To Tell the Truth

Remain natural. Be yourself. Don’t go for it.

The toughest assignment for an actor is to remain natural.

As a young director, I was warned by my mentors to try to stay away from asking an actor to be themselves. I was told that many actors haven’t a clue to who or what they really are. In fact I was also told that many actors think they know but are under a misguided conception of what their truth really is. Others might not want to know.

So here’s a very broad statement to chew on. If you don’t want to discover and practice your own individual truth, your chances of becoming successful as a professional actor will be unmercifully diminished. It may not make you happy to discover your truth as a human being, but knowing your truth will definitely give you a tremendous leg up as an actor.

There are times in my travels when an encounter with an actor in an everyday situation is disappointing at best. I'm referring to a chance meeting at some sort of function or during a casual coffee shop conversation. Coming away from the encounter with the feeling that this guy or gal came across as being rather shallow; they didn’t have the ability to share their true feelings with me. And then to meet that same person in the actor/director environment, only to be elated as well as surprised by their total ability to tell the truth through the eyes of another. That other person that I refer to is the character they happen to be portraying. What they don’t want to give into is the fact that, whatever they may think of it as, playacting is still a way of telling the truth.

Perhaps one of the greatest actors of all time said it as succinctly as any actor I’ve ever heard when he responded when asked during an interview what his acting method was:

“Well I just look the other actor right in the eye and tell them the truth. The truth was always evident in any role portrayed by that actor.” - James Cagney

Many actors who had the opportunity to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock usually were in for a big surprise when they discovered how little direction he offered in the way of acting. One day, when Carey Grant asked Hitchcock for some advice on how to interpret the meaning of a particular scene, Hitchcock responded with: “You’re here because you’re right for it.”

In his own way he was telling Carey Grant to be himself. That was the end of the acting direction. Hitchcock sought the truth and that’s what his actors gave him. During another incident involving Mr. Hitchcock, a visitor to the set had the guts (or the stupidity) to endanger his life by, without warning, asking Hitchcock to explain why he wasn’t looking at his actors during a rehearsal of the scene. Mr. Hitchcock’s reply: “I can hear what they look like.”

That response has become a major part of my professional career. For many years, I have earned my living listening to actors. As your audience, if you tell me the truth, I will buy from you, and I will allow you to influence my life.

Just as a reminder, the Kalmenson Method was derived by the means of close study of the most successful actors in our industry during the course of more years than I desire to call attention to.

Many of the attributes the foremost talents have in common became apparent to me. By and large these weren’t the actors that the general public described or held in esteem as celebrities. These were and are the journeyman actors.

John Houseman expounded on his credo for success. He advised us to be journeyman actors, to practice and study our craft, to search for a way to grow everyday, to be an observer with our eyes and with our ears, and to find a way to tell someone, anyone, a story that they might believe.

Goals and Aspirations

I’ve been privileged to work and be taught by some of our industries most recognized dynamos. I consider myself a gleaner. If a guy or gal had even a modicum of success, the Kalmenson sponge (that’s me) was there to look and listen.

Many of da harv’s tricks are nothing more than observances of some noteworthy professionals that I managed to be privy to.

That being the case, let’s try this one on for size. Relax, this may hurt just a little.

You get your chance to get off the bench and get into the game; but because you didn’t believe in yourself, or you were told you’d never get in the game, or you were just too damn lazy to get off that -- uh, butt of yours, and experience the pain of getting and staying ready. You marched up there not ready to sweat.

Not to worry, though. You’re part of a great big club of humans just like yourself. You are average. And because you’re average, you’ll never have to concern yourself with being recognized as a winner. That’s not to say that coaches in management won’t be aware of your average-ness. They know that you may be counted on to be a comfortable person. You’re satisfied with your lot in life. You’re on a level plane. Why try harder? If you try harder you might perspire and that could cause an uncomfortable situation for what may or may not come next in your life.

Well, what comes next in your life is the only situation that places the average person on the same level as the above average person, or "competitor." The reason is simple. None of us ever know what’s coming next.

The cards are constantly being shuffled and dealt out to us. Some of us manage to stay in the game. Others simply fold, throwing in their hand and searching for a more favorable game.

The average person feels that they have been dealt a series of lousy hands. The cards are always running against them. They never stop to think that maybe they happen to be lousy players. Luck just seems to be always going against them.

