Insights 1, Insights 2, Insights 3, Insights 4
More quick takes on acting, life and “going for it”
How you live, what you take from life, what you give to life, breathes power into your art.
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The words on the page are the vehicle not the destination.
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The tiniest adjustment of a rocket ship’s navigation on Earth’s launchpad can change its destination from the Moon to Mars.
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Ingratiating gratitude grates. Nobody hires you as a favor.
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Your wanting a job is not a reason to hire you. Your wanting an agent is not a reason to sign you. Your wanting to talk to someone is not a reason for them to talk to you. Quite the opposite.
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Having “a great voice” qualifies you for voice acting as much as having “great legs” qualifies you for the Olympics.
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A useful habit: With journaling, you reveal inner resources to refine and reference in service to your art.
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Producing your own demo is like a fisherman who baits their hook with random food from their fridge.
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You want to be a better actor? Live more.
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The more your life matters to you, the more your work will matter to others.
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Take after take: Acting is like fishing- never cast your bait in the same location.
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An actor’s job is to efficiently negotiate and choreograph who takes their inner captain’s chair.
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Two common missteps: 1. Moving to LA too early and 2. Refusing to move to LA. when it is time.
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The more you act, the more you realize that your personality isn’t a dictatorship. It’s a rapidly shifting coalition government.
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It’s not about how you feel when you talk/perform- it’s about how others feel when you talk/perform. (-Aaron Shure)
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Moving to LA unequipped with experience or training makes as much sense as starting out a diving career in the Mariana Trench with flippers and a snorkel.
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How to sustain an acting career: Ask yourself, “Why do I keep returning to that particular restaurant?” and, “Why did I stop going to that other one?” Also, “Why is that restaurant still there after all these years?” and,”Why is the other one gone?”
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The bets you place: Even a high-odds payoff yields meager results to a nickel bet.
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Wanting to work for LA animation companies without bothering to move there is like craving the payoff of the casino’s high limit tables while hanging safely back and playing the penny slots.
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The big hurry: If you cut ahead in the lunch line- will the food taste as good when you are surrounded by everyone you cut in front of?
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Wanting starves the wanter. Giving feeds the giver.
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What happens when you enter a room?
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Is a bee more enticed by the a flower’s nectar or its beauty?
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An actor’s ego: Honest self-inspection inoculates self-acceptance against blind self-congratulation.
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Actors: Direct your curiosity both within and without, for you are hired to create from yourself someone other than yourself.
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Educate your artist’s palette. You are hired for your taste in how to tell a story.
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Honesty: Value your weeds- for they encourage the gardener’s fuller attention to the entire garden.
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Celebrate yourself and others constantly and generously. Praise yourself steadily but with restraint. Disparage yourself occasionally and in moderation.
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The people you spend time with, the words that you ingest, are no less impactful on your body and mind than any food you eat.
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Unregulated ambition dulls the appeal of talent.
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Regarding residuals: Corporations have three objectives: 1. Make money, 2. Keep as much money as they can get away with, and 3. Deflect blame. An actor will thus find that residuals can disappear into an opaque financial shell game.
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Don’t take it personally that the money robot that hired you has no sympathy for you.
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An actor’s herb garden: Cultivate an awareness of your complexity, your less than admirable, your missteps. Those are the savory spices that complement the sweet flavors of all that you prepare.
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When a script’s meaning rings clear, the words become invisible.
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Good improv teaches that an engaging story is powered by relationship, by wanting something specific, and supportive affirmation of the group. Add to this an ethic that embraces an honest stumble as a welcome gift, and you are free to tell a better story by greeting the unknown with courageous vulnerability and open ears.
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What will you do when things finally go better than you had hoped faster than you had imagined? I’ll bet you you’re wrong.
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Enjoy the activity over the result: The best day for a fisherman is not when the fish are biting but when there is fishing.
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Sometimes a spotlight is the last thing an actor needs- or is able to bear.
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A well-cast actor extinguishes uncertainty.
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A great ensemble is worth far more than a single super star.
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If only “if only” were of any help.
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You may be feel momentarily higher, but you don’t make progress up a mountain by climbing up one of its trees.
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L.A. Story: Be careful walking in a city where hardly anyone is where they are, and most are in a big hurry to be someone else.
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Actors: Don’t look for personal affirmation in a line of work characterized by endless rejection.
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Why audition for a script you can’t help or aren’t right for? A poor audition is as memorable as a good one and people thinking well of your work builds a career.
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