. It’s in you.

Work properly so that your practice gives on to good habits. Asking questions is part of proper practice.

Treat your mind with respect and know it’s both powerful and delicate. Simply put: be nice to it.

Asking questions should be a warm and friendly stroking of your mind, getting its best juices going, getting you going.

Ask questions.

As long as it takes.

You hear people saying, ‘It takes so long to make a movie.’

Does it?

It’s actually: ‘It takes as long as it takes.’

It’s fine if civilians say it, but watch if you’re saying it.

To say it is not to understand what it is to make a movie. Movie is an abbreviation for moving picture. To take a picture you need a subject – you the actor – and you need light and a camera. To get the lighting to reflect what you want to say in the scene takes time. Then the moving camera part comes in and that takes time. The blocking, the acting, stunts, etc.

It takes time.

As an actor learn what it takes to make a movie.

You need your time to be ready and so do all the other departments. Each taking their place, their space and their time. Collectively.

Once you accept and assimilate the process then you free yourself to do your acting. If you don’t it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole. You can misspend your energy being frustrated at waiting.

When you, the individual, join the collective making the movie, a lot of that frustration goes away.

You become part of the time it takes.

Auditions.

They are the hardest thing you’ll ever have to do in your career.

Audition feedback.

Asking your agent for feedback after an audition sounds like a good idea.

But does the feedback assist you, or does it make you self-conscious? Everyone may be doing it but does it help you.

If it helps you, then great.

Before you ask for feedback some questions are worth asking, such as: what is the process for getting the feedback to you, and under what conditions is the feedback being considered?

Just imagine if your agent asked a casting director for feedback only two days after your audition. The casting director may have seen fifty people that day in five categories and maybe the same again the next day. What can they remember and what can they say?

Don’t forget the pressure agents and casting directors are under. They’re busy doing their work.

Any comment that comes back to you from a casting director via the agent has enormous weight. It’s often critical and can, at times, be quite damaging to your confidence. A comment is sent to you and there is no discussion as to its meaning, and if it’s dire then there you are left holding it.

‘He’s too theatrical!’. It can stay on your mind for a long time.

Why not let the casting directors and agents do their work and you do yours.

Work on your craft with your acting coach in rooms where the critical discussion is full and does support your practice.

Asking for feedback might sound like a good idea - the reality might be something different.

Audition room.

You enter the audition room and are greeted by the person behind the camera saying, ‘Stand on the mark.’

Try not to get diverted and take that greeting literally by putting each foot equally on either side of the T.

The translation of the greeting is, ‘Hello’.

Obviously, you are going to stand on the T, near it, behind it, to the left of it. However you have prepped the beginning of the scene or have chosen to start it the moment you land in front of the camera.

See if locking your feet equally on either side of the T is taking energy away from playing the scene simply and truthfully as yourself.

We get better bit-by-bit and clarifying moments like this one – as small as it seems - adds up, leaving us, eventually, with nothing but the acting.

And doing as you’re told won’t guarantee you a job in the movies.

Authority.

In the movie business you, as an actor, don’t have authority.

The authority comes from the producers. ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune.’

How do you keep your quality, dignity, and high level of excellence?

There are very few movie stars who can dictate what a movie is about and how it's made. The production companies even control the movie stars.

The question of authority is very much on the agenda today. In the political sphere who has the authority? To whom do you look to for authority? In some instances it's the leader of the country, or a religious leader such as an imam, rabbi or priest, or it could be your parents, even someone you idolize in entertainment, sports, science or elsewhere, or it could be your agent or manager.

Within the film community where do you find authority? From the American Film Institute, Entertainment Tonight, Screen Actor’s Guild, Canadian Film Centre, Toronto International Film Festival, IMDB, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, and Radio Artists, Variety magazine?

On movie sets you still have authority coming from the director and through a system of authority that is still pretty much in place. The First AD has a specific authority etc.

That's calming.

When on set you know who will give you orders. There's no chaos. Even if you know that the show-runner told the director what change they wanted, at least it’s still the director who gives you, the actor, the direction.

That's following norms. An example of authority in place.

The same applies in acting class. There it's the acting coach who has the authority. Again, this allows for a calmness as all the participants know that the proceedings will be carried out in an orderly fashion and follow professional actor-training protocol.

When the authority is clear - the works flows.

A yellow Rolls.

The young Canadian actor goes to Hollywood to read for a lead in a movie.

It goes well.

Later that morning in the producer’s office, the young actor is about to leave when the producer asks, ‘Do you have a car?’ ‘No,’ replies the actor. ‘Hey, take the keys to my yellow Rolls Royce convertible.’

The young actor thinks he’s died and gone to…Hollywood.

All this happens in the morning.

Later in the afternoon the actor is told to please return the Rolls.

He didn’t get the job.

Once you have a contract then you have a job. And once you get through the first day of shooting without being fired then you have a job. And once you receive your cheque then you have a job. And once the cheque is deposited and doesn’t bounce—then you have a job.

Anything else is just talk.

And for us actors who work for a living certain talk can be very misleading and damaging.

Develop your professional practice so that you can take everything in the movie business with a cool head. Try to be as sober minded as you can amidst the hurly-burly of Hollywood.

Someone letting you drive their Rolls doesn’t mean you have a job.

Bar talk.

Nothing more comforting than to be in the bar with your fellow actors.

Watch what you take from the evening’s banter as truth.

You learn from experience. Testing the experience is done in acting class where discussion of the work also takes place. Theory and practice.

And it’s done on set.

Chit-chat about acting, the process, auditions, this director, that casting director et al over beer is reassuring as you feel the commonality with your peers. Very important. It helps objectify you and the troubles you face as an actor. They face them too.

But, it isn’t a forum for serious examination of the acting questions nor of the business side. The bar atmosphere lends itself to personal prejudices and ungrounded ideas.

So, check yourself to see if you walk home after closing thinking, ‘Aha, that’s the key to booking work! I’ll scream in the audition room before each and every audition just like she said!’

Especially if ‘she’ is an actor who has more credits and experience than you. That’s like teenage boys chatting at recess in the school yard and ‘learning’ about the opposite sex from the older boys. Disaster.

Sharp appraisal, professional critique based on your work are all done in class. Other lessons are learned in the audition room and on set where necessity of production teaches you. These situations are formal and professional and that is where you learn.

Only there.

Bar talk is good to catch up on gossip and to find out what isn’t true.

Be a good student.

The teacher and the student both have obligations.

In the actor training circles the actor-talk is generally focused on what the teacher was like and/or was it a good class.

Very seldom do the actors seriously discuss their own work and more importantly whether they fulfilled their responsibility.

Being a proper student is simply being a proper professional. The two are one and the same.

Class is a great opportunity to learn how to be professional.

If you are an emerging actor or an experienced one you must cross the bridge from the old attitudes you had as a student in public school over to new ones as a practicing professional.

If you are in class you must fulfil the minimum standards of being on time, prepared, having an opinion, working consciously and asking questions. If you aren’t doing that then the teacher cannot conduct the class as the dynamic is not achieved.

Here is the definition of dynamics: the forces or properties that stimulate growth, development, or change within a system or process. You have to be one of those forces. An acting class is not a service where you pay and expect to get good value for your money and then complain if you think you didn’t. That’s trouble. If you’re going to class for a quick fix you’re also in trouble. If you’re going to class because you haven’t been booking work lately and you think by going back for one class you’ll start landing jobs - you’re in trouble again.  Practicing should be part of your actor’s life. It shouldn’t be the be-all nor the end-all. You shouldn’t go trying to have a good class. More trouble. Study and practice should be on-going. Make it part of your cycle – class, audition, shoot, class. Actors from the theatre come to film and tv classes wanting to learn how to act for the camera. Great. But they often cling to their narrative of ‘I’m a theatre actor and camera is soooo different.’ More trouble. Let your narratives go and do the work. The proper acting teachers are modern ones having assimilated the works of the masters. They continue to try and meet the demands of the present. They fulfil their duties and obligations. As a student you must ask questions. If the question is not appropriate the teacher will say so. Then you must ask another question. It too may be inappropriate and the teacher will say so. Then the actor must ask etc.…and on and on the training goes.  Just because you ask a question doesn’t mean you’ll get an answer. The student must keep trying. The teacher keeps encouraging, critiquing, aiding, advising and clarifying. That’s the back and forth. It is an organic relationship with two equal parts even though the teacher has the authority.

Rights and privileges, duties and obligations.

It takes two to tango.

Be compelling.

A successful acting teacher tells his actors to ‘Be compelling.’

I don’t know what that means.

In acting class I’ll have an actor get up and wait for a bus. Then, I’ll say, ‘OK, do it again, but this time be compelling.’

Usually you see a stunned look on their face and hear the other actors kind of squirm or giggle.

If she tries to be compelling, all you can see is someone awkward, lost and uncomfortable. Definitely not someone waiting for a bus which is what the scene called for.

If you’re not going to try and be compelling, then what are you going to do?

The tried and true: Play the situation as you would; mean what you say; like what you’re doing; let us see you; pick simple and playable actions; give dignity to the character; be professional; do your best.

Doing most of that will make you compelling.

You can’t play an idea nor an outcome, but you can do something.

‘Beg, borrow or steal.’

Professionals are students of the game.

In football (soccer) the best young players learn about the great players of the past. They watch their most famous moves. They observe tricks and techniques of the best players playing.

They try and copy them. They imitate them.

As long as your goal is to play truly and serve the show then what you use to assist you shouldn’t be judged by false purism.

All great artists learned from and copied the past masters and the current ones. Don’t think it’s impure to copy. Anything you imitate will always end up being yours anyway.

The issue is to learn from everywhere and everyone.

Beginning, middle, end.

In acting class, working with two beginners, one of them asked, ‘How do you do commercial auditions?’.

One key part is to go ready to improvise the situations they give you.

Another part is to find the beginning, middle and end of the scene.

I made up a Coca-Cola ad. The directions were: You walk in very hot and tired; you wipe your brow; look down at the table and see a can of ice-cold Coke; you pull the tab and drink; then you make a satisfied sound, ‘Ahhh!’.

They both tried it. They missed the parts and the transition.

I said there are beginnings, middles and ends to this scenario. As there are in all scenes, all things.

Let’s look at it. The hot and tired walk – begins, the middle of the walk, the end of the walk. The wiping of the brow – here, the issue of what starts the beginning came up. They had lots of good answers as to what begins but they couldn’t realize that it’s the impulse from the sweat.

After finishing the walk, end, the sweat on the brow sends the impulse to the brain which kicks in the arm mechanism to wipe the forehead. All happening at the speed the brain operates. As an actor you should learn about the speed of the brain.

So, wiping the forehead.

Then impulse to drink, see the Coke, beginning, middle, end, drink, again same thing, end, then after the change – from hot and tired to refreshed – the result of the change, the exhalation with sound, ‘Ahhh!’.

I had the actors do each part and say out loud, ‘Beginning, middle, end’ as they did it.

We saw and experienced a part of how humans live and act, but in a slowed down and highlighted way. It was crystal clear.

You can’t begin the new until you’ve ended the end.

You’ve finished the beginning of this entry, you’ve read the middle and now,

…the end

Be good in a bad movie.

You can be good in a bad movie.

Set the bar high for yourself and fight to keep it there.

You may think parts of the production are of low quality but there is no need for you to lower the level of your work.

You don’t write the scripts, produce the movies, or edit the shows.

Your department is the acting. You’re in charge of that department and responsible for your work.

The next role you play is an opportunity to raise the bar again and strive for excellence and quality despite the fact that the general trend in Hollywood today is a lowering of standards. To keep on the high road you’ll be bucking that trend.

It can be done. You aspiring to the best.

Then your life as an actor in the movie business will really become interesting and you’ll join all those who came before you and aspired to ideals and fought for them.

And when you are in a production where there is real harmony and volition for good work it will be precious to you. Those jobs always engender real appreciation.

Keep your head held high.

Big D to little d.

As an actor you’re told what to do.

You learn that from day one.

‘Faster, slower. Louder softer. Walk slowly from the door to the table, pick up the gun and turn slowly and point it towards the door.’

Directions.

And it’s the director who gives them. That’s their title and their job.

They have their job and you have yours. Just as craft has theirs, electrics, grips, hair and the drivers theirs. Without the drivers we couldn’t make the film.

In the early part of your career you also want the Director’s approval. To know they like your work. To know they like you. It can take up a lot of your energy. This need to be validated by the Director.

It’s a normal stage you go through.

As you get more experience and confidence, and your conviction grows the D will become a d. The director will become a colleague. A fellow worker on set doing their job while you do yours.

That’s the bar lifting to be a full professional.

Yes, the director will still give directions – that’s their job. And you’ll still fulfill their directions. That’s your job.

But the case changes.

Big scene.

That term can be a headache you learn early as an actor.

Not a useful phrase.

Yes, some scenes and speeches are long or more emotional or more important. But, this idea can mislead you. Can divert you.

Because it’s ‘big’ then you might want to push, work extra hard, play extra better because it’s – big.

Try not to do that.

Approach the scene as you would any scene. You’ll take into account the stamina needed to play it. How much energy it’ll take to do it. Those are real aspects that have to be taken into account.

But, you still approach the scene as a situation that needs to be learned.

It goes, as all scenes go, from one thing to the next. There is a beginning, a middle and an end. Same as all scenes. You can use techniques such as ‘like’ or ‘as if’ to substitute your experiences for those of the character.

Use all the good prep work you usually do.

The issue is not to be overwhelmed by the size or import of the speech or scene.

If you take it as a ‘big emotional scene’ you can make the common mistake of playing in a general wash of emotion indicating the gist of it.

You’ll be confused doing that. We’ll be confused watching it.

Go step by step.

All your work has common parts to it and your methodology can be applied to all those common parts - even in different situations.

Stick with the reality of the scene – not the idea.

Bit by bit.

As a working actor you still want to change and grow.

At this level you’ll do it in small bits. Each tiny change you make helps give you more of an edge.

Domini Fifield writes about the footballer Harry Kane in The Guardian:

Harry Kane was striving for marginal gains. Those little tweaks to his daily preparations that would assist recovery time amid a cluttered fixture schedule, and always with the fatigue he had endured back in the summer of 2016… If he was to retain his edge, particularly with a daughter on the way, then something had to change.

“I want to maximise my potential and it seems to be working. When you’re playing Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday there’s not a lot of time to train, so it’s about making those little gains in other ways: ice baths, stretching, nutrition … little things that keep as you as fresh as you can be.”

Gareth Southgate, the coach of the English national football team says, “But you’re talking about a player trying to maximise his ability and finding every edge he can. The marginal gains make a massive difference at this high level. Far more of a difference than at a lower standard of football.”

Keep growing as an actor – bit by bit.

Blink.

I’m quoting below from Walter Murch’s book In the Blink of an Eye.

A blink isn’t much.

Yet, Murch takes this act and elaborates up and out from it. See here how he correlates the blink to acting:

So, if an actor is successful at projecting himself into the emotions and thoughts of a character, his blinks will naturally and spontaneously occur at the point that the character’s blinks would have occurred in real life.

One of the things about unsuccessful acting is that the actor’s blinks seem to come at the “wrong” times. Although you may not notice this consciously, the rhythm of the actor’s blinks don’t match the rhythm of thoughts you would expect from the character he is playing.

To my mind, it highlights the importance of seeing how parts make up the thing. How, as an actor, you need to find the bits making up the whole. This pulling out, identifying and elaborating on parts is a hallmark of being a professional.

We want to appreciate how in acting, art, culture, nature and life there is an endless myriad of tiny and miniscule aspects to all things and events and your identifying and naming them is a wonderful life-time pursuit. It is the making of order of what seems at first an overwhelming mountain.

We grow by steps; not by trying to run up the whole mountain every day.

Rather, those steps get us nearer to the top of the mountain. Flatlands, rolling hills, forests, foothills, slope, face, and on to the summit.

The great Haida artist Bill Reid does the same thing as you see from this excerpt from Doris Shadbolt’s book Bill Reid.

He (Reid) tells a story of a recent trip to Paris during which he undertook a fellow-Canadian’s first introduction to the Louvre. Somehow under his guidance they managed to bypass most of the standard masterpieces but found themselves spending hours in a room containing a box, the work of the famed Russian virtuoso Faberge, that boasted a miraculously crafted hinge which for them outshone all the other attractions. When asked what they had experienced at the Louvre, their response was, ‘We saw a hinge.’

Everything is in the detail.

Blockbusters.

Film is a new art form.

What’s a blockbuster?

A block could be a stone; bust, a verb to break; so, breaking a stone. Would that be like cracking the nut?

We often say that when grappling with a problem.

What’s the problem here? Is the block money? Is someone trying to smash money into smithereens?

The discussion isn’t so far off, is it, when the term blockbuster is used and accepted as a kind of an art form. Everyone knows it’s a kind of movie.

Bust feels like a harsh, explosive word.

It’s also known that blockbusters are made in Hollywood. An American invention then. Big. Smashing something to bits.

The Empire State Building was big. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were blown to bits. Their blocks certainly got busted.

There’s you the actor – and there’s the blockbuster.

None of these films qualify as a blockbuster: The Third Man, 12 Years a Slave, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Yojimbo, Battleship Potemkin, The Seven Samurai, The Bicycle Thieves, Metropolis, Casablanca, Double Indemnity, The Insider, On the Waterfront, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, Belle du Jour, M.

Google gives this: A blockbuster is a Hollywood movie that's made with a large budget and big stars. A true blockbuster is extremely popular and brings in a lot of money. Typically, a blockbuster is a fabulous summer movie that audiences line up to see the first weekend it's released. (My emphasis.)

Sounds like a blockbuster ain’t no film. (My emphasis.)

Block your audition.

One way to give you confidence in an audition is to block it when you prep.

That includes how you’re sitting or standing. Can you play the scene from how you’re standing? Are you comfortable? Usually, the way you normally stand is the best way to stand.

That’s your physical support: how you’re sitting or standing. Try and get that right – that’s your base. Where you fight from.

It looks good on the monitor if your chair is on a bit of an angle to the frame, if you stand on a bit of an angle. It opens up the possibility of thinking away from the lens and then coming back to it once you’ve got the thought.

If you have activity in the scene, if your attention is 70% on your work and 30% on the other character you should pick a place to look other than the reader. Set that so you like it. Close to the other side of the lens or just under it are both good places for them to see your eyes.

If your attention is elsewhere choose when you’d look at the reader – when you would include them or when they caught your attention.

Where you look is part of film language.

But, only do this if you like it.

You don’t need to look in different places for different characters in the scene. Look where you want to and set it.

Not blinking gives you more power. Typical roles in procedurals such as cops, doctors, lawyers usually don’t blink. That’s a guideline not a law.

As does keeping your head straight. For status. Stillness gives you status, but no need to be locked in, frozen.

If your character is in a scene that’s rough, emotional and wild then blink away, move all over the place.

No audition rule says you can’t move around.

If you’re entering the scene and you want that bit of motion to start, then take a step back from the mark and step in on action. It gives you energy. A step or two either side of the mark or behind is perfectly fine.

Stepping in front of the mark isn’t good as it really crowds the frame and the operator can’t dolly back.

Use a prop or not. It doesn’t matter. This isn’t school. But, practice with it so you’re comfortable with it and set where and how you’re using it. Usually, in my experience, props can be diverting.

A positive result of blocking your audition is that it calms you down.

You know the physical score of the scene. If you’re nervous entering the room, but start by doing what you blocked at home that will help put you in.

Blocking an audition does not mean every moment is set in stone. No. It means you have a solid framework – a base - from which to play.

Support that can free you.

Scenes with pure emotion and spontaneity don’t need blocking – just truthful playing. The others get helped with blocking.

Bored.

Lots of characters are bored.

People get bored. You get bored. I get bored.

Maybe the first time you’re bored on set is when you really become a movie actor.

In some scenes the two characters are just passing time. That’s their action. Their objective is to be happy. They get happy by hearing the sound of their own voices.

They’re bored.

Iconic types in procedurals get bored doing the same job day after day - week after week. So do the actors who play those roles. Saying the same kinds of lines episode after episode.

Boredom can be useful and isn’t pejorative.

Boredom creates a hum in your brain that can settle you, calm you, or, sometimes, get you rattled. All useful qualities.

Boredom is a great antidote to doing too much.

The state of being bored is deceptively active.

Boiling Water.

Acting class is a place where you can practice details of your work.

You’ll see some actors trying to be good or interesting. They aren’t practicing – they’re indicating.

Working on one little thing is enough of a reason to be practicing.

To make the point I asked the actors if we were making spaghetti sauce what would be the analogy. One said, ‘Sauté garlic.’, another, ‘The tomatoes.’, and another, ‘Boil the water.’.

Several actors laughed out loud at the last answer.

I thought it was brilliant.

They laughed because boiling water is such an obvious thing to do and so easy why would anyone focus on that particular part of making spaghetti sauce.

That is precisely why I thought it was profound.

Let’s work on the first steps. Let’s practice first position in ballet, scales in music, grammar in writing. Let’s appreciate that the basics are – the base.

You can use class to practice any specific part of your work.

Boy to man.

The actor in class is a nice Ontario boy, but he’s playing a character who’s a man.

There’s a difference between a boy and a man. Between a girl and a woman. As an actor you need to know if your character is behaving like one or the other.

Both are useful.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the former manager of Manchester United football club, describes a talented young player who is now playing for the first team in the Premier League by saying, ‘He’s playing with men now against other men.’

When you’re a young actor there has to come a time when you can stand on your own two feet; when you can act typical TV situations like saying no, teaching and correcting, killing or facing the truth. And act them truthfully.

A girl or boy can’t act these behaviours.

To professionalize is to mature, grow up, become adult. Both, if the scene calls for it and in the business side of the industry.

It can also mean letting go old narratives you learned young.

You can’t hold a gun and threaten and at the same time apologize for it. Cops and robbers on TV don’t apologize. Neither do lawyers or doctors.

Of course, even if you’re an old actor you can act boy or girl-like behaviours. Blushing, uncertain, silly. That can be charming.

But the adage still stands: Never send a girl to do a woman’s job.

Breathe as you breathe.

You have practiced and heard so much about breathing.

We breathe all day long so why the focus on something normal.

My experience is that it takes a long time – a lifetime – to assimilate the best breathing practice into your acting. To make it yours. To breathe as you breathe in the scene.

Your goal should be to breathe as you when you’re acting. Not imitating the breathing you learned in voice class or yoga.

Eventually it has to be connected to your playing.

The journey of practicing better breathing to make it your own is a key part of your journey of being a professional actor.

To be in a scene and trying to remember to breath how you were taught to breath in class is to have a disconnect. You’re both in and out. Your mind doesn’t like that.

But, you – if you’re like me and most other actors – will have to act in movies for many years with this disconnect. It isn’t a crime; it’s part of your development.

The point is to know that with conscious practice your breathing will change qualitatively. With experience and when breath is assimilated - magic can happen. At this point your instrument is trained and you’ll always breath as needed in each and every scene.

In acting it goes: impulse, breath, speech. That’s the linked journey you want to assimilate.

Breathing in elevators.

When you’re in an elevator with other people breathe fully.

It will make a sound.

That’s why people often hold their breath in an elevator. Breathing fully while in an elevator is one of many opportunities for you to practice your acting in public.

You should always do this outside work with dignity and respect for those going about their lives.

The practice becomes sharp because it’s in public and that puts pressure on you. Real people will be really looking at you.

An old practice trick is to use an accent. Once I was on a date in a bar using a German accent and, unbeknownst to me, the barman was German and he starting speaking to me in German. It wasn’t life threatening, but things got hot pretty quick. I switched to English and all was fine.

Physicalities such as limping, blindness, twitches, deafness – all interesting. A completely different haircut worn in public can really have an effect on you as will wearing clothes you don’t normally wear. Men dressing as women and vice versa.

Always being aware not to cross a line where you’re being socially irresponsible.

Getting someone to look at you or to look away is another great exercise. Depending on what type you usually play pick an iconic look of that type. High status - you might hold eye contact to try and make the other person look away. Flirting - you might try and get the other person to blush. Controlling - you might see if you can get someone who has passed you to turn around and look back.

Practicing your acting out in the world can be edgy and it can provide some heightened experiences. That will strengthen your acting centre. It’s an extreme experience because you have to keep it going.

It’s to your benefit to imitate, observe and try new things when you’re out in the world.

Press the Ground button and keep breathing.

Caine and able.

Michael Caine is a wonderful actor.

And he was a movie star.

The 1987 Michael Caine on Acting in Film video is interesting to watch.

I took two tips from his video.

First:

Carry mints or breath spray so you have fresh breath when acting. Whether you’re kissing or shouting at your scene partner it makes a difference and is courteous and professional.

And second:

In your close-up when looking at the off-screen actor look in their eye closest to the camera. It has a big effect on the viewer looking at your eyes.

Follow Caine’s two tips to be a more able actor.

Callback.

Do what you did in your first audition. Wear the same clothes.

Try not to over-work or over-think prior to the callback. You want to do well, but observe what diverts you from - and what keeps you from - the magic that you had in the first audition.

Usually the director will be there and sometimes producers. Go as you would go to a working session – like going to class. They’ll be giving you direction, so have your working-actor mind ready.

It’s a slightly different mindset than the audition one.

Getting a callback might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Often, they bring in actors doing their first audition at the callback. Casting, directors and producers want you there and for their own reasons. They’re not sure yet what they want – they’re looking for it.

Callbacks are positive, yes, but best if you can normalize them and not boast to give yourself validation. Even if everyone does it.

Producer’s sessions, multiple callbacks for series regulars requires strength and conviction. Come to terms with your conscience, so you’ll see the process to the end. It’s hard work.

A callback is an audition that gets your hopes up.

‘Can I change the words?’

It’s a bit like how many fairies on a pin head.

Much debated in bars by actors.

There is no one answer to the question, but even if there was - what good would that do you?

Treat each situation as needed and as dictated.

For a typical TV audition where a particular tone is needed, a particular type of role, then focus on that. The words can be secondary.

If there are medical, military, or legal terms, these must be exact. Part of that reason is to show the producers you can handle that language.

Some projects demand lots of improvisation, and others are letter perfect. You adjust and do your job. As a professional, you fulfil the director’s vision.

As far as casting goes, they don’t check you word for word, but rather want to see if you suit the role, look right and have caught a colour that helps out the episode.

In acting class try working letter perfect for a while. See how that suits you. Then, try only knowing the gist and saying it mostly in your own words. See how that goes.

Don’t get sidetracked by watching interviews with movie stars saying how they improvised every line and then think: ‘Ha, that’s the answer!’

Big movie stars can usually change the text to suit themselves.

Student films, web series, short films, low budget features are generally all open to changing the lines. Often a director is changing the lines as they shoot.

