August 29, 2023 • 37 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producer Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
I auditioned every rapper from Biggie Smalls to Tupac, and
(00:24):
I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:45):
I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
that room. Now I know, I know actors want to
get the job.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I get that, but.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Being remembered by casting director that is powerful. And now
it's time for meditation of the day. What brings us
to tears will lead us to grace. Our pain is
never wasted.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Bob goth.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You know, in my experience with actors, we all have pain.
We all have endured grief, loss, challenges, hurdles, obstacles as actors.
This is really great stuff for you guys to tap into.
(01:37):
It may sound crazy, but your authentic pain can really
bring something to the table.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you are portraying.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
An actor who has an experience that you are comfortable
or familiar with, and then you infuse what it feels
like to be in pain, what it feels like to grieve,
You infuse your own experiences into those moments. A lot
(02:08):
of times my actor friends will in real life be
going through things and they'll say to me, Tracy, you know,
I'm having some challenges here and I'm just trying to
close together. And I always somehow find a way in
my comforting or helping to inspire them, to let them
(02:29):
know that your experiences are your wealth. Because when you
know what it feels like to be in pain, when
you know what it feels like to lose someone that
you love, those things never leave you. In time, we
make adjustments, we become a little more comfortable, but those
(02:52):
experience and feeling stay in your mental role index as
an actor. These moments are priceless for you. So today,
whatever obstacles and hurdles that I have to jump through,
(03:12):
knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone to
look out for my new show, Inside the Black Box.
I'll be co hosting with the great Joe Morton. We'll
be on Crackle Network real soon. I'll keep you posted.
Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
(03:35):
You guys are in for a treat. Never ever have
we had a guest like this before. It is so
important for you guys to understand the workings of a set,
understanding communicating with different crew people on the set as actors.
I'm so excited because I just got questions and I
know this is going to be extremely helpful for you guys.
(03:56):
Ladies and gentlemen, Please stand up, put your hands together.
Other four are I'm going to because we're all multi hyphenated,
so I'm going to say camera department and electrical department,
and if there's anything else that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Christians put it together. Put our hands together. Christian, Yes,
hey Christian, but I see you. Christian.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is why I have to say the best memories were
in the beginning of my career the best. And I
know you know this because we come from the same school.
I tell my granddaughters this year, this morning, there were
no nine to fives for me. I don't know what
a nine to five is. I know ten, fourteen, sixteen
(04:45):
and twenty four hours being on music.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Videos absolutely ten of your life.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So Christian, I want to start off first by you
letting our actors know what your position, what your job
is in relation to actors, and just give them an
id of how you work.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Right. So, I work as director of photography and also
as a gaffer. Typically I am known as the lighting guy.
That's the most common position. What will happen is I
set up all the lights in advance work with you know,
the same time they're reading scripts and getting ready, I'm
reading scripts and getting ready to figure out how to
light this space. And it works for everybody. In terms
(05:24):
of actors, the way I intersect most often is I'm
the guy who walks over to the actor and is
looking at the light around their face. It was this guy,
why is he? Ey've all've never you know, I'm holding
a light meter up to their face. You know what
I mean? Not so much light meters anymore these days
in this digital world. But I'm responsible for making sure
(05:46):
that you know, the obvious sort of no ugly shadows
on their face that don't work for the scene, or
whatever skin color works good. What is their skin color?
What is their undertones? You know. Also, there's a very
real emotional thing that I'm supposed to do right. So
whatever you're trying to create on set, when the actor
(06:10):
finally comes on after all those multiple delays, often the
lighting guy is the last one that's delaying them. But
once they get on set right, hopefully they walk in
the room and they look in there and it feels
or they walk into space or the exterior whatever it is,
and that it feels right. And lighting is one of
the main ways that we communicate that emotional feeling. You know,
(06:32):
every now and an actor will walk in the room
and say, ah, this is nice, and I feel like
done your job. Yeah, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You've talked about.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
For those of you actors who don't know what a
DP is, and you know, I always tell you guys
to understand the terminology and the protocol of a set.
As a director of photography, I love how in the
units in the lighting becomes you talk from the emotional standpoint.
(07:05):
But like when there's a scene and let's say they
are three actors and the costume designer has them in
like let's say all different shades of oranges.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Because it's the fall.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And it's an exterior shot, you still have to have
lights correct up in an experience shot. What does that
do for actors when you are outside and you're lighting them.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, So in that example, I still have a job,
even though may be outside during the day, I still
have a job between whether I'm working as a director
photography or as a gaffer, to figure out light levels
at work, to figure out camera setting so that skin tones,
costumes and whatever exterior lighting and whatever exterior backgrounds all
(07:53):
look good. Look good might mean they all are in
unison and we make the actors feel warm and you know,
in the sense of a fall warm orange tones as
you describe, or we might try to set up a
contrasting thing where the background is cooler and there orange.
You know, color palettes work sort of say matching or opposing,
(08:17):
and it's all creative choices, right, So I still am
trying to figure out how do we help accent that
how do we play that up or play it down?
You're the actor and the moment is you've had a
bad day and you're walking down the street and something
good happens. I want you to have that happen in
(08:38):
a nice light, so I might create a fake slice
of light, like you know, we know each other New
York days, right, So in New York, you know, oh,
let's stage that so that they're on this part in
the shadow and they come right by the intersection and
we bounce this light off these building windows and it
comes back and warms them up for that moment where
they run into the care to who they love or
(09:01):
used to love or you know, I mean, but yeah,
So there's still a whole interplay indoors or outdoors day night,
you know, all of it where we have to follow
along with the actors emotions business, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Transitional actors when they here find your light?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yes, that means help me keep my gig? Yeah, I mean,
you know, you know if you walk into a basement party,
right and it's dark, and that's good, But actors also
know when there's no light on their face that they
feel a little insecure. You know, even though modern era
(09:43):
cameras can see a lot, there's still an emotional instability
if you're not sure there's enough light on you right one,
you just don't want to feel like you're wasting everybody's time.
And then you want to be presented in the right light,
you know. So, so what it means is, you know,
you can look around the room and say, oh, the
light's coming from oh the light and the night situated
(10:05):
light's coming from over here. Make sure my face is
getting a little good bit of that. You know, the
difference in here which is okay, a little darker on
this side right, to hear is different and to here
is different. Right, So you just want to you become
aware of what angles. Also, I've worked with actors who
knew what looks good on their face, whether top soft
(10:28):
light looks good one side, big soft from underneath help
you know what I mean? And people know and learn
what works well for their architecture and for that moment.
