Stephen Dorff talked in a recent interview about working in Sofia Coppola’s movie “Somewhere” with much less of all of those.

Moviefone Blog: There’s hardly any dialogue in this script. Isn’t it tough to sell a script like this to an actor? Don’t actors like a lot of dialogue?

Stephen Dorff: It’s not tough for me! I looked at it and I said, ‘I’d be crazy not to accept this.’

I felt I understood all this stuff. I thought Sofia really got the acting thing down, as far as the loneliness and the emptiness that can happen.

As an actor you get so much attention. People need you, need you, need you, and the junkets, and then it just ends.

And you’re kind of sitting in your house or in your hotel room wondering what the hell do I do now?

I had a lot of questions. I wanted to understand.

Sofia doesn’t really need to necessarily write everything out, because she knows the film she wants to make.

I just loved that it was a character piece. There was time to get to know someone. The trend today is everything but that. It’s always moving so fast you don’t get to know anybody.

Moviefone Blog: Or it’s all explained, or over-explained.

Stephen Dorff: Or exposition. I did ‘Public Enemies.’ I was really happy to be cast in that, working with Johnny Depp. We worked six months on that, and then in the final cut, I liked the movie, but you don’t get to know any of these people.

It’s such a blur. You don’t even get to know Johnny’s character. This was so refreshing. It was like a 1970s movie. …

Being directed by Sofia is incredible. As an actor there’s a lot of cheats you can do. It was the most raw I’ve ever been. It was just me.

Sofia Coppola: You couldn’t hide behind anything.

Stephen Dorff: I find mimicking and accents and makeup the easiest kind of acting to do. Some people would be like, ‘how did he do that?’ That’s easy. You can turn me into a woman, give me some heels, I can do that. I can find the voice, etc.

But just sit me on the sofa? If I’m acting at all in those scenes, it unravels the movie that she wants to make. So it was trying to find this unconscious quality.

I think the intimacy that she brought by picking this small, special crew, by letting me live at the Chateau, by making it so easy for me… all these cool rehearsal exercises without over-rehearsing.

We weren’t blocking scenes. We were rehearsing more an energy and a feeling of comfort between me and Elle [Fanning] or me and these different characters.

From Interview: Sofia Coppola and Stephen Dorff on Visiting ‘Somewhere’, By Jeffrey M. Anderson, The Moviefone Blog.

> Also see post: Sofia Coppola on being a “dilettante” and enhancing creativity

After spending the greater part of my life as an actress and performer, I became a therapist in early 2007.

While I still do a little bit of acting when I have a chance, I now mainly spend my time helping other people to fulfill their creative ambitions or to just learn how to be happier.

The interesting thing to me is how valuable my years as a performer have been in helping others with their issues.

There were things I learned as a young actress years ago that have been incredibly helpful to me throughout my life, many of which I can pass on to my clients.

For example, I had a wonderful voice teacher at drama school, who turned out to be so much more than just a voice teacher and who eventually became a lifelong friend – Mary.

One of the things she used to say was “use it, darling, use it” whenever I was experiencing a strong emotion, particularly something uncomfortable.

What she meant was, remember how it feels to be angry or grief-stricken, so that the next time you need to access that emotion for a role, you can bring it up and associate it to the event that precipitated the emotion.

The reason this is useful for my therapy clients is that I can demonstrate to them that it really is possible to control one’s own emotions – you don’t need to be an actor to do that, although actors get facile at doing it because emotions are their “stock in trade”.

Most ordinary people believe that emotions are something outside of their control, and yet if a person can learn to induce an emotion at will, they can also learn to let it go.

When you’re getting angry but you don’t want to have an outburst you count to ten – isn’t that an example of doing that?

Another exercise we learned at drama school that I’ve found useful later on relates to my own self-identity.

Mary recommended that we spend one day thinking of ourselves as beautiful and noticing how others responded to us. So I put my hair up and wore my best dress and rode around on the London Underground with this mantra in my mind, “I am beautiful, I am beautiful.”

To my amazement, my normally shy timid demeanor was replaced by an aura of confidence and poise and people literally stared at me and paid me a lot more positive attention than usual.

