February 15, 2022 • 36 mins
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Episode Transcript
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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 transition to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Thomas.
I audition every rapper from Biggias Balls 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 Ye from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:44):
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. I get that, but being remembered by
a casting director that is powerful. And now it's time
for meditation of the day. Your soul is attracted to
(01:08):
people the same way flowers are attracted to the sun.
Surround yourself only with those who you want to see
you grow. So it has been an absolute world when
um reading the text and the d M s and
the emails from people who are getting wind of inside
(01:30):
the Black Box with Jill Morton and myself and Spruce
extraordinaire who's on here one of the producers, and to
feel the love that is generating, I had to sit down.
I had to really sit down, and I said, I've
been crying since last Monday because it is overwhelming to
(01:54):
know that first of all, I have a reach like
this with so many people and and eclectic blend of people,
and then the reach of touching them, touching their lives,
being a part of their lives. And so every day
I sit down and I thank God that I had
(02:20):
the ability to do this unconsciously because when I think
about reading it, and how you know, I fall asleep
sometime reading some of the I G messages, But that
I'm not consciously you know, counting or consciously watching what
I do. I'm just doing it. And that's how we
(02:42):
should live our lives, and that's how I want to
continue to live my life, to unconsciously just give and
then you see how it blossoms and it pays itself
forward to other people. Today I will be conscious of
my giving. Before we get started, I'd like to remind
(03:03):
everyone to look out for my new show Inside the
Black Box. I'll be co hosting with the great Joe Morton.
Will be on Crackle Network real soon. I'll keep you posted.
Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
You know, for years, I've always said to my friends
(03:24):
when they're like, you know, what do you do? Do
you go to work in the morning, you're on the
set whatever, And I would say, I don't go to work.
I go to fun. And so that's what I feel
like on my podcast. It's always so much fun. So
today you have me again all to yourself, and I'm
so excited to share my book with you, The Spirited
(03:45):
Actor Principles for a Successful Audition. I was so blessed
to write this book in two thousand and four, and
I it came from actually my live auditions because is
actors would come in and different things they would do
or say, and I would make notes and say, if
(04:07):
I ever got the opportunity to speak on a panel,
or if I ever got the opportunity to teach, these
are some of the things that I'm going to say,
and in that process, I decided, well, let me just
write a book, and you know, just write it in
the book for them. And that's where this comes from
The Spirited Actor Principles of a Successful Audition by Tracy Moore.
(04:32):
And the cool thing that I love about this book
is that I gave you guys space to write different
things like this is remind yourself daily of why you
want to be an actor. So it's to me. I
wanted to create a book where actors could like fold
it and roll it up and stuff it in their
purs or their back pocket and just simple reminders for
(04:56):
themselves how powerful and strong they are as manifestos because
they're going to manifest their dreams. So today I want
to just give you some little gyms from each chapter.
I encourage you to go to Amazon or you can
go to author's House dot com and you can purchase
(05:20):
the book as well. But I wanted to share I
just feel like my life and especially now that for
those of you who uh, I don't know, I have
a show coming up called Inside the Black Box with
Joe Morton and Emmy Award winning Joe Morton and we
are co hosting together and it launches on February sixteenth
(05:42):
on Crackle Plus for free. So download the app and
please support us. UM just a dynamic platform to showcase
new talent, but also really take a moment to just
tap into the stories of people of color, actors, directors, producers,
(06:03):
casting directors, and you know, for me, we know the
problems in the industry and that diversity in the industry
or or the non diversity in the industry. My prayer
is that this show moves in the direction of solutions
and that you know, we come together as an actor
community of diversity, strengthened and trained. And then you know,
(06:27):
just like there are not a lot of people of
color who can green light at studios, you know, creating
more opportunities, budgets you know, fair and equal budgets, fair
and equal salaries. UM. So moving in the direction of
finding ways to close some of those gaps because as
African Americans, I feel like we have not touched on
(06:51):
a point of all the stories in which we have
to tell, and we're seeing more of those two there's
a platform for that, so I'm really excited about that.
