Last week’s Republican National Convention was the Grand Ol’ Party’s opportunity to present its vision of America, discount Barack Obama and make voters all over the country fall in love with Mitt Romney. And the crowning jewel of the convention was to be a surprise appearance by Clint Eastwood leading into the Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney’s self-defining, home run address to the nation. What resulted was an amazing lesson for actors. The contrast between Clint’s “presentation” and Mitt’s speech provides profound insight into the nature of preparation, discovery in each moment and how they must be woven together.

Clint Eastwood stood at the podium in front of millions of people around the country and had a seemingly impromptu discussion with an empty chair that he imagined to be occupied by President Obama. He rambled. He mumbled. He talked to the audience, then to the chair. It lacked cohesion and indeed comprehension. It was awkward, exciting, funny and sad all because he was existing moment to moment on stage. We had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. Which might have been wonderful. But unfortunately for him- and the party- nothing with any particular point did happen. While I imagine that he must have had some thoughts in his head about what he might do on stage (“I guess I’ll talk to the chair”), he clearly didn’t know where it was going to go. He didn’t have a clear point or know what he wanted from the audience. The performance lacked a strong preparation. For the most part he was dealing with the moments and certainly being authentic. But the moments weren’t rooted in a strong and interesting preparation so they were left to float in the air, directionless, until they met their inevitable demise. In front of millions of people. Clearly Clint hasn’t auditioned in a tick because any actor who goes out regularly knows that if you go into an audition without a strong preparation (having made the material and the world of your play personal and specific, knowing what you want, etc) you’ll awkwardly flop around on stage like Clint did. He was all about the moments without any preparation.

The precise opposite was true of Mitt Romney. The political, financial and emotional stakes being as high as they are right now, the campaign and the candidate did everything they could to totally and utterly control every aspect of Mitt’s speech and the reaction it would illicit in the audience. Every line, every smile, every feeling was carefully choreographed with surgical precision in order to give us the impression that Mitt is everything they want us to think he is. That he has a heart. That he cares about the middle class, women and Latinos. That he has the ability to fix the economy and get America where we all want it to be. His speech was saturated with preparation. But no moments. Mitt Romney’s speech didn’t move anyone because there was no room for the authenticity that comes when you’re allowing yourself to be truthfully affected by what you are saying in the moment, discovering how you feel about it as you’re saying it. And because they tried to control our reaction rather than have Mitt share a sliver of his emotional truth with us and allow us to feel what Mitt was feeling, we might have even felt manipulated. Mitt didn’t need to weep, but he did need to speak like a human being. And he didn’t. Human beings who we deem to be authentic aren’t that prepared. People with things to hide, who have an intense fear of a particular consequence and who don’t want you to know what they’re like when they’re not on guard, saturate everything they say with preparation. Every line. Every word. It doesn’t inspire trust. He needed to allow the moments to happen and rely less on preparation. He needed to let go. Mitt Romney may be what this country needs to get the economy going- you can decide that for yourself- but he does have a problem appearing inauthentic because he doesn’t trust the moments.

Both Clint and Mitt should have taken a page from the other’s play book. Only the weaving together of preparation and the moments make for a compelling, authentic performance that moves people to action. Being prepared while also allowing for discovery in the moment- these seemingly conflicting notions- will take your work to the next level. At certain times during your performance your preparation informs your actions and at other times during a performance the moments take over. It is a fluid dance back and forth that is the stuff of real, human interaction. Without the moments you won’t move anyone. Without the preparation, you’ll be pointless and weird.

Wanna explore the preparation and the moments? Come audit a class this week. www.actingthetruth.com

It happened again. I was reading a breakdown for a movie that’s casting right now and one of the roles they were looking to fill was described as, “Lisa, 25, ethnic.” Just like always the anger flared up and I shook my head. This kind of thing happens a lot in this town.

Writing about race in America makes me wildly uncomfortable. Landmines everywhere. Plus, I can think of very few people less qualified to offer an opinion on race in America than a Canadian-born, white man like me. My understanding of the topic will always be very limited. I will never have an understanding of what it’s like to be anything other than a Canadian-born, white man. Beyond that lack of racial understanding, I am still discovering what race means in America. Even though I had seen all of Spike Lee and Robert Rodrigues’ movies and know most Lyrics Born and Dead Prez songs by heart, when I came to America I was shocked and amazed at how the issue of race permeates so many aspects of American culture. I was oblivious to the extent of it all. In America race affects everything. Our business, too.

Most people you see on TV and in movies are white. Heck, most people you meet in the business- actors, agents, casting directors, directors, producers, studio and network executives, acting coaches and everyone else- are white. That seems to be the default setting of the industry. So, when they’re looking for an actor who is not white they call that actor ethnic, as if white is their assumed norm and everything else besides that is ethnic (read: non-white). “They’re going ethnic”, the agent will say, rolling her eyes at the fact that her white clients were just discounted from that role. It’s the expression of a level of race-entitlement and ignorance that is staggering and certainly not worthy of actors who must, by definition, be hyper-sensitive and aware of themselves and the world around them.