This demonstrates that your beliefs about yourself really do transmit themselves non-verbally and in very subtle ways, to others. Try it sometime!

By the way, I also tried this out in a different way, when I was part of an improvised Italian street theater. I was in my late twenties pretending to be an old “bag lady”, a deaf and dumb beggar who lived for scraps.

Again my perception of myself and my projection of what I believed myself to be got an appropriate response from the people around me – many of whom didn’t even realize that I was part of the street performance going on, and who thought I was the real thing.

Another trick that Mary taught me was, when something is uncomfortable, do it more. When you can accept totally a situation and become comfortable with it, the situation no longer holds any fears for you. That is the premise behind the expression: “What you resist persists but what you befriend will surely end”.

Although everybody is born with a certain predisposed temperament, you can also train yourself to develop a different and more effective personality.

For example, I was a very shy child and young adult. And yet I managed to train myself to be an extrovert.

It felt at first like a new coat that didn’t quite fit, but eventually one day this new persona felt like the real me. I remember how incredibly delighted I felt when my boyfriend’s mother remarked how she couldn’t imagine me being shy!

People tend to believe that their personality is something inevitable, that they cannot change. But in fact you’re personality is remarkably fluid and a lot of it is within your power to choose.

The personality, like the brain, is constantly changing throughout life, and that’s not a bad thing, in fact it’s a good thing for your personal growth.

I remember as a teenager feeling that I could be anybody I wanted to be, and to a large extent I was right.

The thing is, I can still be anybody I want to be.

If I start behaving radically differently of course the people closest to me will be surprised and possibly also discomfited and confused, but that is something I can choose to deal with, and they will eventually learn to accept the changes.

The fact is – and this is a fact – every one of the 50 trillion cells in the human body is discarded and replaced every seven years.

That means that we are literally a whole new human being every seven years. So if I want to recreate myself inside as well as outside, I can.

It may take some willpower and persistence to counter old habits, but it is possible.

The only thing that keeps us locked into our old personality, is the force of memory and habit. They say it takes 21 days to break a habit, so you have to stick with it. and believe it’s possible.

Have you ever looked at an old photograph of yourself and thought to yourself “that doesn’t feel like me, it’s as if I’m looking at another person”?

That’s because you literally are looking at another person, a person with a different set of 50 trillion cells. But your memory is the thread that binds you to the past.

Actors are very fortunate, because they are used to creating themselves anew – it’s what they do.

An actor knows how to use his emotions, channel his energy, take control of his body and mind.

~~~~~

Carmen Lynne is a long-time resident of Redondo Beach and an empathetic and inspiring group leader. She is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist and Guided Imagery Facilitator, who graduated from HMI in 2007, and a Certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Group Facilitator with the NACBT. She is currently studying for her MA in Psychology and plans to gain licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist.

Carmen currently works in two chronic pain clinics as part of the therapeutic team: Comprehensive Pain Relief Group under Dr. Gregory Smith, MD in Redondo Beach and Care Center for Rehabilitation under Dr. Brenda Klass, PhD in Encino. Before becoming a therapist Carmen worked as an actress, singer, dancer, writer and producer.

Mind Over Mood groups

What does “Mind Over Mood” really mean? It means that your thoughts and emotions – which may feel like rebellious undisciplined children – can in fact, be controlled, with a few simple techniques and tools. Your skill and training as an actor makes you uniquely qualified to employ these very techniques. You do it all the time – you just need to learn how to do it in everyday life.

Mind Over Mood is a course that will literally train your brain. In the same way as physical training develops your muscles and makes you stronger and healthier, this kind of brain training makes you emotionally stronger and healthier by training your brain and giving you the power to control your thoughts and emotions.

If you’re afflicted by thoughts and emotions that hold you back and keep you from fulfilling your potential in any area of your life – here is your opportunity to change that. It’s like being handed the keys to your own power, the control of your own thoughts and emotions.

For more information about the Mind Over Mood groups, visit
www.newhealingjourneys.com

Article provided by the author.

