Showing posts with label acting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label acting. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
game change
Holy crap, Julianne Moore is a goddess. This is amazing. Side by side clips from the new HBO movie 'Game Change' documenting the spectacular idiocy of Sarah Palin and the Republican Party for bringing her into McCain's campaign, showing Moore and the real Palin.
I don't know if I'll be able to actually watch the film though; it's just so painful to see even of a portrayal of that grifter and her stunning, smug stupidity and disingenuousness.
Monday, February 20, 2012
The Opposite of People
So I feel I have to comment one more time on this.
Over the weekend I was cyber-witness to some posts about a friend's show. Apparently, after the opening night performance, some nasty things were said about what a waste of time the show was. And I commented, commiserating with the people who were criticizing the critics, as it were, and I still stand by what I said.
Even when I am in my critic mode--actual, paid (very little) theatre critic--I understand that what I am doing is nothing compared to what the people on stage are doing. I know that because I've done both. Writing even a very detailed and thoughtful and honest and heartfelt review takes at most a few hours. Rehearsing a show usually takes at minimum 50-75 hours, weeks and weeks of rehearsing, not to mention dozens of hours more memorizing lines and doing other homework on your character.
And the thing is, when I am watching a show, I almost always in some way or another fantasize or daydream or imagine what it would be like to perform in the show I am watching. I think everyone does this; I think it is part of what draws us to theatre, movies and music performances: we imagine ourselves as Pete Townshend or Ricky Roma or Jason Bourne. (weirdest trio of examples ever, off the top of my head...)
And invariably, when actors are involved, this natural tendency to imagine can turn ugly, showing up as jealousy or sniping. The thing is, backstabbing and petty jealousy aside, it must be said that people shitting on what we do is one of the things we as actors have tacitly signed up for. You don’t get to go out there in front of people, hold them hostage for two or three hours (or at least hold their $25 hostage) while you demand their attention and perform, then sit back and wait for the accolades without also being prepared for the shit-colades, as it were. (Shit Colada, anyone?) :-)
At any rate, that is the meaning of ‘putting ourselves out there,’ you know? That’s what makes us stronger than regular humans--and weaker than them too: we have the strength and fearlessness to go perform, true. But we also NEED to perform; we not only do not fear being looked at, we NEED to be looked at. Which makes us weirdly, uniquely strong and weak: if we can admit there's a need to be looked at, then we must also admit there is at least a thread of approval-seeking running through it.
But you don’t get to get looked at without a chance that some people aren’t going to like what they see. That would be the Special Olympics of theatre: you’re all winners here! Gold medals for everyone!
So while part of me empathizes for what I can only assume was someone talking shit at the after party of a show I admittedly haven't seen yet, I have to add the caveat that by performing we invite people to talk about what we do up there. And some of what people say might not be nice.
But anyway, fuck ‘em, once again. They are not us, and we are not them. After all,
“We are actors! We are the opposite of people!”
Over the weekend I was cyber-witness to some posts about a friend's show. Apparently, after the opening night performance, some nasty things were said about what a waste of time the show was. And I commented, commiserating with the people who were criticizing the critics, as it were, and I still stand by what I said.
Even when I am in my critic mode--actual, paid (very little) theatre critic--I understand that what I am doing is nothing compared to what the people on stage are doing. I know that because I've done both. Writing even a very detailed and thoughtful and honest and heartfelt review takes at most a few hours. Rehearsing a show usually takes at minimum 50-75 hours, weeks and weeks of rehearsing, not to mention dozens of hours more memorizing lines and doing other homework on your character.
And the thing is, when I am watching a show, I almost always in some way or another fantasize or daydream or imagine what it would be like to perform in the show I am watching. I think everyone does this; I think it is part of what draws us to theatre, movies and music performances: we imagine ourselves as Pete Townshend or Ricky Roma or Jason Bourne. (weirdest trio of examples ever, off the top of my head...)
