Heather Graham “Acting is telling a story, and you’re part of telling that story. In some ways therapy helps more than acting class. You realize why you operate in certain ways.” Heather Graham [in our interview several years ago about making "Lost in Space"] expressed one of the most valuable and positive reasons for therapy [...]
A demanding career A number of actors advise pursuing this very demanding career only if you can’t feel right doing anything else. And a number of highly talented actors change direction into writing, producing or some other vocation. You need to be aware of what is really driving you. Maria Bello on being of service [...]
A state of gratitude “I love to act because it’s the only aspect of my life beside God and family that I am truly passionate about on a daily basis.” Michael Ealy [currently in the Showtime series “Sleeper Cell”] continues, “I thank God for not only the gift of creative expression but also surrounding me [...]
Chinese or Japanese? One of the controveries of “Memoirs of a Geisha” has been the casting of Chinese, rather than Japanese, actresses in principal roles, although director Rob Marshall has said the casting was based on talent. But portrayals – even of us WASPs – impact our identity. Native Americans are sometimes mistaken for Latinos [...]
Imagination is our essence Getting caught up in the more “serious” aspects of a career, you may lose contact with that child part of being an actor. As psychologist Robert Maurer noted in an interview that children are “playacting from the time they have words and the ability to move. They begin fantasizing, playing, imagining, [...]
Maybe all of us need to alter our feelings and state of mind at times. Mountain climbing, skydiving, yoga, using drugs and alcohol are all ways, as noted by psychologist David Duncan in his article Human’s Need To Alter Consciousness. [This is an article on a huge addiction research and treatment site that I am [...]
Whether you get cast or not is dependent upon things that are totally out of your control. For example, the way an actor may have experienced this is, they were running late for an audition, or just got there in the nick of time and just does it. Or you get into an audition and [...]
“Hollywood has never embraced me. Part of that is my fault because of my behavior in the past..” [imdb.com Jan 18 02] > related topic page: self-limiting ~ ~ ~ “Unrealized talent does not make a comfortable chair, unless you’ve sat on it your whole life, then it makes it a dangerously comfortable chair.” [ericrobertsactor.com] [...]
“I know what it’s like to loathe oneself. To feel that deep self-loathing. “It’s painful and ugly and f**ing unwanted. “And it got in the way. I can dip in there, into the old black-Irish melancholy. “You think ‘Am I smart enough? Am I equipped enough to deal with it all?’ “You don’t want it [...]
on writing, directing, and producing her movie Chance: “The film was a while in coming. I spent a lot of time in my trailer on “Buffy” because they’do so many stunts and CGI effects, so I’d just sit and write. I was tired of playing the love interest roles, but that’s all that’s written for [...]
Sometimes I feel competitive when I see somebody else in a movie that’s really beautiful and really big, or when I’m vying for a role and I can’t get in and it’s the usual suspects — Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Connelly, all great actresses. Then I feel like a loser and I get sad. [...]
Judi Dench claims not to be “good at my own company.” Rather, to understand her own identity she needs to be in the attentive gaze of others – as the psychologist D. W. Winnicott puts it, “When I look I am seen, so I exist.” Dench is clear on this point. “I need somebody to [...]