I have a lot on my mind right now and what better way to talk about it than blog.  Where to start… Acting is my passion, but I tend to over think it quite a bit which is the worst thing for an actor to do, it can be so simple, yet a handful of us over think.  I was at another casting director workshop the other night and for the first time we were all working on our own scenes for auditions, filming, etc. About half of us were over thinking our scenes and it showed through our frustrations and performances.  We all felt and looked lost.  When I first moved back to Los Angeles I came with an open mind to learn.  For some reason my mind has closed off and I now have a hard time not necessarily following directions, because I am good at that, but putting to use the very useful information from the casting directors.  It is like they are telling me how to move my arm and I totally understand what they are telling me, but when I try to move my arm it has fallen asleep, so I can’t as easily.

When I went to acting college I learned everything.  I learned how to do a character study, how to do sense memory, how to hit your mark, etc. but I feel like I am forgetting it all.  That is exactly why as an actor you should always take classes and keep fresh on your craft.  I feel like all of a sudden I stop thinking… Like this one girl at the workshop, very sweet, she actually gets a TON of work, but she is always in her head thinking about everything.  Her scene was to be a waitress, so when she played it, you could tell that she didn’t feel like she was in a restaurant, there was no sense of urgency to help other tables, no looking around to make sure everyone is taken care of or if food has come up yet, etc.  Instead she just played it casual like they were her only customers, no biggie.  There are always outside elements to your surroundings and character that you must imagine and bring into the scene for it to really feel and seem real.

In my scene, my problem was that I did not have specifics.  I had no specific place for myself for my scene to take place.  In the script it takes place in a training facility, but what is that to me?  So I had to go and personalize it as my old gym back home in Seattle, 24 Hour Fitness and really feel and remember where everything was in there.  I did not have a person in mind for the bad guy that I was after, so in my head I replaced this bad guy with a person in my life who has betrayed me many times.  I did not have a clear picture of my father who I was talking with in the scene who has also betrayed me and everything I have ever believed in, so I replaced him with my ex-step dad, Bob.  I never had a clear picture in my head of the dream that haunts my character every night and in that dream are my characters real parents, so I had to make them real as well, using my own real parents. 

Even knowing that everything needs to be personalized, I never really imagined how much of a difference it really makes.  That is the difference between a half ass actor and an amazing one.  I am a go-getter, but I also seem to half ass my work on set, which is a huge problem.  I bet if I started to personalize the characters I speak to for each audition I would be booking a lot more. 

Casting director workshops are really paying off.