And invariably, when actors are involved, this natural tendency to imagine can turn ugly, showing up as jealousy or sniping. The thing is, backstabbing and petty jealousy aside, it must be said that people shitting on what we do is one of the things we as actors have tacitly signed up for. You don’t get to go out there in front of people, hold them hostage for two or three hours (or at least hold their $25 hostage) while you demand their attention and perform, then sit back and wait for the accolades without also being prepared for the shit-colades, as it were. (Shit Colada, anyone?) :-)
At any rate, that is the meaning of ‘putting ourselves out there,’ you know? That’s what makes us stronger than regular humans--and weaker than them too: we have the strength and fearlessness to go perform, true. But we also NEED to perform; we not only do not fear being looked at, we NEED to be looked at. Which makes us weirdly, uniquely strong and weak: if we can admit there's a need to be looked at, then we must also admit there is at least a thread of approval-seeking running through it.
But you don’t get to get looked at without a chance that some people aren’t going to like what they see. That would be the Special Olympics of theatre: you’re all winners here! Gold medals for everyone!
So while part of me empathizes for what I can only assume was someone talking shit at the after party of a show I admittedly haven't seen yet, I have to add the caveat that by performing we invite people to talk about what we do up there. And some of what people say might not be nice.
But anyway, fuck ‘em, once again. They are not us, and we are not them. After all,
“We are actors! We are the opposite of people!”
Saturday, January 21, 2012
theatre heresy
One of my favorite comments that I get from actors I’ve just met who come from a theatre school or theatre grad school background is that my acting is ‘...very naturalistic.’ Or ‘organic.’
Now, I am not so stupid as to miss the underlying intent of comments like these; unsults are hilariously pathetic to me, the product of people so weak and insecure and false that they can’t even come right out and honestly dislike something or someone; they must couch their bitterness and distaste in false praise.
And of course there's truth in these comments, and they are not always meant snottily.
But honestly I always take comments like this about my acting as compliments. To me there’s nothing more painful in the world of the stage than watching someone ‘act-act,’ as they were taught to do by some well-meaning but douchetastically inept instructor.
So when I got David Mamet’s ‘True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor,’ I was deeply gratified to see that Mr. Mamet supports my views and my (admittedly accidental and back-assward) education in the theatre.
I just read nearly the whole thing in a night (and mostly re-read it immediately after I finished it) and I recommend it highly to all my actor friends, and even to anyone remotely interested in what acting and theatre entail. It could even be read as a treatise on what it is to be honest in one’s life, true to oneself and emotionally honest with our fellow humans in a larger sense.
Most people familiar with the man’s work either despise Mamet or worship him; there rarely seems to be a middle ground. But it’s hard to argue with his success: 30 years of writing for the stage, for film and for television, directing, acting, a Pulitzer, Oscar nominations--all of this gives him a unique perspective when it comes to performance and what it takes for an actor to deliver.
And what he does here is burn to the ground a number of sacred cows, starting with theatre education:
Is that not the shit!?!?!? '...lifeless and baseless confidence...' --only Mamet.
Another:
Mamet reflecting the old hip-hop adage, 'Real recognize real.'
And it's true. So many actors feel the need to twist and vocally mangle the words in front of them in order to infuse them with some meaning that simply isn't there. I worked with an actor some time ago who absolutely refused to simply say a very funny playwright's very funny lines as the jokes and punchlines they were intended to be. The result was quirky, indeed, which I'm sure was the intent, but it was also not funny, and not at all genuine.
The result was a person trying very very hard to look more interesting--which is of course self-absorption, which is of course the opposite of acting, which, we are all told all the time is Listening. If you're so busy listening to the sound of your own voice and the funny little kooky quirks you put into it, how can you possibly be listening to anyone else on the stage?
And possibly my favorite quote of all:
More on this later.
Now, I am not so stupid as to miss the underlying intent of comments like these; unsults are hilariously pathetic to me, the product of people so weak and insecure and false that they can’t even come right out and honestly dislike something or someone; they must couch their bitterness and distaste in false praise.
And of course there's truth in these comments, and they are not always meant snottily.