The fact is and always has been the same. Average people never win anything when the outcome is based on skill. Skills are always developed if they are nurtured. Nurture means practice, and a player who practices finds him or herself ready when he or she is called to get off the bench and get in the game.

In voice over, your game is known as "the audition." When you’re called upon to audition, you’d better be ready. You can’t be average and expect to have even the slightest chance of becoming a winner in our world of voice over. You must be able to read. I mean read without dropping words.

Can you imagine an actor who comes into audition for me and spends most of his time explaining the problems that this script represents? Sound familiar?

This actor wants me to deal him a new hand. The poor bastard can’t read! He’s a lousy player! But he thinks, once again, he’s been dealt a hand to play that’s bad. Guess what? I’m going to make his life a lot more comfortable. I’m never going to call him off the bench again. Not only that, I’m not going to provide that player with a bench to sit on.

When that player’s agents offers us his name for another of our casting calls, it will be explained to them in no uncertain terms that their player should not be recommended to us again. The reason is simple: Your actor better learn how to read if you expect him to play in our game.

Well, at this point if you think I’m a cruel guy, you too should find a different game to play in. Read no further, it’s going to become more uncomfortable for you, but while a higher degree of discomfort sets in, take pleasure in the fact that now you’re joining a more select club. You’re part of my favorite group of people: Those who fall into the select crowd that wear the "above average" label.

These are the actors that we rely on to make us look good as casting directors. We call them in to audition knowing that we will always get an above average performance, regardless of what the script portends to be. These are the Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago professionals; the big leaguers.

They come to play every day. They practice their craft each and everyday. They’re constantly seeking a new and magical approach that will give them that necessary winning edge. I’ve even heard some of them use the term “winning edge” in conversation.

In truth, what has happened for them is that remarkable acting phenomenon called the breakthrough; that moment when true actors find themselves able to convey honest emotions.

They no longer worry about words. They no longer concentrate on what they might happen to sound like. In our world they no longer concern themselves with selling the product. They seek out a variety of stimuli that might enable them to convey as the vendor of truth a reason for their listener to become influenced by their message.

The question remains the same—How did they manage to move on up?

It is pedestrian to say, without practice, forget about making it. I want to strenuously emphasize a couple of simple points that might help you with your goals and aspirations.

To begin with, don’t change — modify. You’re already perfect, so why try to change. Besides, you shouldn’t screw with Mother Nature. Consider yourselves as "the chosen." Let’s try on a sample session experience.

Lets say you auditioned and you won. They picked you because you have the perfect attitude, temperament, approach, and perhaps even hat size. To make things even better when you show up at the session you discover that the producer even dresses the same way you do. It appears that this will be the perfect gig. But after you do the first take exactly the way you did it at the audition, the producer says, “I’d like you to be a touch more forceful on the next take.”

This is the end of the sample session. Stop now. Go no further.

You have no choice, as a must for every audition, session, and even when you’re alone at work practicing your craft. The producer did not ask you to change who you really are. He asked you to modify your approach. We’re talking about behavior modification. Not changing who you are as a person.

You know and understand your “signature.” You’ve got it down cold. That’s not to say that as time goes by an actor’s signature won’t vary. Life has a way of doing that to all of us. What we’re saying is that an actor should make his performance corrections by a modification process within the structure of his individual truth.

When you work out at home, make it a point to modify the direction you’re attempting. In other words don’t read the same script the same way thirty times in a row; exactly, exactly, exactly. Modify the script as a whole and modify your transitions. An attitude change on a single word or phrase can often make the difference that the producer is looking for.

Make your goals with regards to working out a procedure that requires you to modify scripts as you rehearse them. Try on for size the "getting ready" process. Know that you will be the one they will call to come out and save the day. Never be satisfied with what you have accomplished as an actor. It’s always yesterday’s news.

If you treat your acting goals as a passion and not as your work, the modification that is necessary for your success will be within reach.

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Remembering back a few years ago, when I started on my journey into never-never land, kind of makes me cringe today.

Without the foggiest notion of what acting was truly about and armed in my own personal cape of blissful ignorance, it was high gear all the way, until the money ran out. What I was fortunate enough to have had was a series of teachers with the magic ability to convey a message here or there that managed to make it through my extremely thick cranium.

Each of us has our own special button that is often difficult to uncover, especially at a young age, and even more difficult when the button is part of the male makeup.