~~~~~~~~

Related Talent Development Resources sites:

Depression and Creativity

Personal Growth Information

Nurturing mental health: acting – quotes, books etc

Also see Change, growth, coaching articles.

personal growth development, personal development, self growth, emotions and personal growth, acting and personal growth

On her Twitter profile, Amanda Bynes says:

i want to be a mom but not til i’m 30 and even if i get married b4 then i still want to wait to have kids til long after i’m married @amandabynes

Anjelica Huston has commented about choosing her creative professional life over motherhood: “I have a very full life and I am very happy with where I am now. I don’t want to change anything.

“I once wanted to have children and it was not my choice not to have children but it hasn’t broken my heart that I haven’t.

“I think unless you’re truly whole-heartedly prepared to make a full-time commitment, you have to really think about it. I certainly wouldn’t adopt children just because everybody in show business seems to be doing it.” [imdb.com]

Many active actors are mothers and make it work, especially when they are successful enough to be able to afford help.

Kyra Sedgwick (TNT series “The Closer”) has commented about how she schedules her time and energy, and mentioned some of her doubts about being away from her children so much.

She works for about half the year in Los Angeles, away from her family in Manhattan: Kevin Bacon and their two teen children.

“I’m more creatively fulfilled than I’ve ever been. This was a choice I made for myself, in hopes that it would be okay for the family and that I would be a role model for my kids to follow their own dreams.

“I don’t wake up at three in the morning panicking. I’ve spent a lot of time with my kids, serious 24-hour time, and we have really good relationships. But I am always wondering, Is this the right thing to do? Honestly, I have no idea.” [Life mag., June 9 2006]

More quotes by other actors on the page Motherhood and creative expression

Related post: Mothers with a rage to achieve

women artists and motherhood, motherhood and acting, developing creativity, creative potential, psychology of creativity, creative mind

What choices and compromises do you make to gain attention and opportunities as an actor?

Romola Garai has expressed a number of thoughtful perspectives on these topics. Here are some quotes from her imdb.com profile.

On Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights :

“I wouldn’t have done something that I thought had no merit in it at all, but I did experience a fall-out from being calculating about your career, believing that you should do something in order to get you somewhere else. It was just creatively unfulfiling.”

“The filmmakers were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn’t they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that’s what they wanted? An actress like that wouldn’t worry about whether or not the political ideas were being sensitively or subtly dealt with. They’d do the job, smile and look pretty on the cover of Teen Vogue. There I am, 135 pounds and trying to make art! I was so wrong for it!”

”I had the time of my life. I have used every part of my body, plus muscles I did not know I had, because the dancing is a combination of salsa and Latin ballroom. It felt like daily aerobics.”

On the Vanity Fair premiere: “I [showed] my tits and teeth. I’m useless at it. About 40 per cent of success as an actor is now based on whether you’re good at being interviewed and how you conduct yourself. And I’m really bad at that.”

More on being an actor :

“When I was a child I always wanted to be funny and to please people in my family. As you grow up that instinct becomes more refined, but it’s still there. How can it not be? I just don’t believe you’re capable of being an actor unless you have a desire to experience your emotions in a public way.”

“It’s too simplistic to say that people start to believe what’s written about them. But what happens is that you become a certain way to please people, to be liked, to be what’s expected of you, to change yourself so that you become the best possible version of yourself for people who don’t know you.

“And I think that’s a terrible, pernicious thing.”

[Photo: Romola Garai as Emma Woodhouse in "Emma"]

acting performance, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology, actors training, personal development for actors

As a young girl growing up in Arkansas, Julie Adams longed to be an actress. Even though the odds were against her, she believed in the inner voice that encouraged her toward her dream — and it ultimately helped her find success in movies and television.

“I’ve come to realize that whatever part of myself forced me to strike out rather haphazardly for Hollywood is the only real wisdom I possess.

“That part of me seemed to know that no matter how difficult achieving my goal might be, or even if I never achieved it, I would be happier striving toward my dream than if I tried to find security in a life I was unsuited for.”

~ ~

Julie Adams is 82 and has been acting since 1949. Publicity photo from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Related: Intuition articles and Intuition quotes

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology, acting careers

Those who do become household names? They’re talented. Yes. That’s a given. Being even moderately successful in this industry requires a baseline of talent. Done.