So actors need to be able to look around and
kind of absorb, just like you do with the camera,
open up a little bit to the camera right, Oh, no,
the camera's over there. So I got to make sure
(10:50):
I'm back a little bit so we can get a
too shot in this thing, right, same idea. Light's over there, right,
The actor I'm talking to right is in shadows because
I'm I'm right here, right, and I need can make sure. Okay,
I got a little bit of that on me, and
I'm also back enough to let them get on that first. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
So I started teaching this class directors directing actors and
bringing in directors.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I love to bring you in.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I just did one class to see how you know
it worked, and bought in Twinkie Bird because Twinkie's transitioning
and she's doing that now. And my main thing is
that acting classes teach actors to act, but there are
no classes to teach actors to do the work on
the set. Unfortunately, as a casting director, I've had to
fire people and rehearsal or at a.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Table read because that's all they have. And so.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
For actors, my thing is really understanding the process of
the stage of the of the show and knowing what
does a DP do, what does a grip do? All
of these things right. We also have on Inside the
Black Box, we had Jeff Bird and Jeff now being
a grit in the beginning, right.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So yeah, my thing.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Is actors need to know how a set runs, and
what the brilliance of this class that Twinkie bought to
the table was she told them about the shots. So
she gave everybody seeds and then she said, Okay, I'm
going to do it close up. Okay, I'm pulling back
and doing a Why how important is it for actors
to know the camera angles that are on them on set?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, there's a simple sort of analogy that people make
between theater actors and film actors, right, which is there
used to be much more separation. But traditionally the theater
was playing to a bigger room, right, so you had
to do things larger, you had to do things louder, right,
But in the audio wise and physically right, and in
(12:52):
the film it was much more refined. It's the same
thing within a film. If you don't know where the
lens is, if you don't know roughly if they're tight
and what that means, if you don't have an then
you can't really help them. So what you're spending millions
of dollars right, often you're spending on a low budget.
(13:14):
You're spending fifty thousand dollars a day. You know, on
a bigger film, you're easily spending you know, five hundred thousand,
a million dollars a day on a big film. I
had the benefit of working on a thor lovels under
just came out. I can't imagine what you're spending in
a day. I can't imagine. So the actor decides, Okay,
(13:34):
we're having this great scene. And I don't know anything
about lenses because my job is to be creative and act,
and they say, oh, okay, when that scene comes up,
give me a little less. You don't know what less
is because you don't understand the lens. Understanding the lens size.
Here's one. Understanding the lens size and relations to you're
(13:57):
acting is huge. You might be acting with all your
hands and they're in a close up and it just
looks like a bunch of this, right, But if you
know what you're doing, this might mean something to you, right, Right,
If you know what you're doing, this little turn means something.
If you don't know, you're.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Doing this looking crazy, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Looking crazy?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Right?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And then likewise it goes to reverse. Sometimes you want
to as an actor communicate with the director and or
the DP about what you're going to do, what your
intention is, some idea that came to you in the
middle of the blocking and the acting and the scene. Oh,
when this comes up, I'm going to and you give
them a low so that they can pan, land, zoom, focus,
(14:43):
choose the right angle, the right movement with Dolly. You know,
Dolly movement is totally dependent on the actors right actor
turns their head at the point that the Dolly's going
the other direction. That's not necessarily anybody's fault, but just
knowing how to coordinate these things have they're say they
have nothing to do with the creative job of an
actor from a sort of acting character point of view,
(15:07):
but they immediately do because they then help communicate what
you're trying to communicates.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's like choreography.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Everybody works and moves together to create this magnificence.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
The other thing when you said Dolly, because.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You know, when the camera pushes in, it's a different energy.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And emotion, right like the.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Other thing in the class talking to actors about how
cameras can affect you emotionally and when it's pushing in,
especially with soap operas.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You know, is that trying to insight when you do
that push in?
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yes? Yeah, So you're acting and we're on you know,
let's just say a two shot or whatever, and at
the end of the scene, one walks away, Dolly pushes in, right,
So now you have to, emotionally keeping character play out
that beat, right. Actors know about playing beats. And you
have to also sort of time yourself with the camera movement.
(16:12):
So as camera pushes in, you've got to track your
emotion over a period of time. Is it one second,
is it ten seconds? And how you're going to fill
that time properly so that you don't end the beat
and the camera is still pushing and now we've got
no energy between you and the camera, right. So, and
(16:34):
it's the same with movement, right. Knowing where they're moving
to helps you figure out when to give them the
back of your head, when to kind of walk away
at which angle so that you get a nice sort
of energy between camera and the body. You know, all
these things is it is definitely choreography, right, And actors
who know not just their lines and they're acting business
(16:58):
between themselves, we'll also understand the room make themselves easy
to work with.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And we Yeah, we live in a capitalist you said earlier.
And so there's two actors who know something about acting
and only one knows about how to work professionally on
set with everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So you said theater, right, And I've worked with a
lot of metrical actors transitioning to film and TV.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What is that difference when you, let's say you get that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
You know, one of my clients, blessed Miles Cross won
a Tony Award for MJ on Broader. I just signed
with ETA, so I can't wait his transition from Broadway
to TV and film.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Absolutely absolutely, So it's uh, well, my take on it
is it's essentially scale right, right, So it touches on
what I was saying earlier. In the theater, you're taught, Oh,
we got to reach the back of the house, right,
That might be twenty thirty forty rows backs, right, That
(18:12):
might include a balcony that's way up there. Right. So
if I talk real soft and I get real simple
to people in the mouth, you can't hear me, right.
But on a film set, that same scene, right is
a two shot or is it single or whatever? Right?
And everything can stay here? Now if I do that
if we're here with me, right and I'm talking to
(18:34):
reach the people in the back of the theater, you know,
I came out like a crazy guy who is all right.
It's like an inside voice and outside voice, sort of analogy.