Maybe the recent success of THINK LIKE A MAN represents a course change for the industry regarding African American casts at least. And it seems to me that things have gotten better in the last twenty years (I could be wrong on that). But there are still fewer opportunities for non-white actors and the opportunities they get are often written by white writers and directed by white directors. That means, that often times the opportunities available to Asian, Black, Indian, Latino, and Native American actors represent their place in the world as seen by a white dude. And, a white dude- cause he’s white- cannot have a full understanding of the experience of people of color and he probably won’t ever think of the hero of his story as being anything other than white and male. Ergo, the roles offered to actors of color are the convenience store owner, the math nerd, the gangsta, the angry baby-mama, the maid, the savage, etc.

And when that breakdown goes out, actors of color face a choice that non-white actors don’t. They have to decide whether they want to work and make money, on the one hand, or represent their culture in a way that might negatively affect the perception and self esteem of a little kid in the Midwest who looks like you, on the other. With white as the default setting and prevailing image on TV and film, actors of color always end up carrying the flag for their race. With exposure to different races limited on TV and film, all of a sudden how you portray that “bungling, Indian convenience store owner with the thick accent” will affect how Indians are perceived in America. So, if you take the role you might be letting your community down and if you don’t you’ll struggle to pay the rent that month. There’s no great choice. It’s a trap. The only way out is to be totally self sufficient and write, shoot and distribute your own content. Which you should do. But it’s not always realistic or possible.

I appreciate when my Asian, Black, Indian, Latino and Native American clients decide that they can’t go in for a certain role. Their gut just tells them that it’s not OK. But at the same time no one can tell you that you have to take a stand for your community and turn down every role that isn’t written for your community, by your community, or that doesn’t portray your race in a positive way. It’s good to work. And this is the industry that you’ve chosen. Most of the actors I work with, take it one audition at a time. Some take a hard line on “doing the accent”, others choose based on where they’re at financially that month. But the choice is always yours and yours alone.

But if you do decide to audition for the role of the stereotype, our work is such that often times you can do so without giving them the stereotype. You can fulfill their their ignorant perception while at the same time bringing so much of your truthful feeling to the world of your play that the maid, or the thug, or the Mathlete, is imbued with such deep humanity- as much humanity as your training has allowed you to discover and express- that it becomes less of a stereotype and more of an actual human being. And individual human beings can transcend stereotype. On the individual level, stereotypes can break down. Because we are all far too unique to fit templates. If we’re expressing our unique qualities within the world of our play, the stereotype can die. Even when we’re in that movie speaking with an accent, working at the Quickie Mart.

A stereotype by definition is a preconceived notion. Preconceived notions exist in our mind, before the interaction with that which we are conceiving. In my mind I can think about how I’m going to say a line in the waiting room before the audition. That’s a preconceived notion of that line that may not allow for the truth of the moment in which that line will be spoken later on in the audition. In his mind, well before killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman had an idea of how young black men behave. That is a preconceived notion of black men. But preconceived notions don’t allow for the beauty and discovery of each moment and how we human beings each truthfully feel and react in any given moment. Our humanity is in those moments, and our unique set of experiences that inform how we react to those moments. In fact, stereotypes remove us of our humanity by assuming that we aren’t unique and that we don’t react differently in different moments. Notwithstanding hard-headed people who won’t allow themselves to really see you, when we’re truthful in those moments, stereotypes can evaporate- if only for a moment. Moreover, it is your truthful feelings in each moment that make you, a Mexican American actor tending to the lead actor’s rose bush in that TV show, relatable not just to one community. But to everyone. The more personal, the more universal. Humanity is universal.

Now, I’m not saying that our work as actors can end racism in America, or the industry or even our own minds. Sometimes it feels like that’s not even possible. But if you do the work, you can walk away knowing that it was your anger, your sadness, your joy and heartbreak, not that of the white writer’s, born of his perception of who and what you should be. You can walk away knowing that you gave them you. And you are unique.

There. I just wrote a blog post- complete with helpful tips!- about a topic I don’t understand. Even though when a breakdown calls for “All American Guy”, they mean someone who looks like me, I offered suggestions for actors of color. That might not have been wise. That said, I think we- even white people like me who would be horrified at the notion of offending anyone by raising such a topic- need to talk about race and how it affects our industry. Cause, A, let’s call it how we see it. And B, when we artists are exposed to a limited portion of the human experience, we all lose.

No matter what you look like, everyone’s voice is unique as a result of the set of experiences they possess, the totality of which, no one else possesses. Whether you’re a woman who’s supposed to put on a bikini and stand down stage, a gay man who’s supposed to do your best Paul Lind impression, a white man who’s supposed to be the entitled oppressor, or an actor of color who is being asked to reflect a multitude of ignorant stereotypes…do the work of bringing your voice to the world of the play. Your unique humanity. It’s what is most interesting about you. And it makes you human.

Don’t know how? Come audit a class.