But honestly I always take comments like this about my acting as compliments. To me there’s nothing more painful in the world of the stage than watching someone ‘act-act,’ as they were taught to do by some well-meaning but douchetastically inept instructor.
So when I got David Mamet’s ‘True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor,’ I was deeply gratified to see that Mr. Mamet supports my views and my (admittedly accidental and back-assward) education in the theatre.
I just read nearly the whole thing in a night (and mostly re-read it immediately after I finished it) and I recommend it highly to all my actor friends, and even to anyone remotely interested in what acting and theatre entail. It could even be read as a treatise on what it is to be honest in one’s life, true to oneself and emotionally honest with our fellow humans in a larger sense.
Most people familiar with the man’s work either despise Mamet or worship him; there rarely seems to be a middle ground. But it’s hard to argue with his success: 30 years of writing for the stage, for film and for television, directing, acting, a Pulitzer, Oscar nominations--all of this gives him a unique perspective when it comes to performance and what it takes for an actor to deliver.
And what he does here is burn to the ground a number of sacred cows, starting with theatre education:
'Let me be impolite: most teachers of acting are frauds, and their schools offer nothing other than the right to consider oneself a part of the theatre. Students, of course, need a place to develop. That place is upon the stage. Such a model can and probably will be more painful than a life spent in the studios. But it will instruct. And it is probably finally kinder to the audience to subject them to untutored exuberance than to lifeless and baseless confidence.'
Is that not the shit!?!?!? '...lifeless and baseless confidence...' --only Mamet.
Another:
'Here's what I learned from a lifetime of play-writing: it doesn't matter how you say the lines. What matters is what you mean. What comes from the heart goes to the heart.'
Mamet reflecting the old hip-hop adage, 'Real recognize real.'
And it's true. So many actors feel the need to twist and vocally mangle the words in front of them in order to infuse them with some meaning that simply isn't there. I worked with an actor some time ago who absolutely refused to simply say a very funny playwright's very funny lines as the jokes and punchlines they were intended to be. The result was quirky, indeed, which I'm sure was the intent, but it was also not funny, and not at all genuine.
The result was a person trying very very hard to look more interesting--which is of course self-absorption, which is of course the opposite of acting, which, we are all told all the time is Listening. If you're so busy listening to the sound of your own voice and the funny little kooky quirks you put into it, how can you possibly be listening to anyone else on the stage?
And possibly my favorite quote of all:
'Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.'
Monday, January 2, 2012
acting quotations
Found these at various sites when I was looking for quotes regarding the differences and similarities between stage acting and screen acting. There's a whole crop of younger actors around these days who seem to think that what one does on stage is radically different from what one does on camera, and I just don't think that's true.
Can you act? Can you, as someone besides yourself express emotions, demonstrate desires, go after objectives? This is all acting is. It may be bigger and louder on stage, it may be smaller and more intensive on camera, but it's the same goddamn thing.
To me people who shriek about how much different film acting is are people who don't really know how to act. They have no sense of what acting actually is, and because they sense this paucity or weakness or lack of knowledge or skill in themselves, they react as the insecure always have and always will: they cover it by applying a false superiority to themselves.
In a more generous vein, I would assert that perhaps people who have seen stage actors bomb before the cameras have been subjected to what I would delicately call 'bad acting,' not necessarily 'stage acting.'
Here's some related and unrelated quotes:
"[Human beings] will begin to recover the moment we take art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money." - Ernst Levy
"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being." - Oscar Wilde
“Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.”
― David Mamet, True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
“Art is an expression of joy and awe. It is not an attempt to share one's virtues and accomplishments with the audience, but an act of selfless spirit.”
