The Great Acting Blog

The Great Acting Blog: “There Are No Excuses”

27.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 1 Comment

It's never been a better time to be an individual creative artist. Especially in the field of cinema, where digital technology and the internet has made it cheaper and easier to make work and find an audience. Yet, so few actors take this route, chained as...

The Great Acting Blog: “The Toil And Glory Of The Right Road”

26.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 2 Comments

Mediocrity is comfortable. It's cosy and popular because it enables us to maintain that pleasant feeling of complacency. Mediocrity is safe, it's blameless, it's nice and quiet. Mediocrity means we never break into a sweat, it makes us seem as though we are in control,...

The Great Acting Blog: “Reverse Bad Habits”

25.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 3 Comments

Someone asked me recently if there was a shortcut to learning lines. There isn't one, or if there is, then I don't know about it (if you do have one, I'm sure you could probably make a fortune with it). For me, line learning is...

The Great Acting Blog: “Quit Complaining, Focus On Being Brilliant”

24.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 4 Comments

You need to look at the beam in your own eye before criticising others. Is your work brilliant? It better be if you're going to spend time moaning. In fact, it's probably best if you refrain from criticising others altogether and put all of that energy into your work....

The Great Acting Blog: “Why The Cynics Are Wrong”

23.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 5 Comments

A denial of acting technique is a denial that acting is an art and that actors are artists. Those who have no technique (many more actors than we might think) are on the make. They are obsessed with self-consciousness, that is, terrified of it, because...

The Great Acting Blog: “Excuses, Excuses”

22.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 5 Comments

When faced with a challenge (ie - a task which creates a fear of failure), it's easy to shy away, telling yourself that you don't possess the necessary qualities to do the thing - I'm not this, I'm not that. Alternatively, the challenge can be...

The Great Acting Blog: “Why Bad Work Succeeds”

21.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 7 Comments

People who only care about numbers, don't really care about what they do, it's just a mechanism for making money. This person is only concerned with box office stats, Youtube hits, creating empty mass media* to appeal to everyone (which is of course nobody), and...

The Great Acting Blog: “How To Direct Yourself”

20.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 6 Comments

One of the biggest objections I hear from actors about producing for themselves is that they need a director to tell them how their performance is going, that they have no antennae for monitoring their progression. You don't need a director. The job of the director...

The Great Acting Blog: “Make Yourself Indispensable”

19.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 3 Comments

How can an actor distinguish himself from the pack (and dying your hair blue, doesn't count)? How can we add value to a production? How can we make ourselves indispensable within a production? How can we make it so that a director would have to include us...

The Great Acting Blog: “Improve The Little One Percenters”

18.06.2013 , The Great Acting Blog , 4 Comments

One time, I was on my way to an audition but I hadn't provided myself with a drink for the journey. It was a hot day, I was riding the tube. I started feeling dizzy and decidedly nauseous, and I began to sweat heavily, so...

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