Film Courage: To show yourself you have to know yourself. What does this mean?
Michael Laskin, Actor, Acting Coach, Author: Let me circle back on something to answer that.
I was trained in the theater and it was the serious theater and I'm not making fun of that but
it was I mean we thought we were going to change the world doing theater. It was a real passion
for me and still is. I love it and I still do it occasionally but you don't have to show yourself
in the theater, you show the character, you show your version of that character,
but in film and television you have you can't escape showing yourself and the minute you try to
escape it, you look terrible. As I said my first few TV things that I watched were just I thought
at least to my standards I thought were really bad I thought oh I have a lot to learn and so
to know your you can't when I teach because I do like you can't teach someone about their identity
I'm not talking about identity sexual identity I'm talking about personal identity
you can't teach that but you can curate it a little bit and I do think I always say lead
and examine life do something that's outside of this acting stuff plant a garden refinish
a piece of furniture do something tangible do something and read and create heroes for yourself
I always say artistic heroes they don't have to be actors or they can be musicians they can be
art visual artists so to know yourself I think when you get older and I am older I'm really old
you I think it's a natural process you get to know yourself better if if you're open to that
some people just aren't some people never know themselves I'm not talking about those people but
the more enlightened self-examined person and you naturally get to the truth about you
later in life you just and as an actor that it it kind of becomes easier because you don't have to
Push It Forward you don't have to push it out it's just there it just lives with you but when
you're younger you don't have any of that you're trying to impress you're trying to be something
bigger greater grander you're trying to you're just constantly trying to figure out who you are
I mean some people look some people never know who they are some people know who they are the
minute they're born I mean that there's a wide spectrum of that but I do think to particularly
if we're talking about and we are talking about acting and film acting in particular
I think you do have to know who you are and it's it's again hard to hard to
point to a finger to it but there are certain people who have qualities
like we were just the other moment talking about Tom Cruise and Will Smith people like that
Tom Cruise who I happen to think is a really good actor right kind of an
unpopular opinion in some circles but I think he's very talented so do I yeah
it's who is he I don't really know who he is but I do know that he is dead certain about everything
he is certain he Harbors No Doubt and that's a really attractive trait we all want to be like
that that's a classic hero trade so whether he's really like that I'm not sure but he's
awfully good at convincing me that he is there's there's a there's a a certitude about what he does
and to me that's kind of what makes a star and there aren't too many stars left in in the film
world so that core essential quality of in his case dead certitude has no doesn't question
now that doesn't question things but he doesn't question what he has to do
that's so attractive to watch as if you're if you're into Hero Stories and heroic stuff I
don't know if you saw the latest Top Gun not yet it's great I mean it is what it is it's it's it's
a Thrill Ride but it's great he's great in it and he combines that with a very high level of skill
and so yeah he's I mean I don't I've never worked with him don't know him I know
people who have worked with him who speak very highly of him in a work environment
so I mean he's but there's so few people like that I think because the system we have
now it's it's all about imperfect he's about perfection he presents a perfect version of
of himself in a way we are much more interested in imperfection I think as viewers we want to
see kind of the dirty messy stuff we want to see the doubts we want to see people having crises
and so the classic hero who has no doubt and who knows what he or she has to do is so rare today
but I think it's also like super attractive and I think it's perennial I just think it's great
and even other rules that he was in that weren't sort of the Top Gun Maverick roles All the Right
Moves Risky Business still he had something in him where you were just so drawn the firm and at times
he was being gaslit during the and then he figured out okay wait a minute exactly and you went along
on that ride with him and yes he does have this sort of unshakable where you're like man I wish
I could yeah he's going to get it done right Tom's going to get it done and he has Integrity
too he has Integrity in these roles like his his characters always well let's not forget Les
Grossman and traffic Thunder have you seen traffic Thunder I haven't that was a that was a complete
anomaly he plays this insane Studio executive named Les Grossman it's crazy and you go like
oh you can do that that's interesting right I've heard of parts of the movie yeah I would now I'll
have to go not a movie you could make today no politically correct climate you could not
make that movie trailer yeah yeah right what's the difference between an actor and an authentic actor