It's scale and same thing. Look turn how big, how
your intensity shows up? I think it's I think of
it as scale, and.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I love that at scale. I love that concept. One
of the things too, that I also talk about to
actors is too in understanding the process is learning the
terminologies right. So when I was I am no longer
an essential worker, so as an acting coach, I can't
(19:15):
be on stage. I prepped, I did ABC Queens and
coach Eve, Brandy Ory not and on that.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So it was all done by zoom.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
But back in the day when I was on chaff
with Buster or whatever, I one of my favorite times
of the show was when they would call first team
to the same right, can you explain to actors what
it means when what your job is when they call
(19:47):
first team? Because you are ahead of a department, so
you're gonna be there, So what is your job? First
team comes on set to rehearse.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
My first job is to be cool. Whatever happens, Okay,
you know, we'll let them see you, right. But really,
so we've gone through all these pre production setups on
the day, locations, moves, whatever, whatever, right, And so once
first team comes on, from the moment they walk into
(20:23):
I'm looking to see, do we get the color right
for this wardrobe? Do we get the color right for
this skin tone? Does that actors make up look right
right compared to what we're trying to see on the monitors,
you know? And is the lighting I set up? When
to work with the blocking that they're actually doing, Because
you know, they're humans and they're creative, so we've said
and even though we've rehearsed before they went away to
(20:46):
make up costumes, whatever, we've rehearsed a bit of blocking.
But once you get the whole thing going and the
energy takes over, they sometimes do things a little differently,
which is normal and which is often great. So I'm
still trying to guess when they walk in, does it
look does it get it right? Does everybody feel comfortable?
Have they come up with new ideas while they were
(21:07):
away from set? Right? And so at that point in theory,
I'm done. But in reality, I'm really just taking the
first light of the fork to see, you know, does
this taste good? And then I have to work the
politics of if something's not quite right, how do I
change it? What is it a change? It is just
(21:29):
between me and camera that we can just tweak some things,
or do I have to ask the actors to step
aside for a moment and have when electricians go up
on a ladder and change something, or you know, do
I go to the director and ask, you know, to
the DP or to the producer, depending on the setups,
you know, can we change this? Will it affect their
emotional timing because we're also trying to read the room
(21:51):
of what they're going through. It's one thing that's a
comedy in the supermarket, somebody's going to spill some mac
and cheese. It's another when it's a crying death, you know,
a really sensitive moment for actors. And in those moments
we tend to let things go in terms of tweaking
and readjusting because they have to maintain that energy right. So,
(22:13):
you know, actors will commonly go away and an intense
scene is coming up and they're trying to be in
the right frame of mind, so they can bring it
up on demands. So when they come in if this
thing isn't quite right, often it's okay, let the actor
do their thing. We'll figure out what to do on
the next gograund, whether it's the next take or the
next scene or the next angle, you know, And so
(22:36):
we're trying to read the room also with what they're
doing physically and emotion.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
One of the reasons why that's one of my favorite
things to do when I used to be on set
is because ladies and gentlemen, you have all the department
heads when the first team comes, and the first team
is the stars and the leading players, right, So I
love the fact. I love as an acting coach to
see how Christian would work, or costumes or special effects,
(23:02):
how everybody has to see what their job is in
that scene and they have to come together and make
that happen. But also as a DP, what we may
have rehearsed might not work in that space, so you
might have to talk to the director and make those changes.
You don't know really until you get there. And I'm
a big rehearsal fan, but not every budget allows us
(23:26):
to have that ability allow.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, and not everybody's acting style or directing style is
with rehearsals, you know, and I think that's one of
the things that is very important to clarify, you know,
at the beginning of physical production that you know, hey,
this way we're going to do this. It's going to
be very you know, on the fly, and we're all
(23:50):
aware of that, and that's just how we're going to work.
And in that moment, I would choose positions angles, lighting styles,
you know, that are a little more broad so the
actor has more room to you know, to not hit
his mark, right, because actors hate it when we're like
everything has to be exactly, you know, it take some
(24:11):
of the wind out of the sails sometimes. But also
I want to I want to emphasize that clarity is
usually the main thing that is missing when there are conflicts,
clarity of purpose or priority. So we'll be on set
(24:32):
working on something and somebody else feels it's not necessarily important. Right, Oh,
we've got to keep going. We got to keep shooting.
Oh we need ten takes instead of three, right, which
is okay, But clarity of priorities is important. So we
need to slow down and speak up in a nice manner.
In a productive manner of you know, what are our
(24:52):
priorities in this moment because we're we're when we're hired,
before we start shooting, you know, we're told got to
be top, like got to be great, right, well great.
It's hard to come up with too far in advance,
both for actors and for people behind right now right.
We have ideas, we make it up, but we don't
know that it's actually great, as you said, till we're
(25:14):
all in that room and doing the thing. You know,
there's no script for exactly how this should go. We
just have ideas.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So on on our show Inside black Box with Joe
Mooren Emmy Award were Joe Mooren and Tracy.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Moore, we had.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
We had first season Sally richardson Whitfield, and then this
season we have Debbie Allen and we talked to both
of these women about being directors in a pretty male
dominated world. And we also have Darnell Martin on first
season love Darnell right, and you know Darnell so dark
(25:54):
was talking about how dps in her experience, not all,
but how what their experience is.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
As a woman is that deep.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Sometimes dps will just automatically jump in they will call action,
they will call cut, they will And for these women,
Sally said, I.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Like to say in action, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And there's a power struggle at times, and so you know,
and one of my questions to them was, you know,
how how do you guys resolve that? Because there's enough
work that you have to deal with on a show
on top of that to deal with egos and you know,
and power struggles, you know, as and then you're a
black woman. So for you in your experience, if you
(26:41):
are dealing with a female director, how do you commune
because it's different from a guy. I mean, I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
We're you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
How do you deal with different a black woman who
is essentially in power in that moment, right and the
captain of the ship.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How do you communicay?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
What are some suggests that make it a little easier
or a little more palatable.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
One may disagree with me, but I think I do
pretty good with that on a personal level. I grew
up in the Caribbean mostly so black people at every level,
you know, in Saint Thomas, MEI and so everybody at
different levels are black, and that's common, right, And then
(27:28):
I also grew up in the theater since I was sixteen,
you know, so a variety of people who have a
variety of positions and ways of operating in life. So
I've never kind of lived in a now society puts
a certain amount of stuff in my head, in your
head and whatever. So you know, I don't doubt that
there's some of that, But I do think that one
(27:50):
of the main things is I'll say, never back down
and never be a and that goes for all essentially,
but for black women in particular. I've seen it so
many times, and it never it never gets better for women.
