Newsletter

“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.” Gandalf View Online There are 2 famously dead periods of the year for auditions. One is the janfeb slowdown. The other is the julalugust drought. Summer holidays. Parents go away when school is out. Reduced staff in the office. All leads to less work activity. Less auditions being sent out. Once again, everything slows down. If you are thinking, “i really fckd it this time” You havent. Casting and…

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” William james view online You have made a reading list Thank you to the generous members of this community who sent in their book suggestions. An acting book has the power to be a low cost gateway to shaking things up. And here are some of readers’ favs: Your Favourite Acting Books The Prize Draw A reader who sent in their book won the prize draw. and that reader is… The book of their choice from the list is en route to them as we speak…

“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.” Richard Feynman View online Last week we talked about raising our standards. Over the last month or so I’ve really needed to raise mine. I’m feeling actingly meh. Relying on a that’ll do mentality. I’ll just fudge my way through this tape I know what I’m doing learn my lines call it in meh I feel that the overall quality of the work i’m doing is off. What’s going on inside me feels…

“The truth is, of course, that what one regards as interruptions are precisely one’s life.” C. s. Lewis Share online Disappointment burnout is a real thing. Chances are you’ve felt it. After a string of bad news you’ll feel demotivated and down. For me, I have to drag myself to do a selftape, I’ll do 1 or 2 takes, tell myself i don’t care and send the first one without really looking at it. It’ll seep into my personal life, I become grouchy, I lose motivation to do most things – it’s…

“It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me…it makes life so much easier” Anthony hopkins Share online version Welcome to an evening edition of the newsletter Here are 3 videos that I thought you might enjoy. Let’s boogie. I. In a hard situation focus on your game Anthony Gordon was fundamental to England’s success against Mexico last night, and in a post match interview spoke eloquently about how he plays under very hard circumstances. II. Change the system by taxing…

Happy happy Monday you cheeky monkey Share online hereThis week I’m trying out a version of James Clear’s 3-2-1. Which i’ve called, rather ingeniously, 1-1-1. Lets begin View online here 1 idea I. Sometimes my inner critic comes at me hard with “Look how little progress you’ve made, you big jerk” generally, this will be after a string of disappointments. When this happens, I try to remember to Time Travel: About 17 years ago, I was sitting in my bathroom, on top of my toilet, holding a…

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob A Riis When I haven’t booked for months and nothing seems to help I rely on something relatively simple to pull me out of the funk. I’d like to tell you about something called the Swing Shake. In this…

“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it” annonymous I have now sent this newsletter to you on Monday mornings, Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings. Out of curiosity, which do you prefer? I prefer reading it on Monday mornings. Wednesday mornings. Friday mornings. Once you choose you’ll be able to see what your fellow readers prefer too. Now for your tickets… IMAX UPDATE It’s happened. The Odyssey tickets for the BFI IMAX are now on sale and selling out. But if you want…

“Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art.” Andy warhol share the online version You voted to see an actor’s payslip. Today we’ll do just that. This is Part 1 of 3 in a series called “Htf do I get paid more?” Step One: Gaining Clarity If our goal is to make a sustainable living acting, it stands to reason we should probably know the what, why and how we are being paid. I didnt have a clue. For years I mistook, “I don’t want this to be about the money” for “I…

“Make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.” Ernest Hemingway The vote ends this week: Do you want to see a breakdown of an actor’s payslip? Yes please. Nonsense – something different please. A question I think about a lot is what is our responsibility to the truth? What is an actor’s relationship with truth? wtf even is truth? Very big subject. I am quite uncertain about it. what does “being a truthful actor” (an aspiration i hear being dished out…