Why Meisner Is Like Windows 98

Before any Meisner disciples get up in arms with their pitchforks, I’d like to remind you that there was a lot of good that Windows 98 brought to the world at large and the entire personal computer community. The title of this article is not an insult or a jab at the Meisner technique, but a very pointed metaphor. While Windows 98 offered pillars of logistics and task-completion, by today’s standards, the program is sparse and painfully slow. 

I find Meisner to be analogous to this computer program that debuted nearly two decades ago in that it can be cripplingly narrow for the creative actor. 

Issue #1: Listening as an Overly Self-Aware Act

The centipede was happy, quite,
Until a toad in fun
said, “Pray, which leg goes after which?”
This worked his mind to such a pitch,
He lay distracted in a ditch,
Considering how to run. 

—“The Way of Zen” by Alan Watts

The technique makes a fetish out of the repetition exercise, continuing it for months on end before delving into any scene work. This can have the effect of making actors overly conscious of the basic act of talking and listening. 

We all know how to talk and listen, and we’re great at it when we’re talking about something that matters to us. Too often I see Meisner actors make their serious “listening face” as they attempt to show that they are in fact fully listening to their partners. It looks unnatural and often it seems like the actor has been so caught up with the act of listening, he doesn’t respond naturally.  

Issue #2: Overly Visible Technique

Really great actors deliver seemingly effortless performances. Their work does not reek of acting training, nor do they look like their heads are focused on some complex technique. 

I find often that Meisner-trained actors sound robotic as they strive to emulate the repetition exercise in their performances. Aside from the fact that no one likes an actor that sounds like a well-programmed cyborg, your technique should be absolutely invisible to the audience. More often than not, I feel that Meisner actors can lack that invisibility of technique—either in their robotic speech patterns or their conscious act of listening. Whenever I suspect an actor has been Meisner trained, I’m almost always right. 

Issue #3: Sometimes You Want to Dig Around Inside 

Meisner actors are taught the importance of using external stimuli for their reactions and to not engage in “self-indulgent” predetermined emotions. This doctrine can sometimes inhibit actors from looking inwards—at all. The reality is that sometimes we do have overlap with the character in question. As Philip Seymour Hoffman explained to Moviemaker.com in 2014, “I think I relate, or partly relate, to a lot of the parts I play.” A lot of actors feel the same way. Early in my process of working with an actor, I have them draw two boxes, Box A and Box B. Box A contains the elements of the character they can readily identify with; Box B contains the attitudes and behaviors connected to the character that they may have no reference for, such as abuse or addictions or racist attitudes. I find that Meisner trained actors can demonstrate a hyper-reluctance to look inwards whatsoever when it comes to developing a character, and this robs them of adding the richness of their own experiences.  

Final Word 

Meisner was my background. I wouldn’t have the knowledge I have today if it weren’t for my Meisner roots. That being said, I don’t think the technique has any place in the final product. 

Yes, there are amazing Meisner trained actors who believe in the technique, from James Franco to Grace Kelly. However, I believe that most of those actors would be watchable and moving regardless of the technique they studied, due to their own inherent singularity. 

Many great actors attribute their success to a technique. I believe the technique doesn’t make the actor. A good technique or process should open the door for an actor to ultimately be the creator of their own technique. Any technique that doesn’t allow for that possibility is fundamentally flawed because it presumes to override your natural instincts and ability to innovate. 

I help actors bridge the gap between their classic training and technique, and what it’s like to create original work—stamped with their personality—that doesn’t reek of “technique.”

This article was originally posted on Backstage

The Harshest Truth All Actors Will Face Throughout Their Careers

The hardest lesson an actor will learn throughout his/her career is that success will never be handed to them, or magically fall into their lap. And, having representation is never a magic pill, as 99 percent of agents and managers will not pitch their clients over the phone. They will send an online submission. This is the equivalent of pulling the lever of a slot machine, as the submission disappears into an abyss of thousands of other clicked-on online entries.

