Tune Your Heartbeat To Your Character's Heartbeat

The actor’s job is to find ways to relate to the character. You need to be able to create a connection so strong to this fictional person, that you and him/her become a Venn diagram together with zones of overlapping qualities and zones of separation. 

Developing a role into a nuanced individual should feel like you’re developing a close relationship with another person—it should be intimate and a little terrifying, as you’re allowing yourself to be exposed, while looking into the shortcomings and oddities of this new individual that you’re helping to shape. 

Michelle Williams’ reflection on playing Marilyn Monroe so fabulously in the film “My Week with Marilyn” clearly demonstrates the importance of aligning your heartbeat with the heartbeat of the character. As one L.A. Times journalist recounts, “‘This is nice,’ she [Williams] says at one point. ‘I miss Marilyn, and talking about her keeps her close. I'm still not ready to let her go.’" This sentiment clearly reveals an actor who has been able to synchronize heartbeats—so much so, it’s as if they had forged a real relationship. Creating that connection is significant as it makes the character you work on more and more authentic.

Many doctrines and techniques offer seemingly warm and fuzzy escapes from the dangers of facing this fictional person in the moment, as it’s far less scary to dance around the rabbit hole than to dive in headfirst without a safety harness.

Here are a few ways to connect with your character.

Own them in the moment. 
This work starts with four simple words, “I am one who…” This work can be done anywhere you like: car, subway (only for the brave), home, etc. This is the time to start wading into the deep end and confronting the aspects of your character that might be charming, or those which might be disturbing. For instance, this exercise might cause you to say things like “I am one who has sex for money,” “I am one who saves all my fortune cookie messages,” or “I am one who brings a flask to work.” This exercise is extremely effective as it allows one to shine a flashlight towards the darker areas of a character’s psyche, allowing one to come face to face with some of their demons, quirks, and golden tinges. Often times, this work gives the actor courage to make the more dangerous choices—the ones other actors may be too afraid to make.

Coming face to face with these details of the character allows you to own them in the moment, and begin to forge a lasting rapport with this flawed, but fascinating human being.  

Backstory exercises are boring; here’s an alternative.
Go to a website like Pinterest and create a visual backstory board, which, essentially, will be an online collage of all the things related to your character. You will have millions of images to select from, so you can be very precise. The importance of this exercise revolves around the fact that you are developing a visual rendering of the influences which have shaped and continue to shape your character’s world. For example, you can find images of their abusive parents, or the tenement where they grew up, or the boarding school they were sent away to, and the heartthrob or movie star they adored as a kid. 

By creating these visual renderings, you can develop a much deeper and more intimate understanding of where this fictional person has been and why he/she does the things he/she does. You’ll also get a more lucid sense of where you end and where your character begins. 

Go on a date with your character.
This is one of the more wackier exercises that one can do when seeking to create this deeper level of intimacy with a character, but it is effective. Clear an evening and leave the house, going to all the places your character would want to take you on a date. Where would you end up? A dive bar? A five-star restaurant? A train yard? A movie theater? Would the night be fun and a non-stop adventure, or would it be more predictable and safe? Visiting all these places and going through these activities while looking at everything through the eyes of your character can’t help but foster a deeper sense of how your character views the world, and what he or she wants from it. 

The goal of all these exercises is to foster a tangible sense of overlap with the rhythm of your heartbeat and that of your character’s own heart. These exercises will allow you to get to a place where when you no longer have to play this role, you will in fact, like Michelle Williams, miss this person. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

Permission To Make The More Dangerous Choice

John Cusack. One of the bravest and most versatile actors in Hollywood. A line from an interview he did in 1998 always stayed with me, as it illustrates one of my strongest beliefs about acting. “Cusack was 23 when he made ‘Say Anything.’ Now, some eight years later, he says that working on that film is still one of his most treasured memories: ‘Lloyd Dobler was simply the best part of who I could ever be.’ And so who is John Cusack, really? He smiles that killer smile. ‘You know how in The Grifters, my character, the con man Roy Dillon, had such a dark heart? I'd have to say I'm right smack in the middle of Lloyd and Roy.’”  