I worked with a woman DP not black, recently, and
(28:13):
I watched the first a C and the director carry
on like she was not in the room. I was
dumbfounded and that and that was a white woman who
you know, they all kind of knew each other and
had some level of but still they could not help themselves.
It's you know, and you know, I see many of
(28:36):
these situations where you're like, if this room had looked
a little different, that would never be handled that way.
But I don't think you should back down from it.
The trick is, like many things in life, to address
the issue early on and clearly. For my approach may
may or may not work, depends on your opinion, be
in my career, but may address it clearly to where
(29:01):
that person knows if they go there, they will not
be able to go there subtly and hide unsite. Right.
That's my approach is like, if we're going to have
an issue, it's you. We're all going to know. None
of this little side quiet try to be polite and smile,
none of that. I don't find that that ever works.
(29:23):
And and there's a certain amount of emotional grace we
have to lend anyone because you know, people are screwed
up and they're probably to their society. So trying to
really work on how you communicate the conflict clearly without
it being apologetic. Yeah, you know, Debbie Allen is not
(29:44):
apologetic nothing about nothing, and rightfully so she's earned everything
she's gotten plus something that you and I have gotten
and she earned it, so you know she's great at
She's like, yeah, there's no there's no nothing. If you're
mad at her as your fault.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And I just want to say, because our time is up,
but you have dropped some amazing diamonds and jewels out.
Everybody has their treasure chests open to receive all of this,
and just really great information for actors to really marinate on, because,
like I said, you know, I've spent my whole career
teaching actors how to act, but I feel like being
(30:24):
on sets, actors are not prepared and they need that
and they need to understand. And I saw it so
well with Twinkie how when she would set up the
scene and say, I just want you to know I'm
gonna start off on a close up, and how I
saw actors grow from that class because they don't you
don't think about that, and then they don't even think
(30:45):
to pass. Because I know certain clients of mine, they
they will say in the before we shoot, they'll say,
you know, is this a wide job?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Is this you know what? Because they know cameras and.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Then you know, the DP or director will say to
them what the situation is. But mostly it's it's what
I would honestly say, eighty percent of the actors don't
know to ask those questions and don't know the workings
of a set.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, yeah, you really should ask if you're not clear
already from osmosis around what we know, it's just why
this is tight. You should ask because otherwise you can't
really scale up or down to fit you know, your
physical action and your emotional energy. You know, yeah, you really.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
We got to have you on again because I want
to I want to like throw, I feel like I
want to throw different scenes and say, you know, so,
how is this? You have been so informative. I'm telling you,
I know we're going to get We can do that
because we act just.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Don't think about this.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So I just want to say thank you so much
for giving us this information and insight so important.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
All right, ladies to gelling us stand up.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
This is why I told you beginning of the stand up,
because I knew what was coming. Put your hands together,
ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
For Christian.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I've never gotten around of applause.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I'm plaud every show. All I guess the audience is me.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And when we come back on the Spirited Actor Podcast
with me Tracy Moore, We're going to have last in session.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Welcome back to the Spirited Actor.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and I'm getting ready to
give you actors pointers yes, let's talk about reading you guys,
because I don't think I could talk about this enough.
You have to read aloud every single day. When I
say every single day, I say three hundred and sixty
five days in the year. There's no time off, there's
(32:51):
no breaks. It is imperative that you read aloud every
single day. Why as actors, when you understand the work
and you understand your character, then you understand that those
words are not words on a page. Those words are
(33:12):
your words, and you are that character. So they have
to feel comfortable in your mouth. You have to feel
secure in saying them. What if you're on Gray's Anatomy
and you're a doctor and you're not a doctor in
real life and they have these you know, terminology, they
have pharmaceutical words, they have procedures. If you're not comfortable
(33:37):
saying those words, it's going to look awkward and it's
going to look contrived. It's not going to look real.
And acting is recreating the human experience.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's real. This is real.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
We're not pretending and we're not imitating. You are totally
embodying the truth of these characters. Reading aloud is going
to help you for table reads after you are cast
and you sit in a room with all the actors,
the executives, the writers, and you bring to life this script.
While you're all sitting there, you bring to life. So
(34:09):
reading aloud will help you with the words and your
tonality and emphasis and all of those things, and.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It helps a flow in all of you being able
to tell this story of this TV show or of
this film.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Reading aloud brings confidence anybody. A casting director can throw
any new sides pages of a script to you and
you'll be able to just breathe life into it. This
is a skill and I have in my casting career.
(34:44):
I have asked hundreds of actors who come in and
blown me away, how did you do it? How did
you do it? And every actor that I spoke to
spoke about reading aloud. That's the tip. That's the point.
Every day, three hundred and sixty five days year, read, read,
(35:05):
read aloud, and get comfortable putting other people words in
your mouth. All right, when we come back on the
Spirit Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, I'm gonna give
you guys some love.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you love.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
And now it's time to give love. I remember growing
up in San Francisco when I was six years old
and always saying to my friends that I love love. I,
as six years old, didn't really have any real understanding
what real love was, but I just knew that like
(35:39):
simple things going bike riding with my brothers, or my
dad teaching me how to knit, like I had these
overwhelming feelings that I couldn't articulate, but I knew in
my mind that I just felt warm and fuzzy about people,
or I felt warm and fuzzy about well the situation.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
We need love and we need more of it, and.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It starts with us first, regardless of the issues that
we have with ourselves, like oh, I could change this,
or I think yes, those things can change and we
can reinvent ourselves. But the core, the core of us,
our soul needs love, and so does this world and
(36:27):
so do people, and we need to continue to believe
that love is the truth and love is the answer.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Spread love, don't forget to look out for us.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
On our new show, Inside the black Box, my co
host will be Joe the Legend Morton. It's going to
be the Spirited Actor Podcast on Steroids.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We'll be streaming on the Crackle network. I'll keep you posted.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Thank you for joining us on the Spirited Actor podcast
with me Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next
hereded podcasts.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thank you,
Hello, and welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me
Tracy Moore. I was a casting director for film and
TV and commercials for over thirty years. I transitioned to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producer Spike Lee and director Nick Domez.