― David Mamet, True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
“All drama is about lies. All drama is about something that’s hidden. A drama starts because a situation becomes imbalanced by a lie. The lie may be something we tell each other or something we think about ourselves, but the lie imbalances a situation. If you’re cheating on your wife the repression of that puts things out of balance; or if you’re someone you think you’re not, and you think you should be further ahead in your job, that neurotic vision takes over your life and you’re plagued by it until you’re cleansed. At the end of a play the lie is revealed. The better the play the more surprising and inevitable the lie is. Aristotle told us this.” ― David Mamet
"The articulate, trained voice is more distracting than mere noise." - Seneca
"Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part." - William Hazlitt
"In theatre, I have been able to take parts I didn`t think I could do - you have time to rehearse and learn. In movies, they want you to do what they know you can do - there isn`t the time." --Ian McKellan
Can you act? Can you, as someone besides yourself express emotions, demonstrate desires, go after objectives? This is all acting is. It may be bigger and louder on stage, it may be smaller and more intensive on camera, but it's the same goddamn thing.
To me people who shriek about how much different film acting is are people who don't really know how to act. They have no sense of what acting actually is, and because they sense this paucity or weakness or lack of knowledge or skill in themselves, they react as the insecure always have and always will: they cover it by applying a false superiority to themselves.
In a more generous vein, I would assert that perhaps people who have seen stage actors bomb before the cameras have been subjected to what I would delicately call 'bad acting,' not necessarily 'stage acting.'
Here's some related and unrelated quotes:
"[Human beings] will begin to recover the moment we take art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money." - Ernst Levy
"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being." - Oscar Wilde
“Invent nothing, deny nothing, speak up, stand up, stay out of school.”
― David Mamet, True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
“Art is an expression of joy and awe. It is not an attempt to share one's virtues and accomplishments with the audience, but an act of selfless spirit.”
― David Mamet, True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
“All drama is about lies. All drama is about something that’s hidden. A drama starts because a situation becomes imbalanced by a lie. The lie may be something we tell each other or something we think about ourselves, but the lie imbalances a situation. If you’re cheating on your wife the repression of that puts things out of balance; or if you’re someone you think you’re not, and you think you should be further ahead in your job, that neurotic vision takes over your life and you’re plagued by it until you’re cleansed. At the end of a play the lie is revealed. The better the play the more surprising and inevitable the lie is. Aristotle told us this.” ― David Mamet
"The articulate, trained voice is more distracting than mere noise." - Seneca
"Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part." - William Hazlitt
"In theatre, I have been able to take parts I didn`t think I could do - you have time to rehearse and learn. In movies, they want you to do what they know you can do - there isn`t the time." --Ian McKellan
Friday, September 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
headshots suck
The Insanity of Staring Deeply Into Your Own Eyes, Over and Over:
Here’s my account of getting new headshots taken by my friend Brian Landis (he prefers Lando Kalrissian) Folkins.
He would probably tell a very different story than the one I relate here. He would likely say something like, ‘Who is this tight-assed, tense bitch I thought I knew as an actor? Where is his swagga, the swag I know so well, because he was an obnoxious, outgoing DICK when I worked on ‘Bug’ with him...’
So that might be Brian’s story. You’ll have to check with him on that.
But, seeing as this is my blog, I will write my own story, thank you very much.
And this is how I remember it, and what I learned about myself upon viewing the results of our afternoon of ‘work.’
I only put quotations around that word because I had so much fun hanging with Brian that it didn’t seem like a chore at all. He has a pro photographer’s uncanny knack for instantly seeing when you’re phoning it in, or are thinking about something else, or are not engaged somehow with the camera. Calling me on my bullshit may have resulted in numerous giggling, grinning, unusable photos, but it also got me back in the game. You can see the light die in my eyes as I go away, and you can see it come back whenever Brian grabs my attention again.
Major props to you, sir.
I’ll take my kickback now, in the form of sixteen beers and shots. :-)
That said, the end result--which requires you looking at yourself and your own fakery and duplicity and bone-deep phoniness, broken only by the occasional odd, off-moment when the photog somehow catches you looking like YOU, and not some fake-ass, dead-eyed catalogue model--believe it or not, going over and over pics of your own face is disconcerting.
