“There is no difference between what I experienced, and what is on screen”. Emmanuelle Beart on her work in L'Histoire De Marie Et Julien. Emmanuelle Beart has long been one of my favourite actors – if she's in something, then I'll watch it – infa...
Read MoreSubscribe | @GreatActingBlog [caption id="attachment_175665318" align="aligncenter" width="680"] “I lived in my dreams” - Michel Piccoli [27th December 1925 – 12th May 2020].[/caption] Michel Piccoli, one of the greatest of all screen actors, has passed . The sheer magnitude of Piccoli's accomplishment is unfathomable; over 200 films stretching back...
Read MoreSubscribe | @GreatActingBlog Being an actor is, at times, complex. Often it is difficult to make sense of our experiences, to give them articulation, because they are too acute. We are working with our emotions, our bodies, our personalities, with our inner creative impulses - it...
Read MoreSubscribe | @GreatActingBlog Great actors seek out exceptional scenarios in order to bring out the best of themselves. They continually test themselves by entering into situations where they have to rise and strengthen in order to cope. This constant striving, constant working, gives their life a...
Read More“there is nothing so interesting on stage as a man trying to get a knot out of his shoelaces.” - Bertolt Brecht Chantal Akerman's “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” is a three and a half hour masterpiece about the meticulous dom...
Read MoreSubscribe | @GreatActingBlog [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="563"] ”Please see who I am. Please fall in love with me, not a fantasy.” - Kim Novak[/caption] Like all great art, a hidden truth is revealed when the real and the imaginary combine, and the viewer experiences the clatter of...
Read MoreSubscribe | @GreatActingBlog "But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated." - Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man And The Sea It seems my last post, Be Comfortable Not Knowing, about anticipating adversity, has received some pushback for somehow offering...
Read More"It is not a sign of ignorance not to know the answers. But there is great merit in facing the questions" - David Mamet, True and False Much of our lives as artists is not within our control. Often, we must wait for our imagination to...
Read MoreI confess I've never paid much attention to 'optimism'. It always seemed nebulous and watery to me, like 'being positive' - vague notions which lead to dangerous self-delusion. I've always preferred cold, hard, evidence-based analyses, concrete action and giving myself over to that which I...
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Your work gives you Confidence Strength Joy Self-respect. Your work is your talent, your unique gift. Doing your work means [slowly] becoming the person you always wanted to be. Your work makes you tick. It’s the one thing in your life you absolutely will not compromise on. But your work also frightens you. It...
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