Actor Growth

First day of the workshop and it was kind of surprising as there was only three of us in the class. Surprising as in the e-mail it looked like there was about six of us originally. There was one lady in the group who I actually saw before from the casting director workshop I attended awhile back. Turns out she works as an assistant for that casting director too.

Now this workshop actually takes place in a studio where a lot of auditions take place and funny enough I saw a fellow actor that was in the same acting workshop I was in. I think he was auditioning for some kind of commercial. For the beginning we simply talked a bit about casting directors and what to do in the room in general.

There was also a lot of conversations about memorizing lines and some facts were brought up such as a person like George Clooney is actually horrible at memorizing lines apparently. I never really watched the show E.R., but apparently if you pay attention there are so many times where he looks down while doing a scene as what he’s doing is actually referencing a script so that he knows what his line is. Funny I thought if that is true.

I did do and audition side from the show from The Reaper as mentioned. The character’s name was Gary and it had something to do with him suckering the devil into giving him all this stuff without actually signing his soul away. This class was a little challenging and interesting I thought and here’s why.

Usually when you go to an audition you don’t really get much in terms of the back story. Therefore, you have to make choices on why the character acts the way they do. My initial interpretation was that this was a filthy rich guy that is a complete jerk as he embarrasses others for his own enjoyment. Therefore, I played it in a very mellow way.

However, the coach then mentioned that this was a comedy scene and that it is all about timing and that the character has to be super energetic and excited. For example, there is one part where the character shoots a paintball gun at the butler. I initially just did it in a subtle jerk type of way but was then was told that what the scene needed was a guy that was having a blast in a very energetic fashion in shooting a butler with a paintball gun. So, I tried that and unfortunately I couldn’t fully relate to why a guy that rich would be so juvenile in his reactions since this sounded like an everyday thing for him.

Upon doing the scene he said that he saw potential for me in doing this scene and to try it again for next week. That got my curious. I then went online to look for this clip and sure enough I found it. From what I see, the actually footage on the show is kind of closer to how I interpreted it. However, I do believe that the coach’s direction would have made it more fun.

That got me thinking too on how subjective an audition could be. And this brings up my confusion as I have mentioned time and time again when it comes to training with people. As you may recall, the last acting coach thought that I did way too much comedy initially and wanted to see a more serious side as he believes that is what I need to do to accelerate my career. He even went as far to say that people that didn’t push me in that direction were afraid of seeing my full potential as I mentioned that people have told me to be more relaxed and energetic.

As you can see, it is like the flip opposite again where in this case I opted for the more serious tone and the coach seems to think I need to be more comedic and energetic in my actions. Very confusing field I must say. So what I do fear a little is that since the coach requested that I do the same scene again that this may turn out to be a directional thing where it’s more about acting out a scene based on a specific direction as oppose to audition strategies and the business of it all.

One confused actor here. lol.

I was reading a post from the Actors Voice today where the advice for actors who still haven’t made yet is to simply get better. Essentially, it is addressing the issue how people say that they have tried everything to get their break and nothing works. The comment seemed pretty blunt too where if you honestly say that you tried everything then maybe that just means that you aren’t good enough to make it and need to get better. You can read the article at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/ that was posted today.

As an actor still working hard myself it’s kind of interesting as I personally didn’t find it “offensive” in anyway which I’m sure it will for a lot of people. I think the bottom line is that it comes down to your attitude as if you are always negative then most likely you won’t get anywhere. At the same time, I suppose for myself I have that business and entrepreneur attitude when it comes to acting.

Like a business, it is up to you to try different things and be persistent if you are not getting the results that you are looking for. Example, you can blame things like the economy for your woes or simply adapt to the situation in order to achieve your desired results.

At the same time, I always remember the general value of a business offering when it comes to getting customers. If you offer something unique then people have to come to you for those services. If you don’t offer something that is unique then you are competing against price and convenience. I believe this holds true as an actor that is looking for work too.

One thing this article didn’t really address too much is your look and presence. You hear stories all the time about people who got the parts based mostly their looks. Or in the more rare incidents, they get discovered off the streets based solely on appearance. So in that sense, since the article focused mostly on your training as an actor I think things like your image portrayal kind of throws a wrench into the mix where there are so many ways to reach your goal.

With that in mind, that got me thinking too….. Is it more about becoming a better “actor” or becoming a better “talent” that gets you those opportunities? Example, there is a MMA (mixed martial arts) oriented movie coming out where there are actual UFC fighters acting in the movie apparently.

