Time for those resolutions… Instead – think of it as dusting off the cobwebs and letting in the sparkle… Some quick thoughts for basking in that sunshine that will grow brighter as the weeks go by: 1. Step out of your own shadow. Allow yourself to believe that you are worthy of doing what you […]
Tag: acting
More and more of us are being asked to self-tape these days. It’s supposed to be greener – it certainly saves producers money – but it puts an extra burden on actors. On the plus side, it probably means you try for more opportunities overall. So look on the positive side – this is a […]
There are many things that drive us into being actors: love of words, the magic of our first theatre visit, our drama teacher at school, seeing ourselves mirrored on screen, the spell-binding movie star on the first film we slipped into under-age. It’s often, also, a need to be loved; a way of escaping our […]
It’s really important to stay on relaxed breathing when nerves set in at the audition or performance – or for any public speaking. If you go into upper chest breathing, you get an imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide which makes you feel dizzy, nervous, sound unconfident and stops you thinking clearly. That’s why it’s […]
The Insider’s Guide to Drama School Auditions So you want to be an actor and everyone’s told you not to do it. Well, so they should. You’d have to be mad to enter a profession where you are so unlikely to earn a living, have to cope with rejection on a permanent basis and have […]
This point comes up every time I work with an actor. I spent 20 years of my life as an actor trying to sort this out. And another 20 years as a director and coach. Let’s start with the question – ‘What is a character?’ – a character is a person from real-life or fiction […]
The business of acting doesn’t lend itself comfortably to words or explanations. Acting is doing. I worked with a very famous, very cruel director once when I was an actor. But he did have one saying of great wisdom. ‘Don’t talk about it. Do it,’ he’d snarl. But of course, us actors love talking – […]
Words are enormous! In life, we dig into our storehouse of memory, choose our words carefully, censor them, find new ones, then add another. We weigh our thoughts up against a visual, kinaesthetic or auditory memory, remember how we felt about it, and finally invest the words to describe it with enough vigour for the […]
Directors and Actors Sharing a Language Directors are busy, harassed, stressed-out people. The buck stops here. This is true for all directors, but especially so for screen directors. They may have to get 30 minutes of screen time in the day. Or maybe only a minute and a half, but it involves a helicopter shot […]
1. Like Yourself Turn off that picture of yourself at the front of your head of you as: too young/old/plain/fat/silly/boring/daft… 2. Believe you can do it. Keep hope, optimism,courage, confidence. 3. Keep Networking. Make that showreel. Keep writing letters. Talk to people. Join the Actors Centre etc. 3. Trust your Instincts. Follow direction […]
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