Whenever undertaking some new objective, we try to assess the liklihood that we will accomplish it, we try to pre-empt pitfalls, we try to give ourselves the best chance of accomplishing it. The trouble is, the difficulties can be interpreted as no-go signs, we may...
Read MoreXan Brooks has written a piece in The Guardian praising non-professional actors, noteworthy because it demonstrates once again, the breath-taking ignorance of mainstream media. He does though make some reasonable points, when watching a star such as George Clooney he says he often finds it...
Read MoreA wannabe is someone who moans about not having something but does absolutely nothing to get it. In acting terms, this generally amounts to not getting work but doing nothing to actually get work. This persons "career" is little more than a pose. They pretend...
Read MoreWhen one set of objectives has been accomplished (or not as the case may be), another set must be decided upon. This is always tricky because we are effectively signing-off the next few months or years of our life. The view however, is very different...
Read MoreActors learn not to expect anything in order to buffet themselves from the disappointments which are part of their daily life. They don’t hear about that audition they knocked out of the park, or the phone doesn’t ring, another rejection letter arrives in the post,...
Read MoreWhen Jacques Rivette arrived in Paris, he stayed with the only friend he had. A local bookshop owner told him Robert Bresson's Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne was playing at a film club and Rivette went along. There he met Eric Rohmer who was a...
Read MoreIf you're put off doing something because there is some aspect of it that is unpleasant to you or difficult or something that will upset your feeling of complacency, know this: accomplishing anything worthwhile is rarely nice and clean and easy. If it's worth doing,...
Read MoreI've often written on this blog that actors should take full responsibility for their work and not wait around for directors to give them instructions. The lack of responsibility has grown up precisely because of the directorial dominance of the actor which has emerged in...
Read MoreWhat are your goals? When you accomplished one of your goals, how did it feel? Was it worth the trade-offs we have to make as actors? And if it wasn't worth it, why not? If it wasn't worth the trade-offs then the goal didn't fulfil you, it wasn't what...
Read More"what chance has made yours is not really yours" - Seneca If you follow the industrial model of acting then you can survive by being merely competent. That is the lure of it. It's reassuring, it's safe, there's no pressure to be extraordinary, it's just a...
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