These folks are also filled with charisma. They ooze it from every pore. You can’t take your eyes off them when they enter a room and you never will be able to figure out exactly why.

They’re charming in interviews, they’re quick-witted or smart or so goofy that you forgive that they’re neither quick-witted nor smart. And they love what they’re doing.

They are enchanted and mystified by the road they’re following.

They simply love getting to work. They have a blast just being who they are, every minute. Or at least that’s how it looks most of the time. They’re almost never in it for the fame. That fame thing is just something that happens because of how talented, how good-looking, how charismatic, and how lucky they are.

But when an actor comes to Los Angeles with his or her eyes on the prize of fame, of “household name” status, of being stopped on the street for autographs and stalked on Robertson for photographs, I want to ask that actor to redefine success.

For his or her own sanity.

Because success–when it’s measured in autographs and red carpets and stalkers and paparazzi and private jets–is too far away.

When, instead, it’s measured in “straight offers” and “straight to producers” or meetings to strategize which project will be next of the many from which you’re choosing, and handlers who tell you at which mics to stop as you navigate the red carpet (not as the film’s mega-watt-star but as one of the many wonderful, working actors whose work everyone loves), well, then you’re getting warmer.

And even better, when success is defined as you, being happy, pursuing the work that you love in the place that you love surrounded by people that you love and who love you, seeing measurable progress over the years, as your name moves up casting lists in more and more offices, while you remain gratified and fulfilled by the work you’re doing, well, that’s the bullseye.

That’s success you can attain.

~~~~

Bonnie Gillespie specializes in casting SAG indie feature films and provides career consulting services to actors.

Her books include Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors
and Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business.

~~~

Photo: Charlize Theron on the red carpet.

Related post: Shia LaBeouf on fame and meaning and insecurity

Related pages:
Fame and celebrity
Identity
Self-esteem / self concept

Also see my article: The Dark Side of Fame.

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology

She thinks, “that kind of anxiety in me, that obsession, was helpful. I use it in my acting. It’s something I don’t want to give up feeling, because it gives me an edge.” [Allure magazine, September 2009.]

But maybe it’s a matter of how we label our feelings. Many talented actors or singers like Seyfried may want to keep an “edge” to feel they are working at their best.

A positive “edge” may be high energy, plus excitement mixed with some fear – but not really anxiety.

In my post To create we need high energy – not anxiety, I note that there seems to be an enduring mythology about creative inspiration and performing – as an actor, for example – that it benefits from an “edge” of nervous tension or even anxiety.

For example, Nathan Fillion (who played a doctor in “Waitress”) performed in high school musicals to beat shyness.

“I remember being on stage, and that stage fright, that excitement — I get a real high off of that,” he says.

But creativity coach and writer Eric Maisel, PhD comments in our interview Ten Zen Seconds (about his book) that this really is a false and distorting idea: “It isn’t at all clear that tension or anxiety is what’s needed for peak performance and lifelong creativity.”

He says those feelings “may be unavoidable by-products of the difficulties that we face as we try to do large things and connected to our fear of failing, fear of making messes and mistakes, and so on, but they are not beneficial per se.

“You want enthusiasm, passion, love, curiosity, interest, and so on to inform your work and to exist right in the moment, in the performance moment or the creative moment, while at the same reducing (or eliminating) your fears, worries, anxieties, and so on.”

He adds, “Creating is not an energy-neutral state: it is a high energy state, with, at its healthiest, enthusiasm and not anxiety driving its engine.”

Amanda Seyfried (pronounced “sigh-frid”) also admits she suffers from anxiety attacks. “Like, the other day, I had an attack in the middle of a relaxing massage: My head was just spinning, and I felt nauseous! I was saying to myself, Just don’t make a scene! Finish this massage, or you’re going to be really annoyed with yourself.”

In his article  Anxiety and Panic Attacks Can Strike Anyone!, Bertil Hjert notes that millions of men and women struggle with anxiety or panic attack problems that affect their daily life. Some of the effects are small or simply inconveniences and some of the effects are more significant and life limiting.