No industry professional (agent, manager, casting director, director, producer, etc.) will bestow a career upon you. You must actively, aggressively, and strategically create your own opportunities (writing, directing, producing, singing, comedy, etc.) to create a platform for yourself to be taken seriously. Career success is consistent with the amount of focused work you put in and with your ability to build and maintain relationships with other industry professionals.

In my career coaching program, I help actors get noticed faster and launch their careers—on their own terms—by forging game-changing relationships with major directors, writers, and producers. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

What Makes an Acting Class Right for You?

Choosing to engage in a relationship with an acting class/coach is like dating. You’re entering into a potentially long-term relationship that must be mutually beneficial, healthy, and free of mental and emotional abuse. The No. 1 factor when considering joining is the results of the work: launched careers, booked roles, awards, nominations, etc.

Class sizes must be small—I describe my classes as “private coaching in a class setting.” Because our classes are small, our actors get up and work every single week on a new piece until they have an undeniable acting breakthrough, or else they don’t sit down.

Do not join a class where you are forced to work with a scene partner. When actors are required to partner up, it means the teachers can pack the class like sardines. What sucks about this imposed dynamic is the inevitability that your partner doesn’t take it seriously. Why should you be shit out of luck just because your partner wasn’t prepared?

With seven clients landing series regular roles this year as a direct result of our work together, we believe classes and results must go hand in hand. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

How to Use Confidence to Book the Role

There’s a wealth of literature out there on how to beat audition nerves, along with a ton of anecdotal advice passed along from actor to actor. There’s a good reason for this: Auditions are a huge obstacle/opportunity in the high-stakes game of industry success, and actors need to be able to use them as a tool for launching their careers. Actors get this. They get how much is riding not only on their ability to book, but on their ability to be memorable and to leave a mark. 

Rule No.1 of the audition: Stop trying to guess what they are looking for. Assume you are who they’re looking for and bring yourself to the piece with a specific and fun choice. 

One major element which helps to create an internal environment of audition anxiety is the irrational desire to be perfect—to be what “they want” or what “they are looking for.” This is so futile because quite often the producing team will have only a vague idea of what they’re looking for. Thus, in trying to figure out if you are what “they want,” you’re trying to answer a question to which they don’t even know the answer.

Your job has a basic role: Like a hired assassin whose one job is to pull the trigger, your one job is to make a goddamn choice. In trying to guess “what they’re looking for” you set yourself up for imminent failure and you prevent any sort of artistic development from occurring. By making a fun, brave, deeply emotional, and impactful choice, you force yourself to leap into the red mist of dangerous change-effecting acting. I’m not promising that everything will be OK if you do this (and anyone who does is a liar). What I am promising is that you’ll be taking a worthwhile step in your own evolution as an artist. You can’t control the outcome, but what you can control is the fact that you’ll be selling your life and your time at a higher price than the sad, flimsy alternative of trying to fit into some preconceived notion of what is “right.” With 85 clients booked in major film and TV roles (including six series leads) in the last year, I help actors make the truly courageous choices that ignite their performances with attractive confidence so they can go into the room and win the role.

Furthermore, the mental gymnastics of trying to be what the producers are “looking for” puts you in a disempowered position as an actor—no wonder it creates such audition nerves. The moment you cross the threshold of the audition room you need to emanate the platinum light of utter confidence. That is simply not going to happen if you are in the mindset of, “Gosh, I hope this is right” or “Golly, I’m going to try and be as perfect as possible.” You need to walk into the room lit up with the attitude, “I’m the answer that you’re looking for.” If you can’t walk into an audition room and truly own that point of view, then you need to do some very real soul-searching before you accept another audition. 

Creating physical confidence within your own body leads to mental and emotional confidence. One of my students likes to say the words, “You’re welcome, mother f**kers” to herself before she enters the room. These words, in conjunction with her consistent success, previous failures, and accumulated auditioning hours, have helped her to always audition with confidence. This is so important because, quite often, the actual audition is preceded with the “conversational audition” where the producing team attempts to “get a sense of the person” via chitchat. If you’re not projecting confidence, or if you’re trying to be the person that you think they are “probably” looking for, you’re not setting yourself up to win. You’re helping to create a truly tepid scenario where you become as memorable and desirable as a commercial for something like “Ted’s Furniture Warehouse.” 