I caught an interesting interview on NPR recently that Patt Morrison conducted with Dr. Josh May and journalist and author, Peggy Orenstein. The topic was a recent study on puberty. The study suggests that, for reasons that are still unclear, girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever. Like, sometimes as young as 7 or 8 years old. While everyone on the panel agreed that early onset puberty brought with it a number of negative health risks, Peggy Orenstein offered insight into the psychological effects of early puberty that relate to our work as actors

The thing about puberty is that many of the physical manifestations of puberty (budding breasts, etc.) occur before menstruation and the internal feelings of sexual desire. The young girl’s outward appearance changes before her brain becomes sexual and she desires sexual behavior. But in a society that takes every opportunity to sexualize young women and girls (I’m looking at you American Apparel), these young girls learn that their bodies elicit a response from the people around them. The bat of an eye, the movement of the hips, etc. Advertising and TV and movies reinforce this notion and they see it in the reactions from the men and boys they encounter. Even though they don’t feel internal sexual, desire they know that their bodies are having an effect on the audience around them. Orenstein suggests that these girls learn at a very early age to equate sexuality with performance. The focus is on how they are affecting the audience with sexual movement and behavior even though, in Orenstein’s words, “they aren’t developmentally able to connect that to authentic, erotic feeling.” It’s a performance without a truthful connection. In a nutshell, they’re focused on asking, “what does the audience want of me?” and then trying to give the audience what it wants, before asking, “What do I want?” And they don’t know what they want because their internal biology hasn’t caught up with their outward appearance and the way in which they are sexualized by clothing companies, cosmetic companies, Disney, etc, etc.

The tragedy is that, left unchecked, young girls who equate sexuality with performance turn into women who equate sexuality with performance and an entire lifetime can pass by without those women asking the question, “what do I really want?” They never discover or express their unique sexual voice because the focus of sexual behavior is always on the audience and the performance these women believe the audience demands.

Actors do something similar. We can be so focused on getting the industry to pay attention to us and validate us that we ignore our own voice. When we open the email from the agent and read the sides we’ll first ask ourselves, “what do they want?” or “what can I do to make them pick me?” rather than, “where do these moments live in me?” and “How do I feel about the world of this play?” Instead of bringing our unique artistry to the world of the play, we ignore our own voice and put the focus on trying to please someone else. The result is that often times we offer a performance that’s not connected to our truth. We put on. We act. We want what they can give us so badly (and the validation and money that comes with it) that we do everything we can to focus on the audience and control their response. In the process, we quiet our own voice and we shirk our duty to add our unique voice to the narrative.

Now, of course it’s not all about you. You don’t get to impose your point of view on a script and change the tone or, indeed, the story itself. You have to hit their notes and honor the vision of the writer and the director. But why not do that with your own unique voice? If the director says, “be sad”, then be your sad and do the work of having it come from a place of connected truth. We actors are often so far in the other direction- desperate to do whatever it takes to make them love us- that we give up our power, our creative voice, and offer a version of what we think sad might look like to them.

At a certain level in the business, being a pleaser won’t cut it. If you want them to put millions of dollars of their pilot or feature film money on your shoulders, you need to show up with artistry. And artistry comes with a strong creative voice, the ability to take creative risks, and bringing your unique point of view to the world of the play. And that takes guts. But as the great Brené Brown says, “authenticity is a choice and a practice.” It’s up to you. Unlike that 8 year old kid who isn’t developmentally able to connect to her authentic feeling, you are perfectly capable of being truthful. So do it!

Hyper-focus on the audience breeds a performance that is not connected to your authentic feelings. Start by discovering what, if anything, moves you about the scene. What bold, truthful choices would you make if the audience weren’t watching? Discover where it lives in you, then ask yourself how your voice might blend with what you think they want to hear.

The agent. That power-suit wearing, smooth-talker standing between you and the casting director. Without her you have no career and no hope of one. In an unscientific poll, no fewer than 100% of casting directors and agents I know said that, “How do I get an agent?” is the question most frequently asked by actors. Appropriate answers include, but are not limited to, “Be really talented”, “Be ridiculously good-looking”, “Book a TV show.”, etc. But those answers aren’t super helpful. In fact, the question, “how do I get an agent?” is one without a solid answer. There is no formula that results in getting an agent. Truth is, no formula matters if you don’t have the look or the talent that an agent thinks is marketable. So, yeah, my title is misleading. I’m not going to tell you how to get an agent. You just got suckered into reading this post for nothing. But seen another way, it’s fortunate that you learned this lesson without having to pay $400 to sit through some agency intern’s “LA agent” workshop that does nothing but fund that intern’s climb to the middle. No one has the answer.

No, there is no guaranteed formula that results in agent acquisition, but having signed with, fired and lost a bunch of them, and having seen my clients search for, acquire, lose and re-acquire a bunch more, I’ll offer some tips that may point you in a direction.

Assuming you’re training all the time (if you’re not training consistently you’re probably not going to compete), and your headhsots, resume, reel and LA Casting, Speed Reels, IMDB profiles, etc are in order, the first thing you have to do is get in front of an agent. You have to get a meeting. And you get a meeting by putting yourself out there. That doesn’t mean cold calls (cold calls or blind submissions are one approach I suppose but they’re probably a waste of time. It’s a shot in the dark. If you have an incredible look, the intern who looks at such submissions may look twice. But chances are your stuff won’t get seen). No, putting yourself out there means:

1. If you have friends, classmates, co-workers, acting teachers, etc with agents or who know agents, politely ask them to pass your picture, resume and reel along to their representation. If you don’t have friends with agents, do the work of engaging in a community of represented actors (in a class, etc), and then politely ask them to pass along your stuff. To get a meeting you’re probably going to need a recommendation and the recommendation of a client can be helpful.

2. Take every opportunity to act in plays, web series, student films, etc that will get your work seen by as many people as possible. You can’t always jump right to the big screen. Act wherever you can and if you’re talented the word will get out. Good agents go to plays. No matter how jaded the business makes them, one of the dreams of the agent is to be the first to discover that wildly talented actor who no one else would see and guide them to super stardom. You may be their diamond in the rough. So, go act.