Focus on playing the situation truthfully and simply as you - they’ll let you know about the dialogue.

Casting directors don’t like…

Try not to get sidetracked by rumours in actor’s bars about what certain casting directors like or don’t like.

Ignore stories such as ‘Never bring props into an audition.’, ‘Don’t wear stripes.’, ‘Don’t shake hands.’ and other tales from the dark that tend to sit heavy on your actor’s head.

Actors do, and the industry wants you to do, what you do – act.

Casting directors have tremendous power over actors, so they can demand whatever they want, but at the end of the day they are happy when you give good audition.

That’s it.

Shaking hands or not shaking hands won’t get you a role in a TV series.

Meaning what you say, playing simply and truly, fulfilling the job that your role requires, looking and sounding right will.

You’re already a nice person; you’ll be on time; bring a pic and resume (not even needed now); you’re prepared; and you’ll be gracious and professional.

Good enough.

Once they say rolling all they want to see is good acting.

Changing agents.

Have you changed agents during your career?

It’s a common occurrence.

And a most disconcerting event. The actor/agent relationship is the most difficult one you’ll have as an actor.

Why would you want to change agents? The first reason that comes to mind is it’s one thing you can do to help you get more work. Or, a thing you think will help you get more work.

Sometimes you or your agent clash in personality. A reason to get a new agent.

You and your colleagues never have enough auditions nor enough work. That is frustrating and you want to do something about it. All natural enough and coming from a real situation.

Desperation can set in and drive you to actions that might not be beneficial. Actions like getting new headshots, moving to another city, schmoozing at industry parties – and changing agents.

The reality of the movie business is that you don’t have any say.

The system is set up with agents and casting closely guarding the gates. It can be a mystery to you: am I submitted? why didn’t I book the role? does my agent like me? are my auditions good enough? etc.

If you’re a professional with a good agent and audition regularly and work regularly then you’re fine and checking all those boxes positively. Your agent likes you. Casting also likes bringing you in and the producers like seeing you.

Problem is nobody tells you any of this.

Agent/actor is a business arrangement. You must be clear on that. Within that framework all the good agents are pretty much the same and have the same good relations with casting. In turn, you have to be businesslike and fulfill your obligations including to be a better actor.

Of course, getting a new agent can give you a burst of energy and renewed hope and that’s positive.

But, as always, you don’t want to make decisions out of desperation.

Checklist acting.

You want to play well.

Your mind is running a checklist as you act and you’re trying to fulfil the list.

No.

It can go like this with your mind saying, ‘Now breathe. Use your diaphragm. Be in the moment. Listen. Mean it. Listen. Be truthful. Listen. Be compelling. Drop in. Listen. Breathe.’

And on and on, maddeningly, until the scene ends. And, well, you collapse.

Who wouldn’t? It’s too much.

You learn lots at drama school. When you graduate your mind is chock-a-block full. It’ll take you much practice and time for that information to settle.

Even if you’re experienced you may hear your mind checking the list.

The old adage of, ‘Do your preparation and then forget it.’ holds. When you begin the scene you breath in and start. Nothing more.

You cannot be playing a scene – and answer the list. Answering the list is not acting. It’s something else. Another problem.

Meaning you’re now trying to do two things. Answer the check-list and act. Impossible. You’ve added a problem.

Conscious participation means the development of the control of your mind, so it can’t just run off as it sees fit, but, rather, you control it. You'll control it more and more as you work properly. That’s the consciousness.

If your mind does run off – try not to respond to it. Just keep pursuing what you want in the scene.

It’s hard enough to do one thing well.

Chemistry read.

You’ve done the first audition and the call-back and now they’ve asked you to come in for a chemistry read.

Does the term divert you?

So many terms in the movie business need to be translated. You can be caught off-guard if you take them literally.

What does a chemistry read mean? Can you prepare differently for a chemistry read than another audition? Is it adding to your pressure? Are you dispersing your energy trying to figure out how to make sure you have chemistry in the room? Is it confusing and mystifying?

You could say acting is making chemistry. A definition of chemistry is: The complex emotional or psychological interaction between two people.

Sounds like acting.

Your time in drama school, auditions and shooting movies has been spent doing just that.

Definitions are essential to being professional. Once you’ve clarified or translated the idea then you’re free to act.

One thing you know is that the Hollywood publicity machine loves to talk about chemistry between actors. As if it’s special and different from good acting. They mystify it.

Has casting picked up the term from publicists, gossip columnists and reviewers?

Sometimes you hit it off with your scene partner and sometimes you don’t. But, you’re always professional, trying to play truthfully and fulfill the writing.

If you look right, have the right energy, and the right tone then the producers will hire you. They might say afterwards, “Oh, the two of them had such good chemistry.” but they cast the actors that suit their taste.

After the audition, you could justifiably say, “We were two good actors who knew how to connect and play the scene naturally.”

Chemistry read. Sounds like Hollywood-speak.

Chillin’ n’ vibbin’.

Say what?

In leading the work on ‘What do you want in the scene and how do you get it’ two actors came out with chillin’ and vibbin’.

It crystallized a key point.

That being: what’s your action or your tactic. What do you actually do to get what you want. How do you achieve your objective.

You might feel pressure to give a transitive verb that sounds good but isn’t a word you use. So now you’ve removed yourself one more step from the playing. You don’t want to use a verb that you have to work extra hard to relate to.

You’re searching for a suitable action verb but thinking it should be more academic, intellectual or artistic than what’s in your head.

I asked the first actor, ‘OK, so what are you doing?’ He went round and round the block and back again and after some prodding said, ‘I’m just chillin’.

Brilliant.

And he knew it was because he became full of life, blushed, laughed and was genuinely taken aback that he had pulled something ordinary - street - from his own mind. It so aptly hit the nail on the head as to what he was doing.

Simple language. His language.

Mamet wrote years ago: pick something that is simple and playable. Good advice.

Second actor the same thing. ‘What are you doing…etc. etc.’ and finally he says ‘Vibbin’.

Wow.

That actor never uses phrases like that. Again, he also lit up like a Christmas tree. Vivacious. And only blushing because of his natural truth that came out. Surprised him.

It so illuminated the lesson.

Pick things you like.

Clarity with thought.

On hearing truisms and maxims early on in your career you learn the phrase.

Often, you go round repeating it at opportune moments without giving it a thought. The assumption is that you heard it, it was explained to you, you get it and now it’s yours.

Done.

Over years of experience it may end up that one day while experiencing something practical you reflect on it.

At that moment a light goes on and you think, ‘Oh, that’s what that phrase means.’ The first learning of something, because it’s new, is shallow. The depth of a time-tested idea comes through practice of that idea.

It’s the natural development of things.

A learned narrative must be reconsidered. Simple phrases like, ‘Less is more.’ must be looked at over and over again in the heat of acting. The idea will reveal itself.

Without getting overwhelmed one must re-think and re-visit the guidelines, laws, adages to see more fully what they mean and how they came about. It’s on-going and never-ending. The words of wisdom can stand that seeking and scratching.

It’s not just a question of age.

As a young actor you can develop this trait of thinking things through. Considering things in an objective manner, so you find out what the thing is and not what you think it is.

Often, on first hearing a jewel of a phrase you instantly feel, ‘Ah, I get that!’. Fine.

But, make it your professional practice to be thinking about questions and not just repeating what everyone else is saying.

Clearing your mind.

Actors, high steel workers and surgeons all need to clear their minds to do their work.

When they begin work they go into made up time and space. They become the brain, the steel or the role.

In his book When Breath Becomes Air, neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi describes time while operating:

‘…funny thing about time in OR, whether you race frenetically or proceed steadily, is that you have no sense of it passing. If boredom is, as Heidegger argued, the awareness of time passing, then surgery felt like the opposite: the intense focus made the arms of the clock seem arbitrarily placed. Two hours could feel like a minute. Once the final stitch was placed and the wound was dressed, normal time suddenly restarted.’

Normal time restarted. That’s when they call cut.

When the director calls action you pass into made up time and space. You have to. You make yourself believe it. You pretend to live in a time and space separate from those behind the camera.

It’s acting.

What wonderful abilities you have.

Come to terms with your conscience.

The grade three teacher said, ‘You’re only fooling yourself Johnny.’

If you set out to do something – be an actor, go to an audition, act in an indy film, help a colleague do a self-tape – you have to have a clear conscience.

Think if you’re doing what you want or doing what’s trendy.

In the morning when you wake up – that’s the time to come to terms with your conscience. Only you can do that.

Talk is cheap.

The harsh winds of life and the movie industry both will wipe you out unless you’ve really thought it through.

How you relate to your agent. How you do your prep. How you conduct yourself with your colleagues. How you critique auditions. How you see the future.

Learn the difference between having a clear conscience and a cloudy one.

It requires thinking. Often help from a mentor or coach to discuss the issues objectively helps organize your mind and clarify your thinking.

Approaching the work seriously will make you a better actor.

Compliments.

Thank-you.

That’s the best answer to a compliment you receive about your work.

You may be confused as to what to say to a colleague after watching them in a show. If they wanted your reviewer’s opinion, they would ask. If they wanted your acting coach’s advice they would ask.

No one has asked for your opinion on the piece nor on the actor’s work. Why give it?

Your actor friend has just finished work and has done their best. Why not say, ‘Thanks for the work.’ or ‘Good job.’ And then they can reply, ‘Thank-you.’

The problems of making a successful career as an actor can lead to desperation and a need for validation. A need for acclaim. It can become normal to be living off compliments as if that defined your life.

Seeking applause is common.

Learn to compliment yourself by the mere fact that you keep going, you train, you audition, you act in plays and movies, you do your best and – you live.

Those facts can ease any grasping for praise you may have.

A compliment is a recognition of your practice and ideas that bear fruit.

The praise isn’t actually for you but for your work. Knowing this helps curb the desperation for praise.

Learn to appreciate the work that you and others do.

It’s difficult to build something up - it’s easy to knock it down.

Confrontation versus discussion.

For example, the TV series Suits has a confrontational style to it which is quintessentially American in the mode of Teddy Roosevelt and his Roughriders marauding through Cuba in 1898.

That style still exists from then ‘til now.

That icon of aggression is one you need to know to act in TV and movies.

The film High Noon, written by Carl Foreman and starring Gary Cooper, has brinkmanship in its climatic scene. Propagates that killing – or war – is both moral and inevitable.

While in other TV genres characters discuss.

There is no underlying or final threat of death inherent in that writing. The characters are thinking it through and talking it through.

Discussing is intellectual – mental. Confrontation is physical.

Love stories, relationship shows, political dramas - the characters all think and talk through the problems. Talking heads.

There are two typical ways of solving a problem – confrontation and discussion. That’s reflected in the movies.

These two methods of problem solving can also manifest themselves in the actual making of a movie.

Consciousness.

Let’s begin with Stanislavski’s quote: ‘Unconscious creativity through conscious technique’.

To have this brief entry on consciousness is to potentially underestimate the importance of the idea.

The point is to highlight consciousness and what it means to you. Stanislavski’s quote raises two aspects to it.

The practical and objective work in analyzing scripts and preparing your work – the conscious technique. That conscious work comes as a result of your training on how to analyze text, prepare a role, identify genres, recognize TV icons and know what the producers need.

You can follow any one of a number of methods of work to fulfil this part of your conscious technique work.

Your training and practice of these approaches is what makes it conscious. It’s in your brain. You’ve assimilated the techniques. And when those assimilations have been done properly they will lead to the freeing of the unconscious creativity.

You do your preparation and then forget about it.

The successful football coach Louis van Gaal puts it this way: ‘We start at the bottom - unconscious and incapable. The next step is conscious and capable, then unconscious and capable.’

Stanislavsky’s quote put and end to the argument of technical actors versus natural actors and he did so by linking the two.

Cops, doctors and lawyers.

When playing these iconic roles some guidelines might be useful.

A useful start to playing any role is to ask, ‘How would I act in a situation like this.’

First and foremost, all of these roles are people at work, doing their jobs. They’re good at them, they like them, it’s always just another day at work, they don’t have any other job, they’re successful.

The situation may be high stakes but the protagonist is doing their usual job. That’s key for you to find the daily normal of these characters.

The situation might be a big deal, but for them it’s no big deal.

Also, they’re cool. Everyone on TV is cool except for victims, patients, the elderly and people who are mentally challenged.

They can say no. They have the power of life and death whether it’s giving a death sentence in court, saving your life or shooting you dead.

Their work is repetitive – even boring - but they always strive to be successful. And that includes carrying any personal problems they may have. Baggage.

It might be like when you do your work as an actor – or any other occupation.

The starting point to playing a doctor, cop or lawyer is that it’s their job.

Counting words.

Does counting the number of words in your line and the number in the other character’s line help you learn the scene?

Part of the form of the scene.

Supporting the content.

Often the two lines are equal. Rhythmic ping pong. Back and forth echoing each other.

Either in agreement - or not.

And then there’s syncopation. When the speeches of each character differ in length, composition and word-type. A five-line speech followed by a one-line answer. Unequal

The form revealing relationship, status, intent etc.

While working the Kaffee/Ross scene from Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men in class we discovered that the scene ended with a couplet. Both lines with equal words and syllables; both saying the same thing. ‘Oh, ya? well blah, blah, blah.’ And the response ‘Oh, ya?! blah blah blah, to you too!’.

Same meaning, same number of sounds, same single-syllable words. A couplet ending.

Equals speaking equal language.

Sorkin knew what he wrote.

You speak English and these musical rhythms are part of that language you speak. Text expressed in repeated forms to elicit particular meanings.

Count the words.

Creation.

The great Scottish national poet Robbie Burns describes how he created his poems.

“My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then choose my theme, begin one stanza, when that is composed—which is generally the most difficult part of the business—I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. when I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper, swinging, at intervals, on the hind-legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my, pen goes.”

Cutting through the veil.

The veil is what you need to cut through to move forward.

It could represent anything.

It’s that elusive and real step that you can’t yet take. To say no to a certain direction, to go deep to find an emotion, to feel like a participant, to celebrate your work.

A veil is something that stops you from learning the truth about a situation. That stops you from seeing what something is.

The ideas in the veil can come from those who control the movie industry. ‘The producers don’t have any money - they can only pay you scale.’ ‘Of course, the Hollywood actors will be paid 3 times what you get paid.’

The veil is made up of the ideas you’ve been taught.

Say you had a problem and felt humiliated and afterwards tell your colleague about it saying how you wanted to speak up but didn’t know how. It was the veil that held you back.

The veil can be cut.

Through experience and proper practice, you can learn how to cut through the veil in your acting, your business side, your life as an actor.

Cutting it once sharpens your knife to cut it again.

In 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois, in his revolutionary book The Souls of Black Folk writes about the moment he knew what it meant to be Black in America.

‘I remember well when the shadow swept across me. I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England… In a wee schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting cards - ten cents a package – and exchange. The exchange was merry, til one girl, a newcomer, refused my card - refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned on me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others…shut out from their world by a vast veil.’

Learn about your veils and how to cut through them.

“Dear dirty Dublin”

The phrase Dear dirty Dublin comes from James Joyce’ novel Ulysses.

An actor from Cork taught me the trigger phrase of “Dear ol’ dirty Dublin, da mess on da doorstep.” He said if I got that right I’d be off to the races with the Dub accent.

When learning an accent or a character trait see if you can find a simple key that helps you unlock it. Something you like, is easy to remember and is the essence of the thing.

Could be a slouch, wide stance, slight stutter, hands closed.

Always find a starter you like.

Usually best if it’s small. A little diamond – containing all it’s qualities - cut, brilliance, colour, carat, weight.

If you start acting by trying to remember all your research and preparation you might get overwhelmed.

(For the record, Dublin is a beautiful city that I’ve worked in and visited for many years.)

Deliberate practice.

For many years I have characterized my training work as Proper Practice.

Some of the ideas in my practice come from Geoff Colvin’s book Talent Is Overrated where he cites Anders Ericsson’s idea of Deliberate Practice which is:

• designed specifically to improve performance, with a teacher’s help -it can be repeated a lot -you receive feedback on results -it is highly demanding mentally -it isn’t much fun

Directors.

Most series directors are in the same boat as you.

They are freelance and were looking for a job when they got this one.

They do have the authority on set but their relative status in the movie business is about the same as yours.

It’s the networks, show-runners, executive producers who call the tune.

That can allow you to be sympathetic to their situation. It can also allow you to do your work easier. They are colleagues and no need to give up all your power.

Regulars on series soon learn that they know more about their character and the show and have more status than visiting directors.

It’s part of the actual relations of TV.

Directors are under two pressures: to get the shots in quickly and to get along with the producers. One and the same thing.

If they don’t give you much direction - realize the pressure they’re under.

The few directors in the world who work on rich, realistic scripts are true creative artists and they will work with you in the best way. That condition is few and far between.

Low-budget independent film directors usually discuss a lot. The funny actor’s rule there is - low pay, lots of talk.

Knowing the director’s situation allows you to better fulfill your obligations.

Disconnect.

Snap.

That’s the sound of a branch being snapped in two which mirrors a disconnect.

Let’s see where disconnects occur.

You might say, as many actors in Toronto do, “I’m working with Movie Star X.” Yes, you are, you’re on the same project, but on examination of the idea of that and the reality of that might reveal something else.

Usually, actors here have small roles in American movies and that means your working time with the star could be short or virtually nonexistent. Hollywood stars rarely discuss with day players.

No, it’s not that they aren’t “nice”, it’s that they are too busy, and it isn’t movie culture.

An example of this is the Canadian actor who has a recurring role in a big U.S. series shooting here and says that when it comes time to do detailed work on the scene the director takes the two American leads aside leaving him on the outs.

That’s a disconnect. Between idea – working with the movie star – and what actually – reality – happens.

In society, there is a basic disconnect where we live collectively and socially, yet mostly we have to fend for ourselves – individually - disconnected from the whole.

Interesting to consider disconnect in your work and in your life.

Discussion.

What is discussion?

It’s what human beings do to both make things and develop thinking.

There are two basic kinds of discussion. One: to make a plan to do something. Two: to move the thinking forward on a particular question.

One is practical and the other is ideological.

The first kind of discussion should produce a plan for action. For instance, if you need to build a fence than the discussion will focus on finding solutions for the particular problems that arise while building that fence. These discussions have concrete goals.

These are the discussions you have with directors while trying to solve problems that arise while shooting a scene. Those discussions have an immediate aim and that is to solve the problem in front of you, so you can shoot the scene.

The other form of discussion doesn’t lead to a concrete plan, but rather develops thinking on questions. When you discuss acting questions with your peers or acting coach that’s the discussion of ideas. Even if there is a particular topic being discussed the aim isn’t necessarily to come up with the answer.

What you do come up with is more light having been shed on the idea in question. These discussions of ideas carry on the age-old human tradition of sharing and developing thinking.

If you begin a discussion and your mind is confused, the resulting discussion often clears the confusion and creates order in your mind. You "feel better" afterwards.

In both instances of discussion there is no argument.

Arguing and discussing are different. In a discussion no one is trying to win, because there is no competition. The subject under discussion takes precedence over the individual’s aim.

When you discuss with others using your mind and the gift of language you will always give rise to something of note – something new – and ideally raise the level of the discussion.

The practice of proper discussion – whether solving a problem or developing an idea – will help your brain develop and serve you to be a better actor.

Divine right of Kings.

In European history, it was asserted that kings derived their authority from God and could not therefore be held accountable for their actions by any earthly authority such as a parliament.

During the War of the Roses, both Henry VI and Edward IV claimed that they ought to be king. They both argued that they were appointed by God to rule England.

Who has the right to know how the movie business works?

Have you ever wondered the budget of the film you’re working on, or if Background is all ACTRA or half non-union, or how much the American actor standing next to you is earning, or what tax breaks the producers got from Ontario Creates?

Many of the details that make up the whole of the industry seem to be the private domain of – maybe – producers, casting, agents and ACTRA.

Does it seem to you that on many questions you’re kept out of the loop?

You, and all of us, have a right as actors and citizens to be able to ask, investigate, learn and know anything and everything.

Why not?

You might find that certain questions are spoken of in hushed tones and with eyes lowered.

The divine right of Kings.

Not really your business.

That’s a disconnect, isn’t it, when you and your colleagues are the ones making the movies.

Do nothing.

After coaching an actor for a time, I often put them on the ‘Do nothing program.’

It’s very successful.

What does it mean?

It doesn’t mean to do nothing. It means do something different. Usually the actor was working too hard. Which actually means not working well.

All big concepts.

Simply put, I’d say, ‘Look, for this next round of classes get the scene, look at it, and don’t do any of the prep work you would normally do and don’t memorize the words. Just get the gist, the sense of it. Then leave it. Give it space.’

That immediately puts the actor at ease. It rests their weary mind.

But, as is life, they immediately wonder ‘What the hell will I do?’ They should let their mind ramble and all the usual questions can come up, but don’t act on them. Basic psychotherapy. The very act of the rest, the change, the do nothing, will have an effect.

Don’t try to catch and hold onto that experience. Just have it.

Then, when you come to class you’ll play the situation – the scene. As a trained and experienced actor you’ll get lots of images and ideas as soon as you read the scene. What the scene is and what your character is doing.

That’s enough to practice in class. It’s enough to shoot on set.

You can see that the do nothing program is actually doing something. You will act the scene.

Best is to pick something simple to do immediately upon arriving with your partner. Any small thing that hits you - from who your partner is to where you are. An impulse. If you can go with that then the do nothing program is really functioning.

Very little prep. Immediate choice.

The program isn’t guaranteed - but it is tried and true. You can see almost immediately how much more open the actor’s face is and how much simpler their work is.

Watchable.

It’s a pause, isn’t it?

Another way to ease your work away from banging your head against the wall to leaning on it.

Don’t try to out act a tree.

At the Moscow Art Theatre the actors had to pretend to see the cherry trees being cut down.

In film you have real cherry trees being cut down.

You’re an actor watching the trees being cut down, so what do you have to do? Nothing. Stand there and watch. The sound of the axe or saw, the chips flying, and the woodcutter cutting all tell the story.

We cut to your face. You watch. You are us watching. We see your face - a blank face - and we attribute to you what you’re thinking.

Then we cut back to the tree being cut down. The tree is just there getting cut down. It plays its part.

You play yours.

Don’t do any more than the tree is doing, or you’ll look silly. You won’t be believable.

In David Lean’s film Lawrence of Arabia we see a rider on a camel against the horizon, and for two minutes they ride straight into the camera. Perhaps one of the purest examples of how cinema can capture realism in a natural setting.

Omar Sharif had the good sense to do nothing but ride the camel.

“Do you like your agent?”

One actor asks the other.

You want to have a good business relationship with your agent.

‘Do you like…?’ is a question we pose when it comes to friends, family or acquaintances.

The working relationship with an agent is the most important and difficult one in your career and should be based on professionalism, mutual benefit, straightforwardness, formality, openness, and clear and common goals.

An analogy might be found in other work you do. An actor writes:

‘I know the great part of the bartending is I don't care too much about it. Which is key. There is very little pressure added, and when I am not given a shift to work, I’m not too fussed or concerned. I have a very clear understanding of my relationship with the company. And a clear understanding of my value in their company. When I do work for them, I do it well, and am good at what I do.’

Actor/agent is a delicate relationship that needs your on-going thought and work to make it successful.

And you must play your part by being active, ready, professional, enthusiastic – keeping up your end of the agreement.

Liking someone is a different story.

Draw blood.

It’s a nice image when you’re trying to affect the other actor.

How sharply can you send your point? How much bloodshed do you want to cause?

In this moment of the scene are you going to prick your fellow actor, or are you going to open up a gash?

How much blood do you want to draw from moment to moment?

Of course, you never want to spill any real blood.

That would be unprofessional.

Drone phrase.

Find a phrase that assists you to find a key to what you’re playing.

Use words and phrases that you like and use everyday.

‘You’re stupid.’ ‘Idiot.’ ‘You’re scared.’ ‘I like you.’ ‘Nice eyes.’ ‘I’m winning.’ ‘You’re losing.’ ‘Please.’ ‘I’m sorry.’ Anything simple that you can repeat at any time during your text or your partner’s text. It’s well suited to acting class.

And useful to find on your own in your prep.

Phrases that epitomize your actions, your tactics, what you want, think of the other character, etc. You speak your text and at the same time speak this inner monologue line. At first, it will seem disconnected and mechanical, but as you practice it more the phrase becomes part of the flow and supports the actual written text.

Once you’ve assimilated this drone phrase it will run through and under you as you play and support and colour your work.

They should be short and sharp phrases. Once you choose it, it could make you smile with identification as to what your actions are in the scene.

It’s a hyper exercise. Part of unconscious creativity. Let the idea in the phrase float with your conscious, real-time acting.

Releasing the inner to support the outer.

Drowning.

In an audition class one evening there was a scene where an actor had to drown.

How to do it? She was stumped. Maybe we all were.

We thought we’d improvise drowning and see what it revealed.

Revelatory.

First it came out there were two parts to it – above water and below water. That meant breathing (above water) and holding your breath (below water).

Well, as an actor, you know anything with breath is very useful to you. Something you know and like a lot.

She did the drowning improv a few times and each time the discovery was the terrifying experience of not being able to breathe versus being able to.

Essence of life - opposites.

When she was submerged the whole class was holding its breath and a wave of fear swept across the room. I was clutching my chest; fearful; wondering; hoping.

Then! when she broke the surface and gasped, we all gasped. It was powerful.

All sourced from the breathing.

She went back to the audition format and did the scene again. She found that if she kept that essence of not breathing/breathing and do it where the drowning part happened in the scene, that helped answered the question: "How do I act drowning?".

It’s an exercise I’ll do again.

Drunk.

The actor asks, “How do you play drunk?”

Good question.

“The old rule is not to act drunk, but to try and do what you’re doing,” I said. “How about you first really go overboard and do a drunk guy walking.”

He did and looked like an orangutan trying to dance.

“Take it down by half.” He did.

“OK. Did you like that?” I asked. “No,” he said. “Me neither. You’re indicating, aren’t you?”

“How can I make it believable?” he asked.

I conjured an exercise.

“Do you have a book? Good. Put it on your head and walk from one side of the room to the other, keeping it on your head.”

He did. I asked him what he thought of it. “I thought it was just terrific.”

“So did I.”

“OK. Now take the book off your head and try to repeat exactly what you just did.” He repeated it.

He looked drunk.

Grinning ear to ear, he was pleased and a bit amazed.

“Now walk normally.” He did.

“The difference is so subtle and yet clearly there. I think it’s the quality,” I said.

The over-the-top drunk was quantity. Now we have quality.

I asked him what the two essential things are happening when you walk with the book on your head.

