The Vs. Studio Blog

For the actor…

Speaking of repetition, you can’t rely on the director or other actors or rehearsal process to allow you much time to “find it.” (If you’re fortunate to have a long rehearsal process and patient director, thank your lucky stars, as it’s not the norm.) And if it’s a film, forget about it. Time is money and money is time. You’re expected to show up on set pretty much fully formed.

But you need to get your reps in somehow. You gotta figure out the character, especially if it’s a complex one, and this part of the process is largely a solo endeavor. You gotta do what you gotta do. This is where a little ingenuity and creativity and a producing mindset can serve you.

Josh Brolin tells a great story about preparing for his role as Eddie Mannix in Hail Caesar by the Coen Brothers…

I’m lucky to have a good voice and I’m good at mimicry, so with Eddie Mannix, he was a different kind of role and doing his voice wasn’t easy. It was New Jersey and Abbott and Costello. I actually rented a theater in LA and treated the script like a play. Even before we began working with the Coens, the other actors and I would rehearse, and I have to say, this part of the process I enjoy more than anything. It’s like building a house. Planning to build your house is amazing, and living in the house after it’s built is amazing, but building the house is a pain in the ass. Acting is a lot of work and a lot of trial and error; it can be an embarrassing thing, things can not be working, but you keep going, and you find the magic in that not working and the reaction to it. It’s like painting a picture—sometimes an accident is the best part. But acting is truly a profession of humiliation.

No one cares or needs to see how you got there. All that matters is you got there. Whatever you need to do, do it.

P.S. – You can read the rest of the Josh Brolin interview Here.

“Do you know anything about the Quakers? The Quaker religion? I went to this Quaker wedding once, and it was fantastic. What they do is, the couple comes in and they kneel down in front of the whole congregation and they just stare at each other and nobody says a word unless they feel that God moves them to speak or say something. And then after an hour or so of just staring at each other, they’re married.” — Jesse (played by Ethan Hawke) to Celine (played by Julie Delpy) in the film Before Sunrise

“An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words.” -Sanford Meisner

Actors and directors (for rehearsal)…

After the scene ends, resist the temptation to fill the empty silence by talking or commenting on it. Especially if you have nothing meaningful or impactful to say.

Be like the Quakers. Wait for it. And if nothing comes, trust yourself to just do the scene again.

More often than not, the actors just need reps. Like an athlete, they’re warming up. So the best thing the director can do (or actors working privately in scene study) is just go again. And again. And again.

Eventually through sheer repetition, you might just find the magic.

P.S. – Speaking of repetition.

“Here’s the deal. I’m the best there is. Plain and simple. I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence.” –Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell) in the film Talladega Nights

“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm…All that any of us need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” -Og Mandino, book The Greatest Salesman In The World, Part II

enthusiasm (n.)
c. 1600, from French enthousiasme (16c.) and directly from Late Latin enthusiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos “divine inspiration, enthusiasm (produced by certain kinds of music, etc.),” from enthousiazein “be inspired or possessed by a god, be rapt, be in ecstasy,” from entheos “divinely inspired, possessed by a god,” from en “in” (see en- (2)) + theos “god” (from PIE root *dhes-, forming words for religious concepts).

Enthusiasm won’t by itself, get you to the finish line. (For that, you’ll need some additional things like discipline, focus, structure, the right environment, etc.)

But it’s a helluva start.

Can you find something to be enthusiastic or en theos about?

If you do, watch out world.

“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, 
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won.” -Walt Whitman

Congrats King James on breaking a record that until last night, no one thought possible.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (aka “The Captain”) wrote an excellent article detailing his thoughts on the accomplishment. I’ve always enjoyed Kareem’s eloquent writing and I encourage you to check it out Here.

I especially loved this part…

Whenever a sports record is broken—including mine—it’s a time for celebration. It means someone has pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible to a whole new level. And when one person climbs higher than the last person, we all feel like we are capable of being more.

For me, the inspirational power of sports is best explained in a scene in the 1985 film Vision Quest. In it, Elmo, an aging fry cook at a hotel, explains:

“I was in the room here one day, watchin’ the Mexican channel on TV. I don’t know nothin’ about Pelé. I’m watchin’ what this guy can do with a ball on his feet.“

“Next thing I know, he jumps in the air and flips into a somersault and kicks the ball in—upside down and backwards. The goddamn goalie never knew what the fuck hit him. Pelé gets excited. He rips off his jersey and starts running around the stadium wav­ing it around over his head. Everybody’s screaming in Spanish. I’m here, sitting alone in my room, and I start crying. [Pause.] Yeah, that’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I hap­pen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings up to a better place to be, if only for a minute . . . Let me tell ya, kid—it was pretty goddamned glorious.“

Sports and theatre. Both are magical. Both can inspire. When performed at the highest level, both can lift us up and make us feel anything’s possible.

Both are pretty goddamned glorious.

“People claim to want to do something that matters, yet they measure themselves against things that don’t, and track their progress not in years but in microseconds. They want to make something timeless, but they focus instead on immediate payoffs and instant gratification.” -Ryan Holiday, Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts

“Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they’re trying to achieve that they simply don’t have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.” -Jim Collins, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Care way less about being timely.

Care way more about being timeless.

How?

Seek out and strive for excellence at every turn.