3. Utilize Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc to its maximum potential. Agents, managers and casting directors are a part of the online community. While blind submissions and cold calls are impersonal shots in the dark, FB and Twitter in particular offer you the opportunity to engage with them in a way that could lead to a relationship and may result in a meeting. Could. May. Be VERY careful when approaching agents and casting directors on social media. If you come at them with any level of obsession, desperation or hackery, you’ve ended that relationship before it started. Use the “cocktail party approach.” Don’t do or say anything on social media that you wouldn’t do or say at a cocktail party if you were standing across from that agent. Best thing to do is add something constructive to the Facebook discussion or the Twitter feed, don’t make it all about you and go from there. Don’t be weird.

OK, so you bothered all your friends, did bad LA theatre, stalked an agent on Facebook and you got yourself a meeting. What now? How do you turn a meeting into representation? Let’s start by getting clear about what you’re asking of an agent. It’s more than just wanting her to pitch you to a casting director and get you in rooms. You’re asking her to take time away from the clients who pay her mortgage and keep her kids in private school to focus on you and your career. That’s a tall order. That is an investment of time which is an investment of money. Creative though some of them may be, more often than not agents lean towards their business interests and in this economy (even as it slowly recovers) most are leaning even harder.

In order to win their investment, they have to believe that with minimal development you will make them money. You do that in a few ways. Either you’re charming and have the perfect look (which usually means you’re young and really good looking. Not, “I was Homecoming King and have a Model Mayhem profile”, good looking. Like, really, ridiculously good looking), you’ve worked consistently and/or recently (mostly and), or you’re insanely talented and will absolutely kill in the room. Much of that you can’t do anything about. Within reason, you look how you look and you can’t create a solid reel and resume out of nothing. But the two things you can control are your talent and your hard work. You can work consistently on cultivating your talent (ie: training) so that it is strong and unique. And you can do the work of creating your own material- writing, shooting and posting content consistently- and always doing everything you can to create work for yourself. If you do that work, are of the work, and walk into the meeting with talent as a result of training, you walk in with power.

If you walk into a meeting with no power, desperate for that agent to pluck you from obscurity, dust you off and bestow his infinite light upon you, you’re dead in the water. The assumption that the agent is the one who is going to do the lion’s share of the work in the relationship is enough to end the meeting before it starts. Sure, your agent has relationships that you don’t have and can get you what you want, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at the very least share the work load. Bring as much as you can to the table.

Just be of the work. I’m going to write that again. Be. Of. The work. It is the source of your power. Name dropping (never a good idea in LA), pretending you know more about the business than you do or trying to act all suave is time wasted. Your job is to convince the agent that you are a talented and dedicated actor. Which is really easy when you’re constantly training, doing theatre and creating your own material. It’s a broad stroke, but agents are folks who are gutsy and pushy and spend most of their day trying to turn a no into a yes. They’re often energetic, power people who enjoy the challenge of working hard and getting ahead. If you walk in without your power- the work- you’re boring and not attractive to an agent. So, either be a super model with Clooney charisma or be of the work (preferably both).

The reality is that even if you do the work of maximizing your potential, it’s likely that you’ll still get denied many more times than you’ll get interest from an agent (Like I said, no formula for this stuff). But if you keep your focus on the work, keep training and keep growing, I believe that you will increase your value as an actor, thereby increasing your chances that you’ll acquire representation.

A few other tips:

1. Agents only make money when you make money. If they’re asking you to pay them up front to represent you, insisting that you pay to use their one and only headshot photographer, or want to take more than 15% of the money you make (10% is typical), run away. And consider calling the Better Business Bureau.

2. Ladies, agent meetings don’t ever have to happen over drinks after 7pm. There are agents who exercise the power we give them in an attempt to satisfy their ego and their extracurricular desires. If they’re interested in your work, meetings can happen at an office during business hours.

3. Follow up with an agent, but don’t pester. Try not to contact an agent out of a feeling of panic or desperation. That’s a sign of a high maintenance actor and that’s a red flag. It means they’ll have to work harder. Never be more high maintenance than you are profitable to an agent. You’ll get dropped.

Finally, keep in mind that not having an agent is no excuse for not creating material and distributing it online. Don’t wait for anyone’s permission to create. If you don’t have an agent, it means you probably won’t go through the normal, old channels of the industry. But it doesn’t mean you can’t create something that is brilliant, that resonates with people and that has 2 millions hits by Tuesday. And when that happens, you won’t have to look for an agent. They’ll come looking for you.

So, the hype got the better of you and you bought a Mega Millions ticket. You knew you were more likely to be hit by lightening (twice) but you did it anyway. Cause you can’t win if you don’t play! Plus, your imagination ran wild with the possibility of that kind of unmitigated power. You’d buy a place on the Amalfi Coast, you’d invest in grocery stores in low-income neighborhoods, you’d fly all your friends to Paris, buy a dress made of diamonds, stand under the Arc de Triomphe and dance. Just dance.   And for a week or so before the Mega Millions draw you thought, “Maybe. Just maybe MY numbers could be THE numbers.

But of course last Friday night the reality of your First World poverty was thrust back into stark focus as the numbers were drawn and you didn’t win. Not only did you not win, no one in your state won. Actually, nobody within twelve hundred miles of you won. You gave away ten bucks for nothing but a week of wild imagining.

