Michael Laskin Studio

One of the things I have tried to avoid in my class and coaching work is focusing on what I call the “how to” approach.  ”How to Cold Read.” “How to Book that Job!” “How to Get an Agent.”  I realize it’s not possible to totally avoid this, but I find that this line of thinking usually over-promises and under-delivers.  I have worked with actors who have taken audition classes, and developed a kind of skill at auditioning – but they are not yet actors. Their greatest fear should be actually booking that job, and discovering the enormous difference between a slick audition and being able to do your best work at 3 in the morning after you’ve been on the set for 14 hours.  ”We’ve got to get this shot – it’s late, c’mon let’s go!”  Certainly not the kind of “encouragement” one gets in any class.  The hand holding stops when the cameras are rolling, the money meter is ticking, and you have to do deliver your best work under adverse conditions. The smart ones understand this, and know there is more. Much more.

There are many resources with “how to” information for actors, and to be sure they can be useful on a very basic level.  And there is no shortage of people willing to take your hard-earned money to give you information that you could probably find by yourself. We’d all like to find the “magic bullet” – the one thing that will put us over the top and onto the next level.  In a business where there are very few true mentors for actors, there are many who traffic in information that sometimes proves to be useless.  The myth being sold is that if you just do these things (the things, by the way, you can only learn in our seminar or class), it will all open up to you. “Our one true method is the only way succeed”. Beware of false promises; if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

This is not to say that you will learn nothing.  You absolutely will – if only oppositionally.  And you will meet some interesting people.  But the reality is that you can do all these “how to” classes and still be basically nowhere.  In fact, you can probably count on it.  They are results-oriented in an endeavor that is by definition process-oriented. It’s ass-backwards as they used to say where I grew up.  The artistic path is rarely clear and linear. If you ask ten artists how they found their respective ways, you will most likely find ten different circuitous routes to “success” – however you define that.

Everyone who comes to me for classes and coaching is searching for answers, and for help.  They should, more appropriately, be searching for questions.  Good questions open up a real dialog. Good questions will help you become your own guide.  The answer is always within, no matter what acting process you favor. We all need outside guidance, even if it points us inward in our search.  And we all need a community of artists to share the journey with.  But only by asking good questions and searching within will you get past the “how to’s” to a deeper place.  If you want spoon-fed answers, the line starts over there. If you wish to become the answer yourself - the line starts within.