I auditioned every rapper from Biggie Smalls to Tupac, and
(00:24):
I realized that rappers and musical artists they needed help
transitioning to acting. My clients consist of musical artists from
Buster Rhymes to Eve, Missy Elliott, Angela Yee from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:45):
I have the best of both worlds. As a casting director,
I know exactly what they're looking for, and as an
acting coach, I can coach you to be remembered in
that room. Now I know, I know actors want to
get the job.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I get that, but.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Being remembered by casting director that is powerful. And now
it's time for meditation of the day. What brings us
to tears will lead us to grace. Our pain is
never wasted.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Bob goth.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You know, in my experience with actors, we all have pain.
We all have endured grief, loss, challenges, hurdles, obstacles as actors.
This is really great stuff for you guys to tap into.
(01:37):
It may sound crazy, but your authentic pain can really
bring something to the table.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you are portraying.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
An actor who has an experience that you are comfortable
or familiar with, and then you infuse what it feels
like to be in pain, what it feels like to grieve,
You infuse your own experiences into those moments. A lot
(02:08):
of times my actor friends will in real life be
going through things and they'll say to me, Tracy, you know,
I'm having some challenges here and I'm just trying to
close together. And I always somehow find a way in
my comforting or helping to inspire them, to let them
(02:29):
know that your experiences are your wealth. Because when you
know what it feels like to be in pain, when
you know what it feels like to lose someone that
you love, those things never leave you. In time, we
make adjustments, we become a little more comfortable, but those
(02:52):
experience and feeling stay in your mental role index as
an actor. These moments are priceless for you. So today,
whatever obstacles and hurdles that I have to jump through,
(03:12):
knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone to
look out for my new show, Inside the Black Box.
I'll be co hosting with the great Joe Morton. We'll
be on Crackle Network real soon. I'll keep you posted.
Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
(03:35):
You guys are in for a treat. Never ever have
we had a guest like this before. It is so
important for you guys to understand the workings of a set,
understanding communicating with different crew people on the set as actors.
I'm so excited because I just got questions and I
know this is going to be extremely helpful for you guys.
(03:56):
Ladies and gentlemen, Please stand up, put your hands together.
Other four are I'm going to because we're all multi hyphenated,
so I'm going to say camera department and electrical department,
and if there's anything else that.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Christians put it together. Put our hands together. Christian, Yes,
hey Christian, but I see you. Christian.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Is why I have to say the best memories were
in the beginning of my career the best. And I
know you know this because we come from the same school.
I tell my granddaughters this year, this morning, there were
no nine to fives for me. I don't know what
a nine to five is. I know ten, fourteen, sixteen
(04:45):
and twenty four hours being on music.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Videos absolutely ten of your life.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So Christian, I want to start off first by you
letting our actors know what your position, what your job
is in relation to actors, and just give them an
id of how you work.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Right. So, I work as director of photography and also
as a gaffer. Typically I am known as the lighting guy.
That's the most common position. What will happen is I
set up all the lights in advance work with you know,
the same time they're reading scripts and getting ready, I'm
reading scripts and getting ready to figure out how to
light this space. And it works for everybody. In terms
(05:24):
of actors, the way I intersect most often is I'm
the guy who walks over to the actor and is
looking at the light around their face. It was this guy,
why is he? Ey've all've never you know, I'm holding
a light meter up to their face. You know what
I mean? Not so much light meters anymore these days
in this digital world. But I'm responsible for making sure
(05:46):
that you know, the obvious sort of no ugly shadows
on their face that don't work for the scene, or
whatever skin color works good. What is their skin color?
What is their undertones? You know. Also, there's a very
real emotional thing that I'm supposed to do right. So
whatever you're trying to create on set, when the actor
(06:10):
finally comes on after all those multiple delays, often the
lighting guy is the last one that's delaying them. But
once they get on set right, hopefully they walk in
the room and they look in there and it feels
or they walk into space or the exterior whatever it is,
and that it feels right. And lighting is one of
the main ways that we communicate that emotional feeling. You know,
(06:32):
every now and an actor will walk in the room
and say, ah, this is nice, and I feel like
done your job. Yeah, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
You've talked about.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
For those of you actors who don't know what a
DP is, and you know, I always tell you guys
to understand the terminology and the protocol of a set.
As a director of photography, I love how in the
units in the lighting becomes you talk from the emotional standpoint.
(07:05):
But like when there's a scene and let's say they
are three actors and the costume designer has them in
like let's say all different shades of oranges.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Because it's the fall.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
And it's an exterior shot, you still have to have
lights correct up in an experience shot. What does that
do for actors when you are outside and you're lighting them.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, So in that example, I still have a job,
even though may be outside during the day, I still
have a job between whether I'm working as a director
photography or as a gaffer, to figure out light levels
at work, to figure out camera setting so that skin tones,
costumes and whatever exterior lighting and whatever exterior backgrounds all
(07:53):
look good. Look good might mean they all are in
unison and we make the actors feel warm and you know,
in the sense of a fall warm orange tones as
you describe, or we might try to set up a
contrasting thing where the background is cooler and there orange.
You know, color palettes work sort of say matching or opposing,
(08:17):
and it's all creative choices, right, So I still am
trying to figure out how do we help accent that
how do we play that up or play it down?
You're the actor and the moment is you've had a
bad day and you're walking down the street and something
good happens. I want you to have that happen in
(08:38):
a nice light, so I might create a fake slice
of light, like you know, we know each other New
York days, right, So in New York, you know, oh,
let's stage that so that they're on this part in
the shadow and they come right by the intersection and
we bounce this light off these building windows and it
comes back and warms them up for that moment where
they run into the care to who they love or
(09:01):
used to love or you know, I mean, but yeah,
So there's still a whole interplay indoors or outdoors day night,
you know, all of it where we have to follow
along with the actors emotions business, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Transitional actors when they here find your light?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Yes, that means help me keep my gig? Yeah, I mean,
you know, you know if you walk into a basement party,
right and it's dark, and that's good, But actors also
know when there's no light on their face that they
feel a little insecure. You know, even though modern era
(09:43):
cameras can see a lot, there's still an emotional instability
if you're not sure there's enough light on you right one,
you just don't want to feel like you're wasting everybody's time.