Illusive dreams are intoxicating like that. They entice you with the prospect of money, fame and no waiting at The Ivy.  But if such dreams become your sole focus, you can lose sight of your reality. You can live a life of ever looking forward. A life long on possibility but short on the wonderful, truthful and tangible stuff of everyday beauty. Moby dick can keep you looking forward. But he can also obscure the wonder of the moment. Sound familiar?

That’s right, we actors are all about the Mega Millions. Except in our business we call it a CBS pilot that’s already got six episodes on order.  Or the new Judd Apatow movie that’s not looking for a name actor. Or that XYZ Insurance Company campaign that will keep us employed for six years.  Most of you moved to LA or New York looking not to become one of the 3-5% or so of union actors that SAG suggests is working at any given time. No, most of you came to LA or New York to hit the bog one! To be nothing less than a big ol’ bright shining star. To win the Academy Award.  To own the house on the hill. To live half the year on the island in the Caribbean. To date the hottest model.   To walk into the Grove and get recognized. “Oh My God, that’s ________!”, they’ll say.

But as pilot season winds down and many of us deal with the reality of not winning the lottery, we feel disappointed and lost. Our wild imagining wasn’t actualized. It might even be worse for those of you who were deep in the hunt. Who tested for a couple shows, came close and didn’t land one. You may wonder- as you do after most pilot seasons- if all the investment is worth it. You may even be wondering if it’s time time let Moby Dick go.

While dreams are important, in our business an actor must find the balance between the dream and the moment. Such a balance is not only important in a scene (what you want vs. what is) but it’s also an important balance for you to maintain in your life if you’re interested in healthy relationships and personal fulfillment. You must balance the forward reach with an appreciation for your reality or else your reality will never be enough and you’ll always be reaching. There’s always a bigger fish, especially in our business. Inherent in an intense focus on the dream is the notion that your current situation isn’t enough. So leaning too far towards the dream begins to show disrespect for your progress, your struggle, your sensible Toyota Corolla and your imperfect mate. The dream can shit on your reality and undermine the value of your journey

If you’re in this thing for that one big win and the fame and money that come with it,  you probably won’t find fulfillment. Unless you are 1 of 30 or so actors on the planet who win the acting lottery, the money you make and the fame you acquire won’t be worth the hard work and years required to achieve it. The odds are long that you’ll make hundreds of thousands let alone millions of dollars and even when you book a TV series it’s a miracle if it lasts more than three seasons. If you want money and fame, logic suggest that you’re better off getting a graduate degree, working a steady job making 60G a year consistently and shooting a sex tape with a D list celebrity. This sounds pessimistic but it’s not.

Cause if you can keep the dream in mind while finding the joy in your artistic struggle, your process and your growth, you will indeed have a life of fulfillment. If you can see acting not as the journey towards a final financial destination but as a life of never-ending discovery, you’ll find unbelievable joy as an actor. If you love it so much that the rejection, the traffic, the searching, the stagnancy, the restaurant job, etc is outweighed by one miraculous moment of personal growth and human connection in some run-down theatre in The Valley, you’ll be OK. Keep the dream in mind, but fall in love with the reality of this moment. The most important moment in an actor’s life is this moment.

For the countless folks who didn’t win the Mega Millions and for actors who are still unemployed this pilot season, now is a perfect time to reengage with your reality. If your head and heart are present- right here right now- you’ll notice so much stunning beauty. This moment is beautiful and full with or without a pilot. With or without your share of $650 million.

So, get back into class, start writing again, start shooting again.Get back to the work. And sure, go on and dream big. But always commit to the beauty of this moment.

So, the new year has got you brimming with motivation. You’re focused, engaged and you want to get in a class. But how do you find a class that’s right for you? Before you go spending all kinds of money on classes that over-promise and under-deliver, here are some tips that might help.

THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE

Acting teachers are often guilty of desperately clinging to the validity of the technique they teach. When you stake your honor and your mortgage payments on one technique, you’re probably not going to be super objective about it. You may even talk smack about another technique in order to build yours up. But let’s be clear- there is no one, correct way to act. Every actors responds best to a different technique (or an amalgam of a few). No technique can guarantee that you’ll book work or be a brilliant actor. If a teacher tells you that her or his way is the only way, walk away. You should probably investigate every techniques and discover which one resonates with you. More than likely you’ll take little bits of goodness from a number of different techniques. Take what you like and leave the rest, as they say.

THE RIGHT TEACHER

1. If a teacher says she or he can make you a star, you’re being lied to. If a teacher says she or he can make you a brilliant actor, you’re being lied to. No teacher can turn you into Meryl Streep any more than a basketball coach can turn you into Kobe Bryant. Like a trainer at a gym, a good teacher shows you exercises and a form that allow your pre-existing talent- your unique voice- to emerge and thrive within a world of a play. You have the tea and a good teacher shows you how to craft a cup to pour it in. Yes, some teachers have access to agents, casting directors, etc, but those people will only consider you if you’re talented and look the part. When it comes down to it, any claim other than “I can show you how to discover and express your own voice in unique ways” is over-promising.