So Inside the Black Box with Emmy Award winning Joe
Morton and Tracy Moore so excited so join us. Okay,
So I wanted to say that I feel so blessed
(07:12):
in my life as well because I champion actors. I
love actors like I just feel like I've always been
an actor's advocate, right and so UM, I've always thought
of ways to help through my classes or you know,
this being a book and keeping you encouraged and motivated
on this journey. When I decided that I was going
(07:35):
to write the book, UM, I was with one of
my clients and Spirit just said to me, like, you know,
they should write your UM forward. You should ask them
right your forward. And I was like uh, and They're
like no, And so I asked them, all right my foreword.
They wrote my foreword and I just wanted to just
read UM. One of my favorite the whole thing is
(07:57):
my favorite. But this was something and that I really
loved UM. So it says Tracy has been instrumental in
teaching me about intricacies of performing in front of the camera.
I never step foot on a film set without her
as a musician. I'm very headstrong about how I expressed myself.
(08:19):
Nobody tells Buster Rhymes how to write, produce, or deliver
a song. But Tracy has showed me the importance of
taking direction, knowing when to improv and knowing when not to,
understanding when to listen and when to voice my own
opinion about a role. This has proved invaluable to me
when working with directors, writers and other artists. Tracy has
(08:41):
also given me the courage to begin developing and writing
my own projects. It's because of her encouragement and guidance
that I've explored so many uncharted territories. So that was
from Mr. Buster Rhymes, and I was so grateful, And
those words were new to me. I feel excuse me
after of a connection. I never heard those words. So
(09:02):
that was such a blessing. Okay, so we're gonna dive
into this because I got ten chapters. So, um, I'm
really big. You guys know this on quotes, and so
I always have a quote and I want to share
this one with you. Um. So chapter one is called
getting your foot in the Door. There are three types
(09:25):
of people in the world, those who make things happen,
those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
Anonymous So getting your foot in the door for me
starts with before you start rehearsing lines, preparing your Oscar
Award winning speech, really having an honest conversation with yourself
(09:50):
about this journey in being an actor. And if you
have issues with people taking pictures of you, or if
you have shoes um with you know, having to learn
lines uh and memorization in a day or two. There
are certain things that you have to be honest with
(10:11):
yourself and say, maybe this isn't the job for me.
The most important for me is patients because regardless of
how anxious you are to get an agent to get
on the set, it's not going to happen until you're ready.
And when you get on the set, the assumption is
(10:31):
that you're working actor. So nobody's gonna take your hand
and walk you around set and say get your mark
and first teammates. This no expectations, so that you know this.
So there's a lot of work involved in being an actor,
and you need to have that private conversation with yourself
(10:51):
as to whether or not you have the stamina to
do this. And there's energy that takes up time that
you guys need to delete, right, So energy like um,
you may get mad. Let's be honest. Some people get mad.
You may get mad that you did not get that
role and you harp about it. That energy has wasted.
(11:12):
You have no time to harp. Take another class, work
on your monologue, join an actor's troupe. But keep moving
and improving. Oh holt, that might be another book, Elsa.
Keep moving and improving on your craft. You have to
work on your craft. So my biggest, biggest, biggest jewel
(11:35):
to give you from this chapter one is really be
honest with yourself and understand what it means to be
a working actor. And you know, if you like one
of my guests, I love him on Inside the Black
Box is Mark Quan Smith. He is executive producer, creator
of Godfather of Harlem. And he said, if you don't
(11:58):
like the taste of raw the noodles like consistently, this
might not be the gig for you. You are not
always going to have Mr Child's um money to to,
you know, eat at his restaurant. So are you prepared
for that? When I first came to New York, a
lot of New York actors who are very successful today.
(12:19):
I remember in New York like you can sort of
delay the eviction process, and so you know they knew
the whole process and the court system to avoid all
of these things. So, I mean there's just a lot
of uncertainty, and you have to be able to really
believe that you have a safety, that that's fair to
(12:41):
catch you, and that this is what you're supposed to do. Okay, Um,
that's from chapter one. I also talk about in chapter one. Um,
you know definitions, because it's important that you guys are educated.
