I needed a refresh on the subject (I should know this by now one would think!) so circled back to review, thank you!!! That third take cracks me up every time, love it.
Matt, I don't think I ever saw this video when you first posted it. Fantastic advice. Just wanted to pass it along and thank you for a much needed boost. This has been a blah year, (for various reasons) so I'm rewatching some videos that inspired me in the past. Such a great find. Sometimes it's good to go back to the basics. Happy Holidays to you and Brooke!
Question… If the script calls for running to another character, and hugging them, do I mime putting my arms around the air? Or do I just do the spoken lines?
If you can achieve the same emotional content and intent of your character WITHOUT any indication of the hug, then eliminate the hug all together. Same goes for any other physicality in a scene. If it MUST stay, then to the minimum. I would frame such that when you’re giving the hug, your don’t see much below your collarbone or mid chest. Then, instead of hugging the air, hug yourself low around the belly. Just keep it simple.
Thanks! Have a costar audition today and will surely put this into practice -- since they requested two takes, with no particular guidance. So take for them, and take for me -- it will be!! Thanks man!
“Stop trying to figure out what the director wants” What? I feel like this is bad advice. The direction you take a read should be based on context clues like, what genre is the project, who is the writer, what has happened so far in the script, relationships to other characters, etc. These are all things that the director wants to have taken into account. What the CD is looking for is the essence that captures all of these elements. Depending on the project, that could be completely different from “an authentic read” as your natural self. If you follow this advice, you’re only going to book things that align with yourself, and nothing that stretches you as an actor.
So I’m guessing you never made it to the 90sec point in the video? I make it abundantly clear that your authenticity needs to exist within the context of all research you do. And if you talk to enough CDs, they’ll reiterate that they WANT to be surprised by you being You. It’s the one thing that takes all that research that every actor is doing and ensures that you don’t do a cookie-cutter imitation of a stereotype. It’s why at dozens of these Q&As (and more recently on Clubhouse) you hear the same phrase repeated: “we want an authentic read”. And your final point supports our POV in a way. We firmly believe that the core essence of you is exactly what they want and need. We believe that great acting is not putting on a mask, but stripping down to your core humanity. That is still challenging, depending on the script and role size. And when an actor gets out of their own way, empowers themself to be authentic, and allows their own unique humanity to shine through, it’s intoxicating. Here’s a quick example. There’s no possible way you can be Heath Ledger’s Joker. That’s Heath. And even though that role took a lot of stretching, that is still a unique part of Heath’s humanity that makes that performance feel real. If you try to “stretch” into an approximation of his performance, you’ll look inauthentic. Think of “stretching” in the literal sense. When you stretch a muscle, it doesn’t become something different. You don’t add matter or take it away, you just create more possibilities. But from the same lump of muscle fibers.
Thanks for the tip, but our engagement is pretty respectable, even for the longer vids. That said, I totally get it when I'm on other channels watching content, and my attention span doesn't always keep me around. We're serving a pretty niche audience, though, so not many people will randomly get baited into watching these vids unless they're already invested in the answer...
I needed a refresh on the subject (I should know this by now one would think!) so circled back to review, thank you!!! That third take cracks me up every time, love it.
You are so welcome! Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for this video. Very helpful.
You’re so welcome. Thanks for watching!
this was really helpful! LOVE this video!!!
What a coincidence...gotta do this, this weekend...wish me luck!
Matt, I don't think I ever saw this video when you first posted it. Fantastic advice. Just wanted to pass it along and thank you for a much needed boost. This has been a blah year, (for various reasons) so I'm rewatching some videos that inspired me in the past. Such a great find. Sometimes it's good to go back to the basics. Happy Holidays to you and Brooke!
Glad it resonated with you, Mike. Thanks for watching. Here’s to hoping next year is more “Yeah!” and less “Blah”. 🙂
Indeed!
I love take for them and take for you
great tips! I'm new to acting and this was so so helpful
Thanks, Makala. Glad it was helpful!
Thank you 🙏🏽👏🏽
Question… If the script calls for running to another character, and hugging them, do I mime putting my arms around the air? Or do I just do the spoken lines?
If you can achieve the same emotional content and intent of your character WITHOUT any indication of the hug, then eliminate the hug all together. Same goes for any other physicality in a scene. If it MUST stay, then to the minimum. I would frame such that when you’re giving the hug, your don’t see much below your collarbone or mid chest. Then, instead of hugging the air, hug yourself low around the belly. Just keep it simple.
Thanks!!💪👏🏼👏🏼⭐️
Thanks! Have a costar audition today and will surely put this into practice -- since they requested two takes, with no particular guidance. So take for them, and take for me -- it will be!! Thanks man!
That’s great Joe!
I can't wait until I get another audition to put this advice into action. Matt, you are an entertaining acting coach. - Angry Bunny
Very informative- thanks
You’re welcome. Thanks for watching!
Hi! This might be a dumb question but should the 2 takes be edited into one video or kept as 2 separate videos?
“Stop trying to figure out what the director wants”
What? I feel like this is bad advice. The direction you take a read should be based on context clues like, what genre is the project, who is the writer, what has happened so far in the script, relationships to other characters, etc. These are all things that the director wants to have taken into account. What the CD is looking for is the essence that captures all of these elements. Depending on the project, that could be completely different from “an authentic read” as your natural self.
If you follow this advice, you’re only going to book things that align with yourself, and nothing that stretches you as an actor.
So I’m guessing you never made it to the 90sec point in the video? I make it abundantly clear that your authenticity needs to exist within the context of all research you do.
And if you talk to enough CDs, they’ll reiterate that they WANT to be surprised by you being You. It’s the one thing that takes all that research that every actor is doing and ensures that you don’t do a cookie-cutter imitation of a stereotype. It’s why at dozens of these Q&As (and more recently on Clubhouse) you hear the same phrase repeated: “we want an authentic read”.
And your final point supports our POV in a way. We firmly believe that the core essence of you is exactly what they want and need. We believe that great acting is not putting on a mask, but stripping down to your core humanity. That is still challenging, depending on the script and role size. And when an actor gets out of their own way, empowers themself to be authentic, and allows their own unique humanity to shine through, it’s intoxicating.
Here’s a quick example. There’s no possible way you can be Heath Ledger’s Joker. That’s Heath. And even though that role took a lot of stretching, that is still a unique part of Heath’s humanity that makes that performance feel real. If you try to “stretch” into an approximation of his performance, you’ll look inauthentic.
Think of “stretching” in the literal sense. When you stretch a muscle, it doesn’t become something different. You don’t add matter or take it away, you just create more possibilities. But from the same lump of muscle fibers.
Keep your vids shorter than 3 minutes. Most people have low attention spans nowadays. Your welcome!
Thanks for the tip, but our engagement is pretty respectable, even for the longer vids. That said, I totally get it when I'm on other channels watching content, and my attention span doesn't always keep me around. We're serving a pretty niche audience, though, so not many people will randomly get baited into watching these vids unless they're already invested in the answer...