2. A teacher should let you audit one class for free so you can get a sense of the class and decide if it’s a good fit for you (audit a number of different classes before you find what you like). If you have to pay up front, it may not be kosher. I can think of one teacher I know who makes you pay to audit but I think it’s bad form and if I were you I’d ask to check the class out for free.

3. When you’re in class, your teacher should be a teacher, not an actor. Yes, it is remarkably helpful if the person with whom you are studying is, or has been, a working actor. That practical, on-the-ground knowledge is very useful. But when teachers are teaching they need to remove their acting hat. It should not be about them; their ego, their technique, their disappointing career, whatever. You don’t pay a teacher to indulge her or his ego, career or anything else for that matter. Teachers are there to train you. Nothing else. Anything that a teacher does in class should be in the interest of training you to be a better actor.

And while we’re on the subject, great actors don’t necessarily make great teachers. Michael Jordan is not Phil Jackson. Jerry Rice is not Vince Lombardi. Wayne Gretzky is not Scotty Bowman.

4. Assume that any good teacher will push you. You’re wasting your money if your teacher isn’t pushing you to be better. This doesn’t mean that you should ever feel physically unsafe or be humiliated in class (see #3 above). But you need to be pushed. The type of profound progress needed to succeed as an actor is never achieved within one’s comfort zone and a teacher should take you to a place of discomfort and do it with nothing but care and your progress in mind.

5. Don’t assume that a teacher is competent simply because she or he has a connection to Strasberg, Hagen, Meisner, etc. “She studied with the guy who studied with Strasberg!” It’s really quite meaningless. Those great teachers taught a lot of folks and being at the foot of a master teacher does not mean that person has the same gift for teaching that the master possessed. Even if all the knowledge of the master teacher is transferred to a pupil, there is only one Sanford Meisner. Each teacher is her or his own person with her or his own history, sensibilities and intuition. Find a teacher that works for you, challenges you and brings out the best in you, regardless of their lineage.

MAXIMIZING YOUR TRAINING

1. You mustn’t wait to be taught. It’s not enough to sign up for class, pay and attend. Be an active student. Choose to take risks- risk screwing it up, risk saying and doing the wrong thing, risk not being enough. And pay close attention to the other student’s work. Often times you can learn as much by observing them as you can from being on stage yourself. Don’t check out when you’re back in your seat.

2. Avoid Guru-ism. Understand that your goal is not to please the teacher. Your goal is to grow as an actor and a human being. It’s not about the teacher, it’s about you. Don’t turn your teacher into mommy or daddy, give up your power (as we actors are known to do) and strive only to make them proud of you. All that tired, old stuff keeps you powerless and does nothing to further your craft or your career. And if you find a teacher who encourages such behavior, be wary.

3. Engage in the community of artists in the class. I’m not saying you have to be pals and go out for drinks with the actors in class every night, but it might not be a bad thing sometimes. There can be a community in a class that allows actors to talk with one another about the process and the business, to collaborate, commiserate, etc. Be open to it.

All that said, don’t hesitate! Sure, take some time finding a class that resonates with you. But start training as soon as you find one. It’s imperative that you keep your skills sharp, stay engaged in the work and keep growing as an actor and a person. If you’re not on stage or on set, you should be in a class.

The New Year brings with it a clearer sense of focus and motivation. You’ve taken stock over the holidays and you’re ready to take action. You want a successful acting career and you want it bad.

OK, so it’s a new year and you’re motivated. So, what’s now? How do you turn New Year’s motivation into the real, practical stuff of kicking ass in the film and TV business? While there’s no set path to acting greatness and nothing you do can guarantee that you’ll be a star, here are four practical steps you can take this week that will help your acting career.

1. Train. All the time. Get in a class or classes and learn everything there is to know about acting, filmmaking and theatre. Think you already know how to act? Do yourself a favor and humble yourself with a new technique or teacher. Even if it turns out not to be your cup of tea, you’ll grow. Train to keep your skills sharp, to grow as an actor and a human being and to stay engaged with a community of artists.

2. Write and record your own material and then distribute it on the internet. Actors have never had this much power; cameras, editing programs and distribution have never been this accessible. These days the only thing that is keeping you from creating art is you. It’s all there for you. You don’t need an agent, a stage manager, a casting director or a studio executive. So, go on and create. Like, today.

3. Organize your tools. Headshots, resume, reel, website, etc. They should all be in order so that you can pull them out of your back pocket at a moment’s notice without taking a week to update them. Make sure your shots, resume and reel are current. You don’t have to spend the earth on this stuff (like the ridiculous photographers who charge $700-$1000 a shoot) but you should invest in good quality tools. If you need recommendations, email me.

4. Be self aware. Take a fierce inventory of your goals and what you might be doing to keep yourself from reaching them. Every actor has room to grow. Evaluate where you need to grow and work to achieve that growth.

2012. Let’s get to it!
]]> http://www.actingthetruth.com/steves-blog/an-actors-resolve/feed/ 0 http://www.actingthetruth.com/steves-blog/holiday-survival-tips-for-actors/ http://www.actingthetruth.com/steves-blog/holiday-survival-tips-for-actors/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:33:49 +0000 http://www.actingthetruth.com/?p=978

The business is winding down for the holidays and actor’s all over LA are booking flights home, pulling money together for gifts and strategically sending “Remember Me?” holiday cards to casting directors. It is a time of reflection. Of family, friends and food. A welcome break for many. But beyond all the merriment and cheer, the hectic, emotionally-charged holiday season can also offer many challenges for actors. So, here are some tips to keep you happy, healthy and out of jail this holiday season.

