Yesterday in class, it occurred to me to ask my acting coach for suggestions on what else I could be doing to further my career! It is funny because this literally never occurred to me before. He is always telling us helpful things about the industry, and occasionally gives an amazing lecture on acting and what it means to be an artist in this industry, but I figured, why not ask for all that I can get?
     He suggested watching more film, and reading more books. He specifically suggested I watch French cinema (hence, the last blog post about French films) and recommended the books “Stillness Speaks” by Eckhart Tolle. He said that they don’t do much for personal gain (which I found to be funny because I have personally never found much credence in “self-help” books) but he said that they really have a lot to do with acting.
     He gave me one of the books and told me to flip to any page at random and there would be something helpful that I could apply to acting. I did just that and guess what… there was! It was a quote about creative thought being what drives you to do anything and everything. I applied this to my scene. I found the creative thought behind the character and used it as my driving force to do the scene and really find out what I was trying to accomplish with every word I spoke.
     The book didn’t help me come to the conclusions for the character and my motivations, but it did remind me to STOP acting, and JUST LIVE as the character. It pulled me out of my head and got me into the scene, connecting with the person in front of me… that is really what life is all about, forgetting acting. When we have moments they are because we are connecting with someone or something in the environment. Moments don’t happen when we are off, alone in our heads. That is what I always like to remind myself of.

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