He said, “I’m trying to get from A to B.” “Yes. Your objective.”

“And the second?”

“I’ve got a book on my head.” “Yes. Your obstacle.”

So, you want to walk from here to there, or do any activity, and you do your best to do it, but the alcohol has your brain addled and that makes it difficult. Those are the two parts of actually being drunk and the key parts to have when acting drunk.

Try the old ‘book on the head’ trick next time you have to act drunk. It might help.

Ease and Grace.

As an actor where are you headed?

Lots of destinations are offered to the professional actor – fame, wealth, awards.

To work with ease and grace is what you do when you’re at your best. It’s one of the goals that are practiced on the high road of civilization.

You know you’re going to do it. You feel it.

The work itself contains its own reward that you working well will encounter.  More valuable than the external validations.

That reward manifests itself in the deepening of your conviction. That’s long-lasting.

A breakthrough in your work is qualitative.

Booking work – very important – is quantitative and the recognition you’ll receive from the industry usually doesn’t build your conviction.

Practicing with the idea of ease and grace in mind will give rise to it being your habit. The masters mostly work with ease and grace. It’s the state of those top directors, writers, cinematographers, designers that you’ve worked with.

Meaning: focus on the work and your view of it.

It’s drawing from your pool of power readily, your willingness to reveal, your fulfilling your professional obligations, and always you leaning in to truth and beauty.

And doing it with ease.

It’s liking what you’re doing. It’s a lightness of touch. It’s dreaming. It’s beauty.

In response to this entry an actor writes: ‘Reminded me of Muhammad Ali, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”.’

When the human being thinks and acts with ease and grace questions are more easily resolved.

Eyelines in auditions.

You have multiple characters in your scenes for your audition.

What to do?

You never need to show the producers that you know there are multiple characters in the scene. That won’t help you get cast.

But you may want to sort your eyelines to help you play the scene. If so, look near one side of the lens - in a Zoom audition or in the studio - when speaking to the main character. Secondary characters can be on the other side.

Work in a triangle of about thirty degrees on either side of the lens. That way they can always see both of your eyes.

Practice crossing your look either above or below the lens. You don’t want to spike the camera – looking into the lens.

Be careful not to feel locked within that space. You can always move.

Often trying to place different characters in different places just diverts you from playing the situation. Your focus is on eyelines and not the acting.

If so - don’t do it. Play the scene looking close to the lens and leave it.

Big scenes – emotional or physical - should be played out fully and truthfully without attention to the eyelines. In those scenes you can be looking anywhere; you can have your back to the camera.

On set eyelines are important and you should always ask if your eyeline is good.

In auditions it’s up to you.

Everything happens in threes.

You’ll find threes in the scenes you learn, the movies you act in and life around you.

As an actor working in film and television, your interest in three can be both specific and broad.

Specifically, as you examine the script you may notice parts of the writing are in groups of three. A speech giving the character’s position could do it in three lines. Each line adding and furthering the position.

Then, within the line itself there may be three words elucidating the point of the line. They could be modifiers, nouns or even verbs.

Seeing that structure of threes may give your mind something it likes and can hold onto. In TV the cop may list three clues, the lawyer give three arguments and the doctor offer three options for treatment.

Knowing that your next moment in the scene has three parts to it can give you confidence.

Broadly, some examples of threes comes to mind: the rule of threes in cinematography; the Latin phrase omne trium perfectum—everything that comes in threes is perfect; a tricolon - where words or phrases are equal in length and grammatical form; fairy tales with three wishes; Macbeth’s three witches: ‘Thrice to thine and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make up nine’; father, son, the holy ghost; the good, the bad and the ugly. Thesis, antithesis, synthesis; the three-act structure; in folklore deaths come in threes; veni, vidi, vici; comedy writing – line, line, joke; and mother, father, child.

Threes are in the writing you interpret and in the culture reflected in the movies you act in. Experience how it can serve you.

Of course, not everything happens in threes.

(In the Lakota culture everything happens in fours.)

Everything is in the detail.

An old and useful adage.

See how applying it helps put you in.

If you’re playing a character who is an investigator, look at the prop you’re holding and find the tiniest part of it. Go from that part to the next one. Small steps.

Can you feel your mind calming? The audience likes it.

Detail does mean specific. Detail does make it simple.

If your character is in a scene with big themes of life and death it will be through the small – the detail – that you’ll get to the big. Reaching for the huge, overwhelming theme may overwhelm you and have you indicating to show it.

Details in the text; the speech; the line; the word; the letters in the word.

Staying with the detail keeps you on your feet and in your time. You can’t get ahead of yourself if you go step by step. Nor, can you fall behind.

What you wear in the role. Your collar: laid flat; pulled out; half turned up; all the way up; tips pointed. That kind of detail helps you create the role.

“The devil is in the detail”.

Fend for yourself.

It’s odd to think that you have to fend for yourself, especially when all the work you do is done collectively.

This can create a disconnect and will leave you with another problem to consider.

But it’s the way society functions - people living and working socially, yet fending for themselves.

You have an actor’s union, an industry made up of writers, technicians, editors, and producers, and you have agents and casting directors controlling the flow of work. So much social activity around your actor’s life and yet, there you’ll be…on your own.

It’s odd but real.

And it’s a problem.

Flirting with the director.

Even though the ideas of equality are all there, female actors are still under a lot of pressure. The reality is these ideas are yet to be fully realized.

You see it on set.

Actresses often flirt with the directors. The directors often like it. It’s all considered normal.

You’re under pressure to get along in order to help you book more roles. To be liked.

Those film and TV pressures are real. American culture has inculcated women to get by and improve their lot based on their looks and their charm. Not much has changed.

It’s considered normal.

But why should a female actor have to flirt with a director? It seems absurd to even pose the question.

Why can’t a female actor go on set, do her job, be respected, liked for her work and go home. Knowing she did her job properly.

And why does the director – or anyone in power in the business - expect the female actor to flirt with them while waiting for the lighting setup to finish?

Focus your eyes.

There are always real objects in front of you when you’re filming.

If you’re supposed to be seeing elephants running towards you; see what works best for you to focus your eyes.

For you and for us watching you on screen. Watching your eyes.

If your imagination – of the elephants – does it, then fine. But, a simple technique that is always available, is to look at real objects in front of you. That includes the edge of the camera, the tripod, the dolly, the lights, the flags, the set, the back of the studio, the sound man, everything and anybody.

When you look at real objects it focuses your eyes.

That calms your mind. It helps your balance, too.

We see it in your eyes that you’re really seeing something. The cut will reveal what it is you’re looking at.

Endless shots of ‘computer acting’ demands the same. Motion capture really demands it. Green screen. Lots of that today.

In the audition room – again, you can look at real objects, the people running the session, the camera operator.

When we watch you on screen we look at your eyes.

Foil acting.

There’s a term.

You have an audition for a part in a series. The trope of the series is that there are living people and dead people who can communicate with the living people.

There is a set of leading roles all giving life to this particular show with its particular genre.

Parents are needed for one main character. The need is for the parent to show certain parts of the lead character that will drive the plot. Maybe drive it for one episode, several episodes or a season.

The parents are a foil.

An excellent example of a movie star being the foil to allow another movie star to take their space is the movie Roman J. Israel, Esq. Colin Farrell knows he is a foil to the complex and unconventional role that Denzel Washington plays. Farrell astutely keeps still, fills the picture of a corporate lawyer and leaves Washington to do all the fancy footwork.

Merriam-Webster says a foil is:  Someone or something that serves as a contrast to another.

The writers want to make a point about this main character and need a foil to contrast and show something specific about them.

Learning how TV and movies are written including tropes, icons, cliches, reveals and more can help you audition more specifically. Can help you fulfill your job in the show.

Not being sure why your character is in the script and worse - thinking it’s more than what it is - can cause you confusion.

Find out what the thing is and not what you think it is.

Or you might get foiled.

Follow.

When you’re playing a scene, consider if you want to lead (drive the scene), or stay with your partner (equal), or follow.

To follow is to be active. But you lay back. Like a lion.

Very quick of mind but following. It’s deceptive. It’s lighter.

It’s not slow and heavy, no – it’s a different energy than leading. Having to drive a scene might put unwanted pressure on you while following might open space for you.

There are different conceptions to playing a scene, different techniques that can be useful.

You can sometimes ‘quick cue’ the other actor, cut the space between your lines and theirs, mentally being on top of their lines - ahead of them.

Following can be thought of as on the back foot and quick cue on the front.

You can also ‘slow cue’ someone, which is a little different from following. You’re not late on your cue you just stretch time a little, slow it down. Leading a line with an 'uh' can fulfil that.

Look for crafty, sly and clever conceptions to playing scenes. Methods of attack that you like and may not of learned in drama school.

Try it.

Four.

There are many useful dictums about acting.

Here are two that were passed on to me.

The Four Pillars of Acting.

Immediate Response. Observation. Memory. Imagination.

Four reasons why we do things.

Love. Happiness. Validation. Necessity.

Identifying things helps organize your mind.

Food in your teeth.

I often act with food in my teeth.

No, not big pieces of green spinach in my front teeth that we all check for before our close-up.

Just some food that’s left there because I didn’t brush my teeth. I like it. I like it because it’s a secret.

My secret.

It doesn’t mean anything literally. I’m not advocating not brushing your teeth. That’s not the point.

The point is your privacy, your individual peculiarity, and how connecting to that, embracing it, letting it be, helps you act.

It does me.

We are all bombarded with the notion of being ourselves and to see what that really means in little, ordinary ways might prove useful to you and your acting.

Donald Sutherland once said to me something like, ‘Take a piece of paper, write something on it - silly, poetic, cheeky, religious, rude - fold it up, put it in your shoe, go on set and act’.

These tricks can bring a vivid immediacy to your living in front of the camera.

Free standing.

You often have to stand with both arms by your sides. Not holding on to anything.

It’s just you in space. At first it can seem awkward.

Learn to do it by standing well and easy, with your feet really on the ground, breathing regularly, arms hanging heavy, shoulders down, ribcage holding you up, neck long and head floating.

It’s much needed when playing doctors, lawyers, and cops in TV procedurals. Other roles too. It’s a detailed part of your work.

Practice free standing until it becomes your habit.

Once it is, it becomes a great place from which to unleash your power.

From ‘Ha!’ to ‘Help!’.

Your character is a low-status bad guy. You’re confronted by a high-status good guy or cool bad guy.

There can be different responses from you, the loser. Here’s an iconic order.

Laugh It Off.

The cool guy demands payment on the loan or else.

‘Ha!’. You make a joke, crack wise, laugh off the threat. First tactic.

He pulls out a gun. Stakes are raised. Next tactic.

The High Road.

You declaim your right to be left alone and protest their nefarious threats. ‘How dare you?’ You take the high road.

He smacks you across the face. Stakes are raised. Next tactic.

I’ll Tell.

You threaten legal action. ‘If the police find out...’

He shoots you in the leg. Stakes are raised. Next tactic.

Sorry.

You apologize. ‘Please, I’m sorry!’.

He shoots your partner dead. Stakes are raised. Next tactic.

Oh God.

‘Help!’. You beg, on your knees, and cry for mercy.

Typically, they take the money, shoot you, or both. End scene.

We see this Laugh-to-God iconic journey repeated in Hollywood movies. The three neophytes in Pulp Fiction follow that journey when the hitmen come to collect the money.

From negative to positive.

Before the audition an actor whispers, ‘Watch out, the casting director’s in a bad mood.’

She might be. And, if so, why?

It’s probably got nothing to do with you and everything to do with the high pressure of the movie business.

There are a hundred reasons why she might be in a bad mood - session’s running late, clients aren’t happy, she just lost a casting job, actors can’t grasp the genre, etc.

When you have the energy and have sussed out the room you can sometimes change the tense atmosphere to a more relaxed one. You can ease the casting person’s anxiety by being sympathetic, understanding, and professional.

It’s as if you’re asking, ‘Can I help you?’. Or as if you’re giving them a hug. You might say something like, ‘Boy, this movie business is tough on all of us, isn’t it?’. You’ll feel a sigh of relief when the casting director says, ‘Geez, you’re right.’

You’ve now changed the energy in the room to positive from negative. The new atmosphere allows you to do better work.

This isn’t about sucking up so you get more auditions.

Locking horns with casting because they’re in a bad mood will get you nowhere. And it won’t help your acting. But you can’t ignore it, so some days you just have to take it - knowing it isn’t about you.

But on your best days you can flip it – turn the negative to positive - creating a better working atmosphere for everyone in the room.

It takes thought, practice, skill, and genuine sympathy.

Full-time.

If you’re an actor, you work full-time.

No, not necessarily filming on a movie set every day.

OK. Let’s look at it.

You do one audition a week. That takes four days. British Equity has released a code of practice for self-tape auditions that says an actor has four days to learn six pages. Four days to learn the scene and then there is always a day to recuperate; summarize; critique; or analyze the audition to get ready for the next one.

That’s four or five days.

Four or five days equals about 250 days a year which is the average number of working days for people who work in banks, construction or communication.

What if you do two auditions a week?

And there are the days you are on set shooting.

Then, there is the time during the year you’re training, getting headshots, writing scripts for self-run projects, applying for grants and reading and studying acting.

Sounds like a full-time job.

The next time anyone asks you if you’ve been working much lately and you’re tempted to interpret that to only mean – filming on set – you can simply and honestly reply, ‘Yes, full-time. Ever since I became an actor.’

(The actor’s union in the UK, British Equity, the Casting Directors’ Guild, the Co-operative Personal Management Association and the Personal Managers’ Association have developed and published the code. To read the code click here:

https://www.backstage.com/uk/magazine/article/casting-directors-equity-best-practice-self-tapes-73820/ )

Fun.

Try to like how you’re playing the scene, doing an audition, acting in close-up, or blocking for camera.

Sounds obvious but think about it.

The wonderful acting teacher, Keith Johnstone, often asks after an improv finishes: ‘Did you like it; did you enjoy it; was it pleasurable; was it fun?’.

Try not to get sidetracked by trying to have so much fun or trying to fulfil a complex idea of liking it. It can be something simple.

Pick something small or big. Something particular. It can be anything - the sound of your voice, knowing your lines, your hairdo, a belief in you character, appreciating working with others.

Acting shouldn’t be like going to the dentist.

Liking it means it’s yours.

There’s so much pressure today that you can get off track and submit to it. Learn to find what’s truly good for you when you’re acting.

‘Do I like what I’m doing?’ isn’t a small question – it’s everything.

“Get your 3 yr. old daughter to read.”

That’s what a top casting director said recently.

Or, you could say, ‘you never get cast because of your backdrop’.

That’s true.

Your auditions now are self-tapes and on Zoom and you’re doing them where you live.

Don’t get diverted trying to have a perfect ‘studio’ setting. The showrunners and producers casting shows have a large quantity of actors to see in each category and they are scrolling on mobile phones, or at best, on a tablet.

10 second rule.

Decisions are being made quickly using their own criteria. Lighting, backdrops, who is reading etc. does not come into play.

Focus on the first page of the audition.

No need for you to feel overwhelmed having ‘ten pages to learn’.

Let them see who you are and what you are doing for that role at the beginning. Know our showrunner ain’t staying to watch you on page 9.

If they consider you for the part, you might get a ‘director’s Zoom audition’ or they may actually watch all 10 pages.

You and your colleagues always do your best work. That will continue. For all the pages.

But as the audition pressures change - so you change.

…your 3 yr. old son could be a reader too.

Go in, in character?

Don’t forget that casting directors have seen everything.

Enter the casting room how it best suits you - in character, or not.

Maybe you work best always in character. Then after the audition is finished you break out of character and say, ‘Thanks for bringing me in.’ and leave.

Fine.

Maybe you need to go in as you, say hello, suss out the room, hear what casting has to say and then do the audition.

Two factors influence which one you choose. Subjective factor – you. Objective factor - the role, show, day, casting.

Take both into account.

There aren’t any rules in acting, but there are lots of guidelines that you, in your practice, can use on any given day.

Which of your techniques will best serve you upon entering the room?

Today.

The audition room is your working space. It harkens back to the great amphitheatres in Greece. When in front of the camera you’re in your place of work. It’s where you act.

Enter it in character or out of character but don’t make a fetish out of it.

Either way won’t determine whether you get cast or not.

Hard work.

When you’re preparing an audition or going on set and you know the situation, the tone, the quality, what you’re doing - try to avoid beating it to death.

You want to work hard. Good. But, ask yourself what hard work means.

Often it means not working.

Giving it space. Taking it easy.

If the scene feels good and you like it just let it percolate.

Know that your mind is doing its work even if you aren’t. Even at night. That’s the expression ‘Sleep on it’.

One of the worst things you can do is repeat the lines over and over in your head and get into a loop.

That’s the opposite of deliberate practice and will turn what magic you had into lead.

Leaving the work alone can be the hardest work.

Headshots.

There’s a lot of work needed to figure this one out.

Generally, in the early part of your career getting a headshot done is a bit of a nightmare. There aren’t any courses on it. On how to do it.

In fact, the very idea of a course on headshots probably sounds absurd. Certainly not de rigueur. And not discussed at most drama schools.

Often, you resort to a mindset similar to getting your picture taken in Grade 8.

Posing.

How to let them see you- that’s the key.

Acting for camera is letting them, us, the camera - see you. Knowing that you’re being seen, but not having dealt with it through practice sessions and analysis of what it is that’s making you nervous, can produce a horrible experience.

What do you want to show the producer. ‘One serious and one smiling’ just isn’t good enough. Too general, too vague and completely misleading. You usually just try and ‘smile’ or ‘be serious.’

Disconnected.

Self-consciousness is the issue here.

Your hyper inner monologue could go like this: ‘Hello, casting, producer, director. You can look at me.’ or ‘Hi there, I know you’re looking at me. That’s fine. I like it. Look as long as you want.’ or ‘Being looked at is part of my job. Letting a camera film me is the work I do.’

Saying phrases like this out loud before the photo shoot is excellent practice and saying it during the shoot is even better.

You have to be on your own breath. You have to have real thoughts going on – thoughts that will produce the picture you want to present.

Through your eyes.

Approach it as you would a scene, rather than a “photo shoot” with all the confusion that’s attached to that idea.

Act your shots. That’s what you’re good at.

You might want to be inviting, threatening, poised, low status, innocent, cool. That adjective has to be clear when you’re looking in the lens. Clear to the viewer.

Decide who you’re looking at.

If you’re starting with a new agent they invariably ask you to get new headshots and have the authority to choose which ones you use. That’s both an asset and a liability.

The best headshot photographers in the city are skilled. No question. But often, they don’t follow the simple rule of taking a photo so it - looks like you.

That’s a minimum.

They often make you look like a movie star. Why? Is that fulfilling some civilian idea you might have of what the movie business is and your place in it? Or the photographer’s idea of giving good value for the money.

It’s just not suitable.

Let movie stars take movie star photos.

A headshot doesn’t mean you should look gorgeous, attractive, handsome, exciting because in the movies we need how everyone looks.

If you’re an actor who has a natural demeanor and look then why wear heavy makeup and a low-cut top with a push-up bra? I see actors come into class who cannot play the types that their headshots represent. They can’t support the look of the picture.

That’s misleading for agents, casting and directors.

The cost of the photo shoot is another real pressure.

Your headshot is important, yes, but it isn’t the be-all and the end-all.

When asked about your headshots you might be saying, what many actors say, ‘I hate my headshots.’ That’s not a professional comment about your work.

See if you can figure out how to take headshots, so you say, ‘I like my headshots.

Help or hinder the lead.

Does your character help or hinder the lead?

If a character played by a leading actor such as Harrison Ford is seeking to get on a plane so he can rescue his daughter from threatened death then the character playing the ticket agent must either be helping the Ford character get on the plane or blocking him from getting on.

Certain roles can be categorized as either helping or hindering the lead.

Next time you get a script ask yourself that question. It’s a small, important point to clarify.

If there is no space on the plane and Ford is demanding, cajoling, or threatening to get on the plane and you’re the ticket agent saying, ‘Sorry Sir, there are no seats left.’ Your role is crucial.

You’re the obstacle for him to overcome.

If, on the other hand, there are no seats on the plane, but you devise a way to get him on the plane, then you become equally important. An important helper.

In one scenario you hinder and in the other you help. Both roles are day players – and crucial.

You really do support the lead when you fulfil your job as written.

The Harrison Fords appreciate it.

Herbert Marshall.

Herbert Marshall was an actor who was wounded in World War 1 and had his right leg amputated.

According to IMDB, Marshall’s loss of his leg was “A fact not well known to many moviegoers because it was hardly noticeable on screen, as long as he wasn’t asked to do anything too physical.”

From the 1920s to the 1960s he was in many British and American films and played opposite such female stars as: Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon and Sylvia Sidney.

As a veteran television and stage actor he appeared in over 100 movies and television shows.

IMDB says, “He used a very deliberate square-shouldered and guided walk, largely unnoticeable, to cover up his disability.”

Homeopathy.

In homeopathy, one treats the main symptom first.

Do the same when you prep for auditions.

An actress with lots of theatre experience comes to me with  a TV audition and says, ‘Geez, I’ve never been to a TV audition! I don’t know what to do.’

So I say, ‘Why don’t you go to the casting studio, look around, see the space, wait in the waiting room for a bit and often, a studio is open, so you could go in stand on the mark, see the camera and just get to experience it a bit.’

She does. And afterwards tells me that it really calmed her down.

Allowing her to do her work.

Another actress blurts out, ‘I have an audition for the lead in a sit-com. I shit you not. Me an audition for the lead in a series? WOAH.’

I say, ‘My first point is stop saying WOAH. You may not stop thinking it, but don't say it out loud anymore because that will affect how you do the work. If you're not going to read for the lead, who is?’

She has to deal with the ‘idea’ of the lead before she can get to the audition itself.

The work.

Treat the main symptom first.

How to self-promote.

You want to do all you can to promote yourself.

How to do it is a complicated and difficult job.

The producers – through the casting directors and agents – keep a pretty tight rein on how much you can do. For instance, it’s considered a no-no to bypass the casting system and send your own tape directly to a producer.

Forty years ago you could drop into a producer’s or casting director’s office and introduce yourself, but today that isn’t done.

You need to learn the current protocol for self-promotion and to develop new ones.

The old school way of sending cards still works. If you’re doing something positive and active like a play, booked a role in a movie, or a new agent, you can always send out cards letting your agent, directors and casting know.

The card is a quick, positive reminder of you.

Website, demo reel, photos, resume, Instagram, short films, are all good, standard ways to make people aware of your work.

The straightforward presentation of your work is always the way to go.

One agent told me that demo reels are more reactive than proactive, which means if a casting director wants to see your work on short notice then your demo reel serves that reactive purpose. Otherwise, they’re too busy to watch it.

When festivals like TIFF get taken over by Hollywood as part of their campaign for the Oscars then a more hard sell ‘American’ style networking takes place.

The producers now have a new system where an actor’s popularity on social media counts in casting. They reckon this popularity will sell more tickets.

An example of how the producer’s interests are mixed in with actor’s promotion is the IMDb STARmeter and its award. This award recognizes actors and actresses deemed ‘fan favorites’ on IMDbPro’s STARmeter chart, which measures the search behavior of IMDb’s 250 million-plus monthly visitors.

But, self-promotion also includes participation and raises important questions like: how do you as a modern actor participate in the movie business? How do you take your place? Where is the opportunity to have your voice heard? What do you want your film community to be?

The intense competition for roles can drive you to desperation. The culture offered to emulate can include intense talk shows, famous people’s outlandish behaviour, hysteria on red carpets,

See what best suits you.

How to watch your footage.

This is tricky.

You’ve got to be professional and use that as your guide.

Meaning don’t watch it with your partner, friends, family and even most of your actor colleagues.

Cherish your work; guard it. It’s hard fought for and precious. Treat it as such.

It’s not for giggling, and Ooh-ings, and Wow-ings, and Amazing-ings.

It’s for critical study to get better at acting.

If you’re self-conscious at all – stop watching. If you don’t like your eyes, lips, nose or the sound of your voice – stop watching. This is important.

If it’s a negative experience then it’s a negative experience. It’s got to be positive and informative.

Did you hit the right note, is your mask suitable, did you catch the transition, is it believable, can you see yourself, can others see you, is it simple and clear, did you do the job required in the movie.

Ask practical questions about what you see. Ask specific questions about what you see. General ‘I hate its.’ or ‘I love its.’ aren’t useful.

Play it with just the sound. Listen to the tone. Play it with just the picture. Watch your movements.

You can watch it with professionals who'll give you objective critique. That’s useful.

And, just because everyone watches their footage doesn’t mean you have to.

How your mind enjoys its own cleverness with language.

As you speak, your mind can be aware of the beauty and clarity of the language it's creating.

With certain characters – speakers – there is an awareness that their dialogue – their speech - is good. Or the manner in which they are delivering it sounds good.

It’s an overlapping support, praise and confidence-boosting ride.

You speak; it's beautiful; you're encouraged to speak more; it's better; you keep speaking; and so forth. Your mind likes it, and you like your mind liking it.

Think of Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and how his brain would be processing as he moved forward in his funeral speech. He would have liked it as he began the repetition of ‘All honourable men’ and ‘Ambition’. He would know that it was making the point in an artistic way and orally very moving.

As the speech moves forward one voice in his brain could be saying, ‘It’s going well.’ ‘I like this.’ ‘They like it.’ Giving Antony more strength and confidence to widen the parameters of his speech.

Observe when you have text that is delicious.

Some actors have the awareness that their dialogue – their speech is good.

Donald Sutherland is a speaker. An actor who enjoys the enunciation, the sound, the variety and complexity of language. Often, it’s one of his characters main qualities.

Call it what you will – a showing off, a celebration of English, the beauty of the rhythm, syntax and colloquialisms – a love of language.

The minting (John Barton’s word) of language as you speak, and your awareness and enjoyment of that minting is gold.

Actors speak.

Learn to enjoy the sound of your own voice.

Humility.

One of the first actors I ever coached asked me the other day, “Do you teach proactive humility?”

I paused and thought about… “Yes, I guess I do.” I hadn’t thought of those two ideas – proactive and humility – together.

I like it. I do teach that.

Dezso Magyar, former Artistic Director of the Canadian Film Centre and American Film Institute once said to me, “You can’t be a good actor without humility.” I heard that many years ago and took it in right away.

I believe that.

What mitigates against you having humility? First thought that comes to my mind is the Oscars. Poor you and all us actors dreaming up and practicing the acceptance speech. Hollywood by nature isn’t humble.

Having confidence and more importantly conviction is a different matter. You should build your conviction based on your experience and your thinking that supports it.

Taking your place means to be confident - as an actor, as a human being.

Humility allows you to better play those roles that are arrogant, aggressive, cocky, puffed up.