an authentic actor is using him or herself as the prism through which we see the character
not unlike the story I told earlier about the woman who said I just pretend that
what's happening is happening to me I interpret authenticness authenticity authenticness is that
a word I don't even know it is now okay great I interpret that as being something that is
self-based in other words we want to know how you react to this situation it's personal it is it is
personal to you you're not representing your you're not transforming your informing if that
makes sense transformative acting the kind that Meryl Streep sometimes gets to do in Daniel Day
Lewis and Anthony Hopkins these are all incredible actors most actors don't get a chance to do that
work because they just don't there isn't that much of it and it goes to those kind of folks
so we basically have to play a truthful dynamic version of who we are to some extent to a large
extent most of the time and that is the more you can lean into Who You Are now it has to be mated
pardon me it has to be mated to a skill set that that works and that is
professional and correct and that's where I see I do see a lot today a diminution in that and sort
of basic skill set I have actors where I will say I'm not actually understanding what you're saying
like it's not clear it's not vocally it's not clear do what that word means no well there's a
dictionary there's a thing called Google look it up I want to I want you to be there's a there's
there's no lack of reality and authenticity there is a lack of imagination and curiosity not it's
not rampant but I see that I see people who are incurious and don't want they just think oh if
I just behave naturally it'll be cool it'll be like that'll be no no that's not it that's just
the base level of realistic behavior is not acting realistic behavior is just Behavior
acting has a strategy you have to figure out the actor has to figure out
where the scene's going if if the scene is an aria what's the high note and why where does it change
what's the pre this is how I work with auditions which I do a lot of I do a lot of private audition
coaching and I've done thousands of these now so I figured it out and I've learned myself
you have to sometimes teach yourself like oh I'm not doing that I have to figure out how to do that
but like with an audition you get whatever you get you get six or eight pages two or three scenes
whatever and no time to really work on it these are standard things but they may not be standard
to to you or your listeners I say what's the moment before what just happened before this scene
how does that inform how it starts so it has to have a dynamic beginning it has to be in the
flow of what just happened you may not have the screenplay you may not even know that so you have
to kind of make it up and figure out what's the tone of the speech what's the genre of this piece
what makes sense what could be the moment before this happens then where does the scene change and
why and how do you mark that so those are all like strategy things that you have to be well
trained to understand and most people are but you do get I do get some people that are just
they it's not get that or I did a perfect example of this is I did a guest star a couple years ago
on big little lies which was a fantastic show and because it was a David Kelly show who's
one of the elite writer creators in television I mean Ally McBeal and all kinds of the shows
I know having worked I worked on a lot of Stephen bochko shows back in the day and
you don't change a syllable you don't change you could have the greatest take in the world
if one word is off they don't print it gotta do it again so the same thing I thought was David
Kelly and who I had worked for but a long time previous so I was encouraged that the director
this wonderful British woman named Andrea Arnold who directed the season that I was in
she really wanted the the first A.D this this woman who was the first assistant director said
now just on my first day on the session I just want you to know that Andrea doesn't say action
and she doesn't say cut I said oh well what does she say well she's probably going to want you to
talk your way into the scene into the flow of the beginning of the scene and when she feels
you're in the right place where the scene begins she'll probably say something like okay off you go
which is exactly what she did it was so liberating because usually it's like action and everyone like
tenses up and he it was a fantastic way to work and so I've I stole that from her in a way I mean
it's not an original idea but to really talk your way particularly if like now the actors are taping
stuff on the in their homes for auditions and so I said let's improv into the scene just cut out the
stuff that's not on the page when you actually edit it but then you're in the flow of what
just happened and that's really screen acting is so different because you're playing little
pieces of a pie you have a big pie with all these pieces and you're playing this
little piece and this little piece and this little piece and they're out of sequence so
you really have to figure out where they fit and I the other thing that I do that I don't
it's my idea I don't know if it's an original idea so title if you get two or three scenes
title each scene like each scene if it's as if it's a movie as if it's a book give it
a title you can't play the title but it puts it in context we have to understand the story
when you're working on stage you're doing the whole story every night from beginning to middle