BIG FEELINGS

If you’re an actor, you’re probably hyper-sensitive. You’ve got big feelings. And those feelings can get you in all kinds of trouble during the emotionally-charged holiday season. It seems like everything is emotionally heightened this time of year and you can feel like you’re on an emotional roller-coaster. The expectation of merriment and bliss make you feel small. The extra money you have to spend on flights, gifts, etc is a source of anxiety. The increased sugar intake jacks your emotions up only to send them crashing down. And then there’s family (more on that later). It’s all enough to drive a hyper-sensitive person insane. In order to get through it, it’s so important for actors like you to take time to check in with yourselves amid all this emotional craziness. Ask yourself how you truthfully feel. Write it if you can. And remember that feelings come and go. Big feelings will move and get smaller in time. Don’t react in the moment as you would in your work.

FAMILY

It’s entirely possible that your family doesn’t get you. They may not understand why you want to be an actor. They may not be happy about it. It’s even possible that they are lawyers or doctors or systems analysts or account managers and they don’t speak the same language you do. AND THAT’S OK. We all speak different languages and it is on you, the person in the family who understands human emotions more than most, to accept them for what they can give you and what they can’t. That probably means that you won’t be seen for who you are this holiday season. And you have to get right with that, too. Don’t expect things from people whom you know can’t deliver. Let the passive aggressive comments go. Don’t meet resistance with resistance over the holidays. Only bad things will result for you. Just breathe and maintain your inner emotional life by writing, texting friends or whatever medium you use to get it out in a non-combative way. Remember: they’re not actors (even if they are). They’re family. Breathe.

EXPECTATIONS

We’ve all heard the statistics that suggest that an inordinate amount of suicides happen over the holidays. I bet the contrast between expectation and reality has a lot to do with it. With all due respect to the actors who worked on it, I happen to find the Lexus, “We got Mommy a car” commercials and the “Every Kiss Begins with Kay” commercials off-putting. The advertisers decide what happiness means in our society (and it just happens to include owning a Lexus and a diamond from Kay Jewelers) and the result is that most of us don’t feel like we measure up. Given that the desire for acceptance and “happiness” is a powerful motivator, the media- advertisers in particular- forces us to examine our own lives relative to those they portray and we rarely measure up. Our spouse didn’t buy us a car cause she doesn’t make enough money. Our family isn’t together at Christmas cause Daddy left. We can’t have turkey dinner cause Aunt Jackie has a gluten issue. This is the stuff of life. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy. It means that you are a human being. Deciding what Christmas or New years should be like as opposed to discovering what it is, is just like deciding how a scene will go before you’ve spoken a line of dialogue. It craps all over the beautiful, truthful and surprising moments of life. Aside from the kiss advertisers at Kay can plant on my reality-loving ass, every kiss does not, in fact, begin with Kay.

THE QUESTIONS

When you go back to your proverbial village for the holidays, everyone wants to know how far you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished along the way. “So, you been in anything big lately?”, Uncle Cal might ask. “You meet any celebrities out there?”, Cousin What’s-His-Name inquires. The reason why we find those questions offensive is because they assume a narrow definition of success; a definition that most of us don’t maintain consistently and many of us don’t achieve at all. We all want to be the local boy or girl who made good and impressed our family and friends back home. But aside from the tangible evidence that standing beside Mark Harmon on NCIS gives them, what we have to offer probably won’t be understood by most folks as success. “I got some great feedback from a big casting director in November.” “I made a huge breakthrough in my acting class this year.” “I wrote and shot a short over the summer that got into a festival.” “I don’t get scared when I drive on the 405 anymore.” Understand that we may measure victories in a way that most people who don’t know the business won’t understand. If you’re feeling courageous you can try to explain it to them (good luck). But don’t take it personally when they ask. They just don’t know. Be above indicting them for their ignorance (did that sound harsh?).

GETTING CRUNK

Anytime you put food, alcohol, and family together during a three to five day celebration, excess is bound to appear. You’ll eat well past capacity, drink like a fish and just generally do whatever the hell you want. “Screw it! This is my holiday”, you’ll say. But this can be bad for your body, your emotional life and your craft. Food and drink can mess with your feelings making small things seem big and big things seem small. Also, keep in mind that pilot season is around the corner. You’re going to need to be in fighting shape and have your mental and emotional shit together by the middle of January. For the sake of your career, moderation is the key. Have a good time, but don’t do damage that you’ll have to undo when you get back to real life. Moderation is not something actors are great at. But try.

DOWN TIME

Many of you are Type A people who are always working on ways to get ahead in the business. You live and breathe acting and your career 24/7. This forced break can be irritating to some of you; a red light on the Autobahn. For some of you it can be like all of a sudden the music was turned off and all you have to listen to is the deafening sound of your own thoughts. It can make you antsy and make you want to fill the silence with bad behavior, negative thoughts, etc. Do what you can to embrace the silence in a positive way. Take a step back and think about your career and your craft. What do you want? How are you going to get there? Are you doing enough? What’s working and what isn’t? Beyond that, I’ll remind you again that pilot season is around the corner and the holiday break is always a good time to organize your life for the hectic season ahead.

