BlogActing Fundamentals
What the F#ck is Mindful Acting?
The REAL Mindful Acting approach Those who know me and my teaching well at Mindful Acting know me for two things, compassion, and no bullshit. Apart from this blog, I mostly stay out of many public and online conversations in and around the industry because of my...
How to Get the Best from Your Actors Headshots
Taking the Stress Out of Headshots Headshots can be an unusually stressful affair in the acting profession. Like an audition, we often experience them like a make or break moment, and also like an audition, our innate need for validation is often triggered leaving us...
Befriending The Inner Critic
The experience of the 'Inner Critic' is something we're all familiar with. We might refer to it by a number of different names, but the experience itself is the same; a frequent and persistent judging about what we do and who we are in our lives. This voice seems to...
Peace With Experience (Peace WIth Anxiety)
Very often we have a subtle judgment that can play out when we meditate. It often comes along with the very intention to meditate in the first place. In some form or another, we meditate to alleviate the suffering or unsatisfactoriness in our lives that we already...
Why Actor’s NEED Script Analysis
Why do we need Script Analysis? Because we are not just feeling machines. Our job as actors, is less about making ourselves feel than making the audience feel and we do this primarily by attempting to affect the other person in the scene. In a sense acting is about...
Actors – Lower Your Expectations
Acting Ambitions vs Aspirations Actors, it is time to lower your expectations. Let me be clear here, lower your 'expectations' not your 'aspirations'. We can still have lofty, meaningful and far-reaching goals without adding the pressure of achieving them....
Actor’s New Year’s Resolutions
Committing to Failing I've only come around to new year's resolutions recently. Having been inspired by my girlfriend's wisdom and success in this area, I've come to realise why I've resisted them for so many years. I knew I would inevitably fail at them. The thing I...
What’s the BEST Acting Technique?
What even is an 'Acting Technique'? Let me start by saying that all of the different techniques, concepts and paradigms we use in order to conceptualise and approach acting (or any activity for that matter) are not ultimately true. They are mere representations and...
Why Am I not ‘In-the-Moment’?
Being In the Moment Most actors began their journey by getting high - not in the pharmaceutical sense but in the raw, natural experience of 'flow' and 'self-transcendence'. It's the kind of natural high that comes from the confluence of certain conditions, allowing...
When Acting Techniques Breakdown
"Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a finger. The finger can point to the moon's location. However, the finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze...
Artists are NOT Entertainers
Art VS Entertainment I feel the time has come to weigh in on a misconception I often hear repeated around the proverbial artistic water cooler. This is of course regarding the purpose of the artist or performer in modern society. Let me start by saying - The main goal...
Why Do We Imagine?
The Birth of Imagination Why do we have an imagination? Allow me to hazard a theory. We have imagination to help us determine and conceptualise what our primal needs are at any given moment and strategise the best possible ways to meet those needs. A lot of our...
Getting Rid of Self-Consciousness
How to Get Rid of Self-Consciousness? One of the most common concerns that plagues actors today revolves around the feeling of being self-conscious. The main question being, 'how do I get rid of it?' The answer is quite simple, don't. Don't try to get rid of it at...
The Suspension of Disbelief (On-stage and Off)
Willingly Suspending Our Disbelief 'Suspension of disbelief' is what we do all the time when we buy into our own bullshit stories and narratives about people, ourselves, and the world. 'Willing suspension of disbelief' means to use that same tool in a volitional way...
Should I Quit Acting?
The Birth of Doubt in Acting When did you first start really doubting you wanted to be an actor or artist? Not unsure about financial security or wondering if you're 'good enough'. I mean really doubting it was the thing for you? I believe this supreme doubt will hit...
The Power Of Vulnerability
Leaning Into the Discomfort What we do as actors is weird. Like you didn't know that already. But although there are many reasons this statement is true, there's one, in particular, I want to point out. Where other people run from intolerable emotions, we run towards....
Acting and Tolerance
Acting Isn't Comfortable One of the most common things I see in actors today (especially on stage where it is tantamount to death) is the predisposition to being comfortable. From leaning onto one's hip to putting hands in their pockets, sitting or leaning on anything...
Acting and the Unconscious
The Unconscious Mind We need to recognise as actors, that humans tend to operate largely in the unconscious. The majority of our day-to-day faculties and machinations are taken care of by our unconscious. Only a small percentage of what we experience enters into our...
Why Act?
I've heard it said that 'there are as many reasons to act as there are actors'. In fact at one point in time I might have been one of the people to say it. However, in my mind now, there is only one good core reason to act - because it makes you happy. If it can't do...
Glossary of Terms
Glossary Action - How somebody attempts to overcome various obstacles to get what they want (objective) Communion - The sharing or exchanging of intimate thoughts and feelings, especially on a mental or spiritual level. Dukkha: Faustian Bargain - A deal in which one...