It also means you know you’re just doing a job like everyone else in the world. Particular, but a job nonetheless.

As the saying goes, “Acting isn’t brain surgery.”

You play an important part in society telling stories that reflect life. With modesty, with knowing your job is no more important than the next one, not being arrogant, or overly proud you’ll be closer to your audience and hence, better appreciated.

How can you show life if you think you’re above it?

“If only I knew what they wanted.”

They don’t know what they want. That’s the TV rule.

Episodic television is very much about making it up as they go along. Searching for what works under great time and money pressure.

The character description in the breakdowns are merely the first sketch of what – maybe – the showrunner would like. It’s in the ballpark, but it ain’t written in stone.

And, sometimes it isn’t even in the ballpark. They get to a certain point and say, ‘No, we don’t need that character or we want the character to go in the opposite direction.’

You have to devise a plan, so you do your audition clear-headed and not confused.

If the character breakdown could lead you two different ways it’s smart to prep both ways. You could say ‘I’ve got two choices here and I’d like to show them both to you,’ or, you could present one and then casting might re-direct you to the other, but you won’t be caught off-guard as you already took that choice into consideration.

Try not to get distracted by trying to figure out exactly what they want.

Breakdowns are written either by the showrunner, a writer from the writer’s room, a junior writer, or casting. They can divert you in two ways:                   Adjectives. A list of adjectives that is impossible to fulfill.

Activity. Telling what your character does. ‘The grandfather tells his daughter to follow her dreams.’

Neither assist you to figure out what your character wants and how to get it. Plus, it’s clear in the script that is what the grandfather is doing, so why write it in the breakdown.

What you can do – and are already doing – is learning what TV is, learning the icons, learning where you play, learning how to suss out the genre and what the job of your character is.

That’s the main work - analyzing the scene. Then, playing the situation as you.

The clues are there and you need to get better and better at recognizing them and recognizing them at speed. It’s like learning to see the clues Shakespeare put in his text.

Tread carefully in using the character breakdowns as your only guide.

Crying over the injustice of you not being fully informed of exactly what the producers wanted  is distracting, humiliating and a waste of your time.

Although it is an injustice.

“If you read the good reviews, you have to read the bad ones.”

With Covid you didn’t get much feedback on your auditions. If any.

The agents became the only living person who responded to your work. It’d be fair to say their comments were mostly always positive.

So be it.

Agents aren’t acting coaches, critics, directors or others qualified to give professional feedback. Nor should they be.

How to sift through comments that are just normal, like when people say “You look great.” It’s nice, it’s courteous and in our business it becomes professional.

An agent’s comments, as are those of casting, can be translated to “thanks”.

For serious feedback you need to work with those professionals whose job it is to give actors sharp and useful critique. Acting coaches.

What the boys used to say still holds true, “If you read the good reviews, you’ve got to read the bad ones.”

‘I heard it’s kinda slow’.

You hear actors say they’re going to call their agent and ask that question.

If your agent represents fifty or a hundred actors and they all call twice a week to ask…boy! That’s tough on your agent.

It’s difficult to sustain yourself between jobs. It can drive you crazy. Desperation can creep in.

Calling your agent seems like a good idea, but it only puts them under pressure. Besides, what you’re really asking is, ‘Why haven’t I had any auditions lately?’. Your agent knows this and has a pat answer ready.

They have to have those pat answers ready.

This makes for an awkward conversation and you may end up feeling humiliated. You don’t need that.

It’s actually pretty easy nowadays to actually find out what’s ‘going on -- Casting Workbook, Facebook, the internet, ACTRA, SAG, DGC etc.

This is the actor’s life and the strength required to carry on in the face of adversity is what it means to be one.

‘I hope it goes recurring.’

You often hear your fellow actor on set saying that. It isn’t a bad thought, but you should watch carefully where it might lead you and if you want to go there.

If the idea of turning the one-episode role into a recurring one takes hold, it may have you trying hard to be liked by the producers, director and series regulars.

That could humiliate you.

You could also get diverted into acting extra hard to be extra good. And that won’t jive with your best work habits.

The showrunners add recurring roles as it suits them. Roles being developed is also discussed in the writer’s room. There, ideas are thrown around and the ‘what if’ question asked and your character will be part of that talk.

Doing work that is extreme won’t guarantee that they will give you more work. If it doesn’t suit their plans - they won’t do it.

Being professional, always working at your best, helping them make the best episode they can, fulfilling your obligations - all puts you in a good stead to keep your dignity and integrity.

And it gives the producers the best chance to consider you for the future.

This straightforward approach is the opposite of hoping and wishing. Truth is, you can hope to become anything - a series regular, a lead in a movie, a movie star or an Oscar-winner.

But, why do you want to get diverted away from what is precious to you and from what you have worked so hard at up til now.

Being a good actor.

‘I loved working with…’

Any two actors who have acted together have a special bond.

You’ve crossed into the imaginary world with your partner and that is never forgotten. You both honoured the agreement to give and take. You held the unwritten thread that tied you together.

You appreciate each other.

Gushing over how much you loved working with your partner, the whole cast, the director and everyone! is quite a different thing. Awards shows, talk shows, movie sites, magazines, interviews, web sites have actors expressing a false sense of joy and excitement about their latest project.

The producers use the actors as salespeople to promote their shows.

Kristen Scott Thomas told Decca Aitkenhead of The Guardian. ‘I'm often asked to do something because I'm going to be a sort of weight to their otherwise flimsy production. So, I’m stopping.’

Aitkenhead writes, ‘Actors are seldom this candid. It is an unwritten rule of the profession to speak highly of every film you've ever been involved in.’

In 2014, Dave Calhoun of Time Out, asked Daniel Craig if he’d do another James Bond movie and he answered, ‘…I’d rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all…We’re done.’ The movie industry heavily criticized Craig for his comments.

Human beings like and need to work. When you book a role you’re pleased. When you finish your work you’re proud. It’s natural and positive to recognize and celebrate that with your fellow workers.

Real appreciation best expresses the quality of your love of work.

‘I’m a good actor.’

If you are then say it.

What does good mean? There isn’t a pure definition of a ‘good actor’, but some facts support the idea.

Such as: you’ve trained, you’ve got an agent, you worked for three seasons at the Stratford Festival, did five roles on TV, are in the Second City company - or any one of those.

You’re past the entry level. You’re a professional now.

Most of those 10,000 hours are in.

If you keep getting auditions and landing jobs you’re good. Tell people you are. It isn’t boasting nor is it un-artistic. It’s a fact and you’re giving recognition to it.

Part of your progress professionalizing is raising the bar. Letting go of old narratives that no longer apply and adopting new ones that do.

A carpenter who was worked for ten years will easily say, ‘Yup, I’m a good carpenter.’ He’s not saying he’s the best carpenter. Neither are you. You’re simply saying, ‘I’m good at my job.’

Saying it makes a qualitative difference. To you and those who hear you.

It has a ring to it.

When you first try and say it pick an easy place to do it. You might even find it funny on your tongue saying it to yourself.

They say the first step in being an actor is to say, ‘I am an actor.’ Some truth in that.

Same holds here.

Say it out loud.

‘I’m not making my agent any money.’

If you’re auditioning then you’re earning them money.

The agents most important business relationship is with the casting directors. By submitting good actors to the casting director that lets the casting director have a good session.

A good session means their submissions to the producers are high quality.

That means the casting director will get hired for other shows. That’s how they make their money.

They are thankful for the agents who send good actors. The agents are thankful for the actors who do good auditions.

Neither group ever tells the actors this - but that’s how the system works.

The actors earn the agents money not just by booking jobs, but by keeping the system working.

‘I’m ready.’

Don’t start until you’re ready.

After ‘Action!’ you need time between their order and your beginning.

It doesn’t have to be much time, but not jumping when the gun is fired is critical.

Always try to be on top of your work. To put yourself first.

To be in your own time and space that suits you to start the scene. Not theirs.

It’s a question of an outlook and approach that is opposite to trying to please them, trying not to hold up time, trying to get it right.

Going in your time is qualitatively different.

This does not mean you hold up production. No. It doesn’t mean you don’t hit your mark in time or meet the dolley move or the camera push. Doing that is being professional.

It’s the mental conception that you start.

When do you go on set? When the Trainee Assistant Director comes and calls you and leads you on to set chatting all the way or when you decide to get up and leave your trailer and go in your own peace?

See if there’s a difference.

In acting class we practice this by the actors asking, ‘Am I ready?’ before they start the scene. And when they’re ready they say, ‘I’m ready.’

If they’re not ready they say, ‘I’m not ready.’ It’s a hyper exercise highlighting only starting when you’re ready. In your own time.

We take the exercise further by having one partner challenge the other, ‘You’re not ready.’ ‘I’m not going yet.’ ‘You don’t want to start.’ ‘You’re not ready.’ ‘Yes! I’m ready’ etc. The actors must give their answer to what they’re actually feeling – ready, not ready.

There are a myriad of ways to use this - the start and how you start – to explore what you are as an actor.

It is about Time and how you control it.

Inner Monologue.

Literal or subconscious?

You can use your imagination to develop a like inner monologue that your character could have. That’s useful work.

You develop aspects of your character – speech, physical – and you make up an inner monologue. Sometimes you let that run while you play the scene.

That’s the most common inner monologue work.

It hit me that we seldom choose a thought from our own subconscious.

And best would be something in the moment you’re about to begin the scene. ‘Geez, I’m tired.’ ‘This actress is bugging the hell out of me.’ ‘Man, this actor-movie star is so centred.’ ‘I’m nervous as hell.’ ‘Cool, man, I feel cool as ice.’ ‘Love the sound of my voice.’ ‘This is fun.’

Choosing an inner monologue like one of those could be useful, interesting, and odd.

Helps throw you off - always a good way to get on.

Which we love.

‘I should have done better.’

What are your expectations take after take?

Shooting a television series is done quickly over long hours, and if you’re a regular it’ll be all you can do to remember your lines.

Those are the conditions.

Within those conditions you’ll want to have realistic expectations, so you don’t end up disappointed after every scene you shoot.

You’ll lean in with every take and try to be as truthful as you can. You can’t force that. But try not to judge how deep you go. The next take you’ll try again, lightly, and with as much ease as you can, meaning it. Leaning in again and again until,

…they say: ‘Moving on.’ Then you know you’ve done your job.

There is no pure end to acting a scene anyway. So, don’t search for it.

Only to end up disappointed that you didn’t find it. You already have enough disappointments as an actor.

What’s clear is that you prepared your scene, tried your best, and they liked it.

That’s doing your job.

‘I think they liked it.’

When the audition ends and they stick up their thumbs and say: ‘Good job, great, perfect’ it doesn’t mean you got the part.

It mostly just means, ‘Thank-you’.

An audition is only the middle with no beginning or end.

If there were a beginning you and the director would have discussed the role, rehearsed it, and then, when it was polished, you’d film it. And the end would have been the two of you discussing the work, analyzing it, summarizing it.

That doesn’t happen.

All that happens in an audition is that you do the work in the middle. That’s the condition.

You prepare the audition on your own. Every actor does. That’s the beginning.

You should summarize on your own. That’s the end.

If they said, ‘Good job’ then you probably did do a good job. But don’t you do a good job every audition? You’re a professional, you’re prepared, and you have TV and movie experience.

Watch out that your desperation doesn’t have you grasping onto what they said. Learn to judge the quality of your work yourself.

Most of the factors in casting are out of your control and you’re not privy to the discussions the producers have.

What is in your control is your acting.

Keep getting better and better at that.

Informed.

An important step in your professional development is being informed.

Only with the knowledge of how the movie business works can you fully participate in it and give your voice.

The financial side is often blurry.

You know how much you get paid and it’s useful to find out where the rest of the money comes from and goes to.

You and everyone who make movies create value. Remember that so you know that you have worth as an actor.

That value is also manifested in money.

The union agreements are there to be perused so you know the basic pay for actors, electricians, directors, cinematographers. There’s also information available on how a movie is financed, what the average fee is for casting directors, how much studios earn in a year.

For you to take your place you need to know how the system works.

Some actors grow up with a parent who is a successful actor or screenwriter and they learn the business at their mother’s knee. That’s an advantage.

Develop your advantage by asking the question often considered heresy, ‘The money?’.

Your agent and the casting director have an advantage in that they know exactly how much you make. You might be at a disadvantage if you don’t know how much they make.

Saying ‘It’s your space. Take your place.’ includes knowing what’s going on.

It’s in the masters.

‘I don’t really have anything new to offer. I’m just playing now ‘til I drop. I can try something new…but mostly I’ve resolved into a sort of habit form of playing. I play things that are familiar to me.’ Eric Clapton, Royal Albert Hall interview, 2017.

It’s always interesting to hear what the experienced players have to say about their process and their journey.

The roles I play now are in me already. I can basically play an adjective, a type and it’s real and connected as I’ve played it before. It’s mine. I don’t always need to do character work or research. I’ve played that note, I know it, like it - as an old friend.

When you’ve done it for a lifetime the groove is familiar. Ease and grace. In touch with the unconscious.

‘All the roles I’ve done are connected. There’s a thread joining them all.’ Sam Elliott, Foundation, Screen Actor’s Guild.

Starting can still be difficult. Painters, actors, writers - even after a lifetime of experience - find it difficult to start. Each new script is different, the cast, director, cinematographer.

And yet familiar.

A long-time actor colleague relates it his way: ‘I rely, as always, on my own flawed intelligence, instinct and sense of human nature to provide me with a unique ‘take’ on a role, then it’s a matter of trial and error to find an effective way to manifest that take. I worry constantly that I’m blind to something or am missing the point entirely. This is a difficult way to work…yet it’s the only way I know…but I’m no longer as afraid of failure as I once was.’

From time to time it’s useful to compare how you work to those who have done it a lifetime.

Talk to and look at the masters.

Jumping on hotel beds.

You’re excited at landing a job, and upon arrival in your hotel room, you jump on the bed.

And why shouldn’t you be excited when new work arrives?

But, you have a right to work and it should be par for the course. You aren’t ‘blessed’ to have a job. You earned it.

The movie system will seduce you in many pernicious ways. Just the fact that the job is out of town makes it appealing; out of the country you’ll be ecstatic; my driver is picking me up etc.

The producers shoot films where it best suits them.

On the point of how much you’re getting paid, the system will sing a different song.

In these confusing times it’s useful to have a sober attitude. The outlook that it’s your right to have enough work to earn a proper living is grounding.

If you’re so easily swayed by getting to stay in a hotel, then there’s less chance you’ll fight for more important things.

The movie business can entice you as an actor. Every commercial audition is said to be for a US national, every TV role might be recurring. This gets your expectations up, but then when it isn’t a US national or a recurring role you can crash.

Adding to a vicious and tiring cycle.

As a professional you should expect to receive job offers in a straightforward and dignified manner with no false frills added.

The right to work was going to be included as one of the human rights in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the United States wouldn’t allow it.

People have the right to work.

That doesn’t necessarily elicit jumping on hotel beds.

‘Just do what you did in the audition.’

That’s what directors often say when you arrive on set to play a guest lead or day role

They don’t remember exactly what you did in the audition, it’s a learned phrase that series shooters repeat. Or, they say, ‘I loved your audition.’ Which is even better, as it’s positive reinforcement.

These are good greeting phrases from series directors. Good protocol, good etiquette.

It’s hello.

The phrases aren’t to be taken literally.

Try to avoid worrying, once you’re cast, how you’re going to remember exactly what you did in the audition when you get on set. That’s not how TV works.

You’ll be prepared, as are the director, showrunner and crew. Then, together, you’ll make up the scene – the blocking, acting, lighting. On the spot.

There’s no replicating-the-audition test that you pass or fail.

Truth is you always do remember what you did.

An interesting side note is that the direction you get on set usually differs from what you got in the audition from casting.

Just keep going. Take it easy.

Showing up is everything.

If you’re trained, have an agent, do auditions, act in movies and plays - you’re going.

That’s the opposite of stopped.

It means you’re walking down the road and not sitting by the side of the road. By walking down the road – participating - the solution to all your problems will reveal themselves.

The old saying goes, ‘You can’t help a man sitting by the side of the road.’

If you’re participating - you’re not a bystander. That’s enough. Why overwhelm yourself by wanting to do so much more?

Now because you’re going – take it easy.

Just leave it.

If you’re attacking a problem and can’t budge it - try just leaving it.

Giving it time.

‘Sleep on it.’ That’s what we used to say back home.

Opposites create interesting possibilities. Seems passive, but it’s active.

Let it breathe and let your mind – which you like – do its work. The mind will work and if there is a problem to be solved it’s your mind that is going to do the solving.

The director says, ‘Moving on.’ but you’re not happy with the scene. Just leave it and go on to the next scene. That’s how we make TV and movies. When the directors’ happy that’s good enough - leave it.

Same in acting class. The coach gives you an exercise, you find it difficult – do it and leave it - come to it again next class.

If the issue involves another person – an agent, a director, a fellow actor, casting – then you can also give them time and space. Time to settle down. Reconsider, think, forget, and maybe realize or apologize.

When you injure yourself you often just leave it to heal. The body will heal as it is always going back to stasis; or balance, equilibrium. Let the active ingredient of time heal what’s bothering you.

An active way to solve a question is to leave it.

‘Just the facts, ma’am’

This is what Sergeant Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb on the TV series Dragnet, used to say to witnesses when they strayed from the facts.

Getting the facts clear in a scene is half the battle.

Learn the plot line, sequence of events, key characters, location, time of day, good guy/bad guy, who’s lying – who’s telling the truth.

This is the foundation to knowing what you’re doing in a scene. Know the facts before you start Acting.

Then add the TV acting basics of being still, not blinking and speaking on your voice.

Knowing your position or point of view is a different part of the work and is more sophisticated than knowing the facts.

Long before you get to anything remotely emotional in TV acting you must know the facts.

That’ll keep your feet on the ground.

A great place to have them when you’re acting.

Keep going.

While auditioning you can keep going even if you drop lines.

Especially when you’re in it.

The struggle in the moment to find words to make your point can be gold. Not sure what to say? – speak your inner monologue. That keeps you in.

You’ll soon find the written text.

Main thing is to keep living the situation and your character.

At the end of the scene don’t be in a hurry to end. You’ve created something, changed the space, channeled the energy, so let that vapour float you on for a time. It’s worthy. It’s what you smell when you sniff a well-cooked dish. Inhaling that feeds you for the next scene, or second take or your future work.

Start when you’re ready. Don’t bolt as if pushed when they say, ‘Rolling’.

Nor jerk to a stop when they say, ‘Cut’.

Kiss, kick, kill.

Your audition sides may call for you to kiss, kick or kill.

What’s the best question to pose? Is it, ‘How can I show that?’ or is it, ‘How can I use that?’.

You never have to show the producers that you know what is written in a scene. You won’t get cast for doing that. If a tiger appears before you in the scene you don’t have to make sure the producers know that you know it’s a tiger.

They want to see you afraid of the tiger.

What will assist your acting is finding out what happens to you before, during, and after the kiss, kick or kill. How does it change your breathing? How you feel?

Don’t give up the opportunity to play those moments because they seem difficult to do.

For a kiss you can close your eyes, you can move your mouth, you can put your arms around yourself – anything - if you want to.

Or, you can do nothing and just live truthfully through it.

Point is kiss, kick or kill are great transitions to play.

Ask those good questions - is it the first kiss, the last one, the kiss of death, kissing a baby, kissing a loved one good-bye, a mother’s kiss etc.?

These activities don’t have to be mimed. Get rid of that idea.

Holding a gun. No one will notice if you’re just pointing your finger as the gun.

Do it – point your finger. Hold your hand up to your ear as a phone.

All good.

You won’t look stupid because they will be watching you behave and the gun-hand will be peripheral.

If they’re looking at your hand…well.

Learn to let these iconic activities serve you.

Knowing your lines.

No actor ever got cast in a movie because they recited their lines correctly.

You get cast in a movie if your acting is good enough and if you look and sound the way the producers and director want.

All actors learn their lines. It’s kind of the first thing we set out to do.

In an audition the key is to show yourself doing something. Don’t get diverted by trying to remember lines during the audition.

A guideline is - Learn a Situation don’t Memorize a Scene. Learning it puts you in, memorizing takes you out; a situation puts you in, a scene takes you out.

The idea and practice of it.

You won’t be reprimanded for not knowing your lines, this isn’t school – it’s the movie business. The casting people will know you’re prepared by how you play the scene.

Carry your sides or don’t carry them, it doesn’t matter. You need to find what works for you. Don’t pay attention to any gossip you hear about casting directors ‘Hating it when an actor holds their sides.’

Nonsense.

This isn’t a job interview, it’s an audition. Big difference.

If you have a large chunk of dialogue and are overwhelmed with ‘How am I ever going to learn this speech?’ then flip it and say to yourself ‘I’ll stay in the situation with the lines I know, play the scene, and when I come to the long speech I’ll still stay in, but I’ll read it.’ Bingo! Weight off your mind leaving your preparation to move ahead more freely.

If the idea and practice of memorizing a scene allows you to play truthfully – then fine.

Be smart in these auditions and set yourself up for success.

Language.

As an actor you already know much about language.

And tomes upon tomes have been written about it. Let’s touch on a few points.

Writers know language best and actors second best. They create – you interpret. You always begin with the written word. Text.

In TV the writing style reflects the genre. Learn those clues to better deliver what is needed. Shows with speeches having three lines or more and clauses in the line or shows with one-line speeches and single-syllable words. Different.

The length of line, the number of syllables giving the music of the show. The shorter lines require less breath indicating character, action and genre. More breath for longer speeches and complex words - different character, action and genre.

Verbs. Mark the verbs when you do your prep.

Nouns. Is the point of the line driving to the noun? Nouns are the facts of the scene.

Adjectives. Observe if you’re emphasizing the modifier or going to the noun.

Bridge phrases. Like, anyways, so, well, listen - transitioning from one point to the next. Changing the subject, giving you status as you control the scene. They give your brain time to formulate the new. Time to think. It stops or diverts the other character and gives you the floor, the status, the control.

But. This wonderfully useful word juxtaposes the previous point and introduces your new one. Poses the opposite. Contradicts. From the B of but to its T can really make a point. The T is a good sharp sound.

Ck endings are iconic and powerful.

Punctuation. Even in post-modern TV series punctuation is still the guide. Old rules still stand, period is the end of the point allowing you to go to the next point. Beginning, middle, end.

Vowels carry the emotion, consonants the intellect.

The English emphasize the noun and not the adjective, the Americans tend to hit the adjective, the modifier.

Text analysis is practical, not academic.

“Speak the speech, I pray you…” as Hamlet says.

Leads.

If you’re a lead on a series you have a particular responsibility.

A lead is a leader on set.

Doing your job professionally and getting what you need to do that is the best way to lead. It helps the show. Cast and crew will see that and emulate it.

Often, the biggest problem is just learning your lines.

You’ll develop your short-term memory.

The pressure on everyone is to shoot quickly. On most shows there are few takes although lots of coverage. Doing your best in each take is enough. There is no time for second-guessing as a lead. The next scene is coming up.

The producers expect you to deliver the same tone, mask, behaviour episode after episode and season after season. The advertisers have invested in that. To do that you’ll nearly always be dropped in instead of having to work hard to get dropped in over and over. That’s too tiring.

You’re looking for all the space you can get in order to play. As a lead you must find the maximum space possible.

Some time-tested tricks to do that are, -Get your call time made later so you arrive for first blocking later especially if your hair and make-up only takes ten minutes. -During blocking ask questions why the director wants you to move here or there. -You can always say, ‘I’m learning lines.’ to drivers, hair and make-up, sound to avoid chatting and dissipating your energy. -If the story isn’t clear in the writing stop and sort it with the writer or show-runner. -If you’re still getting the lines in your head and need more time, get them to do the close-up on the other actor and go second. -Ask for another take.

Once the show is running, you as the lead have power equal to the show-runner or producer and more power than the directors who come in for one or two episodes. Use it wisely

TV writing doesn’t always make sense but rather serves the needs of the show as dictated by the producers. Play each scene on its own. There is usually no arc.

In the end, dealing with fatigue may be the biggest task.

Learn the situation.

When preparing a scene learn the situation don’t memorize a scene.

Learning the situation allows your brain to assimilate the words as they are linked to what is happening in the scene.

Learning it is quite different from memorizing.

If you learn what is going on – how you’re getting what you want, the facts, relationship, time, place – you’ll have much more to hold on to when you’re acting.

If you memorize it you’ll probably just be holding on to the words. It’s not enough.

You should always play the situation.

The situations in TV shows are iconic and usually each scene can be characterized simply. Such as: girl flirts with boy, bad guy threatens, good guy speaks the truth, a couple argue in passive aggressive, two doctors do their job, etc.

Trying to act a scene you’ve memorized instead of a situation you’ve learned is more difficult. It is a scene, but describing it as a situation puts you in rather than trying to act something someone else wrote in someone else’s story.

Once you make it a situation – which it is – then you’re making it yours.

The language we use reflects our method.

Sharpen your approach and the naming of it. This isn’t semantics. It’s a question of clarifying what’s best practice.

Learning in the same place at the same time.

Can you study in the same space and at the same time of day?

There is much belief that the mind and body learn well – better - when done in the same place and at the same time.

When you repeat that it becomes habitual.

See if it calms your brain and helps you work better.

Left to right.

To get the left in a scene you have to go right.

Or black to white.

Often, you might disregard the importance of the beginning of a scene waiting

for the big moment to then start acting.

The moment when the news is given.

‘I stole the money.’ ‘I killed the girl.’ ‘I’m leaving.’

The key to receiving that news - the event – or giving it, is to be fully into the beat before it. I call it ‘making spaghetti’.

Cook, cook, cook; you’re only giving the other character 20% of your attention; the two of you are talking back and forth about normal things; the spaghetti is cooking; then the news - Bang! 100% attention. The spaghetti cooking stops.

Swinging from left to right.

If you’re languishing in the middle – waiting for the big moment - you will not receive the news fully nor deliver it well.

The further and sharper you go in the opposite direction to a big moment the better you will react to it.

More emotionally.

Sometimes, in class, I get the actor to literally lean to the left and when there is a transition they lean to the right. The farther the better.

You want to create active volition going from one state of mind to another. Watching you deal with that messiness is what is interesting.

Life.

Far from putting our lives on hold and hoping the old will return in due course, we must live our lives to the fullest under all conditions and circumstances.

Life is the object of our living and what we achieve by it.

It is ours for the taking.

Lingua.

Tongue in Latin. The word language comes from that root.

Acting in American movies here in Canada is like having your tongue pulled out of your head because you can’t use your native tongue.

Have to have an “American accent”.

It’s called the Canadian film industry.