It is so disconcerting that I have compiled a list of Important Thoughts to help you understand what a weird thing getting your pic taken professionally can be. (FYI, I have taken artistic license here to post some of the more awkward and goofy-looking shots. Brian did a fantastic job, and I will be posting some of the finalists for my actual headshot on FB and probably on here very soon. There are a lot of excellent shots to choose from; just not in this post. :D Sorry, Brian.)
1) You spend your whole life worried that your teeth might be yellowed and coffee-stained. But WHY didn’t anyone tell me my teeth are crooked as a crack whore’s? Shiny-white though they appear against my farmer’s tan, I am a snaggle-toothed, Jewel-looking motherfucker.
2) Apparently, if anyone spends a couple hours with me, the vast majority of expressions they are going to see are going to be completely insane, buoyed by a smattering of squinty-eyed giggles, and one or two moments of normal-ish looks. Sorry about that, everyone who has ever known me.
3) To reiterate: 99 percent of the time, when I am not as dead behind the eyes as a Kardashian, or obviously and blatantly thinking about food, boobies, and/or beer, or all three at once, I am quite clearly a fucking dangerous psychopath. This is according to most snapshots of my face.
4) Crow’s feet? Really? Why didn’t anyone over the many, many years tell me to stop smiling so much?
5) When you try to open your eyes wider, it just looks freaky. ‘J. Dahlmer? Paging Mr. J Dahlmer, party of one...’
6) DOUBLE FUCKING CHIN??? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW, UNIVERSE? FUCK YOU, TOO! MY NECK IS FAT?? WELL YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!
7) And seriously, I have FUCKING DUMBO EARS?? Why wouldn’t my good friends at least let me know, even in a mean-spirited way: ‘Hey, Brighton! Can we catch a lift with you? How? By Elephant Airlines, of course! Haha!’ or maybe, ‘Hey Kurt, put your ears away; here comes a Hindi. Ganesh might get jealous...’
8) I suddenly have a tremendous amount of empathy for Michelle Bachmann. It’s really really fucking hard to avoid showing crazy eyes when a camera is pointed at you and you’re trying to smile.
9) Pro-tip for wide-shouldered, big-headed guys: chin fucking forward. You look like a sandworm or a particularly weird, ugly muppet with the guy’s hand way forward in your throat when you pull your chin back even slightly.
10) MY GOD I LOOK LIKE A THUG!!!
11) The other thing is I can easily identify the pics are those moments when Brian finally had to say, ‘breathe. Gotta breathe..’
12) And seriously, now, when did my left nostril drop down like half an inch?
13) Never knew until today that I am the Leather Muppet.
And there you have it. Have a good time, kiddies, getting your headshots done!
More to come!
Here’s my account of getting new headshots taken by my friend Brian Landis (he prefers Lando Kalrissian) Folkins.
He would probably tell a very different story than the one I relate here. He would likely say something like, ‘Who is this tight-assed, tense bitch I thought I knew as an actor? Where is his swagga, the swag I know so well, because he was an obnoxious, outgoing DICK when I worked on ‘Bug’ with him...’
So that might be Brian’s story. You’ll have to check with him on that.
But, seeing as this is my blog, I will write my own story, thank you very much.
And this is how I remember it, and what I learned about myself upon viewing the results of our afternoon of ‘work.’
I only put quotations around that word because I had so much fun hanging with Brian that it didn’t seem like a chore at all. He has a pro photographer’s uncanny knack for instantly seeing when you’re phoning it in, or are thinking about something else, or are not engaged somehow with the camera. Calling me on my bullshit may have resulted in numerous giggling, grinning, unusable photos, but it also got me back in the game. You can see the light die in my eyes as I go away, and you can see it come back whenever Brian grabs my attention again.
Major props to you, sir.
I’ll take my kickback now, in the form of sixteen beers and shots. :-)
That said, the end result--which requires you looking at yourself and your own fakery and duplicity and bone-deep phoniness, broken only by the occasional odd, off-moment when the photog somehow catches you looking like YOU, and not some fake-ass, dead-eyed catalogue model--believe it or not, going over and over pics of your own face is disconcerting.