What Cusack reveals about his approach to acting in this sentiment is that he is not afraid to use his personality to create a character. The most shockingly powerful truth in acting is that 90 percent of the performance is the personality of the actor. Why this statement is so terrifying is that at first glance it seems like I’m professing actors should just play themselves—I’m not. The work that goes into that 10 percent is enormous. What I’m proposing is that our personality is the instrument—or clay—with which we can compose an infinite number of characters. All of those characters will have the scent and soul of our own personality.

The 10 percent of the character which is not you, needs to revolve around the most dangerous choice—something that Cusack also instills his characters with. When playing Lloyd Dobler in “Say Anything,” Cusack constantly made the most dangerous choice—putting his heart and his feelings out there again and again (only to be rejected again and again—until the end, of course). 

When playing Roy Dillon, John Cusack consistently stepped into the red mist of danger, from lying to people in the intricate web of con artistry with a smirk and a sense of entitlement to making out with his mother in a haze of repressed incestuous desire. With each character though, the careful viewer can still see the foundational traces of Cusack apparent. Cusack is always drawing upon his personality to give these brave but damaged people an authentic place to originate from. 

Permission to Use Your Personality
Here’s a question I pose to my new students and clients:

“After all the work is finished, what if your best acting felt as easy as if you were simply playing yourself? Would you feel you were interesting enough?”

The temptation to hide behind doctrine or technique is so seductive because it allows us a way to escape from the danger and fire of facing ourselves. This comes from a multi-faceted place: on the one hand, many actors don’t feel like they’re interesting enough. On the other hand, many actors do have a latent amount of fear connected to the act of drawing upon themselves—which means using their own perversions, flaws, moments of dishonesty, and manipulative qualities. Sometimes the act of using one’s personality is actually the act of admitting to oneself, as Cusack did so boldly, that one does in fact have a dark heart.

The 10 Percent That Isn’t You
This is one of the more challenging parts of developing the character and it helps to be able to write it out with a pen and paper. Make a list of the attitudes, qualities, actions, feelings, or thoughts that are connected to this character that genuinely are not you. When you’re done with this list, take a long look at all the things on it and really be honest with yourself: are all of these aspects things which are not part of your personality or blood memory? 

This might be an easy yes for many actors, but with this exercise, many will find that there are still areas of overlap. 

With the attitudes and character traits that are completely foreign to you…find a way to embrace and adopt them so that you are in fact, making the most dangerous choice. For Cusack, this meant instilling every action, moment, whim, and line that his character Roy Dillon made in “The Grifters” with a sense of deeply buried desire for his mother. This choice was underlying every single thing his character did in that film, and it was one of the bravest choices an actor has ever made.  

This article was originally posted on Backstage

How Actors Can Have The Best Pilot Season Ever Without Representation

Pilot season is just around the corner and you’re still an actor without theatrical representation. Don’t worry! Take a deep breath and relax—you’re going to be fine.

The most contagious disease effecting actors is the belief that signing with an agent or manager guarantees you’ll compete for every role you’re right for. My private clients are divided among actors who compete for 0-6 major auditions per year v.s. actors who compete for 30-40 top-tier auditions per year—that’s a staggering 3-6 auditions per week during peak seasons.

What’s the difference? The actors with the 30-40 auditions are being pitched via telephone followed by a personal email to the casting office. Those only going out for 0-6 per year are only being submitted online via “breakdown services” by their reps. Also, some agents have long-standing relationships with certain casting offices, and the CD will bring in literally whomever that agent submits. 

Fact: less than one percent of agents and managers actively pitch their clients, either via phone or personal email. The reason most reps don’t pitch is because they simply don’t have the relationships or clout with casting directors, or they’re terrified of losing face should they misjudge an actor’s “rightness” for a role. Ask any great agent or manager and they’ll tell you that a rep who isn’t pitching clients should get out of the business. 

Your success in launching your acting career is directly related to how visible you make yourself and to your ability to build and maintain relationships with industry professionals: directors, producers, writers, actors, casting directors, etc. Your results depend on how you build those relationships. 

“I’ve already made it.”

Adopting the attitude “I’ve already made it” instantly tunes you to the level of confidence needed to stand up for yourself and build those crucial industry connections.