to end when you're working on film you're doing a little tiny piece of the story here and a little
tiny piece of the story there so you do have to understand the story what is the story that you're
telling what is the story about and it's frankly much harder I mean it's way harder it's not an
instinctive thing it's something you do have to learn and you have to practice and get better at
and you're doing different angles of it let's do the take from this side and yeah it's it's quite
I have always found it to be harder acting on stage for me anyway is easy scary but it's easy
because once the lights come up I'm in control of the evening I'm in control of what I have to do
I know where this has to go and I have a working technique you develop a technique on stage
that you also you develop a different kind of technique for film but the purpose of having a
reliable technique is it establishes a level below which your work doesn't go so it's a baseline
level of of that and so when I started in film and I have referenced a couple times how awful
I thought I was at the beginning it's because I was trying to take the stage technique and somehow
make that work doesn't work it just doesn't work I had to sort of figure out how to be more present
and how to be how to work in close-up and how to not be presenting but how to be in it and be
alive in it and pretend that what's happening is happening to me as my former student said so that
is what that is and it's for some people it's easy for people who don't have that formal training
it's kind of easier but if you have that training and background it's a shift it's a shift
so when you saw yourself whether it was on tape or whatever besides you said not maybe
being president what else did you feel like you were acting quote unquote okay I did the first
show I ever did was show it was a big hit in the 80s a show called Heart to Heart oh
yes yes Daniel's Heart to Heart loved it and I didn't know what I was doing I got this I
came to La within six weeks I got an agent within two more weeks I got my first job I
didn't know what I was doing I was lucky very lucky and I show up on the set and there's a
lot of waiting around and a lot of like I'm I'm used to like let's go let's go let's go
hours and hours of waiting around for your scene and I didn't know at that time how to sort of
manage my time down which is a big thing for actors because you got to stay in the zone but
you got to manage that time so that you're not so that you're ready at a moment's notice so there
was an older actor whose name I don't remember on the same episode a guy I'd seen in like a hundred
westerns and an older guy and I said hey this is my first job and I'm not getting
anything from the director he said listen kid if he's not telling you anything you're doing
great don't worry about it so then I watched it six or eight weeks later when I was on with
my wife and then everyone back home my family back in Minnesota and I was just mortified I
thought I looked I'm like one of those bad TV actors I used to kind of look down my nose at
and that was like a big aha moment and I was really I was really motivated by vanity
I don't want to be that bad again I got to be better than that I was it was like vanity
and we all have that and so I went no that's and so I don't know how it happened
but I well I do kind of know how I found that the first time I was working on a show with the great
actor late great Jack Warden who you kids at home look him up it was an amazing actor W-a-r-d-e-n
correct me right and Jack was just I was recurring on the show and I just want to hang around him
because I thought he was such a great sure we never talked about acting he only talked about
baseball and sports and he was a great guy and he was mentoring me without knowing he was mentoring
me and we were talking about we were sitting I was sitting in my chair he was sitting in his
chair the set's over here they just shot his close-up we're talking about whatever baseball
the weather something and the director said oh Jack what we I'm sorry you are going to be in
this shot in the back I'm going to need you for this shot and they just done Us close enough no
problem he gets up goes over to his place on the set and I'm watching him and I'm thinking
that's the same guy I was just talking to there's none of this there's none of this
performance there's none of this it's just like boom he's just there the same person
no difference I thought oh and I at lunch I sat and had lunch with him because it took any chance
I could to hang around him and I said I noticed this I said tell me if I'm crazy but I noticed
that and it really blew my mind how I guess relaxed is too is not as strong enough for it
but how focused and how centered he was he said yeah it took me about 20 years to figure that out
I went okay I get it but I that was like a big aha moment for me because I was getting a master class
from from a great actor right he didn't know he was giving me a master class but he was and
so that was I think that was as I think back on it that was kind of the beginning of my knowing oh it
could just I'm enough I'm actually enough I don't have to I don't have to push I don't I'm enough
but the I that you present the the you that you present has to be interesting then we go
back to the idea of an examined life and being a full human being and not just being consumed by
ambition and craziness and show business and all that stuff so anyway there's that story.