More than once actors here have been humiliated on set because of their accent. It’s quite upsetting.

At the residential schools the First Nations children were not allowed to speak their language nor perform their ceremonies.

English rulers, like Cromwell, forced the Irish to speak English and killed Irish priests for teaching Gaelic – their own language.

A lot of tongues taken out of people’s mouths.

Live and - not but.

Whether you use the word and or but makes quite a difference. If you’re asked, ‘Are you working?’ and you reply, ‘Yes, but, it’s only a small role.’ That's very different from replying, ‘Yes, and it’s going well.’ Your self-talk is important to you as a professional. What you say reflects your outlook. Using and instead of but can have a positive affect on you. And others. Try and avoid a culture of regret where everything you did is recounted as, ‘I did this, but…’. Your experiences could be written this way:

You began acting and then you trained and then did summer theatre and then you had a recurring role on a series and then you trained again and then you went to Stratford and then you did Summerworks and then you made a short film and then you acted in Hollywood and then got a Canada Council grant and…

Or, in constant disappointment it would be written this way:

I wanted to stay in town for TV work, but I did summer theatre instead and then I was at Stratford, but only had small roles and I then got a Canada Council grant, but only half what I asked for and then… The Oxford English Dictionary defines and as, ‘Connecting…implying great duration or great extent…to indicate that they are being added together…implying succession.’ Learn to see your work and life as connected, added together, one of succession, duration and extent. That's what your work and life is.

Using but gives the impression of apology and that whatever you're doing is never enough. But begins the apology or explanation of what and why you are doing something rather than simply stating what it is that you're doing. If you’re asked you can elaborate, but why shed doubt in your own mind and that of others. Your actor’s life is difficult enough, so see if presenting yourself in an on-going way cuts away some weight leaving you a little lighter to carry on.

Lose it.

The phrase is apt as your character no longer has control of their conscious mind but, rather, has lost it. Lost that control.

The argument now becomes more physical than mental. The pure emotion, the energy, the heightened breathing - all physical forces fueling the size of the argument and the content.

This argument can lead to divorce, violence or death. Uncontrolled acts. The control is lost.

As an actor you need lots of breath to play there. Straining your throat is an early mistake.

It’s like being blind.

Rage.

Once it’s all out it ends – you can’t continue at such a high level for long.

As always in our acting, we don’t want to be acting in grey, but in sharp, well-thought-out colours. “General actor’s arguing” is grey.

What level is the argument of your scene?

‘Lost track.’

In the meditation hall when the Master asked the Head Monk why he rang the wrong bell the monk answered, ‘Lost track.’

That’s all he said.

The Head Monk is a master teacher himself, so he knows what bells to ring and when and how, because he’s done it his whole life.

But he made a mistake.

Mistakes happen, but what should you do when you make one on set, in a play, a rehearsal, or in acting class?.

Try to follow the example of the Head Monk.

A simple recognition of the error.

On set, after the mistake, you must move forward with the work. The crew, director and other actors are. There’s no need for complicated explanations that will further divert the work and draw even more attention to yourself.

That isn’t professional.

If you are going to be late for an acting class, then just say, ‘Sorry I’m late.’ but don’t elaborate over the messy details. Same thing in an audition – especially in an audition. There are only two possible reasons to excuse your lateness for an audition - car crash or death.

Otherwise, a simple ‘Sorry’ will do and get on with it.

The pressure is so great on all of us making movies today and we work such long hours and everyone is tired - that produces mistakes. The dolley grip misses a mark, the boom is in the shot, the focus wasn’t pulled correctly, a prop missed.

When you drop a line or don’t hit your mark it’s normal.

Develop a conviction that you mostly produce quality work, always strive for excellence and sometimes lose track.

Lunchbox.

It’s great when you’re just going to work.

After much acting experience the excitement and nerves change. After you’ve acted in a lot of movies the nearly hysterical level can’t sustain itself.

That’s when the work turns into work.

Maybe when you've done a long run of a show. Days and days on a series. Lots of movies over a career. Tons of auditions.

You can get tired and even a bit bored and when called to set utter a small, ‘Phew.’ You’re not literally bored – just putting in another shift.

Going to work. And I think that's when your best work really starts.

So, it's back to quantity and experience.

It's so soothing to just pack your lunchbox, go into the factory and say, 'Morning fellas, everyone ok?'

And turn on the machine.

Lying.

The ruling elite are good at lying.

Every ten-year-old schoolboy knows that.

Actors must be good at it too. Plenty of it’s done on TV and in the movies.

Our familiar characters in procedurals – cops, doctors, lawyers – lie non-stop, twist the truth, cover up, or give false evidence.

Journalists have turned lying into a profession.

Lying to your partner about having an affair, spreading gossip, or even lying about lying is the movies.

Some things you’ll be asked to do as an actor will be difficult. You might not be a natural liar.

To get work you must learn how to do them even if it goes against your grain.

Remember the key to lying while acting is to play it as if it’s true.

Make trouble for yourself.

Find moments in the scene where you have to struggle.

To fight.

The first part of the scene you’re only giving your partner 50% of your attention. When she gives you the news you’re jerked to 100% attention. You’ll be caught off guard.

That’s useful.

To you as a player – having to struggle on the spot. And for the audience - who love to see a character trying to overcome an obstacle.

Learn to find those moments in scenes. They’re gold.

‘Life is messy’. That’s the watchword. Find moments when you are in the mess. Best messy moments are like those that you yourself get into.

You’re dreaming in the scene, having a peaceful time of it. Then, bad news – the event – hits you and you fight to regain your balance.

Good.

You may or may not let your partner see you getting hit with the news. Or see you fighting to regain your balance.

Sometimes the simple act of trying to remember complicated text or blocking can be the messiness.

You’re trying to put yourself on the hook - not get off the hook.

Look for trouble.

Maximum and minimum.

What can be done in the minimum?

The painter, David Hockney in the Louisiana Chanel video, I am a space freak, tells of the time he spent looking at the Grand Canyon before he painted it. He gave maximum time to look and see. He also gave maximum time, effort and money to paint it.

The result is a fully realized piece. A Bigger Grand Canyon.

If you have a day to prepare your audition, what kind of work will you realize.

Independent Canadian features are made in twenty days or less as are Hallmark and Christmas movies. This is minimal.

As an actor is it useful to know whether you’re working under maximum or minimum conditions. Questions that might be bothering you about the quality of your work and your demeanor – glass half empty, glass half full – might be better understood taking time into account.

There’s a culture today of doing things quickly. Performing your job quickly and efficiently is different - like a bricklayer laying bricks with minimum effort, maximum result – and a skill to admire.

But, many other areas of human endeavour require time to: observe, consider, think, reflect, create. Is the method and atmosphere of work producing quality and excellence. That’s the question.

In the past, one-hour TV dramas took fourteen days to shoot. Today, you’ll shoot them in seven. That’s minimum. Commercials shoot a whole day for one minute of screen time. That’s maximum.

Who is dictating the time you have to do your work?

Mean it.

That means you mean it.

The you is understood. It’s a useful reminder phrase to keep you playing truthfully. It’s simple and direct.

Try using simple guide phrases like this and see if they assist you. Just before they call action you can say, ‘I’m going to mean it’. Or after a scene you can ask yourself, ‘Did I mean that?’.

You have to practice things – simple ideas like this - seriously for a period of time before you can tell if it assists you, otherwise it stays an idea and not based on your experience.

Observe yourself in life when you really mean something and feel where that comes from. Observe the difference between meaning it in life and acting it in a scene.

As James Cagney said, ‘Hit your mark, look the other fellow in the eye and mean what you say.’

Don’t act it - mean it.

Me or Character?

That question is a bit like how many fairies can dance on the head of a pin.

Actors want to debate the question ‘Should I go into the audition in character or just as me?’

It’s a non-discussion.

These propositions are irrational, so try not to get diverted by them. Just because ‘everyone’ is posing that question doesn’t make it a valid question. It’s something actors talk about in the bar.

Every role you play is a character. Every character you play is you.

It’s no more complicated than that.

Sure, some TV shows are asking to see you, how you look, how you behave – fine.

It’s still acting. You aren’t at home sitting on your couch, you’re on set in front of a camera. You’re a character in a story.

And some roles require limps, accents, wigs, coloured contact lenses, and lizard feet. We call these Character parts. But it’s still you playing the role, limping and sporting the wig.

Learn the genres to be a better actor but, don’t get bogged down trying to answer diverting questions.

How a question is posed is everything.

Millionaires.

Do you know any millionaires in the movie business?

Of course, we all know that Ellen Pompeo earns $20 million, Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney earn $40 million, Angelina Jolie and Dwayne Johnson earn $28 million.

And, the Presidents of Netflix, Warner Brothers, CBS, Universal Studios et al are millionaires. Multi-millionaires. That’s known.

What about the agents and casting directors you work with? How would you find out how much money they make?

Of course, they know exactly how much you make. To the penny.

There’s lots of money in the movie business and you know who does the work to make movies, so it might be interesting to know who makes most of the money.

Your colleagues usually don’t want to discuss their fees even though the union has a minimum daily rate laid out in the agreement and most shows pay actors the same rate. IATSE crew workers all know exactly what each other makes as their rates are also set out in their agreements and they’re all paid the same.

On the shows you work on what producers, directors, show-runners are millionaires? How much do they make? What is the standard rate for a casting director to cast a series?

Are any of your fellow actors millionaires? Writers, production designers, cinematographers – can any of them earn millions?

You know exactly how much money you earn, but what about the rest of the people in the industry.

With the minimum wage at $15 an hour a million bucks is still a lot of money.

Movie stars.

Some actors are movie stars.

You may be one now or in the future.

Most of what you need to learn as a movie star is different from what you’ve learned as an actor. They’re two – often overlapping – different jobs.

Everyone knows the things movie stars do. Interviews on talk shows, red carpets, posing for pictures, promoting movies, getting involved with social questions of the day, being famous. You know all this because of the massive attention given to them and that attention can be diverting.

As films are made collectively it’s a contradiction to make the individual – the movie star – the focus.

They carry a huge responsibility when they take on a movie. The biggest stars are referred to when people talk about the project. That’s the so-and-so picture.

It’s their movie.

To be the focus of a multi-million dollar project is a very definite kind of pressure. Not an easy or natural pressure to bear.

Today, with social media these famous people have a scrutiny the likes of which has never been seen before.

Hollywood created this idea of the importance of individual actors as one of the means to garner more box office. It’s lasted until today.

One thing is for sure - you don’t learn how to be a movie star in drama school.

In the end, someone appearing in a movie is just an actor. Their actual importance to society is only as great as the truth of their character’s portrayal warrants.

Movie stars are an interesting phenomenon in your actor’s world.

Movie’s time.

As a movie actor you are part of the art form of this time.

Now.

The movies, or all media that has moving images, are a product of the industrial revolution and now of the electronic age.

Movies are only a bit more than a hundred years old. The Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, made the world’s first film Train Pulling into a Station in 1895.

What does it mean for you to be an integral part of the leading art form of the day? What responsibility do you have? How do you see the moving picture at this time in this place under these conditions?

Interesting to think about it.

Being at the forefront.

How is the form serving humanity? Who controls the form? Who puts the ideas into the form? In whose hands is it? What role can it play as art serving the needs of society?

The discussion as to what avenues lie open to you to participate in the development and role that the moving picture plays in society is an important one.

The truth is - cinema is here. It’s a fact and looking at things as they are is always a good place to begin the discussion.

Cinema, is of the now - mobile devices, cameras, computers, the web, video - all showing the human being in motion and in colour.

You act in front of equipment that is modernizing at such a fast rate. Your voice and body is being captured by mind-boggling methods.

That’s a first in human history.

Statues, paintings, architecture, songs, poems and plays can’t replicate the way we see life on screens now.

As an actor you have a front row seat to observe and participate in it.

‘My audition could have been better.’

The audition you do at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning is the best audition you can do at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

If you could have done better you would have.

There’s no need to set yourself up for constant regret. You’re already in the business of auditioning and acting in movies and TV, so just keep going.

That’s the key - just keep going.

If you want to summarize, critique, or analyze your audition - good.

The best way to do that is to pick one thing to work on - not a dozen - which will only confuse you.

Thinking you could have done better also confuses your mind. What you want is to make your mind clearer.

What’s clear is that you prepared your scene and tried your best, at that time, on that day.

Leaving the audition is as important as going in because it sets you up for the next one, so try and leave with a clear head.

Job done.

Needed.

You and all of us want to be needed.

It’s only human.

When you’re cast in a show part of the good feeling is that the movie needs you. It can’t be made without you playing that role. You’re now an integral part of the whole.

You’re needed.

If you’re not booked on a show and not getting auditions you can start to feel like you’re not needed. You’re capable and professional and ready to audition and work, but it seems as if you’re not needed.

That’s a terrible feeling.

And that feeling can divert you when doing auditions. Guard against that.

In fact, even when you’re not getting auditions or shooting on set you’re needed. The movie business needs to have an army of actors ready and waiting. The system is set up that way.

Just as skilled bakers, wheat farmers, teachers, loggers – all - are trained and ready to work yet they may be part of that same army – the unemployed. Seemingly not needed.

Linking how you’re needed to how others are needed will deepen your conviction to stick to your ideals and fight for what you believe in.

As you’re part of the community, developing new work, training and participating with your peers – you are needed. Remember that.

People need you to tell their stories. If things were different and you always had the opportunity to fulfil that need you’d feel better.

Know you’re needed as an actor.

NFB, CBC…

The National Film Board of Canada was founded in 1939 ‘To produce and distribute and to promote the production and distribution of films designed to interpret Canada to Canadians and to other nations.’

John Grierson was the founding Commissioner and had a positive influence on documentary filmmaking in Canada and around the world. His first film, Drifters (1929), the silent depiction of the harsh life of herring fishermen in the North Sea revolutionized the portrayal of working people in the cinema.

After 1945 when the anti-communist hysteria began Grierson’s name and reputation was slandered and maligned and he was forced out of the NFB.

During the 1940s and early 1950s, the NFB employed 'travelling projectionists' who toured the country, bringing films and public discussions to rural communities

The NFB has won more than 5,000 awards, including a heap of Oscars, Golden Bears and Palmes d’Ors. Norman McLaren was a ground-breaking animation film maker and won numerous awards for his films.

The NFB studio opened in 1956 in Montreal and was a state-of-the-art film production studio - the first of its kind in Canada. In 2019 the studio was closed.

Cutbacks to production began in 1965 and in 1980 film production was cut completely.

The CBC was founded in 1936 to serve as the national public broadcaster for both radio and television.

The network produced hundreds of shows and all were made in-house. For example, the TV series King of Kensington was shot in the CBC studios and produced by CBC staff. Today, Kim’s Convenience, airing on CBC, is filmed at Showline Studios and produced by Thunderbird Films.

The current Toronto studios opened in 1993 at a cost of $375 million and today only a third of the building is occupied by CBC. Vancouver’s building was built in 1975.

In 1984 1,100 jobs were cut and at that time there were 12,000 employees and today there are 7,500 employees.

In 2006 the English TV design department was closed and gone are the skilled craftspeople, the carpentry, paint, metal and special effects shops, and the unique wardrobe and prop departments.

In Montreal, at the announcement of the closing of the wardrobe department, a group of 400 artists and cultural workers signed a letter protesting the closing. “We the artists and cultural workers from the theatre community, we who in the daily practice of our art bring new and classic characters to life on stage, we who dress our actors in costumes which serve to complete the very dimension of the characters they play, we in the theatrical community, who regularly use the CBC wardrobe department, are outraged by the announcement of its closing.”

Radio drama studios closed in 2012. CBC museum closed in 2017. Canada now ranks 16th out of 18 industrial countries in funding for national broadcasting.

Speaking in the House of Commons on May 18, 1932, Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, leader of the Conservative Party, outlined the Act's underlying principles and rationale. "First of all," he said, "this country must be assured of complete Canadian control of broadcasting from Canadian sources, free from foreign interference or influence. Without such control radio broadcasting can never become a great agency for the communications of matters of national concern and for the diffusion of national thought and ideals, and without such control it can never be the agency by which national consciousness may be fostered and sustained and national unity still further strengthened."

What new forms for our national broadcasting needs will we develop in these changing and difficult times?

No explanation, no apology.

Your life as an actor will have many twists and turns.

Once you have analyzed a question, discussed it and made a decision why explain it or apologize for it. Your decision is made, now just act on it.

The actor says, ‘I should have stayed in town for TV work instead of doing summer theatre’.

Really?

That has you having regret for the path you took. You decided to do summer theatre and had that experience and now you’ll move on to the next experience.

You’ll have many different acting jobs in many different mediums.

Try and develop a perspective where you and your work are ongoing. None of your decisions are the be all or end all.

Being a professional means solidifying and simplifying your work. Explaining and apologizing only creates doubt for you and others.

It’s misspent energy.

Make your decision and carry on. Have the experience and live your life.

No icing.

If you’re asked to bake a cake just do that.

Don’t add any icing.

Your direction is to walk across the stage. Just do that. Don’t add. DeNiro says it’s the most important thing and the most difficult.

Use your observation – one of the pillars of acting – to see how you do the simplest things. Observe others doing the simplest things.

Human behaviour.

That’s practice you can do when not in class. Take that up seriously. Professionally.

There’s a story – perhaps apocryphal – that Lee Strasberg said the only actor he ever saw walk across the stage the way a human being walks was Eleonora Dusa.

Maybe he did, and maybe she did. Point is, we like the story because it exemplifies the importance of simplicity and truth.

Here is someone we know did.

Hellen Mirren in the trailer for her Masterclass series walks across the stage and sits in a chair. Then she says, ‘I just did what I considered one of the most difficult things to do in my profession of acting which is to walk as yourself.’

Be sharp with yourself in how you do this work.

Part of what makes it difficult is that it isn’t dramatic. No screaming, crying, fighting. No pages of dialogue, complicated blocking, green screen acting. So, it can deceive you in its simplicity.

It might seem boring.

Uta Hagen always had a scene study door wherever she taught. For her, entering was a decisive moment. Again, so simple and obvious, but on examination and practice loaded with importance and potential.

She stressed the qualitative difference between being outside the door and entering. Just that act.

When the cake is well baked, it’s tasty.

Now you’re on set.

And you run into difficulties.

Not with your acting.

But with a list of issues that seems to keep coming up show after show. Especially on episodic television and low-budget features like Hallmark, Showtime, Christmas movies.

12-day shoots.

After some experience with these kinds of shows you learn what you’re in for come the next one. That’s good to learn how to protect yourself so you can do your best work.

What you can fight for and change and what you can’t.

The agreement is a good starting point. If you keep the key clauses in mind – overtime, turn around, safety, heat and cold considerations – you’ll be on a the right track.

You’re happy to book the work and then new problems arrive as soon as you’re on set. You aspire to basic professionalism; protocol; on set etiquette.

The old guys say, “Making movies is easy, it’s how we make them that counts.”

“Oh, now I know what you mean…”

You have a meeting to discuss building a fence for someone.

They tell you what kind of fence they want.

Then you have a second meeting and the fence is explained again. Then in the third meeting it’s explained once more and you say, “Oh, now I know what you mean.”

Learning can be like that.

Some activities have many parts to them such as a golf swing. Looks like a simple motion, but it’s made up of many specific parts. Those parts can take three and more explanations before you grasp what is meant.

Of course, practice is key.

But know that your brain does not always grasp what is said or asked of the first time round.

On set, watch the experienced actors. They won’t go a step further until they know exactly what the director is asking them to do.

‘Can you explain that again?’ is a professional question and essential so the actor knows exactly what to do. If you don’t understand, then not to ask is unprofessional.

If you’re inexperienced you might feel shy to ask the director to repeat the direction.

In acting class I’ll ask an actor, ‘Do you know what I mean?’ and inevitably they’ll say ‘Yes’. I then might ask them to explain what I meant and if they’re stuck and can’t, I won’t embarrass them, but I’ll explain again making sure the actor does understand.

When I ask the question, ‘Do you know what I mean?’ I always add ‘And No is a good answer.’.

Old school is good school.

So many guidelines in the film and TV industry are gone.

The times have changed. Often protocol isn’t followed, clauses in the producer/actor agreements are broken, preparation time for auditions shortened, less days to shoot an episodic, lower actor’s fees, more control by agents and casting, lower level content, middle management watchdogs, executive pressure.

It’s always been a tough business, but at least there were rules in place, etiquette followed, precedent referred to. Protocol.

There was a way to make movies. Old school. We used to say, ‘Making movies is easy, it’s how you make them that counts.’

Change is constant and one never wants the old per se, but forms that serve should remain. It’s difficult to build something up and easy to knock it down.

The question always is - does the school serve the students.

Good old school allows you, the actor, and all the film workers, a proper space to create and produce.

Maybe old school is just school.

One foot in, one foot out.

That’s a terrible place for you to be working.

One half of your mind going one way, and the other half going the other. Causes a disconnect.

Why?

There could be lots of reasons. Perhaps you think the movie’s content is racist, sexist, divisive, or violent; maybe you’re not being paid enough; or perhaps it’s a case of the conditions on set not being up to proper standard.

These reasons are valid in and of themselves, but you can’t let them split you down the middle so that half of you is thrilled to be in the movie while the other half wants out.

You’ll become miserable to work with.

That’s a terrible place to be.

You can either say no and get both feet out or see if this list helps you get both feet in.

Dignity. You can always bring dignity to every role you play. Giving true meaning and honour to your character’s life is the high road. Find the life reason that made your character the way they are, and do what they do. It’ll give you pride in your work.

Appreciation. Knowing that those working with you may have the same feelings about the movie as you do, yet they work hard and do a good job nonetheless. That they too have problems that they put aside when they come on set. Being a good fellow worker and appreciating the qualities of others is professional and helps you and others enjoy the job.

Quality. Always doing your best - acting as well as you can. This job of interpreting is your life, so you should try and raise the bar of excellence with every new role you get. The pursuit of excellence is a noble one.

Humility. This’s the hallmark of a fine actor. Modesty. Recognizing other people’s weal and woe connects you to them. It normalizes you.

If your mind is in it - your feet will be in it.

On hold.

Your agent tells you you’re on hold.

Or they put a pin in you, you’re on the short list, you’re first choice, available dates.

If you’re on hold you’re working. You have plans that could include other work, family, health, holiday or study. But your future is up in the air until you find out if you’re cast or not.

That uncertainty of being on hold - which also means postpone, defer, shelve, suspend, delay, adjourn, mothball - can make you anxious. You’ll be making plans to see how you might juggle what is confirmed and what may change if you’re cast.

That’s work.

Unpaid work. Unrecognized and unspoken work. You and your colleagues all burn up energy preparing for a change – often on short notice – and living in uncertainty and worry.

Those close to you worry too.

You might be worrying if you’ll remember the lines especially if you’re booked on short notice. Getting put on hold might make you think, ‘Oh good, I did a good job.’ Putting you on a high, but then not booking puts you down into a low.

A roller coaster ride that you didn’t ask for.

Casting, agents, producers don’t go on that ride. You do.

You’ll hear if you do book, but not if you don’t. You can call your agent and ask, but that’s not considered proper protocol. That doesn’t earn your agent any money – taking the time to find out if someone else has booked the job. Casting doesn’t want to respond to that question.

It’s left to you to try and figure out when that job might be gone, so you can carry on with your plans.

Returning to normal.

When will you get paid for that work? Maybe add it on to the fee of your next job.

Some may describe this process as ‘just part of the actor’s life’, but it’s interesting to see what a thing actually is.

Opposites.

As an actor you need skin as thin as glass in front of the camera and thick as leather behind it.

Finding an opposite can help you see what the thing is and what it isn’t.

Asking questions allows an answer which in turn allows the opposite answer.

Opposites can unearth your imagination.

When writers ask the question "What if?" it includes looking for opposites.

Raising the opposite can be useful at the beginning of your work when assumptions might be made that haven’t yet been given enough consideration.

What’s the opposite challenges you to defend your position.

Story is filled with opposites. As is life. Young and old, birth and death, love and hate, good and evil, rich and poor, female and male, language, nationality, religion, etc.

When we say drama has conflict - opposite is inherent in the conflict.

Aristotle, in his Poetics, defines peripeteia as "A change by which the action veers round to its opposite, subject always to our rule of probability or necessity."

Outside the canyon.

Don’t get trapped in a canyon as you work.

If the character you’re preparing is a nervous, giggling neophyte, then practising only the giggle can trap you.

Firstly, it limits exploring what it isn’t, which we know helps you to find what it is. Secondly, you may find yourself afraid to go outside the narrow limits of the giggle for fear of losing it.

See if when you’re preparing a role your work is in a confined space. The most productive place to be is with space around your work.

It’ll give you more confidence in your giggle.

There’s much more around the giggle than just the giggle, and to look at it, outside of it, under it, beside it, won’t lessen you being specific but, rather, it’ll help you find the specificity.

All of that extended work will always be in you. Then, if you get thrown in an audition, or on set this life outside the canyon you’ve experienced can help steady you.

Otherwise, what’s not the giggle can seem like a black void. Something you fear.

Better than the black void is explored territory - light. Your made light. New ground you’ve discovered.

There’s much to be had outside the canyon walls.

Overwhelmed.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

As the world gets more and more chaotic, so does the movie industry. More competitive, faster, lower pay, harsher and tougher.

You have goals and want to improve, dream in colour, work hard, push yourself to the limit and test your brain.

But, do check yourself and see when you’re over the edge and overwhelmed.

Auditions are given out late in the day and could be due the next morning. You have to respond to your agent immediately to confirm your audition. The sides can’t be printed or a screen-shot taken because of confidentiality. You have to sign a DNA. You’re working at a job that ends at 2 am.

Wow. All that’s overwhelming.

The hysteria of a film festival, the launch of a new series, a red-carpet interview can all be overwhelming.

So can not booking work for a long time.

Part of your work is finding time and space where you can work at your maximum under conditions that are minimal. Watch carefully how and where you best respond to creating. The skill is to keep all the beauty you’re capable of and tap into it under pressure.

See when you can leave things that are too much for you and get back to it when you can.

Being professional means working and living at your own pace – within today’s situation.

Palate cleanser.

If you’re working and your brain jams take a break.

Learn to stop.

And find mechanisms that can relax you quickly if you’re on set shooting. Or in acting class. Those short reset pauses.

Doing something different or opposite from what is stumping you can be useful. For example, if you’re stumbling over an accent try doing Thai dancer finger exercises.

Like a palate cleanser. The ‘internet’ says, ‘The right palate cleanser can help reset your sensory perception, stimulates the appetite, or remove any lingering aftertastes.’ Sounds like what you need when your scene isn’t going well.