There’s an old saying, “a penny for your thoughts.” When I was a young guy that was a common question. I can remember being out on a blind date and having that question asked of me. I happen to be a person who doesn’t have any qualms about sharing what might be going on in my head. In this particular instance it wasn’t a good idea or the correct thing to do under the circumstances. Nevertheless, my (still blind) date asked and I said, “This wasn’t a good idea for either of us, was it?”

What followed was my first real experience with a very uncomfortable extended silence and a distinct change of climate. What she did for the balance of the evening is commonly referred to as “the cold shoulder.”

(Fast forward.)

Years later, as I stood alone, stage center with a group of my workshop colleagues seated as the audience before me, I recaptured that “cold shoulder” moment and relived the question: “A penny for your thoughts.”

Our instructor had called upon me to, without words, portray a man experiencing an uncomfortable two minute period of silence, then upon her command, display a completely comfortable presence, while remaining alone, center stage.

I was able to become comfortable by reflecting upon feeling the relief after dropping my blind date off at home at the end of the evening.

It even included what I felt was a very cool thing that happened during my questioning following the two minutes. One of the students asked me what I was thinking about during the comfortable presence moments that brought the hint of a smile to my face.

Our teacher pointed out that often times reflection can stimulate memories that allow for more than one single attitude. It’s kind of like walking and smiling at the same time. That two-fold display of a cultivated attitude drawn from our memory bank opened up one of the most powerful sourcing tools that an actor must be able to call on.

Reflection upon one single moment can stimulate any number of feelings, either sequentially, or in an untold number of bizarre or surreal sequences. All are slices of life. Almost all happenings may easily be referenced from our vast memory bank. All (usually, that is) with one dominant exception. That exception is our own personal memories of physical pain. Nature has provided the human animal with a turn off that enables us to forget severe physical pain. The condition is an automatic one.

(Certainly there are people who can vividly reflect on physical pain, but they are the exception.)

So now the question comes up, what to do when the scene calls for our actor to show suffering being caused by severe mental or physical pain?

At first, our actor may struggle with his or her memory bank. They easily recall the twisted and broken leg suffered during a high school football game, or gymnastics. While they may recall the circumstances, the scene they are playing lacks the genuine truth that he or she was striving to deliver.

Our actor requests the teacher’s help. The teacher responds with, “We’ll discuss it again tomorrow.” Our teacher then hands out the homework assignment. It requires each of us to view the movie, “Brian’s Song.” The next day our teacher asks that same actor to recount the scene he had struggled with the previous day, but this time to think about the travail that occurred for Brian Piccolo when he discovered, as an athlete at the top of his career, that he was sick with an incurable and life-ending illness.

The result was our actor being able to reflect on Brian’s predicament. What came forth was a beautifully truthful slice of life. Our actor had reflected through the eyes of another.

And finally, that leads us to the question of how do we, as actors, develop the skill of being able to reflect through the eyes of another. My answer to that one is contained in my favorite word: Empathy. Understanding, awareness, being sensitive, and feeling and experiencing the thoughts of others without becoming subjective. And while it is my favorite word, it has become my fervent belief that it is also the most important tool an actor has within his arsenal.

Were it possible to make all the luck in the world happen for each of you, as opposed to it being merely a sincere salutation, then I would choose to say to all of you, “All the luck in your world. The world you have been able to choose and genuinely embrace for yourself!”

Thanksgiving

Our thankfulness is daily, almost to the point of continual celebration over the blessings far more than Cathy and I could ever perceive as our entitlement.

So on this Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010, we say an additional thanks for all the friends, colleagues, and those of good nature who have provided us with an enormously joyous good year.

Good Thanksgiving to you and yours, in prayer and good deed.

Truth Be Told

The magic of the truth. When the truth is there for you, certainly no explanation is necessary. The lack of explanation regarding the recognition of the truth has always been the same.

Truth has always been the actor’s goal. While the word truth or its study thereof by a theatrical production company may differ dramatically, the end result will always be the same.

Most likely every nook and cranny in this great country of ours has its own version or method of guiding actors in their quest for the truth. The most famous of these nooks would be the “Actors Studio.”

In the thirties we had the “Group Theater,” its forerunner and inspiration being Constantine Stanislavski and the “Moscow Art Theater.” Stanislavski, the most searching, dedicated, and powerful teacher of acting in the history of the art, set in motion an ideal that has codified the truth.