It’s important to reject the herd mentality—what every other actor is doing—every step of the way. Sending a press release-style email is miles more effective than a mass postcard or headshot mailing, as it instantly separates you from the herd and gives the illusion that you’ve already made it. People in this business respond to that sort of confidence. If you’ve never written a press release and have no idea what you would put in yours, a quick Google search will give you more than enough guidance. 

Stop waiting for permission to market yourself.

Get in the habit of rejecting the archaic concepts of “niche” and “type” as they only serve to box you in and stifle your originality. Start owning all those awesome things that embody your personality—the crazier and more out there the better! You’ll soon start to define your own type, which transcends any of the “types” already out there. Steve Buscemi is an actor who embraced his unique flavor of quirkiness to create his own tailor-made type. Zooey Deschanel has immortalized Jess on “New Girl” as the charmingly clueless, singing neurotic roommate with the big blue eyes and sexy hair. Who knows if they would have had the success that they’ve had if they had spent years trying to stuff their uniqueness into the box of some preconceived type that the business had already dictated?

This means that for the next audition you get, stop trying to think of how you can cram all your glorious oddities and neuroses into the narrow confines of what you think they want. Instead, give yourself permission to let the bizarreness, ugliness, sexiness, or disarming qualities of you come through, imprinting the character with something priceless. Such courage is indeed worth the effort. 

Before the huge successes of “New Girl” and “(500) Days of Summer” Zooey Deschanel showed up to one of our coaching sessions with a deeply ironic casting breakdown. The breakdown was looking for a “Zooey Deschanel type.” Zooey was between acting jobs and we both laughed at the absurdity of it all. For me, that moment solidified the fact the she had officially made it.

In my career coaching work with actors, I help my clients to reject the lottery mind-set—to see acting success as commensurate with the amount of focused work they put in, rather than just a series of lucky events.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

Why Actors Need To Let The Lines Do The Heavy Lifting

“Throw it away more.”

Nearly every actor has heard this direction either on set, in acting class, or during an audition, but how many actors really understand what this particular piece of direction is getting at?

Telling an actor to throw away their performance, their delivery, or certain lines of the script more simply means that the actor isn’t letting the writing do the work. The actor isn’t placing enough trust in the writing or in their self. Thus, the actor’s performance becomes too much, putting the actor in danger of overacting, of getting bigger, louder, and all in all, not delivering the nuanced performance that they are capable of.

One of my clients went in for a role of a tough street punk on a popular Showtime dramedy. Granted, the office she went in for was notorious for being nasty to actors, but the note she received from the casting director was, “Stop acting tough. The lines are already tough.” While I wasn’t there, and while I have confidence that my client is a gifted actor, I got the impression that nerves took over during the audition and she felt the urge to do too much, trusting herself less, and essentially, over-acting to an extent. 

My client got over her disappointment from this audition with the resiliency of a professional. But I urge us to now examine how the act of auditioning and the high stakes involved can too easily stir up one of an actor’s greatest fears: the feear that you’re not interesting enough as yourself. This greatly increases the temptation to give the acting a little something extra—to push it.

There are times when you must take your foot off the acting gas and let the lines do the hard work and heavy lifting in the scene. In other words, stop pushing the acting! I’m not telling you to do less—I’m saying, sometimes the best choice is to actually do nothing. 

A great example of doing less is with Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada.”  I thought the film was great and that all the actresses did a wonderful job. However, it was only when I read David Ansen’s review in Newsweek about the film that I realized how brilliant and smart Streep’s performance was. “Never raising her creamy voice, Meryl Steep is scarily sensational as magazine editor Miranda Priestly, the tyrannical, all-powerful arbiter of New York fashion.” A lesser actress would have yelled, and would have punctuated each line with explosive venom in order to create an “intimidating character.” Instead Streep infuses each line with a soft, lingering poison, the lilt of her voice evocative of the quiet shake of a rattlesnake.  

Performances like these are a manifestation of how the more physical and emotional space you create inside yourself, the more room you open up to invite the character to be expressed through you. Much of the work I do with my private clients is focused on opening up space inside them to create room for the character to come through in the most natural way possible. This way, actors can leave themselves alone and let the lines do the work.