I’m not saying that any of this stuff is easy, but if you’re truly serious about launching your career and reaching your Oscar potential on set, you need to have the willingness to cast aside any notion of what the producers want. Have the inner bravery to decide that you’re what they want and allow this adage to jumpstart your entrance into the audition room with genuine charismatic confidence.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

A Must-Read Book for Actors

David Mamet’s “True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor” is essential reading for any actor navigating the jungle of acting training.

Mamet’s book is indispensable, as it exposes the dirty underbelly of this industry by calling nonsense “techniques” out for being undoable, running actors through hoops, stealing their money, and offering little in the way of practicable, or actionable advice.

Mamet exposes the fact that character is an illusion created by the personality of the actor and the circumstances within the writing. For him, “There is no character. There are just lines on the page.” This concept is at the core of my work with actors—I help them to use their singular personalities to book the role and reach their Oscar potential on set. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

6 Ways to Get Noticed Faster

I’m going to move to NYC/L.A. and I’m going to get an agent and sign up for an acting class with a reputable teacher. I’ll audition around town for a couple years and I’ll eventually land my big break in a major film or well-received indie or I’ll book a series regular role on a pilot that gets picked up. 

Great game plan. 

If this were, of course, 1996. 

This is a decent model for success for an actor in New York or L.A. approximately 20 years ago. 

Far too many actors are still trying to work this model: agent, audition, booking. 

And sure it does work. Commercially, I know a handful of actors who excel at it, don’t have day jobs, and regularly add to their retirement plans. 

Theatrically, I know five out of every 100 for whom this model is working. Meaning for every 100 actors I know, I know five who are steadily adding to their résumés, their bank accounts, and their general public popularity via the method of agent, audition, book role. 

This is 2015. The entertainment industry has changed. You need to be the one who wakes up at dawn each morning with a chisel and a cup of coffee, determined to carve one out for yourself. 

All that being said, below are six ways to get noticed faster.

1. Being pleasantly persistent and not waiting around. Most actors lack follow-through. Actors know they need to send follow-up emails to industry professionals who can help them move forward in this long-ass shit-shoveling show known as forging a career. But they don’t. Call it fear of rejection, call it laziness—whatever. If you start following through on every connection you’ve made consistently, I guarantee you’ll see results over time. 

2. Confidence. “It’s this way.” Have you ever followed a complete stranger’s directions, simply because they seemed sure of themself? You need to have the conviction of the random guy on the corner that says the marina is that way, even though there is no evidence indicating one way or the other. I help actors adopt a body attitude of attractive confidence to go into the audition room andwin the role.

3. Patience. Stop demanding instant results. If you start getting down on yourself that you’re not moving forward at a fast enough rate, you’re going to psych yourself out—and become victim to many of the elements that actors fall prey to: depression, low self-esteem, self-doubt, and aggrandizement of “safe” professions. (Maybe I should study for the LSAT?)

4. Stop being afraid to look like an asshole! I’ve seen so many safe performances, I feel like someone should pin a medal on me. Such performances often stem from the actor’s irrational desire to determine what casting or producers are looking for, and thus emulate that. The result is boring—so boring I feel like the actor should have to pay a fine. By letting out your inner weirdness, you make your performance a jillion times more interesting. 

5. Help a sister out. Give. Offer to read someone’s script and provide feedback. Go to someone’s table read. Be a PA on a friend’s short film. Give your acting class friend a referral to your agent if you can. In helping your colleagues out in these ways, you’re building up your ranks of support and creating a wealth of good karma that’s going to benefit you later. 

6. Create your own projects. This piece of advice is probably the most essential, and the one that actors protest against the most. But I’m here to act. I don’t/can’t/won’t write. OK, fine, then hire someone who can. Align yourself with talented writers and cinematographers who have the skills you don’t in order to create content that will get you noticed faster than any co-starring role can. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage