What I Wish I’d Known Before I Started in the Industry

Success is always self-created. I learned very quickly that waiting for someone else to create my success as the leader of a thriving acting school would be a certain recipe for failure. The only way to ignite a truly awesome career is to do it oneself.

Never put your career success in the hands of another person, particularly agents and managers, and stop waiting for opportunities to fall into your lap—they never will. Any meaningful success will always need to start with you creating your own opportunities first.

I wanted more meaningful experiences as an acting coach, so I created my master class—a melee of successful artists, celebrity clients, and emerging actors and writers. The achievements of this class reinforce themselves and breed more accomplishments, helping me to create a thriving community of elite actors. My success as an acting coach continues to revolve around the idea of created opportunities in that I help students achieve their goals: launched careers, booked roles, awards and nominations, and irrefutable acting breakthroughs in every class.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

How to Develop Attractive Confidence and Win the Role

The audition starts the moment the casting director, director, and producer lay eyes on you, and not—as many think—when you start “acting.” This could be the moment you walk through the door of the audition room, or during the walk from the waiting room to the audition room. The moment you are identified by your name, here to read for role X, every word or action needs to generate the illumination of pure, complete confidence. 

Your success is a direct result of such confidence. You need to think of yourself as an elite surgeon who is there to perform the most crucial life-saving surgery—and only you can do it just so. Thinking of yourself as akin to someone in the medical profession is useful, as we’ve all experienced confident doctors with warm smiles and handshakes, who aren’t intimidated or disturbed by our gross or mysterious ailments. These are the doctors who convince us they can cure us, heal us, and help us, even though they don’t have to say a word affirming this. Their body confidence is so strong it’s like another entity in the room; it tells us so. 

On the flip side, there are the doctors who do everything but exude confidence. Their words and actions produce anxiety and lack of clarity, effortlessly suggesting that our stubborn rash or odd bump might be something that rhymes with smancer. They seem unsure of themselves and our symptoms do nothing but to befuddle them. Medical professionals like these are like actors who have a shaky grip on their preparation, who don’t believe they’re right for the role, who don’t believe they deserve it, or who freak out if there’s a last minute change of sides or additional pages to prepare. No one wants a doctor like that, and no one wants to pay an actor like that, or have such anxious energy contaminating a set. 

Building Confidence
Just as I’ve always said that the personality of the actor is nine-tenths of the performance, fostering and exuding real confidence is essentially the foundation on which this performance rests. It’s the cement layer upon which you build your skyscraper. 

Just as you must distill your “hook”—the deeply improvisational and emotional attitude that launches you into the start of every scene—you must adopt and ignite a body attitude of power, grit, and determination before walking into the room.

Body confidence leads to actual confidence (emotional confidence). Just as your words create your reality, confidence in your body develops into internal confidence that starts to effect change. Before walking into every audition, one of my brave and talented master class students lights himself up with the attitude: “I’m the fucking solution.” 

If you consider the confidence of certain celebrities, such as Scarlett Johansson, one can conclude that it’s a direct result of accumulated years of constant validation. I help actors develop that level of impactful attractive confidence within minutes to help them go into the room and book the role. 

Authentic vs. Fake
As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, genuine confidence always comes with repeated success, colossal failure, and many years of flying hours. In the audition room, you need to know deep down in your gut that you’re the best person for the role and that you deserve it. Unless you are able to hold those two truths simply and utterly in your heart, you’ll reside in the danger of having your confidence look fake, manufactured, or as if you’re trying too hard.

Again, we can return to the doctor analogy to illustrate this point. Truly confident doctors radiate their unshakable belief in themselves with each syllable and each second of eye contact. Doctors who aren’t confident but desperately try to appear so are the ones who say things like, “don’t worry” in such a way that it does nothing but ignite anxiety. 

The 3 Results Confidence Will Get You
When you’re at your Olympic best as an actor, brimming with confidence, there are only three results you should be satisfied with after an audition:

1. Booking the role. You got the part, kid!

2. Booking the room. They loved you and your performance blew their minds, but you are just not right for the role. Maybe it’s your height. Maybe you look too similar to the lead. Be assured that they will be calling you back for another part in their next big project. You will most likely win that role.

3. Bringing you back. This is a subset of booking the room. This means the powers that be bring you back in either for a callback, a producer’s session, a chemistry read, or to read for some other part in the same project. 

These are the career-launching results that a performance lit up with confidence will deliver.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

An Inspiring Performance All Aspiring Actors Must See

One performance that every aspiring actor should see is Dustin Hoffman’s role in “The Graduate.” While it’s a superb performance, there are three distinct reasons that it is a must-watch for actors. The first reason is that Hoffman was cast in spite of his appearance. As the story goes, the powers behind that film were looking for a tall, basketball playing, ivy league-esque leading man. Thus, actors, don’t shun an audition if you feel like you don't look the way the part is envisioned. The second reason is that Hoffman shows real innovation in the craft: As legend has it, Hoffman saw the director chuckling off-camera after some clunky move he made with Anne Bancroft onscreen. Determined not to break character, Hoffman starts banging his head against the wall—a move which made it into the finished film. Now that's determination and creativity. Finally, Hoffman shows us how pursuing the simplest attitude—“I’m going to get this girl back,”—can be truly riveting and dynamic as he approaches it through a variety of angles: desperation, comedy, lunacy, and courage. No special effects needed. With the highest percentage of booked roles in the industry, I help actors make the brave and surprising choices that win them the role and help them reach their Oscar potential on set.

This articla was originally posted on Backstage

What Should an Actor Never Do in an Audition Room?

Don’t guess what they are looking for. Assume you are who they’re looking for, and bring yourself to the piece with a fun and impactful choice. Too many actors examine their sides with a focus upon trying to determine what the lofty-powers-that-be are looking for. That’s honestly the most futile thing you can do. Quite often, what the producers and directors are “looking for” is someone to save their ass. That’s the full extent. Sure they might have a rough idea of the character in their heads, but so what? They’re seldom married to that hazy notion. Have the courage to assert yourself as the solution to their casting problem, and then make a courageous choice that leaves a permanent mark, so that they see you and nobody else in the role. Trust in your own individuality and instead of stifling your uniqueness in the name of trying to be more what you think they want, let your weirdness, imperfectness, depravedness, and freakishness shine! Those are quite often the most memorable. I help actors discover their singularity—the exclusive combination of attitudes and behaviors that make them an original. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage 

4 Lessons to Learn From Abusive Acting Teachers

I wrote this article with no small amount of reservations, but I am getting so frustrated, deeply saddened, and downright disturbed by the stories I have been hearing repeatedly from actors about the abuse they have endured from other acting teachers. I feel called to protect actors from this type of “theatrical malpractice.” When they reach me, their talent and natural instincts have been completely flattened. Just as my good doctor friend is horrified by the care some of his patients have received at the hands of other negligent, ego overdriven practitioners out there, I too am outright horrified by the abuse my students have endured at the hands of other “qualified professional coaches” paying their bills by denigrating actors. 

When I was a student, I definitely experienced both my fair share of phenomenal, life-changing teachers, along with ones who should go off and open candy shops in Vermont and leave the entertainment industry well enough alone. Looking back on my experience, here’s what you can learn about human nature and the human condition from even the worst acting teachers. 

1. The human ego knows no bounds. Have you ever heard that “love is boundless”? Well that works both ways. Self-love is also boundless and there are truly no limits as to what certain acting teachers or “delicate geniuses” (as George Costanza would say) can reach when it comes to tiresome expressions of egotism: namedropping, unbridled condescension, the endless stories about the shows/films/plays they worked on regardless of relevancy. Understanding the powerful breadth and depth of the human ego is important. As you go on your way, you’re going to encounter many more egotistical people. Many bad acting teachers are also egomaniacs, and being aware of this can help you understand the power dynamics at play when you deal with such people. Egomaniacs have a knack for making anything (including your struggles with a scene or an audition technique) about them. Your successes are used for further self-aggrandizement. 

2. There is no lesson to learn from abuse. I hear actors rationalize abuse-based classes all the time. They claim there’s something to be learned or some form of development that goes on when an acting teacher will “cut someone down” or “put them in their place” or mock, deride, or otherwise make an example of other actors. That is complete BS. These actors are simply making an excuse for bullying, and are thus enabling it. I would love—and when I say I would love, I mean it would be my dream—if a class of actors walked out on a teacher that did that asserting an ultimatum: We’re not coming back until you talk to us like the equals that we are. 

When acting teachers engage in such unacceptable behavior it’s simply akin to them attempting to feel empowered. Other times, it’s the teacher expressing frustration through a mini temper tantrum. If you’re not going to call the teacher out on such behavior—and who more better suited to doing this than the actors who pay (ostensibly employ) this teacher—then at the very least, you should make certain to make severe mental notes to yourself on the matter, and hopefully view the teacher through a new lens and greater scrutiny. 

3. Yes, some teachers are jealous of their students. This might sound crazy because why would a teacher (or anyone for that matter) be jealous of a bunch of struggling actors, but the reality is true: some teachers are. They envy your success, your talent, your fearlessness, your energy, your fresh perspective, and likewise, your lack of jadedness. Sometimes this jealousy comes out in bullying behaviors, as discussed above. Other times this jealousy manifests as the teacher being negative, projecting negative outcomes, or being overly critical (and masking that criticism as “instruction”). 

Before studying privately with me, one of my hugely talented and award-winning musician/singer-songwriter clients described being publicly berated and humiliated in front of her peers by a well-known, abuse-based acting teacher in L.A. simply because her acting career was starting to take off and she needed to take a break from studio classes.

4. Fear manifests in a variety of ways. Fear doesn’t just rear its ugly head through bullying or hysteria—sometimes it’s via the soft and saccharine-esque environments of certain acting classes which have the demeanor of a summer camp session. Some acting teachers manifest their fear and insecurity by not offering any real correction. This largely manifests via warm and fuzzy classes where actors are coddled and not given any real corrections or points for improvement. Acting teachers like these generally have a very warped viewpoint of what their job is or, I find, are uncomfortable saying anything unpleasant. As many of you have learned, it is through unpleasant realities, presented respectfully and professionally, that we all learn to grow and adapt—and in the context of an acting class, hopefully become better actors. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

What’s the Best Advice an Actor Has Given You?

One of my celebrity clients recounted an audition experience reading for a major TV role. She felt her first read was OK, and then asked to go again. Instead of standing by her work, she gave away some of her power by asking for an additional read. When you ask to go again, you’re telling the whole room that according to you, the first read could’ve been better. This act of second-guessing is something many of us suffer from. Actors want to be open to direction and always do their very best, but there comes a point when you need to trust your instincts, deliver the work you prepared, and let it go. Trust yourself and others will trust you. Act as though you don’t trust yourself, and no one will. Oftentimes, your first read is incredibly moving and your best work. Thus, don’t judge yourself when you are in the room. Ever. Stand behind your personality and brave choices. Since adopting this attitude, my client is now starring on her own FX series.

This article was originally posted on Backstage