The most beautiful and skilled writing can often stand alone, without an actor imposing upon it.  But what about if the writing is bad? In such cases the actors generally feel an even more aggravated need to inflict their mark upon the writing in order to make it better or “more believable.” I’m of the opinion that this is the wrong instinct. With bad writing, I say throw it away even more (after you’ve done your preparation and have allowed the character to come through you of course). Think of the cheesiest, most soap-opera-esque line you’ve ever had to deliver (“You’ve turned our love into nothing but lies. Lies!”). This is a prime example of how, really, any imposition on the writing by the actor is just going to call attention to how awful the writing is. It’s kind of like dabbing a stain on silk with a damp washcloth and creating a big watermark that’s even more noticeable than the stain ever was. In such a case, you need to approach the moment from a place of honesty, with all the work you’ve done on the character, and just speak the speech.

The difference between “good” and “great” acting is just a few millimeters of focused and specific work, and the ability to trust that it’s firmly rooted inside you before the call of “Action!” That little bit extra is often the difference between a strong audition vs. a booked role, or being nominated vs. winning the award. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

How To Stand Out In The First Moment Of A Scene

There’s discussion and debate on the importance of the “prior moment”—or “moment before”—in acting. Rarely is the “moment of” ever discussed. My work with actors is sharply focused on that first moment of the scene. It’s one of the most important parts of your preparation, as it launches you into the reality of the scene.

Have you ever noticed that most audition scenes never start at the beginning? They usually start somewhere in the middle of something—an often awkward and uncomfortable situation yet emotionally full.

I once coached a client for a film audition scene that started in the middle of the most awkward and uncomfortable sex. (It wasn’t a porno, I promise.) But try to picture all the physical and emotional sensations that are going through you in the middle of the stark act of sex; this is what this woman had to successfully prepare. I mention this for the next time you get a “tough set of sides” for an audition. Are those sides as tough as starting a scene mid-intercourse?

It’s the first moment, or moment of, that can either save or sink the scene. I call that first moment the character’s “hook” in the scene. The hook is the very specific attitude you adopt at the top of the scene, after you’ve safely chucked your acting preparation out the window.

The most effective hooks are best expressed in four words or less. I recently coached a very talented young client for a juicy guest star role on a gritty hit cable drama. He played a fearless 15-year-old, the youngest of four brothers, who would gladly fight to the death to protect the honor of his highly dysfunctional, backwoods family. The scene opens with him and his older brother slowly tossing a firecracker back and forth with the intention of not flinching. My client, clearly the more dangerous and powerful of the brothers, distilled his attitude or hook—in relation to his brother—to be “Bring it on, bitch!” Saying those specific words lit him up to the truth of that first moment in the scene. After that hook was expressed, his emotional sail was so full of wind that all he needed to do was start the scene and enjoy the ride. He was able to function like an emotionally full-but-blank canvas and engage with his scene partner—moment by moment—not knowing what was going to happen next.

This is important to keep in mind because so many actors will go into the audition room, having planned out every single moment, like a chess player planning eight moves ahead. This is so problematic because it’s so transparent. The casting director can tell; the actor’s work seems over-prepared and far too safe.

Like life, every scene must ultimately be entered as if you’re a clean slate—you might know what you want and what you’re afraid of, but you don’t quite know what you’re going to do, and there’s absolutely no telling how your partner will react to it.

In order to approach the scene from this perspective, you must ultimately discard all acting technique and preparation. Acting technique/preparation is like a band-aid. You need to apply it to the work before you perform for obvious reasons, but if you keep it on too long, it will pollute the acting process at large. Thus, you need to rip off that bandage before you go into the audition room.

Have you ever watched a performance that reeked of acting technique? It’s the unmistakable odor of safety and predictability, free from the danger and fire of the moment. Most of all it’s boring.

When was the last time you consciously executed a beat change while hanging out with your best friend? What actions were you aware of playing when you last fell in love? You can tell someone you’re not in love with them anymore and that you’re leaving and try to predict how they will react to this news, but your likelihood of predicting with absolute accuracy is very slim. This is largely because natural actions and reactions happen in life without planning. You owe it to yourself to instill your acting with such riveting qualities. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

4 Ways To Be Less Manic Depressive As An Actor

I’ve spent the last week traveling throughout Taiwan. Other than my time working with actors here, I can honestly say I’ve rarely thought about acting or the industry. I’m proud of myself for taking the time away. It wasn’t easy. Show business is like the ocean, and it can be hard to feel like you’re “turning your back on it” by leaving town. There’s always the fear of missed opportunities, but sometimes leaving town gives a crucial sense of perspective on the game.