It is so disconcerting that I have compiled a list of Important Thoughts to help you understand what a weird thing getting your pic taken professionally can be. (FYI, I have taken artistic license here to post some of the more awkward and goofy-looking shots. Brian did a fantastic job, and I will be posting some of the finalists for my actual headshot on FB and probably on here very soon. There are a lot of excellent shots to choose from; just not in this post. :D Sorry, Brian.)
1) You spend your whole life worried that your teeth might be yellowed and coffee-stained. But WHY didn’t anyone tell me my teeth are crooked as a crack whore’s? Shiny-white though they appear against my farmer’s tan, I am a snaggle-toothed, Jewel-looking motherfucker.
2) Apparently, if anyone spends a couple hours with me, the vast majority of expressions they are going to see are going to be completely insane, buoyed by a smattering of squinty-eyed giggles, and one or two moments of normal-ish looks. Sorry about that, everyone who has ever known me.
3) To reiterate: 99 percent of the time, when I am not as dead behind the eyes as a Kardashian, or obviously and blatantly thinking about food, boobies, and/or beer, or all three at once, I am quite clearly a fucking dangerous psychopath. This is according to most snapshots of my face.
4) Crow’s feet? Really? Why didn’t anyone over the many, many years tell me to stop smiling so much?
5) When you try to open your eyes wider, it just looks freaky. ‘J. Dahlmer? Paging Mr. J Dahlmer, party of one...’
6) DOUBLE FUCKING CHIN??? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW, UNIVERSE? FUCK YOU, TOO! MY NECK IS FAT?? WELL YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!
7) And seriously, I have FUCKING DUMBO EARS?? Why wouldn’t my good friends at least let me know, even in a mean-spirited way: ‘Hey, Brighton! Can we catch a lift with you? How? By Elephant Airlines, of course! Haha!’ or maybe, ‘Hey Kurt, put your ears away; here comes a Hindi. Ganesh might get jealous...’
Dumbo ears and crazy eyes all rolled into one bonus horror pic for you.
8) I suddenly have a tremendous amount of empathy for Michelle Bachmann. It’s really really fucking hard to avoid showing crazy eyes when a camera is pointed at you and you’re trying to smile.
9) Pro-tip for wide-shouldered, big-headed guys: chin fucking forward. You look like a sandworm or a particularly weird, ugly muppet with the guy’s hand way forward in your throat when you pull your chin back even slightly.
10) MY GOD I LOOK LIKE A THUG!!!
11) The other thing is I can easily identify the pics are those moments when Brian finally had to say, ‘breathe. Gotta breathe..’
12) And seriously, now, when did my left nostril drop down like half an inch?
13) Never knew until today that I am the Leather Muppet.
And there you have it. Have a good time, kiddies, getting your headshots done!
Me and this dog are separated at birth, I think.
More to come!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
now that's acting
via via
Sir Ian McKellan, still in costume for a production of 'Waiting for Godot' was taking a break from rehearsal outside a stage door at a theater in Melbourne, Australia. He is shown here being given a dollar by a kindly passer-by.
He says he saved the dollar in his dressing room as a 'lucky talisman.'
Sir Ian McKellan, still in costume for a production of 'Waiting for Godot' was taking a break from rehearsal outside a stage door at a theater in Melbourne, Australia. He is shown here being given a dollar by a kindly passer-by.
"During the dress rehearsal of Godot, I crouched by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet (and) seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passer-by said, 'Need some help, brother?' and put a dollar in my hat."
He says he saved the dollar in his dressing room as a 'lucky talisman.'
Friday, March 12, 2010
days of wine and botox
Ha! Best sub-hed ever:
"If you can't move your face, can you act with it?"
a new york mag article about noticing the stiffness and immobility of many of today's botoxed tv actors.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
the caruso method
Finally! The news all actors have been waiting for:
The David Caruso Method revealed!!!
In the form of a flow-chart from Cracked.
Don't forget to growl menacingly.
The David Caruso Method revealed!!!
In the form of a flow-chart from Cracked.
Don't forget to growl menacingly.
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