The Authentic Actor: The Art and Business of Being Yourself by Michael Laskin

Author:Michael Laskin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
Published: 2015-02-28T14:00:00+00:00

LEARN WHAT YOU CAN,

WHEREVER YOU ARE

A confession: Coming from theater to a career in TV and film, I was honestly stunned at how bad my first on-camera work was. I didn’t have enough respect for the art of acting onscreen. I shared a snobbery common among stage actors who had never tried acting on camera. Everything I did looked pushed and fake, but I was proud and not willing to settle for mediocrity. I was hungry to learn what I was missing.

Shortly after I moved to L.A., I booked a recurring role on the series Crazy Like a Fox, starring Jack Warden. Jack was in his sixties and a revered star. He had been twice nominated for an Oscar, and had starred in landmark films including From Here to Eternity, 12 Angry Men, Shampoo, . . . And Justice for All, and The Verdict.

Jack was a consummate actor who never played a false note — ever. He was also simply a great guy. I was thrilled to be in his orbit, even for a brief time. Whenever I could, I sat with him to talk and ask questions. He was very generous with his time, his advice, and himself.

Jack was a big sports fan, and we often talked baseball. One day we were talking scores and teams, sitting in our chairs at the periphery of the set. (His chair was embroidered with his name. Mine said GUEST.) The crew was shooting coverage on one of Jack’s scenes, but he wasn’t in the shot. So instead, we shot the breeze.

Suddenly the director appeared. “Jack, I was wrong. You’re going to be in this shot.”

Jack got up, calmly took his place, and the scene unfolded. What I saw next was something I never forgot: a master class in film acting. On the set with cameras rolling, Jack was absolutely the same guy as he was when he’d discussed baseball with me. No difference. At all. He seamlessly went from life to performance and back again.

It’s not that he wasn’t acting when the cameras were rolling. He was. He did all the things that good actors do: listened, responded, thought, took his moments, and had a strategy for his character in the scene. But he had simply let go of the idea of having to be someone else. He had such clarity about himself that it totally rang true on film and in life. He embodied a full integration of life and art, self-knowledge with ease and confidence. At that moment I understood an essence of exceptional film acting.

It’s not that Jack was incapable of portraying a character unlike himself; he absolutely was. He had the skill and the chops to do most anything, and had done that formative work as a younger actor. But in this moment that I witnessed, he knew how to “be” and knew enough not to “do.” Not every actor can find this blending of life and art. But the great ones do, and Jack was one of them.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.