Felix Merback, Actor: You don't keep track of my career, but
I watch yours…[Scene partner, Christopher Matthew Spencer, Actor].
Brian Cutler of Brian Cutler On Camera Actors Studio [Burbank, CA]:
Is there anybody (I know that CMS [referring to Christopher Matthew Spencer, Actor] always likes
to start). Is there anybody that would like to start besides CMS? Not that you can't start,
you may start. You want to you want to jump up and work Felix? Okay, let's do it, yeah let's do it.
Okay, so for your edification David and Karen what we do first we tape all our memorized scenes from
last week. All we've done is we read through them last week and sort of chatted about them a little
bit take a look at I'm not a believer in Method or any of that stuff. The process we use on one
degree of separation from Samford Meisner although we do not do repetition exercises here. What we do
however is improvisation cold reading which I like to call sight reading like in music and we
work consistently on storytelling, working moment by moment and impulse by impulse and that's what
these guys do. So the first thing we do is tape the scenes that we sort of read through last week
and then we'll take a quick break potty break, water break, coffee break, candy break
and then we will do cold reads for next week. So that sort of brings you up to speed.
Keep your paper still people please.
[Background conversation: Maybe he's good? Just start to see, I do.]
Jill Morehouse, Actor/Teacher at Brian Cutler On Camera Actors Studio:
We're rolling, do we have speed? On your mark, action!
Felix Merback, Actor:
Hello Howard.
Christopher Matthew Spencer, Actor: Hello Peter.
I was just passing by and thought I'd drop in you know I haven't seen you in such a long time.
Did you know that Guy Francon made me his partner last week?
No
You know you don't keep track of my career, but I watch yours. Yeah it's called Francon and Keating
now and I guess I don't have to tell you that Guy Francon's the leading architect in the country
right now no you don't have to tell me that yeah remember how I told you once that I'd rise
are you are you waiting for something Howard you were telling me about Guy
Francon right I was just telling you about something I had once predicted
you know I hate to see you down like this man you remember how we started and look at us now
How much more of this can you take why did you come here Peter because we're old friends and
I hate to see you beaten oh I'm not there's no use in lying about it you haven't had a client
in a year oh you're wrong it's been a year and a half right and you might have a couple hundred
dollars left and then that's it fourteen dollars oh and 57 cents right right and all those bills
I mean this is an unpaid light bill isn't it oh no no no that is a disconnect notice oh and that
that's an eviction notice right so how much more of that can you take
that's my concern not yours you know you can pay me back whenever you want by the way you need it
Peter no thank you I don't need your help but I want to help look I don't give or ask for help
why don't you drop it what the charade or the pose or the ideals or whatever you want to call it
you can't stand alone anymore just give in learn how to get along with people first of all
and then start designing the buildings that everyone else does and you will be rich you
will be successful you will be affluent you'll you'll finally be one of us is that what's
bothering you oh that I want to stand alone is that it I don't know
look it's getting late go home Peter you lost your watch Howard I hocked it good night good luck.
Brian Cutler:
And cut! All right, how'd that feel? Pretty good, felt good
should have felt good yeah it was pretty strong, he's very pretty strong.
Brian Cutler: Well you know here's the deal, acting is a team sport. If you don't
want to be an active member of a team sport don't be an actor. you don't act alone even
someone doing a one-person show doesn't act alone
they have a crew they have a sound booth they have camera people it you don't do it alone so
if you're concerned about your lines and your memorization which as we get older does happen
then you depend on your partner to help you in the event that something goes awry okay and it will so
don't think it won't because it will you know i've worked with actors making a half a million dollars
a week that couldn't remember their lines they were still making a half a million dollars a week
you know okay so what you know I could tell you a long story about Pernell Roberts and I guess
starring on a very very large major show and both of us seasoned actors wanted to kill the
two young actors we were working with because they kept screwing around and horsing around
and he was a fire chief and I was a fire captain and we kept burning down buildings
it was not an easy [ __ ] there were there were three crews you were literally burning
literally yeah literally burning down buildings I thought it was a metaphor no no no no no it was a
actual situation yeah so okay I like go in there be a little more intrusive at the very beginning
you want to utz him a little bit you're not there to help him and at the beginning of the scene this
time it sounded as though you're really there to help but you're not you're there to gloat you're
there to stick it to him you're there to put that little final last pin in the voodoo doll whatever
and you just don't want to deal with him you don't give a [ __ ] about him
you know why I should have just slammed the door in his face yeah well and in actuality maybe you
would have done that in real life but he sort of barges in you don't really have a choice
you know and this is the sequence that was written by the writer
so you have to do it whether you want to or not it's not real life no it's not it's not real life
and it's not life imitating art or art imitating life you know François Truffaut said it the best
filmmaking is capturing life at 24 frames a second that's what filmmaking is and it's our job to be
as realistic and honest and open and willing to be those things for people to enjoy what we do
