You Can’t Fool Babies
I babysit a semi-adorable infant. Today, when I went to youtube to show him his daily dose of inappropriate rap videos, I started watching some acting videos instead. It was really interesting to see his reaction. When someone was having thoughts and listening he sat still and was totally captivated. As soon as someone started indicating and pushing he immediately started squirming and looking away. He’s 8 months old! He doesn’t know about reversals or builds or thoughts, but he knows truth. He knows when someone is behaving like a normal human being because it’s something he has seen before. He can understand it when it is behavior that exists in daily interactions, and he’s only been privy to human nature for 8 months, imagine what someone with 20 plus years of life and complex cognitive abilities will notice. If you can’t fool babies, you certainly can’t fool casting.- Alison T.
Stop Caring About Time
Lesly,
“ . . . what I have learned from you since basically January when I started ongoing until now has changed my acting more than three years of conservatory and everything else combined. . . . The other part has come from me not caring and just saying fuck it. What I mean by that is that since probably December I’ve started realizing how precious the little time we have on this Earth is and I’ve wasted enough of it in the past to last me another lifetime. I knew I had the talent in me to act back in high school but I was playing three sports and I wasn’t exactly going to ask for time off from practice to audition for THE ODD COUPLE. If there is one time in my life when I am an open sore, vulnerable and capable of giving and receiving all that I have it is when I’m acting. I always found it fascinating that we had the ability to make people laugh, cry, get mad, feel inspired, cheer, groan and every other feeling that we get when we sit down and watch people perform. That’s why I started acting, not because I thought I could be a star, not because I had a bad childhood and this was my outlet, but because I wanted to make people feel what I felt. . . . Because I just don’t have that much time left. And I have a girlfriend I’m in love with, and brothers and sisters and parents and nieces and nephews, and everyday I get up I do this not only for myself but for them. Because time doesn’t care about any of us so I decided to stop caring about time. – Frank M
It Sounds So Simple
Lesly,
Had an audition today for a SAG Feature and I wanted to share the experience with you. I just got home after the audition and am on Cloud 9. After doing each scene 3 different times in front of Producers and the bunch, they actually liked something I did so much that they took an actor that was cast and gave HIM a note to see how it played out. Afterwards the casting director said, “Wow, you’re a really great actor.” I’m still not sure if they will now PAY me to do it again on camera [Editor’s note: They ARE! HE BOOKED IT!], but just to hear that was very gratifying.
I went in with a thought, a few ideas of how I might react to a handful of my scene partner’s lines, and just threw the rest away and was myself. There wasn’t any pushing, faking, and I was so free to HAVE FUN with the others in the room. So THANK YOU for showing me that “I” am the character I should be selling, not what I “think” they are looking for. It sounds so simple when I write it here, but only with practice and the notes that your class provides was I able to realize that. Have a blessed day, and I’ll see you in class tonight.
“Always remember, YOU are the catalyst to the brilliance of the life that you desire.” -M
Don’t try to “not” do things.
So I’ve been in Alison’s clinic and last week she said to me – just do what you want – whenever you don’t edit yourself it’s always fun. Don’t try to “not” do things – like trying to not be too theatrical, etc.. Tonight Trisha was our sub…. So I did the West Wing scene with all kinds of “don’t be too…” thoughts. Then I did it again and I thought – what the heck – fire. I’ll just do what I want (thank you Alison:). So I explode onto the scene and Trisha stops me one line in and says – I love it – but I think your essence is a little quirkier than hers. Then she says, “She’s nerdier than you.” Bingo. Instantly I knew how to adjust and the whole scene was so much better than the first time. It took me showing Trisha “what I had” or “who I am” or “what I thought about what was happening in the scene” for her to know what kind of adjustment to give me. It’s like a specific application of the dare to suck principle. When I do what I want, put it all out there, it may not be “right,” it may be totally wrong but it shows people what I’ve got and then they have more to work with.
“Daring to Suck All Over This Town”
So, I went out for my first commercial audition for my new agency. Got a callback. Got put on avail. And lost it…to one of my best friend’s wife. Out of all of LA! And she’s really sweet but….it was a lesson to me that it’s really about what they are looking for physically.
BUT…through these casting workshops, I got called in for a co-star on Raising Hope . . . with Martha Plimpton. I thought it went really well. It has been a couple of days and I mourned not getting it. The women up for it were me, an Asian girl, 2 twenty-something blonde girls, a trashy looking woman and an older woman. Who knows what they wanted? Whatever.
Well, I just got an e-mail and I booked it!
And I wanted to e-mail you . . . because the amount of work I did on this ONE LINE was hilarious. I had a moment before, I had thoughts, I noticed that the END of the scene was AFTER a short speech by another character so I knew I had to have thoughts for all of her lines, I thought MINI-GOLF WOMAN THOUGHTS, for god’s sake! And the thoughts helped because I was so in it through the end, and everyone started laughing when it was over, and I laughed with them and said one of my character thoughts out loud, “Poor Jimmy!” and they all laughed again.
So, big thanks to all of you guys, and Lesly and Tyler! : ) Daring to suck all over this town.
