Blog

At the moment, due to the joys of lockdown, we are restricted in what we can do. When I started my online Lockdown Acting intensive, I wasn’t sure how much could be achieved online, from an acting training point of view. A lot can be done as it turned out, but there is no replacement…

This an interview with Marc Happel, who isn’t an acting teacher but Director of Costumes at the New York City Ballet. Daniel Day-Lewis spent a year with him, nearly every day, learning how to be a dress maker to prepare for the film Phantom Thread. It’s a fascinating interview which I highly recommend that you…

As a kid, I loved the TV series Kung Fu. If you have never seen it, it’s a bit like Karate Kid but better. Master Po, who is an old blind wise Kung Fu Master, instructs his young student, Caine, on how to become a Kung Fu expert. In his first lesson, Master Po easily…

Gwyneth revealed in an interview this week the reason she stepped away from acting. She was lonely. I know this may be hard to believe because she is a highly successful actor, and the temptation is to think that life must be peachy. The reality can be somewhat different. Gwyneth went onto explain: “I don’t…

– Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron at the premiere of the film The Devil’s Advocate – In the film The Devil’s Advocate, Al Pacino plays a wealthy hotshot New York lawyer called John Milton. John is actually Satan, the Devil who has come in the form of man to cause havoc. The story…

Now you may have recently seen that the singer Adele has created a new image for herself predominately by losing 7st in weight. Rumour has it (see what I did there?) that the real reason for this dramatic weight loss is that she has her sights set on becoming an actor in Hollyweird. Nothing wrong…

I was on set once where I watched the most painful thing imaginable. It was an actor trying to squeeze out a tear. He was playing a character that had just witnessed the death of a family member and the director wanted him to break down and cry. Oh, the fun and games that ensued…

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we humans don’t like being alone. It causes a lot of mental anguish particuarly when it comes to acting. There is a type of loneliness that exists even if you are around other people, which is the loneliness of the lone aspiring actor. Many aspiring actors…

So, the dance troupe Diversity performed on Britain’s Got Talent last night and their performance sparked 10,000 complaints the most ever recorded for a TV show. Why? Well, the answer to that question that goes deep into the collective unconscious. The stunning routine they performed (you can watch it here) was a powerful expression of…

Here’s an interesting story. When method actor, Mickey Rourke, was starting out he was having problems with a monologue he was doing to get into acting school. In the monologue, he had to speak to his father in the play, but he found it very difficult. You see, Mickey’s father in real life left the…