Are they better actors than many of the undiscovered film talent that spend thousands of hours training to act in front of the camera? Highly doubt it. Are they better fighters? Probably. So in that case, would training to be a better actor or a more talented fighter be better for your career path assuming those are the types of roles that you want to do? I personally think this is an overlooked aspect for aspiring actors.

So if you are going to spend 10,000 hours to try and master something for the sole purpose of moving your acting career, I believe we really need to sit down and make sure that what we are learning is truly the most logical way to do it.

I know for myself with the martial arts example, if my goal as an actor was to become the greatest film martial artist in the world I would be spending my 10,000 hours training in the Dojo and not necessarily with an acting coach. Why? Cause odds are if I focus in becoming the greatest martial artist all time the opportunities will naturally come to my door.

In my opinion too, everyone acts everyday and I personally consider living life as training to a certain extent. I know an acting coach once said in a workshop where when we, the acting students, choose a scene it is not a fluke that we chose it. Something about it attracted us to it and enables us to perform the scene great. To me, it’s about being able to relate to it based on real life experiences and observations.

While I am not a household name or authority figure when it comes to becoming an established actor as I have yet to make it there myself yet, I do believe that sometimes we tend to focus too much on spending thousands of dollars to train to become a better “actor” when really working on our unique “talent” should be more of the focus I’d say.

I was talking to my agent over the e-mail the other day and he said that one skill that is important for casting directors is your ability to speak in an American dialect. This has always been an interesting topic for me as I always considered my accent as just plain North American English.

However, apparently a lot of Canadians speak way too polite that drives American nuts they say. For example, many Canadians end their sentences with an apology. Think of it like if someone needs direction they say an American is more likely to say “excuse me” only. A Canadian though would say something like “Excuse me. Sorry to disturb you”.

There are other ones that I have never really heard myself in a regular conversation. Apparently many Canadians pronounce the word “about” as “A Boot”. I guess I grew up watching too much TV that is American based as I never pronounce that word like that.

Never had this problem before, but then again I don’t exactly get to talk to many Americans so I can’t exactly say if one would recognize any odd Canadian accents from me.

I was reading this advertisement recently about an acting coach named Margie Haber who appears to be based out of California. While I am currently schedule to attend the 6 week intensive workshop with Andrew McIlroy, this got me curious as her workshop would take place almost right after.

I was doing some research about her and she seemed perfectly legitimate and reputable. The thing that crossed my mind was how since she is a California US based acting coach it made me wonder how relevant it would be for me considering I am here in Vancouver. One of the benefits to getting trained normally is that local casting directors will recognize your teachers and hence will be more likely to consider you.

At this point I just in an inquiry as I was interested in learning more about the curriculum and the cost.

I was just looking at some local Vancouver actor workshops for the future and one thing that caught my attention is how there were training for camera acting and just acting in general. What came across my mind immediately was how any training that I do take should be more focused on the camera acting.

Even for myself my background came from theatre acting. The transition to camera acting can be quite a challenge as in theatre there tends to be a need for you to be louder and more expressive. In camera acting those actions can look way too odd and over the top.

I think the reverse is easier personally where you go from being a film actor to a theatre one. The environment in a theatre setting is so much more free to me personally from an actor’s point of view.

So today while attending my martial arts class for one reason or another it actually crossed my mind that it might be better to find an additional place to train at within a different art that would complement each other. As of now I try to attend the current place I go to as much as possible and it kind of works with my schedule.

However, recently I felt that I haven’t been really growing/learning as much as I would like skill wise considering I probably go there way more than an average person and feel that I am not being pushed to my potential. Although, I have only been there for one and half months, so maybe I am being a bit too ambitious. Another person that I normally train with privately on the weekends is on a semi-vacation to add to the situation. I definitely don’t learn this for acting purposes like what many would do too when it comes to martial arts and are into the film business.

But essentially, as I mentioned before my schedule can be really spontaneous where one week it’s like I have all the time in the world and the next week I would need to shut myself out to nothing but work. Therefore, everyday I am trying to do much as possible to maximize my time. Of course, I can’t expect any of these martial arts schools to accommodate just for my own unique situation nor would I expect them to, so as a result I am going to start looking again.

One funny thing too is that another school I was debating about before happens to focus more on the glamour style of martial arts and by the looks of it they may have the best fit schedule wise for me where I can easily alternate between the two schools depending on what my day looks like. While I don’t really want to learn something of this nature just for film, I guess the conditioning you go through is beneficial in general.

So, let the hunting begin. I’ll probably contact a few places in the next few days to see what my options are. Who knows, I guess there is a possibility that a new place would enthusiastically want to accommodate to my needs and situation. Would be a good way to equally compare the two to evaluate which one is best overall.