THE HOLIDAY ORPHANS

For those of you who don’t have family and friends near you over the holidays, my advice to you is to seek out a community of actors to be with. Isolating isn’t good- especially for hyper-sensitive people over the holidays- and it’s a broad stroke but I’ve known actors to be some of the most generous and accepting people around. Reach out to other holiday orphan actors you know, tell them where you’re at and offer your community and generosity in exchange for theirs. Do the work of finding a community. And breathe.

I’m sure your Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Festivus will be happy and joyous. But I’m also sure that life is always more than happiness and joy. If you stay in touch with your inner life, are accepting of others and celebrate in healthy moderation you’ll survive anything that the holidays can throw at you. And you’ll be ready to get back to work in January.

Happy Holidays!
(Don’t forget to breathe)

5:40pm. You open the email from your agent. You have an audition. You read the email and note the time and location. It is at this moment when your egotism rears it’s hideous head, opens its jaw and begins vomiting fear.

5:42pm. You see who’s casting the show and your mind wanders back to the last time she called you in. It didn’t go well. She was cold to you, you didn’t do what you wanted to do and she hasn’t seen you in a year. Obviously this audition must represent that casting director offering you another chance. She’s always casting great projects so you will need to make a good impression in order to make up for the last audition.

5:43pm. You examine the breakdown. They’re looking for a woman in her early twenties but you’re twenty-nine and play mid to late twenties. You officially feel less-than. Perhaps you can wear that T-shirt that you think makes you look younger and put your hair in a braid? Maybe then you’ll be what they want. You write yourself a note to go to CVS to buy more make-up. You’re going to need some help looking twenty-one. Moreover, the breakdown describes her as “brash and ballsy, one of the guys.” You cry during The Bachelor and prefer the color pink. You now hold a firm belief that you are not the actor they are looking for.

5:48pm. You download the sides. The first thing you see is the page count. 11 pages. For an audition at 10:00am tomorrow. And it includes a half-page monologue. Your fear of failing forces you to place an intense focus on the lines. You must get them right or you’ll be disregarded. Later in the evening you’ll post a Facebook update expressing your hatred for getting 11 pages of sides the day before the audition. 24 comments. 36 Like this post. The fear mounts.

5:50pm. You call your friends and cancel your dinner plans so you can concentrate on your audition. You won’t go to yoga tonight either. Your mind tells you that you have to spend the entire night working on this audition.

Ten minutes. In ten minutes you have allowed your fear to ruin your evening and more importantly get in the way of you having a compelling human experience in the audition room. Why? Because your fear is all about you. Fear, anxiety, nerves- they scream at you to protect yourself. They convince you that there is some impending doom about to befall you and then demand that you look out for number one. And that undermines everything acting is. Acting is a relationship, a truthful reaction to another. And in ten minutes you’ve become so wrapped up in protecting your own feelings that you won’t even notice the other person in the audition room. You won’t talk to the reader. You’ll talk at the reader. It’s all about you.

The truth is that the casting director probably didn’t remember your last audition. Not because you’re not special but because she sees hundreds of actors for a project. The truth is that breakdowns and age specifications are almost always flexible and either name recognition or talent usually win the day. The truth is that having an interesting human experience in the room is so much more important than being word perfect. Not to mention that there are a multitude of issues that the entire production team face that are so much more pressing than what you did in an audition a year ago, what you look like or what you will say tomorrow at 10:00am. If you really think about it you’ll come to realize that the whole process actually has very little to do with you. But now that you’ve ignored all these truths and cancelled all your plans for the evening, you’re going to spend the entire night nurturing and cultivating your fear. This audition will not go well.

I’m not saying you’re a bad person. You’re just a poor manager. Often times the source of your talent is hyper-sensitivity, the ability to feel deeply. The other side of that hyper-sensitivity is that you are affected by everything outside the world of the play as well within it. And you allow the high emotional stakes of being or not being validated in an audition room- or on set or in relationships, etc- to block access to your feelings.

It’s all about managing the fear. And how does one do that? Well, there are a bunch of good options from adopting Navy SEAL stress-coping techniques (google them), to getting into an on-going acting class. But I think the best possible way to manage your fear, nerves, anxiety, etc is to make it about someone else. I’m about to blow your mind here…

MAKE THE READER THE STAR OF THE AUDITION. That’s, right. Your audition has nothing to do with you. Make it all about the reader. Try doing what you can to support the reader. Try giving the reader what s/he needs and try to help the reader give you something in return. Convince yourself that the emotional consequence you’re so afraid of is less important than affecting the reader in the way that s/he needs.

And it translates to set, too. All the “I’m not coming out of my trailer” crap and the “why is she getting more close-ups than me?” ridiculousness is really just your fear screaming at you to protect yourself from monsters you don’t need protection from. Make it about the other person in the scene. The answers are all on the other person.

Wise people have always told me that the worst thing you can do when you’re feeling depressed or unworthy is to stay home, sit on your couch and isolate. The best thing you can do is volunteer work. Working for someone else in a cause that may not seem like your own, pulls you out of your head, keeps you physically, mentally and emotionally active and makes you lose the selfish focus on you and your issues. And what you get back is immeasurable.

Same is true when we act. Whenever your head starts spinning elaborate webs of fear and anxiety, make it about the other person. Try to lift the reader up in the audition room or your fellow actor on set. You’ll end up booking more work and the ripple effect might even change your life.
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