that's our job your job isn't your objective or your motivation or any of that crap I'll
tell you what your objective is your objective is to get the job your motivations to get paid
those the check clears yeah yeah and hope to check no you stay clear you might have
to fight for it sometimes but they normally clear let's do this again be a little more
standoffish at the beginning you you were sort of I don't know not sure whether you
were happy to see him not happy to see him so let's be a little more definitive about that
something obviously it doesn't matter what it was because you know the old David Mamet story I tell
with the executive producer calling him and saying well how long was the guy in Germany and David
Mamet says how the hell should I know I don't know we said you wrote the script yeah but he could
have been there five minutes five years five days I don't know doesn't matter it's not part of the
story he just was in Germany who cares so we don't know what transpired between these two people but
it's important for you to have an instantaneous response to how he comes into the sequence
okay got it okay cool we're ready in the booth am I good still
chill yeah both of you both here's still good all right
hello Howard hello Peter I was just passing by and thought I'd drop in
you know I haven't seen you in like forever
did you know that Guy Francon made me his partner last week no yeah yeah you know
you don't keep track of my career but I watch yours yeah it's called Francon and Keating now and
I guess I don't have to tell you that Guy Francon the leading architect in the country right now no
you don't have to tell me remember how I told you once that I'd rise remember how I told you that
are you waiting for something Howard
you're telling me about Guy Francon right yeah I was just telling you about what I once predicted
you know I hate to see you down like this man you know you remember how we started
and look at us now haven't you had enough why did you come here Peter because we're old friends and
I hate to see you beaten I'm not well there's no use in lying about it I mean you haven't
had a client in a year you're wrong it's been a year and a half right you might
have a couple hundred dollars left and then that's it oh let's see um yeah that's 14 and
57 cents oh it's impressive you think that's enough to pay off all the bills I mean this is
a this is an unpaid light bill isn't it no that's a disconnect notice and that's an eviction notice
how much more of that can you take
what's the reason you came here Peter why are you here well you know I want to help and you've given
me a couple indications here that that probably be the best thing to do but no thanks no thanks
Peter I don't want your help thank you you sure yeah I don't give or ask for help Peter okay
when are you gonna drop it what this this the charade or the pose or the ideals look
you can't stand alone anymore just give in
learn how to get along with people first of all because that's always been a weak point of yours
and once you learn how to do that start designing the buildings that everyone else designs and then
you will finally be rich you'll be affluent you'll be respected and you'll finally be one of us
I see so that's what's bothering you right now is that I want to stand alone
is that it you know Howard I don't know yeah Peter
you don't it's late go home oh right have you lost your watch Howard I hocked it good night good luck
see ya bye and cut there we go there we go nice nice nice so here's the thing
I say it all the time don't get sick of it but the only way that the audience can be interested
is if you are interesting sharing form we've got to be interested in what we're watching
otherwise we go pee-pee or go get a coke or go get a big bucket of popcorn or
not off in the theater exactly right good work the changes are very good very specific
all very natural all very here's the thing active listening active listening I get
right before covet some of you know I got to spend a whole evening with Morgan Freeman
it's one of the things we talked about the most where was I you weren't invited
anyway we talked about active listening he said that's the most important thing he
ever learned from any of the stars he was ever fortunate enough to work with is to listen and
I was watching what was I watching oh I started watching don't ask me why because I'm not a big
fan but I started watching on prime right and there's a scene but he's talking he's going
through this wonderful monologue and they cut to and he's not listening and because of the way
we work I knew he wasn't listening so with a couple of people I was sitting and watching with
I said what do you see here what's not right well he's not listening he was pretending to listen
but he wasn't listening what you can tell and when it was time for his lying
they cut to him and he had been thinking about his line the whole time
and it was a parent that's what he was doing now maybe the average Joe Schmoe
they may or may not see that but you guys certainly would have and the people I was
sitting with are not one's a writer and one's a sales marketing person they're not aware of that
but they sensed it because he wasn't listening so your listening skills guys the more you do this
are getting better and better and better and better and I say this all the time ad nauseam I
realize but the only way the uncomfortable becomes comfortable is by doing the uncomfortable it's the
only way the reason Benji is a totally different person now than he was two and a half years ago
well it's true it's true well it's true because he's just a totally different person and
he's a star he's going to have a hard time hearing that well and it's exemplified in his work
it's you get the [ __ ] out of the way get yourself out of the way and all of a sudden
things open up for you you know so good good work thank you good good work thank you guys
okay Jeanie I know you I'm gonna have you work twice so you want to go ahead and work with Adam.