“Anxiety is a real condition that can affect anyone.”

A role that resonated

Summer Bishil stars in “Towelhead,” about a Lebanese American girl’s coming of age in Texas during the first Iraq war.

In an article about the film, Rachel Abramowitz notes Bishil was 18 when she played 13-year-old Jasira in the film directed by Alan Ball (“Six Feet Under,” “American Beauty”), based on the novel by Alicia Erian.

Abramowitz describes the story as exploring “Jasira’s burgeoning sexuality and the fear it instills in her Lebanese single father who wishes she’d remain 9, and the desire it stirs in Jasira’s next-door neighbor, a 35-year-old Army reservist played by Aaron Eckhart.

“To some, the film — with its comic-horrific tone — will be shocking, but to Bishil it was a relief to find a part that not only suited her ethnically but actually resonated with her.

“It was like, finally, I’m reading something that holds a lot of truth in it, and means something. I was so relieved,” Bishil says.

Sexual curiosity and innocence combined

“I was really attached to [Jasira]. It wasn’t so much that I had gone through what she had gone through because I never did, but I understand her quest for understanding of herself and the people around her. And not having full control over her life. Over her body. Over her decisions. And not knowing what it means to own them.”

Bishil plays Jasira not as a budding Lolita, but as an inquisitive naif. “Just because she’s provocative doesn’t mean she’s not innocent,” Ball says. “Just because a child is sexually curious or is looking for pleasure or a sense of power in her existence doesn’t mean they’re not innocent. [Summer] really got that. I didn’t ever want [Jasira] to seem like she was being manipulative. It’s a much purer response. Summer is such a pure person, and I think it really translates to the camera.” ///

The role took a toll

In “Towelhead,” Bishil must imply — and occasionally perform — a range of sexual activity on camera, though Ball wound up cutting most of the graphic sex out of the film. “Summer was a pro,” Ball says. “I think it was much harder on Aaron than for her.”

Still, Bishil found one particularly violent scene was upsetting. “I knew this stuff would have to happen eventually but I didn’t think about it,” Bishil says. Afterward, however, she remembers going back to her dressing room and “having a little emotional tantrum and crying. And being very sad. I was really tired too. I wasn’t sleeping a lot. I was working 16 hours a day and operating on four hours of sleep. I’d come home and couldn’t sleep.

“Everyone was so nice about it. There wasn’t any reason to be crying,” Bishil recalls. But just living in Jasira’s mind was sometimes hard. “I didn’t realize the toll it took on me, until now.”

Acting as therapy

Many actors recognize what a powerful and releasing experience acting can be. Eva Green, for example, has commented, “It’s a way to exteriorize all my shit. To scream and cry and laugh on-screen, it’s almost like black magic. For me, acting is like a therapy.”

But it can also be emotionally challenging, and even dangerous.

Nicole Kidman has pointed out, “You live with a lot of complicated emotions as an actor, and they whirl around you and create havoc at times. And yet, as an actor you’re consciously and unconsciously allowing that to happen.” [From Nicole Kidman - a brief annotated profile.]

Speaking of her intense preparation and portrayal of Virginia Woolf in “The Hours,” she said, “Unfortunately the thing that makes me want to be an actor, in terms of wanting to be consumed, is also what can destroy you because it becomes almost too hard. At a stage of life, you have to say, I have to walk away from this.”

Other gifted actors like Kidman may also be very emotionally vulnerable and highly sensitive, which can make self-protection and stress relief especially important, to continue being creative at high levels.

> Also listen to podcast interview with Summer Bishil.

Related:
Taking your character home
Hollywood Balancing Act
Miley Cyrus and our fascination with teen sexuality
Sexuality : teen/young adult
Intense but Relaxed
Stress / de-stress
Stress resources articles books programs
~~

summer bishil, emotional toll of acting, entertainment psychology, personal development acting

“It’s important to present oneself as relaxed and confident..”

Gabriel Byrne commented that the audition process “is really a most inadequate way to determine if an actor is right or not for a particular role. Unfortunately, it’s a situation that most actors have to accept.

