"Acting is natural to you. It's what you do, because what you are doing as an actor is just living life. But you are living it on stage. The trick is to live it as fully on stage as you live it when off stage." - Kathryn Bild, Acting From A Spiritual PerspectiveYouTube is an amazing place.
I could spend hours and hours watching videos and learning about anything from weight-lifting to cooking to how to re-cover a chair. And a cornucopia of incredible resources for actors are there as well.
This morning I stumbled upon this... Ms. Rachel McAdams' audition tape for The Notebook.
The thing I LOVE about this audition is how honestly she believes that all of this is REALLY HAPPENING to her. She believes it so deeply... that I believe it too. That's brilliant acting... in a nutshell.
And, the emotional transparency that she's demonstrating is an amazing service to humanity. How many hundreds of thousands of people have seen this film and cried along with her at the heart-break of having to leave someone you know you love? As an audience member, it's a beautiful catharsis to see your innermost life represented honestly by other humans. You know you're not alone!!! It's a shared human experience.
Sure, it's entertaining. But more importantly... if you see a certain performance at just the right time in your life... it can also be LIFE-CHANGING.
That's why acting is such a cool job. You get to be a catalyst for other people's emotional journey or thought-altering experience... and you'll NEVER know who you're affecting or how they've been changed. Mind-blowing!!!
I had an acting teacher tell me once that he's only interested in the REAL. Fake is boring. That was his philosophy.
I mean, in life... "fake" people are not my favorite, I must admit. I much prefer "real" people. Real people are magnetic and interesting. And what is true in life is also true in acting.
So don't be fake. Live your life FULLY. Keep it REAL. It may not always be pretty, but it's waaayyy more powerful.
Love,
Virginia
"Everybody has their own way of tapping into their realness." - Sandra Bernhard
Hey You... Heard this show on Fresh Air (NPR) last night and thought of you... mostly the part about shooting for SNL and not wanting to have any fallback options... because SNL was all he really wanted :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136462013/late-night-thank-you-notes-from-jimmy-fallon
Rieker!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting that link to NPR. I LOVED it! Sooo proud of Jimmy Fallon, sticking to his guns and keeping to his dreams of working on SNL. And we are all the beneficiaries of his great work on that show... and now his talk-show as well! He is such a great comedian with a joyful outlook on life. LOVE him and love YOU!
~V