Baseball pitchers do it pitch after pitch. They look for the sign from the catcher and once they get it they – palate cleanse – breath out and pitch. Basketball players do it before every free throw, football players before a penalty kick.

Develop this habit as it suits your particular brain.

The between courses analogy could apply to acting as in between scenes or between takes. You go and you pause.

The stop is key as it allows you to go again.

The next time your taste buds feel unsavory - cleanse your palate.

Paul Robeson.

Why do some proprietors of casting studios hang posters of Hollywood movie stars on the walls?

You may have your own thoughts on Marilyn and Marlon, but do you need to be looking at them just before you enter the audition room?

It’s distracting. You’re trying to focus.

And, as a Canadian you’re already under so much American pressure.

Do you need to see videos showing scenes from the acting classes offered at the casting studio?

It’s humiliating to say the least.

Anyone who knows anything about the difficulties of being an actor in the movie business will know that actors auditioning need all the support they can get.

Meaning simple décor. Neutral colours.

Make it easier for the actors to take their space.

I suppose if you have to hang a poster at least make it of Paul Robeson.

Peaks and valleys.

Euphoria creates the peaks and depression the valleys.

Two sides of a coin.

Booking a role – euphoria. Not booking it – depression. Don’t be deceived by the ‘normalcy’ of that behaviour.

Try and develop an outlook that recognizes the vagaries of your actor’s life.

Making it your habit.

Humility helps.

Having a humble approach helps prevent you from going too high. Having a realistic approach helps prevent you from going too low.

If you cut off the top of the peak, you can put that into the valley.

Evening out your landscape.

Permission.

In acting class, the other day, students said that they were glad to have permission to cry, swear, shout or insult.

I’m not so sure about permission. When it comes to acting.

Is willingness the opposite of permission?

All actors must be willing. Willing to try what the director or coach suggests or what’s written in the script.

The permission to try should be a given from day one. The day you say you’re an actor.

What does it mean to be professional? Part of the meaning is that permission is already and always given. It’s understood.

Is there a veil of reluctance in the society today? A veil that the young actor feels can only be lifted by the authority. The authority giving permission to lift it.

Authority exists, but not to give or take away the actor’s work. The authority may alter the work, direct it, stop it, start it, but no permission is ever required to do it.

The same holds true on the business side. The agent/actor relationship requires no permission. It only requires each party fulfilling their side of the agreement.

Being professional.

When you’re in the actor’s union and you sign a contract to play a role you have an obligation and a duty. As well as rights and privileges. They must be fulfilled – no permission needed.

The popular phrase of giving oneself permission is an interesting one.

Pick a page, any page.

There are many wonderful writers on acting: Konstantin Stanislavski, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Keith Johnstone, Uta Hagen, Harold Clurman and others.

When you want to be inspired and enlightened pick up one of their books and open it.

Anywhere.

Read until you get bored and then put it back on the shelf.

These best books on acting can be read cover to cover but, be careful you aren’t trying to learn how to act by doing that. The ideas in these books will support the practice and experience you have had as an actor. The experience comes first and is most important. The ideas follow and support that experience.

These classic texts can be picked up and opened anywhere and the passage will usually be interesting.

Occasionally you’ll find you want to read a book from cover to cover. Wonderful. Terrific.

But don’t try to remember or learn anything from what you’ve read. As a working actor you’ve had your experience and when an idea written in one of these books speaks to you – it will. Use these books in the same way you do your practice. When and how you want.

At other times you may be struggling with a particular acting issue at which point you can turn to a section in your book and read what the author has to say on it.

Useful.

Most often though, if you’re seeking light, clarity, or good energy, these wonderful books can provide it.

Pick a page, any page.

Place.

One of the five acting questions you ask is, ‘Where am I?’

What space are you in?

How to translate location or stage directions like – ‘She crosses the room.’ ‘She gets out of the car.’ ‘She runs out the door.’ – for an audition can be confusing.

Only use what’s indicated in the script that you like and helps you act. You don’t need to show the producers that you know what is written in the script. Keep any activity that creates a transition for you; a before, middle and an after where you’ve changed. You need that.

If you like believing you’re in the same space that’s indicated in the script - fine, but the key is that you’re comfortable doing the audition.

On set the space is there. It might not be complete, so you can let your imagination work on it. An office looks like an office.

Exterior is even better. If the place is “The woods.” and you’re in the woods - not much work needed. Let the woods work on you and ease you.

It’s a joy of filmmaking for you as an actor to be in real locations.

Greenscreen and motion capture you need to really imagine where you are.

Is it a familiar place or a new place? What memories do you have of the place? What images are created in your mind when you enter the new place? Do you like the space? Is your character comfortable in it?

The slogan works here too - It’s your space. Take your place.

Planned responses.

When you feel attacked or put on the spot it’s great to have a good comeback answer.

Even a simple, common question from a fellow actor can throw you off.

If you meet colleagues every day and answering the usual questions puts you down that makes for a long day of hard work getting back up.

It’s culturally popular to put other people down to put yourself up. A fellow actor’s question such as, “Are you working?” seems innocuous, but if you’re not working it can sting.

Answering, “No, nothing these days.” can put you down.

An answer to that common question could be, “My auditions have been really good.”

Having a learned phrase at your disposal when confronted with the usual difficult question or greeting is a useful practice.

Repeating the practice makes it your habit.

How to greet a movie star the first time you work with them? That threw me off for years. Then I came up with, “Congratulations on all your work.” That kept me in good stead for years. Now, partly because using the planned response freed me from some of the pressure of the idea of a movie star, I just say, “Hi.”.

“Did you book that job?”. There’s another question, asked by a colleague you saw at your last audition, that’s actually uncultured, but asked anyways. Your answer could be, “I liked my work in the audition.”

A fellow actor asks you, “What are you up to these days?” and you feel the need to explain or answer honestly and say, ‘not much’, or ‘no auditions’, or ‘I don’t know’… and down you go.

Answering, “Good. Doing some writing these days. How are you?” keeps you up.

That will end the exchange right there - then the other person will start talking about themselves. You just saved yourself going into a hole.

Your answer is true – you are writing - and it is going well because you’re doing it. You can stand behind what you said.

Having an answer that ends with a positive, inclusive offer to your fellow actor is good. It includes them, makes the commonality - not the contradiction. Makes them feel better.

We’re in the same boat.

These pre-planned answers should be things that are true and that you can stand behind. Giving a response that is above and beyond you can make you feel awkward.

Simple phrases that you learn and repeat on cue strengthens your conviction.

Playing potential.

Develop your ability to see parts of the scene that have potential for you to play. Particular and specific moments of playing. Moments that are describable and definable.

At first glance, something in a scene may appear problematic, but upon examination, you can see it as potential.

Let’s look at an example from an audition scene.

The female character has to drown, and, at first, you’re flummoxed. ‘Geez, how the heck am I going to act drowning!?’ The probability of pulling it off in front of the camera in an audition seems bleak.

But, then you really start to look at it, seeing what can serve you. You start thinking like an actor, and asking questions. What is drowning? You realize that breath is key to drowning – underwater you’re not, above water you are. You know that breath is a key and anything that provokes it or stops it is gold.

You incorporate the two extremes of holding your breath and gasping for breath. Opposites. This has you doing what you like to do - playing.

The problem has turned into potential.

Point.

As you rehearse, add the word point to the end of a line.

Better still, say it at the end of each point you are making, which may be more than one per line.

Say it with the same tone, intent, and volume as you’re saying the line.

It gives you an opportunity to send the point of the line further. And, as you do it, your brain is realizing in reverse what the point really is. It’s a way for you to clarify your intention and give your brain a sharp workout.

It’s a good way point, to sharpen your work point, because as you say it point, it pricks you point, into a brighter clarity of intent point.

It goes like that.

Pool of power.

The moment you realize the power you have is enlightening.

Whether on set or in class there comes a moment when you realize your power. Your pool of power. You feel you’ve reached deep inside. Deeper than you ever have.

A coach might point it out to you.

An epiphany.

Once you’re aware of it, you’ll make it your habit to draw from that pool. And you’ll feel its unlimited depth. You’ll draw deeper and deeper.

Your confidence will grow and more importantly – your conviction.

As you start a new piece of work, you’ll know you have your pool of power. Every human has it and it is in its realization that the human factor is best released.

Enjoy your dipping ladle.

Practice in class.

Practice in class is different from performing or auditioning.

Practice is where you train your mind and body to do your acting. Learn to train properly. It will give rise to good habits.

Always put yourself first, your fellow actors second, and your teacher third. The experience should be yours.

By looking after yourself, so you can act your best, you fulfil being a good scene partner and a good member of the collective art form that is movie making. Being nice and wanting your partner to like you doesn’t help.

Of course, you’re professional, respectful, and appreciative of one another’s work. That’s the expected norm.

Use class to practice small parts of your work. We grow in little bits. Step by step.

Try not to draw conclusions after experiencing good work. Resist the urge to remember what you did. The experience is in you. Keep going.

Just showing up for class makes it a good class, so there should be no need to impose your will upon it. That’s a path to working too hard.

As far as breakthroughs go, they come after repetitive proper practice and then – Wham! you assimilate something. A breakthrough.

You can’t set out to have one.

The best routine as a professional is to practice, audition, shoot, and then come back again to practice.

Putting all your energy in your socks.

When you prepare your audition put your energy into the acting.

Under pressure you can wish that by dressing perfectly you’ll get the part. And that includes – both literally and figuratively – your socks.

How you dress, your hair, are all important. Make the decisions based on the show and the scene and make them quickly and decisively.

You don’t want to be second-guessing what you wore or how you did your hair.

That only causes doubt.

Let how you look support your audition. You should like what you choose. That’s important.

Avoid wearing something you can’t support. An actress once went to an audition wearing a see-through dress and was so self-conscious, she was trying to hide the whole time.

Put your energy into the playing of the situation.

Leave your socks inside your shoes.

Put yourself first.

On set and in acting class put yourself first.

If you look after yourself, take your space then you’ll be a good scene partner.

Putting yourself first is key in your relationship with the collective of film workers making the movie. Each must do their job the best they can making the whole better.

Don’t get confused by pseudo-artistic ideas like being nice, helping others, sharing. You already do that as a person, but don’t let it divert you from playing sharply.

In acting class your order of importance should be: you first, fellow actors second, and teachers third. This outlook lets you have the experience. It will lift the cloud that can hang heavy of trying to please your fellow actors and teacher.

There is authority you must follow. The director has it and the acting coach has it. You can submit to the authority and put yourself first. That’s not a contradiction.

Some parts of the work are your business and other parts are not your business. Put yourself first in the business that concerns you.

Namely: playing your character.

Not the running of the class nor the shooting of the movie.

Asking the question ‘What’s in it for me?’ is always illuminating.

Raising the level.

Why do we coach and teach actors?

Is it for quantity or quality?

I have had the objective for many years to raise the level of acting for actors in Canada. That would be part of a nation-building project if such a project were being built.

What other goal can we have?

Our practice is guided by our outlook and our outlook is partly made up of goals. To have perspective is to ask: ‘Where am I going?’ It’s fine to be focused on getting actor A to have a good audition or to teach skills to acting class B, but this work is part of what? Is it individual?

Or part of a collective with common goals of excellence and quality.

Even if there is no collective per se at this time we can still have that as our aspiration. To raise the level of acting in Canada so as to help raise the level of film and theatre art. To have a goal that is on the high road of civilization.

In 1956 at the opening of the second season of The Actors Studio, Lee Strasberg said “…that we somehow here find a plan which should really contribute to the theatre, so that there should not only be the constant stimulus to your individual development…it should then actually contribute to the theatre. …The individual cannot do anything.” (From Strasberg at The Actors Studio – Tape recorded sessions.)

And George Hall, former director of the Acting Course at Central School of Speech and Drama said, “I believe that the fundamental reason for running a theatre school is a desire to improve the theatre, not just to provide service for a recognizable consumer group, that is, would-be actors. I also believe that one teaches well only out of a vision of the theatre and a certain amount of rage about the waste of talented people one encounters who haven’t found a way to realize their potential.” (From Masters of the Stage, edited by Eva Mekler, Grove Weidenfled, NY.)

From the individual actor, to the group of actors, to the company of actors, to the community of actors and then to the country of actors.

We who teach and coach actors should continue the discussion on the work. We should ask how the work can best be done under these current conditions. We should share our experiences, our techniques, our practices. We should discuss the content of plays and screenplays. We should embrace the pursuit of ideals.

And we should try to avoid competing by comparing numbers of students attending our classes.

What legacy do we want to leave behind?

Razzle.

Do you get dazzled by the razzle?

The Americans have been dazzling Canadians for a very long time. Economic, political, military, – and cultural razzle.

You’re an actor and you’ve played some wonderful roles on TV series, in independent films and theatre, so try and balance that worth with the worth of a role in a big American production.

American features shooting in Canada offer virtually nothing but small roles to local actors.

Yet, the fanfare and hoopla – the razzle – prior to production paints a glittering picture. Note if it diverts you.

The issue is not to feel second-class.

Note your worth based on the roles you’ve played, your life’s experience and being human.

To believe that everything in America is better is to put you and your work down. Projects of excellence abound throughout the world not just in Hollywood.

The exciting idea of ‘acting with’ or ‘being directed by’ a Hollywood name is often deflated by the reality on set where, with your small role, you have very little collaboration.

Sometimes it’s even humiliating. Like the time my colleague was working with the director Richard Donner and instead of using the two Canadian actor’s names while giving direction he shouted, ‘Get the two Canadians to enter quicker!’.

Yes, it’s a wonderful mark in your career to be in an Academy Award winning movie, but

it’s not the be-all and the end-all.

It’s your space. Take your place.

Read the source.

Read the original authors on the subject of acting.

That way you get to have your own first impressions.

It’s key to the development of your ability to think. Observing and having your experience in a conscious way as you read, then reflecting on what you’ve read, and, finally, giving your view on what you read.

Reading some PhD thesis on method acting by some graduate of The Yale School of Drama won’t bring you any closer to the source. The source being the original works the thesis is based on.

Go to the source.

If you read Strasberg, Stanislavski, or Meisner in their original texts, then you get the tingle of the first sensation. You’ll have the experience of those books yourself and that will allow you to see what you think of them. Reading someone’s second-hand view of the original will only confuse you and deny you the important opportunity of having that first impression that the mind loves.

Then you can say what you think of it.

Appreciate your ability to have an original experience.

Recognize and celebrate.

It’s important to recognize success and to celebrate both your work and the work of your colleagues.

Life is made up of many beginnings, middles and ends. At the end of a project you should take a moment to commemorate the work you’ve done.

Otherwise life will become an endless race. You’ll run out of breath. Give yourself opportunities to breathe.

They talk about the rat race - that’s a colourful image you don’t want to be part of.

Recognition requires consciousness, an awareness of the work you and your fellow actors do.

People in all endeavours work and produce the material goods of the society. You need to be aware of the importance of that work and its dignity.

When the work is completed you celebrate the accomplishment, but celebrate doesn’t always mean balloons and brass bands. It can be any modest marking of the successful completion of a project.

Marking the end of a project allows you to begin the next one.

For instance, if you say to yourself after an audition ‘Job done.’ then that’s recognition enough.

Those that run the movie industry have everything at their disposal to celebrate in their way and the Oscars are a good example.

If you’re a normal working actor seeing the Oscars can cause confusion as to how you should celebrate. You certainly can’t match the Oscars in size and scope. Yet, you work in the movies and the Oscars are about movies.

Consider how you can recognize and celebrate your work and success.

Reminder.

Often what the coach or director is telling you is a reminder.

You already know it but need to be reminded.

It’s good if you want and like to be reminded.

I was acting in a film one time with Eva Marie Saint and Jerry Orbach and when Eva’s close-up came, she dried. The wonderful director David Jones whispered to me as he went to speak to her, “She’s nervous about how she looks.”

The close-up distracted her and the director reminded her.

What are the coaches in professional sport telling the players during the game? The top athletes in the Premier League, NFL, American League, Rugby World Cup Sevens, the NWBL etc. all know what to do. But, in the hurly burly of the game itself they get diverted and need reminding.

Just as you could get diverted amidst the chaos while shooting.

Try and take the reminders as if from an old friend. Rather than the old ‘Damn, I made a mistake.’

That needed outside eye. That reminder that jogs your memory.

The teachers, coaches and directors also need to be reminded that a lot of what they’re doing is just reminding.

Sometimes you’re being taught, sometimes encouraged, sometimes criticized and sometimes – reminded.

Repetition.

The former Manchester United football coach Sir Alex Ferguson said: “Prominent in the category of principles that are as important to me now as they were 30 years ago is the certainty that good coaching relies on repetition. Forget all the nonsense about altering training programmes to keep players happy. The argument that they must be stimulated by constant variety may come across as progressive and enlightened, but it is a dangerous evasion of priorities. In any physical activity, effective practice requires repeated execution of the skill involved. Why do you think the greatest golfers who ever lived have devoted endless hours to striking the same shots over and over again? Yes, I know golf, where the ball always sits still to be struck, is so different from football that technical comparisons are foolish. But the link is the need to concentrate on refining technique to the point where difficult skills become a matter of habit. When footballers complain about the dullness of repetitive passing exercises it is usually not monotony they resent but hard work. David Beckham is Britain’s finest striker of a football not because of God-given talent but because he practices with a relentless application that the vast majority of less gifted players wouldn’t contemplate. Practice may not make you perfect but it will definitely make you better and any player working with me on the training ground will hear me preach the virtues of repetition—repeatedly.” Alex Ferguson: My Autobiography, Hodder & Stoughton, Publisher.

Rights.

You have the right to ask questions.

Be that of the director, ACTRA, your agent, the cinematographer, producer or writer. Or of your fellow colleagues.

You have other rights as well. The right to health care, education and right to work.

The right to conscience is important. You can have your own thoughts and you can voice them. Freedom of speech.

No one has any more rights than anyone else.

All humans have rights by virtue of being human.

Robert De Niro quote.

“In acting, I always try to go back to what would actually be the real situation, the real human behaviour in life. It’s the most difficult thing, and the easiest thing, and it’s all you need—the truth of the moment. If you give too much, if you telegraph things, you weaken it.”

— Time magazine interview.

Rubbing of shoulders.

The excellent late acting teacher, Arif Hasnain, called passing on knowledge ‘The rubbing of shoulders’.

The phrase is sometimes used in the context of mingling with the rich, but that’s not what Arif meant. He didn’t care for the rich.

People who know something well teach it to those who want to learn: the journeyman bricklayer to the apprentice; the political person to the new activist; the old hunter to the young hunter.

So, it is with actors. The experienced actors pass on to the emerging actors. This is the way humanity develops.

Being an acting teacher is often described as ‘Giving back’, but there’s more to it than that. It is their duty and obligation to fulfil the right and privilege they have to be a teacher.

It should be part of the on-going nature of life itself as the master teaches the student. And the student must fulfil their obligations.

The passing on of knowledge is crucial to progress. To go from incoherence to coherence you must be guided, criticized, and assisted. You can’t do much by yourself.

It’s what Arif did.

Participate and rub shoulders.

Say nothing.

Say nothing is when you change your self-talk.

Your old narratives.

It’s a cousin to my ‘Do nothing’ program.

It’s essential for growth to look at your narratives. You know, like the one you learned as a young girl that Uncle Nate was a heavy gambler. That’s known. Then, one day, many years later, you actually look into your uncle’s life and find out he only gambled for a few years to pay his way through college.

That narrative gets changed. The reality emerges.

You can develop many during your early years acting. ‘I can’t cry.’ ‘My eyes are too small for film.’ ‘My voice is squeaky.’ ‘Theatre is big; film is small.’

Actors who come to my class with mostly a theatre background often repeat their narrative of, ‘I can’t act in film because I’m a theatre actor.’

After hearing this repeated a few times I encourage them to change their self-talk. Just don’t say it anymore – and you can’t say it in my class!

The ‘Say nothing’ program.

You’ll still think it, but don’t say it. Basic psychotherapy.

That has a positive effect on your consciousness. On your mind. If you do that – stop saying the narrative - it will die down. Speaking it out loud fuels its life.

Old narratives are like old friends even if they are poisonous. We know them and in a funny way are loathe to give them up. That means you may and probably will keep thinking those thoughts, but the issue is to not say them and not to act on them.

That’s change. It’s essential as you become more professional that you examine old ideas and see if they still stand up. See if they’re true.

Change happens in small parts.

The theatre actor keeps practicing acting for camera, but drops the narrative.

Raising your bar in part means to stop whining (whingeing, as the Irish say) about things you’ve been whining about for years.

Even if everyone else whines about them.

Self-tapes.

You’re doing more self-tapes these days.

Many interesting points to consider while doing them.

Who you do the self-tape with is important. If it’s a friend or colleague watch it doesn’t get soft and they start being coaches or directors. That’ll divert you.

Also, if it’s in a casting studio the same thing can happen with the reader/operator. You give them authority by asking them ‘What do you think?’ because they’re the only ones in the room. They’re used to being asked and are used to giving answers. Do you want to hear their answers?

Learn to know your own work.

Don’t do too many takes. Usually where you’re at with the audition is where you’re at and unless you’re an actor that really does improve after many takes just do four or five.

More is not necessarily better.

It’s normal you’re a bit nervous for the first couple of takes, but you’ll quickly drop in.

Watching the takes back is also something to consider. Do it if you want to, but as soon as you don’t like how you look or the sound of your voice – stop.

You’ll know which takes were good. There will be very little difference between take three, four or five, so don’t beat yourself up by trying to pick ‘the best’.

Just because you’ve booked an hour doesn’t mean you have to work an hour.

Pluses for self-tapes is that you can choose where to do them, control the time and amount of work and channel the energy in the room.

Sensitive.

I once went through a dramatic experience and shortly afterwards I was quite anxious and asked my mentor what she thought it was.

‘Well, you’re sensitive.’

I didn’t grasp what she meant and said, ‘You mean like my system is weak?’

‘No, that’s not it at all,’ she said. ‘You’re sensitive and that’s why you’ve been able to create all the roles you have.’

I realized that was true.

I had never realized that before nor given recognition to it. And I certainly would never have described myself as sensitive. I would have been embarrassed to do so.

That was an epiphany.

Stanislavski in his book Creating a Role writes, ‘The talent of an actor is sensitive, it reacts to all that is fine.’

Appreciate your sensitivity.

I now do mine.

Sex and violence.

Warning: The following program contains scenes of violence and sex.

These are the two main themes in Hollywood.

Hollywood reflects the ideas of those who make the movies and America itself.

And as an actor you’ll be asked to fulfil these themes.

To land roles you’ll have to learn where you and your type fit into sex and violence. Do you commit it? Do you facilitate it? Do you suffer from it? Do you profit from it? Do you work in the legal, medical or police system? Do you control it?

When a character appears on TV the viewer often wonders if that character has sex or not. TV has trained us to think this way, and, as an actor, you’ll need to answer this question when you get a role. Similarly, ‘Does this character kill people?’

You need to learn the icons. You need to learn where casting puts you in terms of sex and violence.

Not agreeing with the ideas in a film is a different question and, often, the only answer there is to say no.

To book work you’ll have to be knowledgeable about the movies take on sex and violence.

Sit in the back seat.

Try not to get diverted, so you can do your job well.

Take note of what diverts you.

Do you sit in the front seat of the transport vehicle and talk to the driver because you want to be nice? It might not suit you.

Maybe you want to sleep, look at your lines, or just daydream. Do it.

In hair and make-up they might start talking to you asking, "When did we last work together?" etc. You can hold up your script and say, "I gotta’ learn my lines."

The TAD will come and get you to bring you to set. She’s been trained to be nice - so she chats. You may want to walk to set on your own – I do. And go on set when you want to – I do. You may not want to hear her talking on the walkie - I don’t.

While waiting for a lighting set-up all the actors sit in the cast chairs. There might be lots of talk. If you don’t want to talk – move your chair. When shooting, I sit on an apple box off to the side.

You’re already a nice person, so you don’t need to use extra energy to be nice.

Being professional is the watchword and every other professional on set will recognize that and appreciate it.

On the set of the film A Dry White Season, the actress Janet Suzman noted that Marlon Brando didn’t look at anyone as he walked from his trailer to the courtroom set. He had his head down. He was going to work. If he looked at everyone - all who knew he was Marlon Brando and wanted to have a look - that would have depleted his energy. He kept his head down so he could keep his energy and do his best work.

Sit in the back seat.

Skin as thin as glass.

That’s what you need when acting on camera. It’s both literal and figurative.

Let us see you.

When you drop in and believe, your skin literally changes. It softens and opens. We go in with you. As you have more experience and train properly you’ll learn to - open your skin.

The screen loves and demands this intimacy - seeing into your psyche. Allowing you out and the viewer in.

It’s acting for camera.

Watch actors and see when their skin is as thin as glass. Watch yourself and see when you feel your face, skin, and body open up. Note when you’re tight and we can’t see as much.

Relaxing does it, but it might be more complex than just relaxing.

To survive the movie business you need the opposite: a very thick skin.

Skin as thin as glass when acting - thick skin in the business. A guide of opposites for an actor.

‘Slate your name and height.’

Audie Murphy was a movie star in the 1950’s and was 1.65 metres tall or 5 foot 4.

Kiefer Sutherland is 1.75 metres tall or 5 foot 7. Lucy Liu: 5 foot 2, Rachel McAdam: 5 foot 3, Catherine Deneuve: 5 foot 5, Reese Witherspoon: 5 foot 1, and Tom Cruise: 5 foot 5.

On the other hand, Yaphet Koto 6 foot 2, Denzel Washington 6 foot, Nicole Kidman and Uma Thurman are tall.

Why are you asked to give your height while auditioning for a role in a movie? Why not your weight or your shoe size? Ask around and see what you find out. See what your agent says. Maybe ask a director or producer on set.

It certainly isn’t because tall people will sell more Coke, or short people more cars.

No, it’s because Hollywood wants the casting to be ‘height-perfect’. So, the lead actors look just right. So, the show fulfils the Hollywood icons to type. So, the viewer is never confused by the height of the characters, who the good guys and bad guys are.

Or who is going to get the girl, is funny or saving America,

If the show is perfect - then more Coke and cars will be sold.

So much of casting is based on how you look.

Alan Ladd was short, and they used to dig a hole beside him for the other actor to stand in so Ladd looked taller.

Slate this!

Many breakdowns today have complicated slate instructions.

Some of the demands are difficult to fulfill at home - even impossible.

You don’t want to make waves with your agent who is telling you that casting director so-and-so is picky about the slates, but you also need to focus on your acting.

Often, the breakdowns, shooting and slate instructions for self-tapes can divert you. Something you don’t want to happen when you’re trying to do your best at what you do – act. And prepare it in very short time.

