How To Find a Talent Agent
This short video is my way of saying that an actor needs to be "interesting", confident enough to make fun of themselves and learn to live with fear of failure - or LET GO OF: Fear of Failure! It's not a failure if you try. It's a lesson learned OR a chance you had to show yourself. You have to be able to HAVE FUN and act.
WHY DIDN'T I BOOK THE JOB? - Failure again....NO!
There are a million reasons why and the biggest one is not that you failed. That is if you tried your best and learned what the Casting Director or other auditionee asked you to do.
WHAT'S MY CHARACTER? WHAT DO "THEY" WANT?
All you can do is try to figure out as much as you can about the character and do what YOU want to do in your own way. "They" see so many tapes, so why not STAND OUT and give it your all.
HONOR THE WRITER
On your first audition or Self Tape - this is not the time to improvise and think you know how the scene could land better. Chances are the Writer will be in the room watching your tape!
SELF TAPES
They are here to stay - like it or not! We all must now embrace the procedure. Take a quick course - ideally a freebie from your Union or an Online Zoom Q & A. Have your set up ready to go when you get the call! It really isn't difficult, honest. My next post is a short video from a Casting Director explaining it in simple steps.
Remember to have hun, honor the Writer and the script, and feel good - you have another opportunity to work on your skills.
Disneyland & Emotions
What does Disneyland have to do with acting? Other than the wonderful people who play the characters… It’s a feeling. Something sublime that is a feeling that has no explanation, it just is a feeling and experience that moves you surprisingly effortless. Ah, to feel that when acting. Living in Australia, when we went to America with our children, I wanted to give them the best and most exciting time.
Gosh, I have been to Disneyland and Disney World so many times. When we’re with the kids, I couldn’t bear another line-waiting time for rides. Although, I did rush to get autographs for my kids from Mickey & Minnie! But I must say, to all my “I’m doing it for the kids”, when I walked through the entrance, I felt a wave of love and happiness just float through me. Unexpectedly. Maybe it was the happiness of my children, but much more. It surprisingly hit me. That’s the experience Disney wants you to have.
So... when you are acting with another person, it is so wonderful when you feel that unsuspected surprise just sneak up on you. A thrill of sorts. But more a reality in your feeling. It’s what I call “tunnel-vision”. You’re there! It doesn’t blind you or scare you; it’s more like a focus run free.
I wish for you to have my tunnel vision running free. Just let go and don’t analyze! Freedom, feeling, and honesty with insight from within rather than analysing every movement. Just let it happen.
My kids at Disneyland in Los Angeles. 1996.
Unconditional Love
What has this got to do with acting?
When you find unconditional love (whether you want it or not), when it comes your way, it's so powerful that you and your heart will never be the same.
Not to minimise unconditional love (EVER), I feel that the deepness of this feeling can never be minimised.
If you have never felt this, then imagine you have or what it’s like if you can.
It is the height of all emotions. And when we are acting, we try to find these truthful emotions to give our character real life.
Want it, imagine it, feel it, remember the feeling or just open yourself up to whatever is happening and the emotions that could go with it.
We’ve all had “good” and “bad”; highs and lows in our lives. Imagine the unconditional, if you can, and your character will bloom, grow and become alive.
This can scare the Hell out of you, but you will feel beyond trying to imitate.
Me and my son Derek as a newborn.
Find Your Happy Place
My kids Derek and Jackie hugging before he left to go back to the USA. (Photo by Erik Steen)
That can be difficult in these times. Have you seen the news from Minnesota? Is the COVID-19 still here? Have you gotten any auditions lately? That’s what exists and we have to face it. So let’s face it and then carry on and use this time to strike back and be better than ever. As a Person, as an Actor.
Listen to some new music, read some new books, take some online classes, be mindful - PREPARE yourself for when the calls from your agent start coming in again, or when you want to do a new project. Make your own content — that will be an eye-opener… WHICH IS WHAT YOU NEED. Eyes wide open. Life to learn, life to be experienced — life. That’s your “draw card” when you need to tune in to a character or feel the "feels". It’s very clear that the world can’t survive without entertainment. We won’t let it.
So “you’re welcome”, world. Gotta get people to their Happy Places - and/or - Deep and Meaningfuls! Work on that.
Motivation
Suzie at a “NAFA Chat” by Bruce Beresford on Micromanaging.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ I say, ‘Your salary.’
Actors seem to need to know the right questions to ask and are required to do a lot of their own character and script analysis. It’s our job (as actors) and we study for this: to figure out the character’s ‘objective’, the ‘super objective’, the character’s goal, etc., etc. — whomever you listen to or with whom you study. Then the Director has his say — ideally before the actor has read his mind!
This is a full-time job and one must research and become the character and not over-intellectualize. Oh dear, ‘the intellectual actor’. You may think this is a compliment, but it’s not! You must come from the gut and above all — truth.
"Performing for the Camera"?
When I say to some of my newer actors in class “stop acting”, they often respond that they are, indeed, in an acting class. So?
If you catch somebody ‘acting’ in a move, that actor is doing it wrong. The moment he’s caught ‘performing’ for the camera, the actor has blown his cover. He’s no longer a private character in a private world. Now he’s a highly paid actor on contract to speak these lines for the public. Good-bye illusion. Good-bye career."
—Michael Caine, Acting In Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making
So? Stop acting. Even in acting class!