Love,
A
Insert Foot in Mouth
I had a callback for a national commercial yesterday. I was in normal clothes for the audition and they asked if I have a cheerleading uniform to wear that back to the callback. Feeling a bit stupid in my uniform from 13 years ago I decided I should crack a joke in the room. The joke failed. Miserably. Then me, “That wasn’t funny at all? Really? Okay.” Went on with the audition, said thank you & left. Felt like a real idiot after. Self thoughts: why do you always have to do stuff like that? You could have just walked in and been like a normal person. You don’t need to make others feel comfortable with your weird humor because you feel uncomfortable. Get over yourself. Etc. Joked about how badly I bombed the callback with my agent’s assistant yesterday. Got a text this morning that I’m on hold.
HUH. Weird.
Then I started thinking about all of the auditions that I’ve booked over the years. In nearly all of them I did some really awkward foot-in-mouth type of thing that I felt stupid about later… it’s those moments — when I’m not perfect or attempting to be perfect or my idea of perfect — that I book jobs. It also translates into my personal life- when I feel like a total fool/not trying to be somebody else/perfect/etc. is when people really respond to me.
Bottom line: Lesly’s advice: BE YOURSELF.
I may get this tattooed somewhere on my body. In a different language to make it look cool of course. – KF
11th Hour Miracle
Hi Lesly -
I wanted to share some great news with you – I booked a national commercial this week, on the heels of dire financial straits and my mother lecturing me about how I need to stop acting again if I don’t book anything by December. This is significant for several reasons: 1) it’s only the 4th commercial audition I’ve been out on since my big “comeback” as an actor. 2) I’ve done several commercials in the past, but never a national. This means it has the potential make me some desperately needed $$$.
3) I really think my booking has a lot to do with our conversation in class a couple weeks ago about “having fun.” I tend to despise commercial auditions but during our talk in class, I looked around and looked at J, who makes a living doing commercials, and I realized that she was probably walking into all of those auditions with a spirit of fun instead of viewing them as an exercise in wasted time and embarrassing hassle. So I decided to go into my next audition and just have fun – and I got a callback.
Now, in the olden days, every time I got close to a role or a commercial and was in the “callback” stage, I would get really nervous and clingy. I would view the audition room as people sitting there with bags of money, debating whether or not to give it to me. Or even more dangerously, imbibe the role with “I’ll never get an audition again; this will prove to my friends/ex-boyfriends/agents/casting directors/family/etc that I am worthwhile and talented and therefore deserving of respect and love.”
I really tried not to do that this time, but to go into something as simple as a commercial callback with a spirit of just having a good time, no pressure – and when I left the room that day, I thought, you know, I had a really good time. Full stop.
I need to start doing this in every aspect of my life.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you, because it really is an 11th hour miracle and part of me can’t believe that I’m actually getting paid to act again. I just can’t believe it, after four years of never thinking I was going to act ever again. The fact that I am going to get to sit in a makeup chair and get my hair done and enjoy two days of free catering literally blows my mind.
Thank you for class and inspiration and believing in me.
K
Feed Me!
Lesly,
I realized today that I am doing the right thing, this acting thing. I had little sleep last night, rehearsal this morning, and my second rehearsal right afterward even went over but I didn’t want anyone to leave! . . . I want to thank you for this intensive. It reignited a fire burning inside me ever since I was a little kid. The right side of my brain has been starving! Thanks for helping me see that. Sincerely, R
Watch Out For That Giant Red Pole
Hi Lesly,
I thought I woud share this with you:
Last night as I was leaving class, I got into my car in the parking structure, starting driving and turned right into a concrete poll smashing the ENTIRE left side of my car!!! No one cut me off, no one turned into me, no one was even within 100 feet of my car or the pole…I just did not see the 16 ft high, 2 foot wide RED fucking thing!!!
As I started driving home, I was stunned and freaked out and devastated and angry and panicked and a whole other mix of emotions I can’t describe!! My brain (I don’t know which side) did the following: holy shit…poor me…I’ve been going a million miles a minute, not sleeping properly, not eating properly, I havent spent an evening with my fiance in…uhm…shit…I can’t remember! I’m running out of money to pay for all this acting stuff. I…wait…SHIT…I don’t have time to take my car in before tomorrow…my driver’s side door won’t open…what if I get stranded on the road?…I NEED my car tomorrow…I have a table read for “Criminal Minds” tomorrow for God’s sake…my first paid acting job EVER…wait a minute…I have a table read tomorrow…I booked a job!…I booked a job!!!…OH MY GOD…who gives a flying fuck about the rest of the shit??? I booked a job!!!!!! Wait…is this why this is happening to me…was I gloating?? Is this the evil eye?? Oh mom, get out of my head!!!! I booked a job!!!! All is well, this is really JUST inconvenient!!!
Then I continued driving home feeling AMAZING…weird, right??!!!
I’ll share my favorite quote with you: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive! — Dr. Howard Thurman.”
I’ve done SO many different things in my life, had great success in the corporate world…and hated every minute of it!! For the first time in my life, I feel alive, I feel like I’m doing what I was made for and I am wildly stupidly happy!!!!! The rest is just stuff…
Thanks for always reinforcing what I’m feeling…you’re AMAZING!!!! So few teachers ever touch on these things, when they are the juice that keeps us going and makes it all worth it. So, THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Now, off to my table read yo’ !!!!!!!!!
NB
“Making It”
Check out this podcast “Making It with Riki Lindhome” from nerdist.com featuring our very own Kate Micucci! She even gives a shout out to Lesly! We’re verklempt.