For me, it has been refreshing and has allowed me to return to my studio with a renewed sense of humor and fun about the whole damn carnival of this crazy industry. The one piece of career advice I keep giving that never gets old is “Stop making yourself crazy!” As an actor, it can be easy to feel manic-depressive as you swing from opportunities and excitement to rejection and disappointment week in and week out. Even the sheer waiting game of anticipating the next audition or the next showcase or the next time your agent will call, can make you feel like you live this bizarre hybrid-existence of being half-frozen and never quite living in the moment.

Despite all these obstacles, you can really find inner peace and your own sense of forward momentum, and start having more fun. Because if you’re not having fun with your own life path as an artist, then all the sacrifice is just not worth it.

1. Stop believing all the hype. One of the hardest parts of being an actor is all the free and unsolicited advice you’re given. This can range from advice on the hottest headshot photographer of the moment, which acting coach to study with, and what kind of read a particular casting office likes. All this free advice can be helpful—sometimes and in small doses—but quite often it can make you feel like you’re going mad.

Stop listening to what other actors are saying you should do to further your career. Turn up your music in the audition waiting room or when you hear talk of “niche” or “type”—they’re just a call to action for you to conform to someone else’s stale concept of what box they think you should fit into. Aren’t you sick of all the BS and industry shoptalk being shoveled 24/7? I am. Remember, your path to acting success will be 100 percent your own. In a previous article, I discussed the necessity of rejecting the “herd mentality.” It’s OK to be aware of the advice that’s being swirled and swished around this town, but going with your gut, your instincts, and your genuine interests will be a truer guide to you every time.

2. If you’re not having fun it’s not worth it. If you’re not having fun when you’re acting then just stop. Some acting teachers and methods make a fetish out of students digging up past trauma and pain—so much that it fast becomes a competition of who’s more screwed up. If it’s not obvious why this is harmful to one’s psyche and development as an artist then please stop reading.

Other teachers make it their duty to be downright nasty to their students, so that class borders on abuse. Generally I’ve found that the mentality in such scenarios is that such harshness is just supposed to make one a “stronger actor.” Such a notion is pure garbage, and it just allows the teacher a stage for power and ego-tripping. When you’re acting, you shouldn’t feel like you’re trying to please people or trying to check a series of boxes; you should feel dangerous and exhilarated. If you don’t, you either need to find a new class or a new technique that does let you fly forward, take new risks, and even surprise yourself.

3. Set realistic goals. Without realistic goals, you will always feel like you’re behind or failing. Setting realistic goals, however, will make you feel like you’re making steady, regimented progress. A common question I get from new actors is, “How long will it take before I’m ready to audition for major roles and/or look for top tier representation?” Sanford Meisner believed it took “20 years to become a master.” I think that notion is both true and absurd as actors like James Dean, Heath Ledger, Natalie Portman, Sam Rockwell and others couldn’t claim the title “actor” using that rule. Remember, show business in New York or Los Angeles means you’re competing at the highest level of the game. You can’t expect to just grab a fiberglass pole and vault your way to a gold medal in three weeks. It takes time, the love of craft, and patience to reach that level.

4. Create your own opportunities. None of my clients—both celebrity and working professionals—with successful acting careers ever waited around for someone else to give them work or validation. They created their own awesome opportunities to showcase themselves at their best. An actor I’ve worked with for years recently created a web series that turned pop lyrics into dramatic scenes—it was picked up by Warner Music Group. And you can create more than acting opportunities. One of my clients is on a mission to bring clean drinking water to Swaziland, one is a champion for animal rights, another is an Instagram star, etc. All of these actors have one thing in common: they’re creating their own fun. No actor was ever handed a career on a silver platter. Being the creator of your own acting opportunities is both smart and rewarding as it ensures you’re never waiting for breadcrumbs from someone else.

This article was originally posted on Backstage