Yes, it’s really freaking hard to make a stone cold classic, something that’s built to last. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. After all, the joy lies in the pursuit.

And the good news, the inspiring news…if you achieve timelessness, you’ll always be timely.

“Happiness is what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.” -Epictetus

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” -James Clear 

“What’s worth doing even if I fail?” -Brene Brown

The gulf between thinking it and doing it is massive.

Even “thinking or speaking it into existence” is predicated on the idea that at some point, your thoughts will inspire action.

You don’t need another self-help book. You just need to get out there and start doing things.

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown
There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
It’s easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need -song, “Love Is All You Need” by The Beatles

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is a habit, not an act.” -Aristotle

They might not like the project you picked.  Even if you achieved all that you wanted for it, at the end of the day it just might not be for them.

But no matter what, if it comes from love and you pursue excellence at every turn, they will respect the effort.

Love and Excellence are all you need.

P.S. – This skit cracks me up every single time. (R.I.P. Chris.)

“The only things I care about in this goddamn life are me and my drums and you.” -Watts (as played by Mary Stuart Masterson) to Keith (as played by Eric Stoltz) in the film Some Kind Of Wonderful

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think — spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that’s a heck of a day.” -Jim Valvano

“Very little is needed to make a happy life.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Before allocating your precious time, money, energy and resources towards obtaining something, a great clarifying question to ask yourself is this:

“Do I absolutely need this or is it a “nice to have”?

(And it’s perfectly okay to go after a “nice to have.” Just make sure you first go for what you need.)

P.S. – This speech. (Full transcript included)

P.P.S. –This scene. “Duncan to the rescue!”

We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing

Everyone can see we’re together
As we walk on by (and)
And we fly just like birds of a feather
I won’t tell no lie (all)

All of the people around us, they say, yeah, yeah
Can they be that close
Just let me state for the record
We’re giving love in a family dose -song “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge

“Family is the theatre of the spiritual drama, the place where things happen, especially the things that matter.” -G.K. Chesterton

“You can go back to the house of Atreus in ancient Greece, all the way up to the families of modern 20th century American drama. The families of Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams and the families of Sam Shepard for instance. There is hardly a play that doesn’t somehow reflect the tortured lives of families. When I joined the company in 1986, I had been friends with members of the company for some years before that. I knew John Malkovich and Laurie Metcalf and Rondi Reed and Randy Arney and Jeff Perry when they were in college. And when they first came to Chicago, many from Illinois State, I used to meet with them because my high school teacher Ralph Lane was their principal drama teacher at Illinois State. There used to be a restaurant in Evanston called Fanny’s and it was very popular when I was in college. It was an Italian restaurant run by a very flamboyant woman who also had a column in the Evanston paper. Dr. Lane would occasionally host a dinner for some of us at Fanny’s. And it was there around bowls of spaghetti and fried chicken that Jeff and others and Dr. Lane and myself would talk about the challenge of putting together an actor-focused ensemble and could it last. Could it endure? So I feel very privileged to have been kind of in the wings when the ensemble was being formed. And then during those first years when Steppenwolf was working in Highland Park Laurie Metcalf played Laura in The Glass Menagerie. And John played Tom. During those years I saw those shows and then I started acting in Chicago theater. Laurie and John both worked at a bookstore in Evanston called Chandler’s. And I used to stop by and chat with them. And they would say: you know you should do something with us. You should maybe direct something with us. It never worked out. I started teaching at Northwestern. I got to be busy and I did some acting gigs and so on. And then in ’86 Gary Sinise was artistic director and he asked me to direct You Can’t Take it With You. And I jumped at the chance. Oh my God, everybody was in it. Molly Regan and Amy Morton and Jeff Perry and Randy Arney and John Mahoney and Rondi Reed and Rick Snyder—my god, it was—Tom Irwin and Al Wilder. It was sensational. I would come to rehearsal and just sit there and watch! I don’t have to do anything. They’re so fantastic. They’re so good. And of course, you know, they were weaving together relationships, braiding in and out of each other’s lives. And creating a family. The family in that play You Can’t Take it With You was deeply reflective of the family that was Steppenwolf. The kind of sibling relationships. The rivalries. The cousins, the first cousins, the second cousins, the parents, the lovers, the children. I mean, all of those dynamics that were a part of the relationships of the Steppenwolf ensemble as it was coming to life and coming together were present and palpable lives of the characters that they were creating on stage.” -Frank Galati

I heard this acronym for family the other day….

F.A.M.I.L.Y

Forget

About

Me

I

Love

You.

The closer you get to making the artists you collaborate with feel like family, the better the art and, even amidst difficulty and conflict, the happier everyone will be.

Lose yourself in F.AM.I.L.Y

How?

Love them and the art you’re all trying to make more than yourself.

P.S. – Warning…Don’t click and listen to this song link unless you want to get up and dance and feel good all day long.

“The opposite of love is not hate. It’s using someone.” – Saint John Paul II

“They were me, as I’d once been. And I was them, as they could be.” -Michelle Obama, Becoming

“Having enough courage to trust love one more time, and always one more time.” -Maya Angelou

“If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path.” –Buddha

re·la·tion·al – adjective:
concerning the way in which two or more people or things are connected.

Be less transactional.

Be more relational.

Not “what can I get from this?”

Rather, “what can they get from this?”