Acting is one unknown moment followed by the next unknown moment. This cannot be overstated enough. If you can predict it or know it, you're not in the moment, you're in your head.

 

Most actors, at some point, are taught script analysis which, by its nature, tends to pull actors away from their instincts, emotions, and talent. Instead, it can lead actors to the barren land of pre-conceived ideas. I say barren because pre-conceived ideas are without life. It's why I often say:

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This doesn't mean you're not thinking when you're acting in the moment. It means your thoughts, along with your feelings and impressions, are now responding to the life that's spontaneously unfolding in the moment of what IS.

 

Over the years I've seen actors with more words and ideas on the margins of a script than what's on the page. These actors have now put themselves under immense pressure and obligation to bring these ideas to life, which have nothing to do with what will be happening in the moment.

 

I recently heard Joaquin Phoenix say when he's on the way to set, he thinks up a bunch of ideas he wants to try. But when he gets to the scenes, he said his ideas never work. I completely agree. I've never had a pre-conceived idea, no matter how excited I was about it, actually work. I've also never seen any of the ideas my acting students have brought into class work.  

 

​Ironically, what also gets in the way of actors, aside from ideas, is technique. Technique has its place but, ultimately, it tends to limit the actor. Many actors hold onto their technique for dear life, and in doing so, lose the life of the moment. The moment becomes sacrificed in the name of technique. Again, how can you possibly know what's going to happen until it happens? Clearly, you can't. It's why it's called being in the moment.

 

What's the solution?

 

You have to have a way of NOT ACTING and a way of NOT KNOWING.

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This is where the most exciting actors live and this is what my ZEN of NOT acting class is all about. ​