The Vs. Studio Blog

“Whatever you decide is your motivation in the scene, the opposite of that is also true and should be in it…Consistency is the heart of dull acting.” -Michael Shurtleff, Audition

The great stage and screen actor, Hume Cronyn, said he followed one rule as an actor: “If you’re doing the devil, look for the angel in him. If you’re doing the angel, look for the devil in him.” Such fantastic advice!

Rewatch The Silence Of The Lambs. One of the reasons Anthony Hopkins is so freakin’ good and scary is that for the most part, he plays Hannibal Lecter as a charming cat. He talks and behaves in the exact opposite manner that you’d think a serial killer would. As a result, he constantly catches Clarice and us, the audience, off guard. We don’t know what to think. He’s unpredictable. He defies all our expectations. We can’t take our eyes off him. And when he does strike, it’s more terrifying than we could’ve ever imagined.

In your acting, in your art, hunt for opposites. They’re gifts. And trust that by doing so, you’re just behaving truthfully. Michael Shurtleff advises in his fantastic book, Audition, (a must read) to just observe yourself and others in everyday life. He writes…

“Think about a human being: in all of us there exists love and there exists hate, there exist creativity and an equal tendency toward self-destructiveness, there exist sleeping and waking, there exists night and there exists day, sunny moods and foul moods, a desire to love and a desire to kill. Since these extremities do exist in all of us, then they must also exist in each character in each scene.”

“Just know your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.” -Spencer Tracy

“Act without doing. Work without effort.” –Tao Te Ching

The easier something looks to do is inversely proportional to the amount of mastery that’s behind it.

The Pareto principle: for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the “vital few”).

Named after the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1896 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population, this principle evidences itself throughout nature and across a wide variety of industry including but not limited to sales, engineering, medical, computing and sports. It’s actually pretty remarkable just how many things follow this distribution pattern once observed. I encourage you to read and learn more about it. Pretty fascinating stuff.

We can apply the Pareto principle to our own lives. Specifically with any goal or objective we’re trying to accomplish. Here’s how…

For anything you’re trying to do, first write down all the things or action steps you think you need to take.

Look at your list and similar to the magic focusing question, ask yourself what 20% will get you 80% of what you want.

Do those and only those tasks first.

Then, should you have any time left over, do the other tasks to get the remaining 20%.

But no matter what, you’re 80% there. You got a B. B’s not bad.

It’s heckuva a lot better than zero, right? Which is where you were before you started. And where you’ll stay if you do nothing.

Escape Velocity: “the minimum velocity that a moving body (such as a rocket) must have to escape from the gravitational field of a celestial body (such as the earth) and move outward into space.”

Holy Metaphor Alert! Here we go…

You are the rocket.

You desire to do something great, make art, make a change, start a business, break a habit, etc…That desire to do something different is like trying to lift off the earth. It will require enormous energy and focus to do so. Especially at the beginning. Possibly more energy than you think you’re capable of.

That required, beginning energy is like your escape velocity. Don’t run from the effort. Lean into it. Because someday it will all be worth it.

Someday you’ll get to this…

“The single best thing an actor can do, both professionally and personally, is to create their own work.” -Jenna Fischer, from her book The Actor’s Life

“Hard work doesn’t guarantee you success. But without it, you don’t stand a chance.” -Pat Riley

Jenna Fischer recently wrote a phenomenal book about the actor’s life. I highly recommend it. Besides being a compelling read, it’s a no nonsense, super granular, insider’s view of the business and the craft. Of what it takes. It’s one thing to want to be a “working actor.” It’s another thing entirely when you get a first hand, up close version of the lifestyle. Almost like an apprenticeship. Once you fully know and understand the career, then you can make an informed decision if the path is right for you.

Here are three reasons to read the book:

(1) PROCESS. Jenna didn’t have any industry connections. She was not annointed. She was just a girl from the Midwest who deeply loved performing and had a burning desire to do it for a career. She did the work. Day in, day out. Headshots, resumes, reels, industry events, rigorous training, cycling through survival jobs, improv, plays, meeting and signing with tons of agents and managers until she found the right team, auditioning, getting coaching, making her own art, etc…It was an exhaustive amount of work that she did for years. Often without any remuneration. Without any tangible progress or feedback to let her know she was on the right path. She just kept doing the work. One part that especially resonated…her sitting at her dining table every week, combing through Backstage, mailing out headshots and cover letters to all the various jobs she circled. Again, she did this consistently for years.