And then you want to be presented in the right light,
you know. So, so what it means is, you know,
you can look around the room and say, oh, the
light's coming from oh the light and the night situated
(10:05):
light's coming from over here. Make sure my face is
getting a little good bit of that. You know, the
difference in here which is okay, a little darker on
this side right, to hear is different and to here
is different. Right, So you just want to you become
aware of what angles. Also, I've worked with actors who
knew what looks good on their face, whether top soft
(10:28):
light looks good one side, big soft from underneath help
you know what I mean? And people know and learn
what works well for their architecture and for that moment.
So actors need to be able to look around and
kind of absorb, just like you do with the camera,
open up a little bit to the camera right, Oh, no,
the camera's over there. So I got to make sure
(10:50):
I'm back a little bit so we can get a
too shot in this thing, right, same idea. Light's over there, right,
The actor I'm talking to right is in shadows because
I'm I'm right here, right, and I need can make sure. Okay,
I got a little bit of that on me, and
I'm also back enough to let them get on that first. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
So I started teaching this class directors directing actors and
bringing in directors.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
I love to bring you in.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
I just did one class to see how you know
it worked, and bought in Twinkie Bird because Twinkie's transitioning
and she's doing that now. And my main thing is
that acting classes teach actors to act, but there are
no classes to teach actors to do the work on
the set. Unfortunately, as a casting director, I've had to
fire people and rehearsal or at a.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Table read because that's all they have. And so.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
For actors, my thing is really understanding the process of
the stage of the of the show and knowing what
does a DP do, what does a grip do? All
of these things right. We also have on Inside the
Black Box, we had Jeff Bird and Jeff now being
a grit in the beginning, right.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
So yeah, my thing.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Is actors need to know how a set runs, and
what the brilliance of this class that Twinkie bought to
the table was she told them about the shots. So
she gave everybody seeds and then she said, Okay, I'm
going to do it close up. Okay, I'm pulling back
and doing a Why how important is it for actors
to know the camera angles that are on them on set?
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Yes, there's a simple sort of analogy that people make
between theater actors and film actors, right, which is there
used to be much more separation. But traditionally the theater
was playing to a bigger room, right, so you had
to do things larger, you had to do things louder, right,
But in the audio wise and physically right, and in
(12:52):
the film it was much more refined. It's the same
thing within a film. If you don't know where the
lens is, if you don't know roughly if they're tight
and what that means, if you don't have an then
you can't really help them. So what you're spending millions
of dollars right, often you're spending on a low budget.
(13:14):
You're spending fifty thousand dollars a day. You know, on
a bigger film, you're easily spending you know, five hundred thousand,
a million dollars a day on a big film. I
had the benefit of working on a thor lovels under
just came out. I can't imagine what you're spending in
a day. I can't imagine. So the actor decides, Okay,
(13:34):
we're having this great scene. And I don't know anything
about lenses because my job is to be creative and act,
and they say, oh, okay, when that scene comes up,
give me a little less. You don't know what less
is because you don't understand the lens. Understanding the lens size.
Here's one. Understanding the lens size and relations to you're
(13:57):
acting is huge. You might be acting with all your
hands and they're in a close up and it just
looks like a bunch of this, right, But if you
know what you're doing, this might mean something to you, right, Right,
If you know what you're doing, this little turn means something.
If you don't know, you're.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Doing this looking crazy, you know, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Looking crazy?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Right?
Speaker 3 (14:21):
And then likewise it goes to reverse. Sometimes you want
to as an actor communicate with the director and or
the DP about what you're going to do, what your
intention is, some idea that came to you in the
middle of the blocking and the acting and the scene. Oh,
when this comes up, I'm going to and you give
them a low so that they can pan, land, zoom, focus,
(14:43):
choose the right angle, the right movement with Dolly. You know,
Dolly movement is totally dependent on the actors right actor
turns their head at the point that the Dolly's going
the other direction. That's not necessarily anybody's fault, but just
knowing how to coordinate these things have they're say they
have nothing to do with the creative job of an
actor from a sort of acting character point of view,
(15:07):
but they immediately do because they then help communicate what
you're trying to communicates.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's like choreography.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Everybody works and moves together to create this magnificence.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
The other thing when you said Dolly, because.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
You know, when the camera pushes in, it's a different energy.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
And emotion, right like the.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Other thing in the class talking to actors about how
cameras can affect you emotionally and when it's pushing in,
especially with soap operas.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
You know, is that trying to insight when you do
that push in?
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yes? Yeah, So you're acting and we're on you know,
let's just say a two shot or whatever, and at
the end of the scene, one walks away, Dolly pushes in, right,
So now you have to, emotionally keeping character play out
that beat, right. Actors know about playing beats. And you
have to also sort of time yourself with the camera movement.
(16:12):
So as camera pushes in, you've got to track your
emotion over a period of time. Is it one second,
is it ten seconds? And how you're going to fill
that time properly so that you don't end the beat
and the camera is still pushing and now we've got
no energy between you and the camera, right. So, and
(16:34):
it's the same with movement, right. Knowing where they're moving
to helps you figure out when to give them the
back of your head, when to kind of walk away
at which angle so that you get a nice sort
of energy between camera and the body. You know, all
these things is it is definitely choreography, right, And actors
who know not just their lines and they're acting business
(16:58):
between themselves, we'll also understand the room make themselves easy
to work with.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And it makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And we Yeah, we live in a capitalist you said earlier.
And so there's two actors who know something about acting
and only one knows about how to work professionally on
set with everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So you said theater, right, And I've worked with a
lot of metrical actors transitioning to film and TV.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What is that difference when you, let's say you get that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
You know, one of my clients, blessed Miles Cross won
a Tony Award for MJ on Broader. I just signed
with ETA, so I can't wait his transition from Broadway
to TV and film.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Absolutely absolutely, So it's uh, well, my take on it
is it's essentially scale right, right, So it touches on
what I was saying earlier. In the theater, you're taught, Oh,
we got to reach the back of the house, right,
That might be twenty thirty forty rows backs, right, That
(18:12):
might include a balcony that's way up there. Right. So
if I talk real soft and I get real simple
to people in the mouth, you can't hear me, right.
But on a film set, that same scene, right is
a two shot or is it single or whatever? Right?
And everything can stay here? Now if I do that
if we're here with me, right and I'm talking to
(18:34):
reach the people in the back of the theater, you know,
I came out like a crazy guy who is all right.
It's like an inside voice and outside voice, sort of analogy.