On December 3, 1947, Marlon Brando, in an American play called “A Streetcar Named Desire,” put on display a most notable exemplification of the Stanislavski method. Two months earlier, in October, the play’s directors, Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, and Robert Lewis formed a workshop for actors called the Actors Studio. It was there that Lee Strasberg devoted the next thirty years zealously to the development of the Stanislavski method. Fifty-seven years plus, and the method is still gathering momentum.

Method Acting: What was once an awkward admission is now a fact shared by almost every acting student in the country. Method acting has long since arrived. The Actors Studio continues.

Earlier in this piece I mentioned "Street Car" and Marlon Brando. It was in this play that Marlon became one of the first American actors to deliver a speech with his back to the audience. That revolution began long before Kazan staged it in "Streetcar."

There, in the middle of the first act of The Sea Gull, at the Moscow Art Theater on December 17, 1898, a group of actors was seated with their backs to the audience. That same audience, in unison let out a gasp at this sight. The director that night was Constantine Stanislavski.

It is important to know and understand that the year was 1898. Stanislavski had a slim background in directing actors. What he did have was an innate feeling for the truth, and a desire to change the pomp and circumstance that was part and parcel of the then Russian theater. Initially, Stanislavski actors were not the least bit creative. He staged the play as a dictator might. Not only did he tell the actors where to stand, sit, and move, but he also provided exacting line readings. His fierce desire to improve himself was a driving force in his lifelong study that was about to begin.

What I so personally admire about Stanislavski the innovator and teacher is what I got from him as a student. He was a man not unlike myself. I, of course, am not making a comparison of skills, but rather the acknowledgment, and lack of understanding he had at the beginning of his wondrous learning adventure.

I share with him in the belief that being a student is forever. Being an actor is a lifelong study. Answers reveal themselves when the student has lived and studied long enough in order to recognize the answers. And becomes wise enough to allow for each answer to not necessarily be that of the gospel. We develop along with our recognition that life oftentimes does not present us with the answers we happen to be in search of. Concurrently, our questions will forever remain an endless road representing a lifetime of query.

His system and ours is internal. We harvest our truth through and during a lifetime or in a mere momentary reflection.

Sights and sounds cannot be shared tomorrow in exactly the same way as they appeared today. The old childhood neighborhood revisited will be familiar, but somehow not the same.

And as Stanislavski proclaimed the wealth of our ever-changing environment, I found myself becoming a total believer. Your audience will be the informer, as well as your judge, jury, and provider for what can be the greatest passion in one’s lifetime.

Why Improvise; You have a Script

"You should tell them about the time, right in the middle of the third scene, when a cue was misinterpreted and the clock began to strike a full scene ahead of schedule."

Okay then, get off my back. I’m going to tell them now!

(The actor who happened to be on stage is far too public a figure for me to reveal, and I’m sure he reads anything and everything where his name appears. As a matter of fact, his publicist spends a tidy sum keeping his charge from making the headlines. I guess you know you’ve arrived when you have a public relations team whose mainstay is keeping your life private.)

While it is one of my more comedic recollections, please trust in me when I tell you it wasn’t funny at the time. But, I digress. Back to our (very young at the time) actor's prematurely climaxing clock, as we referred to it from that point on. We had a single actor, moving to down stage center and preparing to deliver his most important and most poignant speech of the play.

A long moment of silence, signifying his attitude of deep contemplation, when the clock began to chime. Without any display of outward anguish our actor looked into the stage left wings and caught sight of the actor who was scheduled to appear with him in the very next scene, when the clock should have legitimately begun to strike the appropriate hour.

The actor in the wings was visually unstrung, and immediately began perspiring as if he was the one being “screwed to the heavens,” as it was later on aptly described.

The audience had not a sense of what was transpiring before them. It was then, as a young stage manager, I became aware of what a true actor can accomplish.

(On stage actor hesitates in further contemplation looking skyward, then speaks, unscripted:)

"Thank you, oh Lord, for chiming your recognition and sharing with me the relief of what tomorrow will bring."

(Our actor then turns away from the direction of the off-stage actor as the clock continues, and he delivers the scripted cue line for the next scene. As the clock completes its tolling the next scene begins without missing a beat or our audience becoming privy to what the future holds.)

Success became ours to enjoy because of the improvisational skills of two actors.

Notes:

The premature clock became the scripted scene.

The fellow responsible for the clock striking prematurely could never be found after that evening’s performance. I had nothing to do with his disappearance. He was gone before I could get to him.