At the end of the day, if the producers like what you did in the audition, they will hire you and the slate won’t make a difference one way or the other.

But, you have to deal with your agent and they have to deal with casting. Casting and agents have the closest working relationship.

It’s dicey.

Small parts.

Why should you feel bad playing a small role?

If you’re in a large company such as Stratford Festival where the season is long it means you have work for a good period of time.

You deserve it.

Sometimes you get work that’s easy to do. You’ve trained, put in your time, had disappointments, auditioned, so you’ve earned it.

It’s like shooting a commercial and not doing too much in it and then receiving residuals over a few years. Well, it isn’t a gift from someone, it’s just part of the overall payment to you for your actor’s life.

You’ve certainly had many jobs that are difficult. And many that didn’t pay well.

Having good actors supporting the leads is crucial. That’s why they’re called supporting parts – they support.

‘There are no small parts, only small actors.’ is the old adage. Truth is, there are small parts and those that play them are not small actors.

This idea that only famous actors are of worth is pernicious.

Snap!

While working on a scene in class the actors weren’t being sharp enough in the conjuring of new ideas and the receiving of them.

The scene, from the movie Johnny Suede, has one character coming up with topics on a pro and con list.

Neither the actor coming up with the idea nor the actor receiving the idea were realistic enough in their sending and receiving.

When teaching there, colleagues at the Yale School of Drama shared the idea with me of send and receive as one way to describe human interacting.

In class, I said to the actors: Let’s try a new exercise and we’ll call it Snap! As soon as you send the new idea snap your fingers and point and as soon as you receive the idea snap your fingers and point back.

They did it. They liked it.

It highlighted the send/receive play.

We then began to elaborate the question of receiving and noted that you can receive at different speeds. Sometimes you get the point before the other actor is finished speaking. Sometimes it takes time before the penny drops. It’s definitely not always at the end of the other actor’s line.

The same with sending.

We send with all different levels of intent.

When the sent point is received you react with an impulse that can feed breath so you can speak in response. Sometimes you speak, sometimes you breath, sometimes you just receive and the impulse doesn’t trigger breath nor speech.

You can look up how fast the human brain works - it’s useful to know as part of your actor’s development.

As the instrument you play is you, then the more specifically you observe how you function the more that can serve your work.

Someone you know, love and trust.

Use this as a ‘like or as if’ when needed.

Playing to the lens in a commercial extolling a product the question can come up ‘Who am I talking to?’. Picking a real person you know, love and trust can assist you to make the pitch intimate.

Giving a speech to a crowded banquet scene gets more difficult in the close-up. Who are you talking to?

Pretending you love your scene partner can work – but substituting a real loved one might make it more real.

The phrase also describes intimates.

Many movie characters who are intimate haven’t had sex. Cops are intimate – they have each other’s backs; partners on TV such as lawyers or doctors follow that dictum; US Marines say they never leave a man in the field; firefighters are definitely intimate.

These TV procedural characters all know, love and trust each other. It’s a key element of the trope.

Could be a useful phrase.

Stay with one teacher.

Pinchas Zukerman, the conductor, violinist, and teacher says if you find a good teacher - stay with them.

I fully support this idea.

Learning from a different teacher is fine but jumping from class-to-class to see ‘What the teacher is like’ isn’t.

Actors often describe acting classes by saying what they thought the teacher was like, but never what their work was like.

Fooling yourself, you can jump from class-to-class experiencing different teachers, but never end up actually doing any work. You turn into an acting-class actor.

If the atmosphere in the room is good, if the teacher is of high quality and you don’t have any issues with his or her personality – stay there.

Eliminating the constant diversion of looking for a new teacher allows you to put your focus solely on your practice.

Where it belongs.

Let the teachers do their work – and you do yours.

Stillness.

You have to learn how to be still on camera.

Observe how you’re still in life.

Often, while acting you move because you’re resetting or dropping out. It’s you, the actor, and not the character who’s moving - a movement of self-consciousness.

Observe when you’re doing that.

Movement can be distracting. It can dissipate your energy. When you listen you’re usually still. Half of screen time is the reverse—where the other actor is listening.

The listening actor is us, the audience, listening. She’s listening to the speaking actor and so are we.

The young football (soccer) player can run at great speed. He can go. But to become excellent he must learn to stop. Once he’s stopped - he can start again.

The lion as it waits for its prey is stock still yet alert, breathing fully and calm. That belly going in and out seems contradictory to not moving.

Take that image back to your acting.

Stillness doesn’t mean locked. The lion is still yet breathing fully and brain alert.

Find your stillness by being on your breath and having space in your mind and if your physiology needs movement there’s the useful tic or twitch.

Watch you don’t succumb to that actor’s voice of ‘I should be doing more.’ and start moving to try and be interesting or good. If you’re in the situation, in the space, time moving forward, plot moving forward – that’s enough.

You have power to release and stillness is a state to do that from.

Stop, look and listen.

When you’re out and about stop and look at the passersby.

Play that age-old actor’s game of guessing who everyone is. What jobs each person does. Guess their age, if they’re married, nationality, income. Notice their bodies, how they walk, hold their head and general bearing. Hair and make-up. What they wear. What it means.

What kind of work they do. What class are they.

It’s observation.

Watch TV with the sound off. Notice how the actors stand, where they look, moving or still, where they are in the frame, blinking or no blinking. Note the iconic masks of the different types. The gestures. How they walk.

The great TV sitcom director James Burrows listens to his actors more than he watches. ‘I walk up and down behind the seats during rehearsal and if there is too long a pause or the intonation isn’t right I yell Stop!’

Take Burrow’s practice and watch TV with the picture off. Learn the tones of typical shows, listen if you think the actors are truthful, hear the language, the music of the speech, enunciated or slurred, how the different actor’s voices make up the whole.

Learn to work in smaller and smaller parts.

Stop, look and listen.

Student of the game.

At the 1990 Crossroads Blues Festival the great B.B. King plays The Thrill is Gone and in a row sit Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Jimmy Vaughn, Sheryl Crow, ZZ Top, Albert Lee, Jeff Beck, Steve Winwood, all masters in their own right

They’re playing with and following the master.

And those great players are also students of the game.

When Wayne Rooney scored his first Premier League goal at age 16 he already knew all the best strikers in the world, had watched their goals, and studied their moves.

All professionals watch and learn from the best. Imitate what’s worthwhile. Emulate their best qualities. See what makes them the best.

Learn the moves of actors who are your type. Get to know the iconic portrayals.

Talk to the older actors when on set or after an audition.

Recognize and appreciate the effort and sacrifice that your actor peers have made. Marie Dressler was a Broadway star and an accomplished actress. She participated in the 1919 Actor’s Equity strike and the producers made her pay for that by not hiring her.

Paul Robeson suffered worse humiliation and relegation. Many others paved the way and fought for rights that you now have.

Learn the history of your peers

Suck up, kick down.

Try and present your work.

A common trait today, once someone has achieved a certain position of power, is to learn how to hold on to it. That can include kicking down the ladder anyone trying to come up and sucking up to those above.

If you get desperate you may find yourself trying to do that.

Presenting your work in a straightforward, simple, and elegant manner is an altogether different approach.

You prepare your work, present it and leave it - nothing more, nothing less – the worth of it.

You save yourself the liability that desperate behaviours such as - sucking up with hopes of getting roles or kicking down at your peers - can bring you. All part of a vicious cycle leading nowhere.

How you relate to the producers, agents, casting directors, actors and others in power in the film and TV industry is a serious question. Do it professionally.

Presenting your work in the audition room can be like a samurai: bowing, throwing a silk cloth up in the air, taking out your sword, turning it upside down, the cloth floats down, crosses the blade and splits in two.

You replace the sword, bow, and leave.

Let mules and piglets do the kicking and sucking.

Sustain it.

When you’re shooting a scene be careful not to pick an activity that is difficult to sustain.

It might seem authentic, creative or cool at first, but after hours of repetition it might prove unsupportable.

Eating lots in a dinner scene. Continuous coughing. Twitching your eye. Screaming. These have to be thought out and well practiced to be done without harming yourself.

Jumping off a horse.

Maybe once, but for repeated takes it’s the stunt person who has the technique.

Training with a professional coach prior to performing a role will enable you to learn new things, yes, but the spontaneous choice can lead to regret.

Movie stars, series regulars usually don’t actually eat in a meal scene. By not, they lessen being diverted allowing them to focus on the acting.

Think if you can sustain the activity you’ve chosen.

Taking notes.

I often say to the actors ‘write this down’. What I mean by that is - take note of it.

But the comment can also be taken literally if you have a notebook.

Writing notes is one of the ways you learn. As you watch and listen, your mind is deciding what to write down. You’ll write what you like the most.

As there is never an exam after acting class you can make up your own notebook format with highlights, boxes, ticks, underlines, different colours. However your mind wants it organized.

If you make it your habit, you’ll start noting things from watching films and plays; from listening to interviews; reading articles, books.

An actor’s notebook is different from a diary.

If you do it over your life’s career you end with up an interesting compendium of comments, observations, quotes, summations and zingers. As the years go by you may find it interesting to go back and read early entries.

You’ll have a noted history of your acting life.

You get better as an actor by doing - the notes will support that practice.

(Always put down the date – at least the year!)

Technical Dialogue.

Learning technical dialogue can be difficult.

Legal, medical, military, scientific.

Try separating it from the playing part of the scene. Usually most of the scene is playable – then there’s the technical language, so you could lift it out, learn it separately and then put it back in.

The playing part of the scene you can learn and the technical part memorize. You won’t get cast because you pronounced the terminology correctly – you get cast based on your acting. You won’t be examined on your knowledge of the terms. You have to act them believably.

Looking up the definition of the terms helps put things in context and makes learning the word easier.

Breaking the words down into parts may help. How many syllables? What is the root of the word – Greek, Latin? The prefixes, the suffixes. Do the words have similar endings such as: -isms, -otic, -tional, -acti, etc.?

Look for the music of the words and the phrases. You can learn to sing it.

Find the correct syllable to be stressed. Google it via an audio link for pronunciation.

In an audition you can read the technical language portion from the sides.

You know the situation - you play and play and then when it comes to the difficult text you lift up the sides and read it - then go back to playing and playing. This prevents you from getting diverted by worrying about the technical language.

Don’t try to act as if you know the terms cold because you’ll probably stumble, speak too fast, and embarrass yourself.

Speaking the terms a little slower and enunciating a little more can help. It’s a way of keeping your mind in control over the difficult words and stops you from capitulating.

Visualizing an image you associate with the word can assist as the brain sees the image easier and can retrieve the word. The mental images you create act as reminders for the actual facts in your memory.

Even regulars on shows find it difficult.  Michaela Conlin, playing Angela Montenegro on Bones says, ‘By the end of the season our brains start to turn to mush and it becomes harder to remember everything.’

Telling your mother.

Do you still call your mother when you book a role?

Sharing your success is proper.

But, as a professional can you develop the strength to carry on without validation other than your own good work?

When you were a kid you’d be thrilled to tell your mom about anything good you’d done. You were proud.

As we grow and mature certain relationships change naturally. Joining the adults in your family and friends on their own level and taking your place alongside them is natural. Equals.

In some families being an actor isn’t considered as worthy as being a teacher, bus driver, electrician or engineer. You might feel pressure to show them you’re successful. Let them have their own views and you have yours.

Take your place.

Being ecstatic when you book a role is euphoria and her cousin is depression. Two evil cousins. Better you don’t invite either of them to dinner.

Take the high road.

The movie system is a tough one, as you know, and you’re trying not to live or die with every booking.

Point isn’t never to share any good news with your mother. Of course not.

Consider if doing it is filling you or draining you.

The event.

The event is what the 2nd AD writes in the call sheet for each scene.

For example:

‘Josh nervously divulges his plan to the audience.’ ‘Dr. Hertzberg provides another breakthrough.’ ‘Lucy gets educated in finance.’ ‘Lucy and Josh find the picture in a drawer.’

These descriptions consist of a proper noun – the character; a verb – what he does; and the complement noun or subject – the recipient of the action.

The event describes the central action of the scene. Is the main reason the writer wrote the scene. Sometimes it’s something new for the audience.

‘Josh nervously divulges his plan to the audience.’

Josh may never have revealed his plan before so that’s new to the audience and is a plot point.

‘Lucy and Josh find the picture in a drawer.’

Maybe Lucy and Josh’s search for the picture was a McGuffin and the finding of it a turning point in the story.

The event always tells you in simple terms the crux of the scene.

Knowing the event helps you to play the scene sharper.

The way plots are constructed or assembled from the various deeds and words of the characters (or what Aristotle calls the “events”, pragmata) should be what constitutes “the aim” of the poet

The future.

Human beings always look to the future.

On a practical note you have the future to consider every time you play a scene or go to an audition. Part of your preparation will be seeing yourself at the end of the work. How will the audition go? How will the scene go? How will I feel afterwards? What do you see?

That’s looking into the future.

Visualizing is key but you must do it sharply so you don’t slide over, avoid or deny what you see.

Try and learn to look at things as they are.

Seeing yourself going forward obviously includes the state of the industry at this time. Your future takes place from where you and the industry are today and from where it has been in the past - all affecting your and its forward motion.

As well as the external influences your outlook will affect what you see.

Having aspirations is vital for all humans. What gives rise to your aspirations? Old ideas like follow your dreams or you can do whatever you want can be confusing.

Find the parables, mantras, truths, watchwords and guidelines that help you see the future in clearer and more doable terms - for you.

You want success and a bright future.

Try and base what can be in practical terms because, ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’

The level you’re at is the level you’re at.

Don’t be pressured to think that your acting should be somewhere other than where it is.

It isn’t realistic, and you need to be if you want to improve.

This doesn’t mean you don’t have aspirations. Of course you do, but you have to start from where you are now. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?

The key is knowing that your work is now at the proper level. With all the assets and liabilities that that includes. You shouldn’t or couldn’t be at any other level. Accepting that is such an opening of the door for your improvement.

In analyzing where your work is at you take two aspects into account: you – the subjective; and the industry – the objective.

Having unrealistic expectations leads to disappointment, which you want to avoid. The movie industry has lots of disappointment already built into it. Wishing you were more advanced is just, well, wishing and, you know, “If wishes were horses…”

Look the thing in the eye. Call a spade a spade. Tell it like it is. That will focus you - your mind, your work.

Know that the level you’re at now is the level you’re at.

The list.

The facts of your acting life make up The List.

When you feel down learn to refer to it.

What could be on the list?

Well, you exercise, try to eat well, you have an agent, you audition, you act in plays, movies, TV series, shorts, webisodes, summer theatre, you take acting class, you’ve gone to theatre school, and you’re known and respected. You pay your rent, taxes and phone bill.

That’s a list.

The list of points that make up your acting life is what your acting life is. As opposed to how you feel it is.

The list allows you to juxtapose the objective reality to your subjective view. What’s in your head versus what’s in the world. It balances the scales.

You might feel down and justifiably so from being humiliated as an actor, missing out on a role, struggling to make ends meet, and more, but the list still remains.

You have a right to your feelings and you should never apologize for them. But observe yourself when you can’t seem to get past them.

The list buttresses you against being overwhelmed by your feelings and can help to keep you going. You’re not trying to boost your confidence with false ideas – you’re citing what’s true.

The list.

The list should also include the film and TV industry as it is. The power of the studio owners, producers, casting directors, agents and the difficulty you have in participating in the decision making. The listing of these objective factors will help deflate the idea that you individually are the cause of the difficulties.

When you think about something - your acting career for example - your objective reality must be part of that thinking.

So, next time your fellow actor asks you ‘Howz it going.’ you can say – fine. Because, according to The List – it is.

Check your list.

The moment before.

This well-known practice can assist you to have a good start to the scene.

At best, it bulwarks against you beginning by reciting memorized lines rather than playing a situation. It is one of the best tools you can have as an actor to help you get in.

All scenes have a beginning, middle and end - the beginning is the most important.

Given circumstances or back story are different from the moment before in that they cover more history, more time.

Time is key here.

An obvious example as how to use this precept is if you have a typical TV line like, ‘No, I didn’t see anyone.’ Here you’re most likely answering someone’s question which is not written as they got ‘in late’ in the scene. So, you could write out the imagined question, ‘Did you see anyone?’ as your moment before. Having that moment before imagined will allow you to have a start from a useful place – your imagination.

And it brings your breath into play – another key element. By ‘hearing’ the question after Action!, you will breathe in to answer with your first line.

It’s on that inhalation that you drop in.

Your imagined, unwritten question sends a signal which creates an impulse in you and you breath as needed and respond. Send and receive - Yale School of Drama.

You create your own send and receive. You start from your imagination. You engage your breath.

There are many ways you could use the moment before depending on what you like and the scene. Could be a headache – feel the headache; coughing; out of breath; lost in thought; nervous and more. Something psychological or physical or both together.

Start there, breathe that in and play.

It’s qualitatively different from being pushed into their space and time on action and then trying to catch up to get into yours.

You begin your way.

The one thing leads to the next.

Follow how the scenes are built.

Something is happening, maybe a spy is lying, so you change your tack and pretend to retreat, drawing in the spy.

The one thing leading to the next.

The spy’s lying leads you to your switch.

See how the writer wrote the flow of the situation and how your character follows the movement.

It’s simple, isn’t it?

But key. Action to action. Beginning, middle, end - new beginning.

Now you’re backtracking, trying to lure the spy into giving over the information. Suddenly the spy reveals news, a secret that you didn’t know she had. Leading you onto something new.

Learn the simple progress of the scene. It may seem obvious, but the naturalness of how life unfolds—one thing leading to the next – is grounding.

You can’t add anything flowery on the scene until you have a solid base.

The producers like you.

You might audition for the same series numerous times.

It’s common to wonder why they keep bringing you in and why you don’t get cast.

If you keep getting auditions for a particular series, it means the producers and casting want you on that show. They keep a list of actors they want to use. You’re on that list.

As always, they have their taste as to who they want for each role. The type they need to fulfill the job of that role in that episode. You might be too tall, too short, young, old etc.

It’s not your acting - if your acting wasn’t good, you wouldn’t be getting more auditions.

The hard work of auditioning is part of the definition of being an actor. Hopefully, knowing the showrunner likes you, helps you relax.

A problem with the system is they don't tell you they like your work.

It's a positive thing that you keep auditioning for the same series.

You’re on their list.

The reader.

‘If only the reader would play the scene with me I’d do better auditions!’

A reader is there to facilitate the audition. They aren’t there to play the scene with you.

Scene partners are your fellow actors in plays or on set. And they’re the actors you practice with in class.

The best readers will make sense of what they say, say it lightly and fairly quickly.

They lift up the scene for you to take and do with what you will. They give it to you.

But they aren’t and shouldn’t be scene partners.

This needs to be learned, so one more false expectation is given up and one more piece of disappointment goes away.

Leaving a bit more room for your acting.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

If you have blocks as an actor explore different ways to loosen them.

A gay actor I worked with had a block about playing masculine roles. Any character described as tough, good-looking, macho, war veteran etc. would send him into an anxious state.

He knew he looked the part, but his mental block made him freeze when he came to those roles.

He thought he needed to do extensive psychological work about his life to come to terms with who he was - being human, gay, good-looking, a good actor and masculine-looking. That’s one possible route.

A long and complicated one.

Another would be for him to suffer through each audition trying to force his way through by indicating and pushing. Like going to the dentist.

That ain’t good.

One day, while practicing properly in an harmonious atmosphere, he took the route to try technique to play the tough guy. He had never tried that before.

He kept still, spoke on his street voice, didn’t push or indicate and he let us see him. Bang! He was the tough guy.

The point here is not to pose one approach against another. But, if you’re stuck, see if discovery and exploration helps you sort problems.

Instead of banging your head against the wall - lean on it gently.

The scene is the unit of work.

How do you work on a screenplay?

Breaking it down into it’s first, big parts helps. Those parts are the scenes.

As actors, directors, writers, producers we work on plays and films scene by scene. They’re the units of work.

You shoot scenes out of order, so you must work on each scene as a separate entity. Its own whole.

What are the features of a scene? Beginning, middle and end. Occupies it’s own time and space different from the other scenes. Can move the plot forward. Has its own event. Each character wants something specific. It, along with all the other scenes, makes up the play.

To call scenes the units of work helps define the one thing leads to the next. Or, step by step.

When you’re in that scene – that situation – you have to be fully there and nowhere else.

Within a scene there are beats. Beats – as described by Stanislavsky – are the next size of the play that can be worked on. The next smaller piece that can be dealt with. There may only be one beat governing the whole scene, or a transition making a second beat. Characters talking about the same topic, in similar tones, same time and space. That’s a beat.

Then, there are lines, individual words and punctuation. Smaller and smaller parts to be looked at. All of this makes up a scene and all the scenes make up the screenplay.

It’s like building a house.

In episodic television what happens in one scene does not necessarily make sense in relation to other scenes. Learn to play the truth of each scene and try not to get diverted by trying to follow an arc.

Episodic television really proves that the scene is the unit of work.

The thing.

Always be going to the thing.

A joke can be a useful lesson to you as an actor because it always goes to a punch line. That’s the thing. And when you start to tell a joke you always know what the punch line is.

In scenes the character is always going to one thing. You can call it the objective or what you will. If there’s a transition then that thing changes. Be clear what the thing is. You can’t play until you’re clear on what you’re doing.

It’s usually something singular and simple.

We often think a thing is something, but that doesn’t mean that’s what it is. By investigation you find out what the thing is - not what you thought it was.

The same in the business side of your actor’s life.

If a producer says he’d really like you to be in the movie that doesn’t mean you are. They often say things like that because they can. Signing a contract means you’re in the movie.

Develop your ability to define things and analyze things whether it’s the text, the business or your life.

Not knowing what a thing is can be confusing.

The thread.

Your life as an actor is like a thread.

You make the thread, you pull the thread, you follow the thread.

You are the thread.

(Thread: a continuing element; a group of filaments twisted together formed by spinning and twisting fibers into a continuous strand). Merriam-Webster dictionary.

The time it takes.

You hear people saying, “It takes so long to make a movie.”

Does it?

It’s fine if civilians say it but watch if you’re saying it.

It’s actually, “It takes as long as it takes.”

To say it is to not understand what it is to make a movie. Movie is an abbreviation for moving picture. To take a picture you need a subject – you the actor – and you need light and a camera.

It takes time to get the lighting to reflect what they want the scene to say. Organized lighting. Caravaggio.

Then the moving camera part comes in - that takes time. The blocking, the acting, the stunts.

It takes time.

As an actor learn what it takes to make a movie.

You need your time to be ready and so do all the other departments. Each taking their place; each taking their space. Collectively.

Once you accept and assimilate the process then you free yourself to do your acting. If you don’t it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole. You can misspend your energy being frustrated at waiting.

When you, the individual, join the collective making the movie a lot of that frustration goes away.

You become part of the time it takes.

The toll.

Learn to recognize and appreciate the toll it takes on you being an actor.

Certain roles are demanding emotionally – Desdemona - and they can have a real effect on you.

A regular role on a series, a long-running play or a lead in a feature, all have their own cost. Don’t underestimate this high level work.

The competitive nature of the business side also takes its toll. Every actor talks about the highs and lows, but to really be aware of those dangers is critical to keep living and working in the healthiest possible way.

Life for every working person takes its toll. For you as an actor that toll is particular.

To be an actor you have to be sensitive.

Learn what the toll is and take pains to develop habits that keep you in good stead.

The waiting room.

This is the most difficult place.

You must take it up for solution. Think about it and develop tactics that can become your habits, so before your audition you’re in a good state.

Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean you need to. So, if there’s a lot of chatting going on you don’t need to chat. If colleagues are there and want to catch-up you can say ‘Let’s talk after the audition’.

These small efforts really help you be in the best space possible prior to playing.

Always try and go with what you need on that day. Be particular. Which means one day you might be chatty.

The waiting room is like backstage in the theatre. It’s the working space prior to performing.

Treat it as such.

Socialize if you want to; listen to the gossip if you want to; but be careful. Try not to get diverted. Protect yourself.

Any working actor who doesn’t understand why you’re doing what you’re doing isn’t professional.

Before you go to the audition visualize the room and what actors in your type may be there. Especially the actors, room, casting people you don’t like. You must make a plan to deal with them so you don’t get dragged down.

It’s best when you feel unity with your fellow actors - all in battle - and can draw succour from that. It’s best when we ‘Help the producers make their show’. It’s best when we’re at one with the system and its parts.

That’s best.

But…

At some auditions we need to protect ourselves and hold up the hand when someone comes over to talk.

They’re the best writers.

Producers hire the best writers to write their shows.

Try not to confuse your personal viewpoint and taste with the particular writing that makes that show exactly what it is.

He who pays piper calls the tune.

To sell their products advertisers tell the networks what kind of show they want. The networks buy those shows and hire showrunners to make them. The showrunners tell the writers what to write.

They’re doing their jobs and doing them well. The content may be racist, sexist, pro-war, put people down, harsh, violent and more, but the writers are doing their jobs.

Your job is to interpret that writing and act the role the best you can.

Look closely at how the writing keeps the style consistent through icons repeated, syntax and music of the language, length of lines, transitions, story lines, plots, types of guest stars etc. The consistency of the writing fulfills the singular nature of that particular show – episode after episode. That takes hard work and skill.

Writers try to meet the demands of those who pay them.

They are the best writers.

Think quickly.

One of the best directing notes I ever received was from Peter Bogdanovich who said to me, ‘Think quickly.’.

I’ve repeated that to many actors over the years since.

It doesn’t mean speaking quickly. It means moving forward doing what you need to do in the scene and eliminating the actor re-sets.

You jump off the cliff instead of inching over the edge – carefully.

You may be acting this way: dialogue – actor’s thought; dialogue – actor’s thought; dialogue – actor’s thought. Constantly interrupting yourself.

It’s leaving behind all and any preparation you’ve made. If you try it – thinking quickly - you’ll be surprised how much guiding and checking you were doing as you played. Giving that up creates space and that space leaves you with nothing to do but act the situation.

Be careful with the word quickly - it doesn’t mean fast.

The time, speed, pace of your mind in the scene and that of the scene itself remains intact and is found in rehearsal and shooting. It’s neither quick nor slow. It has its own integrity. The time in your mind and that of the scene is the time needed.

‘Pick up you cues!’ is something directors and teachers say. Watch you don’t give up your time in answer to their direction.

John Barton, in Playing Shakespeare, uses the same phrase - think quickly.

Thought.

One way you can pose the question of acting for camera is to say the camera is photographing thought.

It’s pretty good.

As always, none of these truisms are to be taken mechanically. It’s just one way to skin the cat.

Viewers love to see thought in the eyes of the actors and the close-up really allows that to happen.