It's scale and same thing. Look turn how big, how
your intensity shows up? I think it's I think of
it as scale, and.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
I love that at scale. I love that concept. One
of the things too, that I also talk about to
actors is too in understanding the process is learning the
terminologies right. So when I was I am no longer
an essential worker, so as an acting coach, I can't
(19:15):
be on stage. I prepped, I did ABC Queens and
coach Eve, Brandy Ory not and on that.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
So it was all done by zoom.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
But back in the day when I was on chaff
with Buster or whatever, I one of my favorite times
of the show was when they would call first team
to the same right, can you explain to actors what
it means when what your job is when they call
(19:47):
first team? Because you are ahead of a department, so
you're gonna be there, So what is your job? First
team comes on set to rehearse.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
My first job is to be cool. Whatever happens, Okay,
you know, we'll let them see you, right. But really,
so we've gone through all these pre production setups on
the day, locations, moves, whatever, whatever, right, And so once
first team comes on, from the moment they walk into
(20:23):
I'm looking to see, do we get the color right
for this wardrobe? Do we get the color right for
this skin tone? Does that actors make up look right
right compared to what we're trying to see on the monitors,
you know? And is the lighting I set up? When
to work with the blocking that they're actually doing, Because
you know, they're humans and they're creative, so we've said
and even though we've rehearsed before they went away to
(20:46):
make up costumes, whatever, we've rehearsed a bit of blocking.
But once you get the whole thing going and the
energy takes over, they sometimes do things a little differently,
which is normal and which is often great. So I'm
still trying to guess when they walk in, does it
look does it get it right? Does everybody feel comfortable?
Have they come up with new ideas while they were
(21:07):
away from set? Right? And so at that point in theory,
I'm done. But in reality, I'm really just taking the
first light of the fork to see, you know, does
this taste good? And then I have to work the
politics of if something's not quite right, how do I
change it? What is it a change? It is just
(21:29):
between me and camera that we can just tweak some things,
or do I have to ask the actors to step
aside for a moment and have when electricians go up
on a ladder and change something, or you know, do
I go to the director and ask, you know, to
the DP or to the producer, depending on the setups,
you know, can we change this? Will it affect their
emotional timing because we're also trying to read the room
(21:51):
of what they're going through. It's one thing that's a
comedy in the supermarket, somebody's going to spill some mac
and cheese. It's another when it's a crying death, you know,
a really sensitive moment for actors. And in those moments
we tend to let things go in terms of tweaking
and readjusting because they have to maintain that energy right. So,
(22:13):
you know, actors will commonly go away and an intense
scene is coming up and they're trying to be in
the right frame of mind, so they can bring it
up on demands. So when they come in if this
thing isn't quite right, often it's okay, let the actor
do their thing. We'll figure out what to do on
the next gograund, whether it's the next take or the
next scene or the next angle, you know, And so
(22:36):
we're trying to read the room also with what they're
doing physically and emotion.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
One of the reasons why that's one of my favorite
things to do when I used to be on set
is because ladies and gentlemen, you have all the department
heads when the first team comes, and the first team
is the stars and the leading players, right, So I
love the fact. I love as an acting coach to
see how Christian would work, or costumes or special effects,
(23:02):
how everybody has to see what their job is in
that scene and they have to come together and make
that happen. But also as a DP, what we may
have rehearsed might not work in that space, so you
might have to talk to the director and make those changes.
You don't know really until you get there. And I'm
a big rehearsal fan, but not every budget allows us
(23:26):
to have that ability allow.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, and not everybody's acting style or directing style is
with rehearsals, you know, and I think that's one of
the things that is very important to clarify, you know,
at the beginning of physical production that you know, hey,
this way we're going to do this. It's going to
be very you know, on the fly, and we're all
(23:50):
aware of that, and that's just how we're going to work.
And in that moment, I would choose positions angles, lighting styles,
you know, that are a little more broad so the
actor has more room to you know, to not hit
his mark, right, because actors hate it when we're like
everything has to be exactly, you know, it take some
(24:11):
of the wind out of the sails sometimes. But also
I want to I want to emphasize that clarity is
usually the main thing that is missing when there are conflicts,
clarity of purpose or priority. So we'll be on set
(24:32):
working on something and somebody else feels it's not necessarily important. Right, Oh,
we've got to keep going. We got to keep shooting.
Oh we need ten takes instead of three, right, which
is okay, But clarity of priorities is important. So we
need to slow down and speak up in a nice manner.
In a productive manner of you know, what are our
(24:52):
priorities in this moment because we're we're when we're hired,
before we start shooting, you know, we're told got to
be top, like got to be great, right, well great.
It's hard to come up with too far in advance,
both for actors and for people behind right now right.
We have ideas, we make it up, but we don't
know that it's actually great, as you said, till we're
(25:14):
all in that room and doing the thing. You know,
there's no script for exactly how this should go. We
just have ideas.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
So on on our show Inside black Box with Joe
Mooren Emmy Award were Joe Mooren and Tracy.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Moore, we had.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
We had first season Sally richardson Whitfield, and then this
season we have Debbie Allen and we talked to both
of these women about being directors in a pretty male
dominated world. And we also have Darnell Martin on first
season love Darnell right, and you know Darnell so dark
(25:54):
was talking about how dps in her experience, not all,
but how what their experience is.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
As a woman is that deep.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Sometimes dps will just automatically jump in they will call action,
they will call cut, they will And for these women,
Sally said, I.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Like to say in action, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
And there's a power struggle at times, and so you know,
and one of my questions to them was, you know,
how how do you guys resolve that? Because there's enough
work that you have to deal with on a show
on top of that to deal with egos and you know,
and power struggles, you know, as and then you're a
black woman. So for you in your experience, if you
(26:41):
are dealing with a female director, how do you commune
because it's different from a guy. I mean, I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
We're you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
How do you deal with different a black woman who
is essentially in power in that moment, right and the
captain of the ship.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How do you communicay?
Speaker 1 (26:59):
What are some suggests that make it a little easier
or a little more palatable.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
One may disagree with me, but I think I do
pretty good with that on a personal level. I grew
up in the Caribbean mostly so black people at every level,
you know, in Saint Thomas, MEI and so everybody at
different levels are black, and that's common, right, And then
(27:28):
I also grew up in the theater since I was sixteen,
you know, so a variety of people who have a
variety of positions and ways of operating in life. So
I've never kind of lived in a now society puts
a certain amount of stuff in my head, in your
head and whatever. So you know, I don't doubt that
there's some of that, But I do think that one
(27:50):
of the main things is I'll say, never back down
and never be a and that goes for all essentially,
but for black women in particular. I've seen it so
many times, and it never it never gets better for women.