***

Here are some things I’ve gathered along the way. Perhaps you will find them useful.

A premise:

“No matter how talented… an actor must be sacrificed if he or she cannot contribute to the harmonious atmosphere of the group.”

Because I have found myself in charge of a great many of “Life’s Happenings,” I need the utmost of displayed confidence regardless of what is churning within.

Remember your elementary school report cards? They had that box on the upper right side of the card, which had to do with your social character traits. "Gets along well with others," "meets new situations with confidence," and "could do better," are the three I feel are the most prevailing attributes for any professional.

Now that you’re no longer in elementary school, the report card as we knew it to be has been replaced by actual human beings. I always get a chuckle when I’m told not to be judgmental. Try telling that to a living, breathing audience.

If you want to get along well with this group of people, your audience, learn how to convey the truth.

Believing in one's self is the strongest ingredient for showing confidence, especially when others are depending on your performance.

All creative people live with there own personally inflicted stigma of "could do better." If you’d like to avoid complete craziness, study your craft relentlessly!

Our life and our work is a process; albeit the fact it is set up backwards has nothing to do with our work habits. The more experience you acquire, the better you will perform, regardless of the creative form you’re involved with professionally. You may be gifted with God given talents, but so are many folks in our subjective form of life’s pursuits. The best of the gifted actors are the ones who work the hardest at the continued process.

And to you, permit me to gently offer :

Enter as if you are a blank page. Be in the here and now while thinking about your past, and at the same time, show a degree of wonderment over what the future may hold.

Fill your blank page with expressions of your past.

The song that you may have hummed to yourself as a child can easily be recaptured.

The marvelous or not so marvelous odor or scent experienced can readily change your facial expression.

Add to this the sounds of today. It may only be your own breath that you’re listening to, but nevertheless, it’s there for you to hear and feel.

Your ability to recall the past and listen to the present is a simple step towards sharing your being and self. Your audience of people will believe in you, if for no other reason than your courage in sharing who you were, who you are, and perhaps additionally, your aspirations for the future, one day to be revealed.

Studying

While looking at the pictures of various historical figures, one might wonder what goals and aspirations a particular figure may have had.

Question Them

What happened to them in their earlier life?

What music did they listen to?

What daily rituals may have influenced their lives, and affected the lives of their most intimate colleagues and loved ones?

Take notice of what age brings to the face of your historical figure. A line in the human countenance may bring an engraved attitude with it.

What do you see engraved in this picture from the past?

What does the face reveal? Bearing; demeanor; calm?

Plain and simply stated, look for the emotion. It’s as if you’re being introduced for the first time.

No salutations are verbally being offered by the other party, yet they are in most cases showing you a great deal.

Many of these expressions are ones that you might be revisiting. The look of consternation on the face of an historical personage may be the very same look that you yourself have displayed at one time or another for the entire world to see. We see, we experience, we borrow, and we do.

While I’m not sure which of my mentors uttered the words, “Go with the flow,” or “Don’t confuse the issue,” I am certain that simplicity was their goal.

"Keep it simple" was the essence. If the truth is the only thing to enter your mind, then delivering a truthful line is the only thing that can be delivered.

The doctrine of the Stanislavski system worked exceedingly well on the plays of Anton Chekhov.

Chekhov wrote truthfully about ordinary men and women. He searched for the inner beauty in people and exposed their triviality and vice. Chekhov’s influence drove Stanislavski to strive to create an artistically conceived image of life on the stage. Whether you’re an experienced actor, or one trying your wings for the first time, Stanislavski has become the most accepted system for any actor to grow with. Comedy or tragedy, the method has become our most revolutionary acting tool. Given circumstances, subtext, images, real or imagined, and the beat goes on, ever changing, and always demanding that the actor continue to develop their improvisational skills. It is not a question of whether or not the actor wants to. If the actor is to grow, and have the ability to meet life’s subtleties, vagaries, tragedies, or outright desperation, then the choice is a simple one. The method will help you grow.

So look into the faces of your historical characters. Live their joys or misgivings. Empathize and redeem what their faces offer. Then through motion, or sound, or both, become, be, and continue to be.

Veterans Day

Veterans Day, honoring the Men and Women who celebrate their faith in our country!

What brighter light could burn, than that which has been nurtured by those who have understood and appreciated the gifts that endow any and all, who may venture within the boundaries of this country's great heart.

Pray for them; they are yours.

Hk / December, 2001