Actors on Acting – The Acting Corps Blog

This is not an acting book. Finally there are no more acting books to read, no more acting gurus to revere. You don’t need any more Stanislavski. You don’t have to study another version of the “real” Meisner Technique, or the Chekhov, or the Stella Adler. You definitely don’t need to hear one more “Lee used to say…” If you don’t know who Lee was or any of the other hallowed names, don’t worry; once the teacher dies the teaching becomes literature. For now let’s just say these were renowned acting teachers who turned some 20th century movie actors into movie stars. Or did they?

So a couple of years ago, I’m in the middle of directing our final project for The Professional Program. I ‘d spent a couple of weeks writing it and tweaking it, now we’re on set and about to roll camera on our last scene of the day. And the scene just isn’t working. We’ve already shot all over my house at this point, so we now HAVE to shoot in this one spot, the couch. I have a chat with the actors. We agree to scrap the scene, and wing it – come up with something right then and there.

Get Clear

Get clear with who you are and WHY you are doing this. If you believe that getting a part will make you lovable, unique, and immortal, it won’t. Act because you LOVE it and KNOW that nothing else will satisfy you for the rest of your life. You will then have something called an acting career. It may not happen when you want it to or how you want it to, but it will eventually happen if you stick around long enough.

Sometimes we can sleep for weeks, months, even years, hiding under the covers. And we cling to our covers with every compulsion we can muster, all the time praying for the strength to let go, or to somehow have our covers painlessly removed. What we forget is that while it seems that we have no control over our actions, this scenario is of our own making, and our covers are imaginary.

L.A. dwellers, try this. Travel to any place on this planet, spend at least a week there. Speak to the people, eat the food, breathe in and out. Then return to Hollywood. What is the first thing that hits you? The cars, yes that’s one thing. Their size, flash and cost crying out not for just attention, but adulation. What else? Ah, the people. Artificial lashes, noses, chests, and hair extensions begging for love not so much for the person underneath but for an idealized version of that person’s youth.