I worked with a woman DP not black, recently, and
(28:13):
I watched the first a C and the director carry
on like she was not in the room. I was
dumbfounded and that and that was a white woman who
you know, they all kind of knew each other and
had some level of but still they could not help themselves.
It's you know, and you know, I see many of
(28:36):
these situations where you're like, if this room had looked
a little different, that would never be handled that way.
But I don't think you should back down from it.
The trick is, like many things in life, to address
the issue early on and clearly. For my approach may
may or may not work, depends on your opinion, be
in my career, but may address it clearly to where
(29:01):
that person knows if they go there, they will not
be able to go there subtly and hide unsite. Right.
That's my approach is like, if we're going to have
an issue, it's you. We're all going to know. None
of this little side quiet try to be polite and smile,
none of that. I don't find that that ever works.
(29:23):
And and there's a certain amount of emotional grace we
have to lend anyone because you know, people are screwed
up and they're probably to their society. So trying to
really work on how you communicate the conflict clearly without
it being apologetic. Yeah, you know, Debbie Allen is not
(29:44):
apologetic nothing about nothing, and rightfully so she's earned everything
she's gotten plus something that you and I have gotten
and she earned it, so you know she's great at
She's like, yeah, there's no there's no nothing. If you're
mad at her as your fault.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
And I just want to say, because our time is up,
but you have dropped some amazing diamonds and jewels out.
Everybody has their treasure chests open to receive all of this,
and just really great information for actors to really marinate on, because,
like I said, you know, I've spent my whole career
teaching actors how to act, but I feel like being
(30:24):
on sets, actors are not prepared and they need that
and they need to understand. And I saw it so
well with Twinkie how when she would set up the
scene and say, I just want you to know I'm
gonna start off on a close up, and how I
saw actors grow from that class because they don't you
don't think about that, and then they don't even think
(30:45):
to pass. Because I know certain clients of mine, they
they will say in the before we shoot, they'll say,
you know, is this a wide job?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Is this you know what? Because they know cameras and.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Then you know, the DP or director will say to
them what the situation is. But mostly it's it's what
I would honestly say, eighty percent of the actors don't
know to ask those questions and don't know the workings
of a set.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
Yeah, yeah, you really should ask if you're not clear
already from osmosis around what we know, it's just why
this is tight. You should ask because otherwise you can't
really scale up or down to fit you know, your
physical action and your emotional energy. You know, yeah, you really.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
We got to have you on again because I want
to I want to like throw, I feel like I
want to throw different scenes and say, you know, so,
how is this? You have been so informative. I'm telling you,
I know we're going to get We can do that
because we act just.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Don't think about this.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
So I just want to say thank you so much
for giving us this information and insight so important.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (31:55):
All right, ladies to gelling us stand up.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
This is why I told you beginning of the stand up,
because I knew what was coming. Put your hands together,
ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
For Christian.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I've never gotten around of applause.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I'm plaud every show. All I guess the audience is me.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing this. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And when we come back on the Spirited Actor Podcast
with me Tracy Moore, We're going to have last in session.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Welcome back to the Spirited Actor.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
Podcast with me Tracy Moore, and I'm getting ready to
give you actors pointers yes, let's talk about reading you guys,
because I don't think I could talk about this enough.
You have to read aloud every single day. When I
say every single day, I say three hundred and sixty
five days in the year. There's no time off, there's
(32:51):
no breaks. It is imperative that you read aloud every
single day. Why as actors, when you understand the work
and you understand your character, then you understand that those
words are not words on a page. Those words are
(33:12):
your words, and you are that character. So they have
to feel comfortable in your mouth. You have to feel
secure in saying them. What if you're on Gray's Anatomy
and you're a doctor and you're not a doctor in
real life and they have these you know, terminology, they
have pharmaceutical words, they have procedures. If you're not comfortable
(33:37):
saying those words, it's going to look awkward and it's
going to look contrived. It's not going to look real.
And acting is recreating the human experience.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
It's real. This is real.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
We're not pretending and we're not imitating. You are totally
embodying the truth of these characters. Reading aloud is going
to help you for table reads after you are cast
and you sit in a room with all the actors,
the executives, the writers, and you bring to life this script.
While you're all sitting there, you bring to life. So
(34:09):
reading aloud will help you with the words and your
tonality and emphasis and all of those things, and.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It helps a flow in all of you being able
to tell this story of this TV show or of
this film.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Reading aloud brings confidence anybody. A casting director can throw
any new sides pages of a script to you and
you'll be able to just breathe life into it. This
is a skill and I have in my casting career.
(34:44):
I have asked hundreds of actors who come in and
blown me away, how did you do it? How did
you do it? And every actor that I spoke to
spoke about reading aloud. That's the tip. That's the point.
Every day, three hundred and sixty five days year, read, read,
(35:05):
read aloud, and get comfortable putting other people words in
your mouth. All right, when we come back on the
Spirit Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore, I'm gonna give
you guys some love.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you love.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
And now it's time to give love. I remember growing
up in San Francisco when I was six years old
and always saying to my friends that I love love. I,
as six years old, didn't really have any real understanding
what real love was, but I just knew that like
(35:39):
simple things going bike riding with my brothers, or my
dad teaching me how to knit, like I had these
overwhelming feelings that I couldn't articulate, but I knew in
my mind that I just felt warm and fuzzy about people,
or I felt warm and fuzzy about well the situation.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
We need love and we need more of it, and.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
It starts with us first, regardless of the issues that
we have with ourselves, like oh, I could change this,
or I think yes, those things can change and we
can reinvent ourselves. But the core, the core of us,
our soul needs love, and so does this world and
(36:27):
so do people, and we need to continue to believe
that love is the truth and love is the answer.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Spread love, don't forget to look out for us.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
On our new show, Inside the black Box, my co
host will be Joe the Legend Morton. It's going to
be the Spirited Actor Podcast on Steroids.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
We'll be streaming on the Crackle network. I'll keep you posted.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Thank you for joining us on the Spirited Actor podcast
with me Tracy Moore. I look forward to our next
hereded podcasts.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Thank you,
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.