Live in the Moment

This morning I coached a client who is so talented. I mean, get this mofo in the mood, and he is incomparable. He has so much natural specificity and fun and fuck it factor. But man, is it hard to get him there. He is SO addicted to memorizing, and doing it right and doing what he planned (if, in fact, he planned anything), and just getting those lines out of his mouth, that most of the time, that’s what he does: dump words out of his mouth in generally the right order. He doesn’t listen, he doesn’t think. He doesn’t have a relationship with the other people. He just recites his lines – and he does it only by the skin of his teeth. I said, “Dude. It’s like you’ve got this beautiful car and you took it to the car wash and now it just sparkles. But if you don’t put any GAS in it, it’s just gonna sit there in the parking lot. Gas that fucker up!” Have THOUGHTS about what was just said! Listen! Think! BE in the SCENE! Don’t just recite it!

“When I go out for commercials,” he said, “it’s not a problem.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“I just don’t do anything,” he said.

“BS,” I said. “It’s ‘cuz you just don’t care. You go in and you have a take and a point of view and you do it, and if they like it, cool, and if they don’t, whatever.”

“Yah,” he said.

“So you gotta do that with the theatrical stuff too.”

“But –“

“No ‘buts,” I interrupted. You can do it. It’s the exact same thing. You just do it longer. A few pages instead of a few lines.”

And then? I read this. Check it out:

Dear Lesly,

Live in the moment. It’s crazy, because today I was listening to ESPN radio, as I often do, and NFL analyst and former super bowl winning quarterback Trent Dilfer was talking about how he actually played poorly the first half of the super bowl that he and his Baltimore Ravens teammates ended up winning. He called it “paralysis by analysis.” He had studied so much film of previous games and went over plays with his head coach so much that when he was playing in the actual game he overthought everything, rather than relying on instinct and trusting his gut. This really spoke to me in terms of my acting, especially having just completed Jesse and Adam’s on camera ongoing. I know that I need to focus on listening and reacting. That is not to say that I shouldn’t do my homework, rather I should do my homework so well that I don’t have to think…just trust my INSTINCTS. Thanks, Les. – Liam T.