Set yourself up to be thinking. Let them film you. Keep your breathing lion-like: soft, fat and rhythmical. This will help your mind turn and wander. Get lost. Dream while the camera runs.

Thought makes the eyes move. Naturally. And the eyes are the window to the soul.

Thought.

The medium of now - film and television - allows us to do something so psychologically intimate that it occasionally makes us gasp. To see someone thinking so deeply in a moving, colour picture on a screen of 20 by 70 feet can be breathtaking.

You might sometimes hear that fearful voice in your head say ‘I’m not doing enough’. Forget it. We love to watch humans thinking. It’s an aspect of film and TV acting that’s essential. If you’re thinking real thoughts while acting in a scene you’ll be compelling. And doing enough.

Observe yourself off camera when you’re thinking. Observe others while they’re thinking.

You’re reproducing recognizable human behaviour.

Thinking is a big part of it.

Three basic levels of arguing.

There are as many levels of argument as there are human situations. Here are three common ones.

Passive-aggressive.

This common low-level argument form is frequent in relationship and sentimental TV fare.

Distinctive characteristics are the level, tone and repeated beginning, middle and end structure. As is often the case the dialogue is call and answer as each character speaks nearly the same amount of words, syllables as the other. There is a ping-pong equality to it.

This is also typical in other genres.

Keeping the ping-pong analogy passive-aggressive would be played something like this: Hit, hit, (aggressive) drop or put the ball down (passive). Pick the ball up, hit, hit.

It’s the dropping the ball, or the deliberate and fake putting the ball down that gives passive-aggressive its distinctive argument character. ‘I’m not arguing anymore. I’m above that.’

You want to make your point, argue, needle, (aggressive) but you want to pretend you’re not doing that, so you end it. You put the ball down or drop it with bridge phrases like, ‘Anyways.’ ‘Whatever.’ ‘Forget it.’ (passive).

Then, either character picks the ball up and hit, hit, drop it - again. It’s your burning need to win that won’t let you stop.

Argument. This is when you’re in full, normal argument state. Blood is up, voice is connected and you’re committed to argue it out. You don’t drop the ball or go back. It ends either by someone leaving or with a final, clinching point.

Again, as in all beats, the two of you sing the same song. The rhythm, tone, volume, length of line all echo each other showing your agreement that you’re now arguing. You make agreements with your partner and they’re usually unspoken, but absolutely clear.

This middle level of argument will not end in divorce or death. Part of the overall agreement at this level is that you’ll both continue your relationship. An apology may or may not be made afterwards.

Lovers have the right to say anything to each other in the heat of the moment.

Three strikes and you’re out.

Having a three-stage approach allows you to be prepared to say No. Useful when faced with typical upsetting situations.

Situations where you’re put on the spot, caught off guard or humiliated. Under today’s pressure people often put others down to make themselves feel good. It’s a tiring pursuit because nothing good ever comes of it.

As an actor you may find yourself in recurring situations where you’re the brunt of these put downs. A three-step, learned response can help keep you stable.

The family dinner over a holiday could be such a situation: Every year the Uncle asks you what movies you’ve been in – egging you on as always. For many reasons you might not like his question, but haven’t figured out how to deal with it.

You might want to blurt out ‘Leave me alone!’ but that would disrupt the dinner and make you look like the bad guy. Or you might try and slough it off with ‘Whatever.’ But that leaves you open to further questioning.

If your uncle enjoys putting you on the spot and proving how stupid it is that you’re an actor then he’s not going to give up easily. When someone wants blood they’ll keep going until they get it.

A three-step response might go something like this:

Uncle: ‘So, what movies have you been in lately?’

You: ‘My work is going well and I like being an actor just like you like being a dentist.’ (This is a positive answer that is also true so you’re not out on a limb saying something that you can’t stand behind. It also includes him; showing that you both work and like your work.)

Uncle: ‘Ya, sure, but what Hollywood movies that we can see you in?’ (He won’t let up.)

You: ‘I’m fine.’ (This short response should give him a signal that you don’t want to pursue this discussion. If you say it simply and give him a look that says ‘That’s enough.’ most Uncles will get it.)

Uncle: ‘You’ve been acting all these years and I’ve never seen you in a movie!’ (He didn’t get it so that’s his third strike and now you’re going to put him out.)

You: ‘I’ve made it clear I don’t like your questions. Let’s leave it and enjoy our dinner! Thanks.’ (You’re final statement may include: ‘Hey, stop it.’, ‘That’s enough.’, ‘Shut up.’, ‘Leave me alone.’ or simply, ‘I don’t like your questions.’)

It could be two steps, or four and done in any way that suits you. Point is: Having a plan gives you confidence to say no.

Tics and twitches.

As you’re reading this you may notice that your foot is swinging regularly.

Mine is.

Or that your thumb is rhythmically rubbing your middle finger. These aren’t actually tics or twitches according to definition, but this is the best way to describe them.

They are recognizable physical behaviours that tend to calm you down. There is a stream of energy coming from this movement in the body. As if a run-off valve is releasing extra energy.

Calming your mind.

Try to keep your tics and twitches while you’re acting.

Stillness is so important to acting and it may seem contradictory to include these slight movements as assets to good acting. In fact, it completes and compliments your stillness and can be an essential ingredient to you dropping in.

The movements are pleasing sensory experiences. Your physiology likes it.

Being still on camera means natural breathing, space in your mind and the inclusion of one of your rhythmical tics.

The fidget spinner toy serves to distract and relieve stress and plays a similar role as your tic and twitch.

The idea is that when you get up to act don’t give up all your - seemingly quirky - personal behaviours.

See how keeping them helps you.

Time.

Is a question you’ve considered often and will continue to do so.

Pick up the pace. Pick up your cues. Speak quicker. Feel the rhythm of the scene. Take a beat.

A pause.

Shooting a commercial you’re under strict time guidelines. You might be asked to do a reaction in 4.5 seconds and continuity will be timing you with a stopwatch. Acting in precise time to the second.

Audition time. Call time. Time you’re wrapped.

The many actor’s questions you ask. The time of day, the time the story is set in, how old is your character, how much time does the story cover, time between scenes.

Time between lines. Speed of your character’s mind. Other character’s minds. Time passing in the story. Pace of the film.

The time when you start after action is called. Time after cut.

‘That actors got good timing.’

Literal time. Figurative time.

And Shakespeare writes these four different lines: Let every man be master of his time. Nothing ‘gainst Times scythe can make defence. We are Times’ subject and Time bids be gone. The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right.

There are hundreds of expressions using time. Here’s a few: A race against time. Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time. A stitch in time. Time and tide wait for no man. In the nick of time. Time brings all things to pass. Time is money. Everything in its own time. It’s high time. Third time’s a charm.

Time might be the answer to all questions.

To the black wall.

Seeing a black wall at the end of your audition is deadly.

It’s best if your auditions are part of your ongoing work and life. With none of them ever being the be all or end all.

The continuity.

As with all your work, watch your visualization sharply and see what it looks like when you’ve finished your audition. You should see yourself leaving the audition room and walking out into light rather than darkness. You should see your work and life continuing.

See the end of your audition while doing your prep. What you see at the end is very important.

Otherwise it really is like banging your head against a brick wall.

To like how you’re leaving the audition is as important as liking how you start.

Desperation is a horrible quality that can derail you. Take the auditions in your stride, put them in perspective and see how you get stronger.

Putting you in good shape for the next audition.

To the close-up.

They say the close-up is the money shot.

In television it certainly is the size we see most. Talking heads, they call it.

Learn to use the time of rehearsal, blocking, master and medium shots to choose what you’ll do in the close-up.

Note where an emotional connection produces a move that will play well in the tight shot. A move, a tilt of the head, a glance that makes your point. You’ll learn there’s enough time prior to the close-up to get yourself ready for it.

Realize that they won’t use much of the master or medium sizes. So, those setups are good rehearsal time.

You don’t want to be surprised when the close-up comes and you’re playing too big.

Transitions.

It can be called a “moment” or a “beat change”.

Paying close attention to the transitions in your scenes can help you play sharper.

Transitions: That time and space between the end of a beat and the beginning of a new one, where either your mind or the other character’s mind leaves the current subject and starts a new one.

The transition is often caused by one character revealing something new.

A change.

That change of breath for you, that time where you either float or leap to the new is so full of life waiting to be tapped.

The transitions are the seasoning and the sauce for the next chunk of dialogue. They flavour it.

They are often marked by physical activity with you standing, moving or turning your head.

Changing your action verb can help you make the transition.

In the early days you might just memorize lines and because they are typed in order, one after the other, give them equal importance. Doing that could lose you the potential of using the transition.

The writers write the text as the character’s mind thinks and speaks it. Unequally.

A transition is usually spontaneous, organic and unconscious.

Pitfalls with transitions: you plan it and it lacks the idiosyncrasy of real-life; you go the other way and it is flat; you telegraph it.

Learning and knowing the parts of a scenes makes them easier and clearer to play. Once you’ve identified what it is, all that’s left to do - is to do it.

Merriam-Webster dictionary writes:  a change or shift from one state, subject, place, etc. to another.

Translating.

So many terms you run into in the TV business need translating.

They don’t mean what they say.

The point is to use your brain. Think things through. If a phrase has you caught off-guard give it some consideration. Rather than take it on face value and as the truth because they said it.

The power of the industry to give or not give you work can divert you from seeing what something really is.

Learn from your own experience. Observe others. Ask leading professionals.

Let’s use ‘Stand on the mark.’ as an example. The phrase that greets you when you enter an audition room.

It literally is just ‘Hello.’ A greeting to get the audition going. One day ask casting what they mean when they say it.

‘Just throw it away.’ In a way, they’re saying, ‘Act better.’ You might be indicating. They didn’t say ‘Stop indicating.’ they said ‘Throw it away.’

You have to interpret that.

Your agent might say when discussing your fee for an upcoming film ‘The producers just don’t have the money.’ Actually, they do have the money or else they wouldn’t be making the film. That translation might read ‘The producers want to put more money in their pocket instead of yours.’

Stage directions in scripts don’t need to be fulfilled as they’re mostly the writers making it easier for the producers to read. See if a direction is useful to help you play. If not, try to ignore it. Especially in auditions.

Peer closely through the haze.

Triangles.

In your close-up, as you think and speak, your head movement can follow a triangular pattern.

It looks good on screen.

And it’s part of film language. We recognize the pattern of the movement from movies and it usually indicates searching for an idea, getting the idea and then finishing the thought.

It’s recognizable human behaviour. In life we make the same triangular movement, so it’s both truthful and technically sharp – meaning it suits the frame and life.

Can’t get any better than that.

It can go like this: The other actor sends you a line and as you receive it your head dips down and to the left as you’re thinking of your response, then, as your thoughts clarify and words unfold, your head comes up on the left. Finally, as you complete your point and dialogue, your head returns to its starting position on the right looking back at your scene partner.

It’s a flowing, triangular movement based on your thought going from right, down, up on the left and then back again on the right.

It could go from left to right.

It’s what you do when you have to think. You can’t hold eye contact and find your thoughts, so you look away. Once you’ve got the complete thought you can look back and make eye contact.

Certain high status characters are trained to think and keep eye contact.

This isn’t a rule or something to do mechanically, but it’s a movement pattern that we do and that looks good on screen.

Knowing that something looks good on camera quietens the doubt.

Tricks of the trade.

The young actor asks the master coach if she has a trick that will make him a better Shakespearean actor.

She’s horrified. And rightly so.

‘No trick will make you a good actor. Only hard work will,’ she responds. Our young actor was looking for – what I call – a quick fix.

When she recounted this story I blushed inside because I often use the word trick in my teaching and writing. I sought out the Tips & Insights entries where I had used the word trick and quickly deleted them.

One night at 4 am, as it happens, I was reconsidering the idea of trick.

When coming about in a ketch the skipper says to the new sailor, ‘Here’s a trick I learned that makes it easier to reef.’ The experienced footballer says to the young player, ‘A good trick when dribbling by a defender is to lean left and push the ball right.’ Michael Caine offers, ‘When you’re in a close-up a good trick to bring your eye closer to the frame is to look at the other actor’s eye closest to the lens.’

The dictionary defines tricks of the trade as, ‘Special ingenious techniques used in a profession or craft; a clever method used by people who are experienced in a particular type of work or activity.’

It’s good our young actor asks questions, but when the question is the result of the effect the pervading culture has had on his thinking then it’s up to the master to tell him so.

Understanding.

Understanding requires participation.

Practice first and then your brain will catch up with the idea. The idea serves the practice.

When a scene goes well try not to remember what you did, just keep practicing well. Over a period of time you’ll have assimilations. Your new habits.

Long repetition of proper practice develops habit.

Practicing well includes consciousness (the brain working well) and having the experience instead of trying to understand.

That is key.

Within the word actor is the word act. And it’s in this act of finding out that you learn.

You can’t understand before you’ve had the experience.

Vitamin C.

Is a popular vitamin these days.

When you take it the body takes what it needs and gets rid of the rest.

You pee it out.

Does that remind you of breakdowns? So much information on them that it’s hard to take it all in. Especially the character breakdowns. Enough adjectives and adverbs to sink a ship. Impossible to fulfill.

What to do?

You can’t absorb all that. It’s a bit like taking 10,000 IU’s of Vitamin C.

Take from the breakdowns what serves you to play simply and truly.

And just pee the rest out.

Waiting for god to appear.

Once you’ve done your preparation, and the scene is about to begin, you just start.

Actors prepare differently. There’s no one way to prepare to begin a scene. That’s true.

But, you might find yourself waiting for inspiration and it might be a divine kind and it might not appear.

I call it waiting for god to appear.

Just start. Go.

The old adage is: ‘Do your homework and then forget it.’ That’s kind of the point here.

Watch actors who wait and wait for some magic moment they’ve imagined and crave but doesn’t arrive. Usually they’re simply stuck.

On your own time, breath in and play the first moment which leads to the next moment. The work is in you. Learn to know that and have faith in that.

That’s conviction.

(Divine inspiration is the concept of a supernatural force, typically a deity, causing a person or people to experience a creative desire.)

Walking.

I’ve always been a big fan of actors who walk well in movies.

John Travolta was one of the first I’d single out. A beautiful walker. And one who was aware of his walking.

He had the skill and accepted the theatricality of a performed walk in a wide shot.

Walking isn’t always easy to do. More than one actor, myself included, will relate a story of how, while trying to execute the direction ‘Walk from here to there.’, you start swinging your arms opposite to normal. Two left feet.

Helen Mirren, in her MasterClass series on acting, starts by walking across the stage and sitting down. Then she says, ‘I’ve just done one of the hardest things an actor has to do – walk across a stage.’

Be ready to put in practice time doing simple things like walking, sitting in a chair, getting out of a chair - things you would think require no practice.

From Louis Malle’s 1958 film The Lovers here Jeanne Moreau gives a brilliant example of walking well in a film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icJw9HXXoXA

Wall-to-wall dialogue.

That’s what they called it in the old days.

Maybe they still do.

An on-camera role in a commercial with lots of dialogue – that’s wall-to-wall dialogue. Lots usually means 6 to 8 lines, which, compared to a movie or a play, isn’t much at all, but in a commercial it is.

Yes, sometimes there are more than 8 lines.

Usually the text is extremely well written; precise; and makes all the key points that the product client wants to make.

But because the speech isn’t natural dialogue it could trip you up.

A good method to learn the dialogue is to ask a made-up question before each line and then answer it with the written one.

Let’s take a car commercial for example. If the first line is: ‘Everybody wants freedom,’ your possible question could be: ‘What’s one thing that all people want?’.

Make up the questions so you like them and answer the questions as if you’re speaking to someone you know, love and trust..

The next line might be: ‘It’s a rare automobile that responds to nature.’ which is a big jump in thought from the first line. The writers are expressing the ideas that the car company thinks will help sell cars. Often the lines don’t seem to connect.

Asking the questions allows you to make your own truthful connection. A flowing series of questions and answers.

The question could be: ‘Can any car take all kinds of weather?’ which provokes the bridge thought No,‘It’s a rare automobile that responds to nature.’.

Although the speeches in commercials might not flow naturally and logically, you can always answer fresh to each line by setting yourself up with an inner monologue question.

Try it.

See if it assists you in speaking wall-to-wall dialogue.

What is the heart.

The heart is the storehouse of all those who are there for you when you need them…it is outside of us…more than us…

What to wear.

What you wear to an audition is important.

The acting is more important.

Try not to second guess yourself or compare what you wore to what others wore.

Learn to make your decisions on hair, wardrobe, makeup quickly and clearly. You’re auditioning for similar types of roles, so learn the colours and styles that suit your types.

Then you don’t have to re-invent the wheel each time. Those decisions are made – now on to the acting.

Listen to professionals who say which colours suit you and pay attention to Hollywood’s iconic colours: Grey T-shirt the shirt of choice, TV likes blue, black is everywhere etc. The colours change as fads change.

You only need one piece of clothing per type and you can wear it over and over to auditions. Buy cheap versions of designer clothes.

You won’t get hired for wearing a real designer outfit.

You don’t want to be diverted worrying about what you’re wearing or if your hair looks good while you’re auditioning.

If your outfit makes you self-conscious – don’t wear it.

Like what you choose, so you can play well.

What you have.

It’s interesting to think what you actually have.

Not what you think you should have.

You may wish you looked like a certain movie star and feel inadequate because you don’t. And dream, that if only you had those looks, you would book more work.

What do you have? What are your qualities? What is your natural personality? What skills do you have? What training have you had? What experience have you had?

Those answers, that compendium, is what you are – actually are. And all of that is enough to play your roles.

Learning to release what is needed is the job. What you decide to release becomes your discretion. That decision comes from your outlook, experience and taste.

Everyone is needed in the movies.

‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.’

When in doubt…

Follow the basic TV acting guidelines:

• Look near the lens

• Be still

• Don’t blink

• Keep your mouth closed

• Speak at your normal volume and pace

• Keep your head symmetrical

These are good fallback guidelines when you’re really nervous – either shooting or in an audition.

Of course, it’s even better when you like what you’re doing, are breathing well, mean what you’re saying and reveal yourself.

But sometimes you’re off and guidelines can get you back on.

‘Who got the part?’

You didn’t get the part, but you’d like to know who did.

Why?

It might seem as if knowing is part of your education of the acting business. You might want to know who the competition is so you can be more competitive. Maybe finding out what it was the producers needed for that specific role will help you for next time.

As in all your practice, you’ll have to be sharp and specific to see if you gained knowledge by knowing who got cast.

Or did it make you jealous?

Jealousy is common, but isn’t a quality befitting a professional.

Just because it seems like all the actors want to know who got the role doesn’t mean that it’s a practice that assists you.

See if knowing who got the role is an asset or a liability to your work - and life - as an actor.

Be sensitive to your feelings.

Why argue?

Arguing and discussing are two different things.

If you’re rehearsing a play, practicing in class, or blocking a scene, why are you arguing?

You have a right to give your view, as long as it moves the discussion forward, or develops the work.

Arguing is a hallmark of today’s culture. We learn it in grade school: ‘I’m right!’

‘No, I am!’ ‘Yes, I did!’ ‘No, you didn’t!’ ‘Oh, yeah?’ ‘Yeah!’.

The more serious and extreme form of this is brinkmanship – High Noon.

Not a discussion but an argument.

Develop the culture of discussion while working with your colleagues. Part of the overall development of culture in society is the way in which we solve problems together. The form that takes.

Give your view and present your case sharply, so it assists the development of work or an idea.

What does winning an argument give rise to?

Why go to the audition?

Going to an audition without doubt or hesitation is good.

However, before you go, it’s not bad to ask yourself: ‘Do I want to go to this audition?’. You should consider both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as possible answers.

Looking at the facts might help you clarify the ‘yes’ answer. -it’s an opportunity to get a role -it’s your job -casting, producers and directors remember your audition -it fulfils your agreement with your agent -they can consider you for another role ---keeps you part of the industry -contact with your peers

The ‘no’ answer is all you really have as an actor. The state of the industry has you in a difficult position to say no. Sometimes saying no can put you in conflict with the producers, agents and casting directors.

Projects that are racist, sexist, anti-human, pornographic, dangerous etc. are ones you might say no to.

Taking a stand based on your conscience is something to be proud of and puts you alongside all the good actors before you who’ve said no.

Having a clear head as to why you’re going to an audition helps you act better.

Witches.

There are no witches.

But you’re like one.

When you work well you conjure. How you and your fellow actors do that is secret. It’s difficult to do and it’s precious.

It’s like how witches work.

Appreciate your ability to channel energy and cast spells. It’s magic. And the people love you for that ability. To tell their stories.

There are others who might not appreciate it - like some casting, producers, agents, directors. They don’t know what we do, so let them not know.

Cultured people know.

As witches were persecuted (for what? knowing something? speaking their conscience?) so you are too by: not having a voice in the industry, being kept out of the system, not being appreciated and always having to audition starting from zero.

Loving your ability to experiment, practice, experience and create like a witch, drawing from your imagination and nature itself, will give you confidence in face of the harsh system you work in.

It’s difficult to make your potion.

Without hope.

You have an audition and decide not to wear your glasses.

Then, you think, I’ll wear them during part of my slate. OK, so far.

Now the key question is whether you are hoping they will see the glasses and think that’s

the look they want and you’ll get booked.

Or you’ll wear them thinking it’s a bit cheeky and you like it and are happy to wear them and show you have glasses and are just content and happy to do it.

Without any desperate hope.

It’s best if your work develops on your own terms. That you take your position. With clarity and with lightness. Without reaching so far out that you’re overextended.

Doing instead of hoping.

Work away to come back.

Always be looking for ways to have your face away from the camera. Your first impulse might be to give your partner all your attention and look them in the eye.

Decide what is suitable and useful.

Looking away means you can come back. Opposites. That back and forth really suits the frame.

It’s the old idea in art of disappearing to reappear.

You need to be in thought while acting on screen. Looking down or away is screen language indicating thought. Playing truthfully will produce it.

And knowing how to do it technically is professional.

When something gets all your attention you look back at the other character - eyes close to the frame.

This sweep through the frame helps make your point.

Where you’re looking can signify how much attention you are giving the other character. You are always in the situation, but that does not mean you are always giving a hundred per cent of your attention to the other character.

This sweep into the frame helps make your point. It’s smart use of the medium.

Ebb and flow is sweet on camera.

Working-class actors.

Are there less working-class actors today then when I was in drama school in 1972?

Reading the Guardian article by Carole Cadwalladr Why Working-Class Actors are a Disappearing Breed prompted my writing on the question.

We could also ask, ‘Are there less movies today showing the life of working-class people?’.

Cadwalladr writes, “But it’s part of a much bigger picture. Because what has happened in acting and therefore what we see on our screens is intimately connected to what is happening in Britain. Acting, culture, identity, representation and politics are all inextricably entwined. The actors on our screens, the dramas that are commissioned, the way we view ourselves, the politicians we vote for, our ability to empathise with people from other parts of our culture, are all of a piece.”

The question ‘For whom?’ must be asked about TV and movies as well as other areas of life. The production has been made for whom? The themes of Netflix series are for whom? The ideas in blockbusters are whose? The Academy Award winning movies are for whom?

This is an important question for discussion as most of the people in the world are working-class.

The Guardian article adds, “Last year, a report revealed that half of Britain’s most successful actors were privately educated. The Sutton Trust found that 42 per cent of Bafta winners over all time were educated independently. 67 per cent of British winners in the best leading actor, actress and director categories at the Oscars attended fee-paying schools – and just seven per cent of British Oscar winners were state educated.”

My class at The National Theatre School of Canada had seven members out of a class of sixteen from working-class families.

What’s your experience?

Work is precious.

It’s difficult to build something up but easy to knock it down.

Just as human beings are the most precious thing, so too is the work you do as an actor.

Cherish, guard, and defend the hard work you and your fellow actors do. Recognize and celebrate that work. Beware of the culture that can seduce you into blabbing your experiences as currency in the marketplace. That can belittle your efforts.

The work you do to make films and plays is a struggle and that struggle is life itself.

It’s precious. Treat it as such.

'Yahoo! Whoopee!’ – ‘Whoa the horses!'

Riding a horse at full gallop you’re wont to cry out, ‘Yahoo! Whoopee!’.

As in: 'I landed a big role in a big movie. It’s amazing. I'm amazing.’.

That’s euphoria. Where you can believe, 'This is my life forever' and it can only lead one way. Down.

Down to depression.

They’re linked – euphoria and depression. Opposite sides of the same coin.

Try and learn to be sober-minded about your success. Watch the sagacity of the common actor’s description of life, ‘The ups and downs.’.

Natural highs are good. They are part of life just as the natural low is. These ebbs and flows must be rooted to your life in the real world.

Euphoria is a state where, drugged-like, you leave this real world and enter one in your own mind.

Try and keep your feet on the ground in success and in difficulty.

‘Whoa the horses!’ will stop your galloping horse from going off the cliff.

You’ll be one of the first to know.

You’ve done an audition and are dying to know if you got the part. Fair enough. It’s understandable - roles are damned hard to land.

So, you call your agent and ask if you got the part.

Good idea?

My agent once told me: ‘John, if you’re booked on a show you’ll be one of the first to know.’ Sound advice.

Watch that you don’t set yourself up for humiliation. Be professional and try to withstand the harsh winds of this business. Your agent has no idea if you’ve booked the job until casting calls and says so.

Then your agent will call you.

Desperation is easy to fall into. The very nature of show business gives rise to it.

Stay on the high road and know that your work is good, you have experience, and you’re ready, willing, and able to land another part.

Build your willpower to resist the urges that put you into a pit.

It takes too much energy to keep crawling out.

Your mother.

There’s a limit to what you would let someone say about your mother.

No way will you allow your mother to be humiliated beyond a line of acceptable social humour or criticism.

We defend our mothers.

This is a vivid tool when you're asking the question ‘What's this situation like?’. It could be like when you need to defend your mother.

Like the way you defend your characters: how they’re always right and believe – for better or for worse – what they say or do.

It makes a great benchmark for your ‘like’, ‘as if’, or ‘substitution’.

The fact that there is no closer tie than between a mother and child can be useful for you as an actor.

It’ll help you not give in when you act; assist you to stand your ground; help you tap into that pool of power you possess; help you mean what you say.

Putting your mother in your mind’s eye and harkening to your love for her can help keep you away from acting. You’ll be more truthful. It can be especially useful when you’re preparing a scene.

If, in a realistic improvisation in acting class, one actor is baiting the other by making fun of their mother, watch what happens to the recipient actor as the level of ridicule goes up. There will be a certain limit – a line crossed – where the actor stops acting and says ‘Stop!’ because the insult is too much. It’s that depth of connection that you won’t violate that is so useful.

As an actor you must find intimate methods that assist you to believe.