Yet even with all the hard work, she acknowledges that luck played a huge role in her success. This is not a “how to” book. Rather, it’s a generous sharing of “here’s what I did” information to guide and help you on your way.

(2) SPECIFICITY. She constantly asked herself the question “what exactly do you want?” and eventually, she figured out it…to be in an ensemble television comedy. When the opportunity to audition for “The Office” came, she was more than ready. Everything led her to this point. Her training, her experience and her specificity. (Ironically, she relied on her survival job as an administrative assistant to inform the character of “Pam.”)

(3) ACKNOWLEDGING HER WEAKNESSES AND TURNING THEM INTO STRENGTHS. She was honest with herself about not being a great auditioner. But rather than capitulate and accept it, she worked at it. Eventually finding a teacher to help her, to push her, to get her over the hump…Robert D’Avanzo, who she credits for much of her success. (NOTE: I study with Robert for on-camera auditions and couldn’t agree more. He’s tremendous. Seek him out.)

Whether new or old to the business, there is something for you in this book. If nothing else it’s an inspiring story of someone who dared to dream, who did the work, who persisted through long odds, and eventually found success.

Tip of the cap to you Jenna. Thanks for writing and sharing your journey.

“People are people, so why should it be? You and I should get along so awfully.” -Depeche Mode, song People Are People

“When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous and surly. They are like this because they can’t tell good from evil. But I have seen the beauty of good, and the ugliness of evil, and have recognized that the wrongdoer has a nature related to my own – not of the same blood and birth, but the same mind, and possessing a share of the divine. And so none of them can hurt me. No one can implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel angry at my relative, or hate him. We were born to work together like feet, hands and eyes, like the two rows of teeth, upper and lower. To obstruct each other is unnatural. To feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him: these are unnatural.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

So much of being a producer is hoping for the best, but being prepared for the worst. That includes interacting with people. Like or not, that’s a primary part of your job. All day every day. And as such, you need to be prepared for and empathetic to all their idiosyncrasies, their bad moods, their problems, their issues, etc…whatever’s going on in their life. Don’t take it personally. People are people.

Can you stay calm? Can you inspire? Can you rise above and get everyone’s best work? Can you be their oasis?

Yes!

One way is to practice Stoicism. Read the above passage from Marcus Aurelius every morning. He wrote Meditations while Emperor and dealing with every problem imaginable. Including a fourteen year plague. It was his private journal. To remind himself of all that he learned, all his training. So that no matter what was going on, he could always be at his best for others.

And you can too.

Do tons of work on your own before asking. (Writers, at the very least, make a concerted effort to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors and all other typos.)

Have a select group of people whose opinion you trust and taste you respect. Even if it’s radically different than yours.

Relinquish the need for praise or reassurance. We’re all professionals here.

Assume the person giving feedback has your and the project’s best interest at heart at all times.

Be open, open, open…Have an open mind and body at all times. Notice your posture. For example, don’t listen with crossed arms.

Even if the note or feedback seems wrong, try it. You might surprise yourself and make some incredible breakthroughs as a result.

Remind yourself how lucky you are that someone took time out of their busy life to give you feedback. It means they care.

Remain confident in your skills and your ability to execute a given note.

Repeat back their direction so you both know you’re on the same page…”If I understand you correctly, you’re saying….”

Have a burning desire to be pushed to excellence.

“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.” -Epictetus

To get to where you wanna go…

..You must first fully accept where you are now.

For more on acceptance, listen to this excellent podcast episode with Navy Seal Jocko Willink. Specifically, the riveting story he tells of highly decorated U.S.M.C. Chesty Puller and his son Lewis Puller (also a decorated Marine and Pulitzer Prize Winning author of the autobiography “Fortunate Son”). The difference in outcomes for the two?…One fully accepted the events in their life. The other never quite did.

For the actor…

Care way less about whether you were emotional. Whether you were “feeling it” up there. That you were moved.

Care way more about whether your audience was.

“They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire; and Scrooge sat down upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he used to be.” -“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

The urge. The calling. The vision. The passion. The deep need and desire to make that piece of art.

It doesn’t come around all that often. It may only come once or twice in your lifetime.

But fail to heed it, rest assured…

…It will haunt you.