“Work on developing an unshakable trust in yourself and your talent. It’s important to present oneself as relaxed and confident even when you don’t feel it.”

From the book: How to Get the Part… Without Falling Apart! by Margie Haber

Quote from the page Acting3
More Books: acting
Photo from “In Treatment.”

Too much of a good thing

In her LAcasting.com article Relax into acting, Colleen Wainwright notes, “It’s great to have a little fire in your belly. But if you’re reading this, my guess is that your problem, if you have one, lies in the other direction. Because too much ambition, ferocity, gung-ho-ness is death to good acting, bad for the health, and not particularly attractive in an audition situation either.”

She adds, “We’ve all seen it: that high-strung actor who’s so intent on saying his next line, he’s barely listening for his cue. Or maybe (ahem) you’ve actually been that person on stage, having a scene go by you in a blur, kicking yourself for letting the scene play you instead of the other way around.

“For the speed-meisters, the simplest, easiest ‘hack’ to help you regain control of yourself in the moment is literally to stop yourself ever so briefly before responding in a scene. Take a beat and take in your partner, or, if it’s a monologue, the situation; let yourself check in with how you’re feeling and how your partner is feeling before moving on.

See her article for more suggestions.

Intensity vs anxiety

It isn’t that high energy is “wrong” – it is sometimes called intensity or excitability. Giftedness consultant Lesley Sword describes this in her article Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children as “an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. Overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.”

But there seems to be an enduring mythology about creative inspiration and performing as an actor, for example, that it benefits from an “edge” of nervous tension or even anxiety.

Creativity coach and author Eric Maisel, PhD comments in our interview Ten Zen Seconds (about his new book) that this really is a false and distorting idea: “It isn’t at all clear that tension or anxiety is what’s needed for peak performance and lifelong creativity,” he says.

“They may be unavoidable by-products of the difficulties that we face as we try to do large things and connected to our fear of failing, fear of making messes and mistakes, and so on, but they are not beneficial per se.

Passion without anxiety

“You want enthusiasm, passion, love, curiosity, interest, and so on to inform your work and to exist right in the moment, in the performance moment or the creative moment, while at the same reducing (or eliminating) your fears, worries, anxieties, and so on.

“Creating is not an energy-neutral state: it is a high energy state, with, at its healthiest, enthusiasm and not anxiety driving its engine.”

From my post To create we need high energy – not anxiety.

~~~

Also see Overcoming Stage Fright and other Anxiety Relief Solutions, and Self-esteem Products / Programs.
~~

acting book, performance anxiety book, High sensitivity resources, entertainment psychology

In an interview [some years ago], she talked about her work as an actor, and using dark or difficult human emotions and experiences.

“I think there’s just a few truly terrifying human experiences – maybe about six, I don’t know – that replay themselves over and over again in different scenarios.

“As an actor, like anyone else, you may have had some of those experiences once or twice, or even all of them over and over again. Unlike Gertrude [her role in Hamlet, 1996], I’ve never had a son, let alone a son who’s turned around and killed someone in front of me, but I’ve experienced things that I think involve the same emotions.

“So I do what I think every actor does – you go to those experiences. Sometimes you feel you’re abusing the nature of the suffering that other people go through when something terrible happens in life. It’s what I would call self-indulgent, but that is what an actor’s job is.

“Pain should be used for our own growth, not commercially. But artists have always used their pain and other people’s pain in order to do something well and be praised for it themselves. It is problematic, but if you don’t like it, and if it causes you anxiety, then don’t do it.

“But look at all those people on television now who are talking about the deepest and the most frightful griefs in the most facile manner as if it makes them special.

“That’s what worries me about being a celebrity, not that I think I am one much anymore…the confusion in people’s minds between what is real and what isn’t real.

“The mythologizing of actors is just a horrible, dreadfully frightening thing because people cease to be able to tell the difference between the stars’ private lives and their public lives.”

[Interview mag., Feb, 1997]

Related Talent Development Resources pages:
The Inner Actor
Abuse & creative expression
Healing & art
Nurturing mental health : acting
My article: The Dark Side of Fame
~~

Julie Christie, acting and pain, entertainment psychology, celebrity and personal growth