The life of an actor doesn't necessarily lend itself to long term thinking. It's not a structured lifestyle, and rarely is career progression linear. The actor's mentality then, becomes about not looking too far ahead - this is partly a protective mechanism against the disappointments...
Read MoreThe best people to work with are those who have taken the time to perfect their technique, who know how to behave in the professional arena. They have confidence because they know what they are doing. They display no affectations, they do not want anything...
Read MoreThe concern for many actors about getting their own production off the ground or leading their own company is that their acting skills will suffer as a result, or their development will become stunted because their focus will be taken away from their acting. This...
Read MoreAs we know, understanding what it is we're trying to do, understanding what our project is about, is crucial to making progress. Without that understanding we will be forever hamstrung in our efforts. One way of gaining this understanding, is by studying the work and careers...
Read MoreFocus on what you enjoy. This is especially true for actors, who are constantly being told things like; "yes, but you've got to do years of garbage work in order to get the chance to do the stuff you enjoy". Why exactly? Why must we continually...
Read MoreGuinness plays downtrodden salesman, George Bird, who is given only a few weeks to live after being diagnosed with a rare condition called Lampington's Disease. He decides to enjoy what remaining time he has left, so he quits his job, withdraws all his money from...
Read MoreThe better we understand our work, the more fun we can have with it. The number of expressive ideas available to us increases, and ultimately we become more excited about presenting our work to the world. That’s why basic script analysis is so important, it...
Read MoreThe obsession with "doing emotions" in modern acting is little short of a disaster. It paints the character (and therefore the actor) as a victim, stripping him of dignity. Further, when an actor tries to squeeze emotion out of themselves, they turn inward rather than...
Read MoreGetting acting work, getting any acting work, is a tricky task, as we all know. The numbers just don't stack-up, there are far too many actors for the volume of work available. There are the gilded few of course, who are in demand and make...
Read MoreThis week I was invited to the wonderfully intimate Jermyn Street Theatre, to see David Pinner's The Potsdam Quartet. I have written my response below. In 1945, the "Big Four" of Stalin, Truman, Churchill and Atlee met at Potsdam where they decided how the world was...
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