This is called show business. It's not show art or
show craft, and so you want to know the terminology
and the burbage that we use in this industry. Okay,
(13:06):
so um, and then you know what an open call
is as opposed to a schedule. But of course this
was written in two thousand four when we had live auditions,
and now we have self tapes. There's still a bunch
of stuff that you can apply from this book to
yourself tapes. Um, same thing. The purpose is to have
(13:27):
a successful audition, and there's principles in here to show
you that the exercise. I'm just randomly choose an exercise
in chapter one. So in chapter one, I have questions
like this where I say describe your plan for your
acting career. And then I have you know, these lines
(13:48):
for you guys, and you can't see it, um, you
have to purchase the book. So I have these lines
where you can write. There's something I'm a writer and
authentic writer, pen to paper, and there's something about the
relationship to me with the pen and paper and you
writing and commitment. So I just wanted to encourage my
(14:10):
students to write more and write with pens and papers. Um.
So moving on to chapter two. Chapter two is called
check in with yourself. If you have no confidence in self,
you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence,
you have one even before you started, Marcus Garvey. So
(14:34):
chapter two and checking in with yourself is also about,
you know, for me, the spirit, it's it's really the
internal check in. Continuing on the thought of being honest
and having a self talk about being on this journey
checking in and especially now with the pandemic and you know,
(14:55):
just a lot of energy that's heightened. It's important to
check in with your mental, your physical, and your spiritual
and just to feel like you're aligned, feel like you
have some footing and grounding that um. Just substained to
you because not everybody is handling or experiencing this pandemic
(15:17):
in a way that is strong, um, you know, hopeful.
So we have to be conscious of that, and we
have to be conscious of that for ourselves as well.
So for me, checking in is so important to create
some sort of ritual. Um, whether it's like I love
I found something on Instagram where this woman was talking
(15:39):
about self care and she has this ritual of burning
a candle um setting up her bath and it just, uh,
it was so relaxing and just watching it. You need
to quiet your mind. Uh, you need to settle your soul.
A lot of times act yours get panic attacks, uh
(16:02):
doing self tapes, especially if your agent or your manager
or actors access reaches out and says, you know, it's
a Wednesday and your audition is due Thursday at five pm.
That could cause a little anxiety and stress if you're
not prepared for something like that. So knowing that that
really exists in the industry, that should give you a
(16:25):
little little a little comfort, you know. Like, and people
complain to me sometimes actors will say it's the last minute.
I'm like, no, it's not the last minute. It's my
job as a casting director to put the sides together
for you, to choose the sides, and to distribute the sides.
I can't do that until the director of the producer
released that. So if it looks like the last minute,
(16:47):
it's not the last minute for us, because we believe
her actors and you should be prepared and ready at
all time and any time. And that's what training does.
So create some thing for yourself or you know, do
do something for yourself once a day, you know, like
if you want to go to Starbucks, if you want
(17:08):
to walk through the park to get home instead of
taking the bus or the train, like breathing in some
clean air. We again being conscious that it is COVID
and certain things are limited, but really really make sure
that you take time and celebrate or embrace yourself every day, right,
not depending or relying on anybody else. We have to
(17:31):
do it for ourselves. Self care is imperative, imperative, and
when we see that someone else is out of alignment,
you know, it's important that we check in and just
make sure, you know, we help as much as we
can or do whatever it is that we can. So
that's checking in with this yourself and understanding also the business.
(17:54):
A lot of times actors are like, I want to
be famous. Um, okay, well this is what I'll say.
When you do great work, you attract attention. Okay. So
what that means is that people will see you. Casting
directors will see you, directors, producers will see you. And
the more they see you, the more you will get
(18:16):
the ability to showcase your talent and showcase your work.
So it's really super important that you guys understand what
it means to be famous. Okay, don't be concerned about
being famous, be concerned about doing great work. That's what
you want to do. I work with actors to be
great actors, not to be famous. Your work will speak
(18:39):
of that. Okay. So in terms of an exercise for
chapter two, okay, what are your fears? What are your fears?
And you have room to list it and and this
is yours, So if you choose to share it, that's
your decision. But this is yours, and you should be
(18:59):
honest with yourself and list your fears. And sometimes you know,
you might list something that you confronted for the first time,
that you've really confronted for the first time. As actors,
all of your experiences are jewels, because when it's time
for you to create these carriacters and be these characters,
you can pull from your your tool kit. You can
(19:21):
pull from Oh, I remember when I was in the
village and this woman was walking in a certain way.
This character, she has a physical element in her leg
I'm going to walk this way. I'm going to use
that walk that I remember. Or when I was on
subway and I was eavesdropping on conversation, this woman had
an interesting stutter and I remembered it. So I'm going
(19:43):
to incorporate it in this character because this character stutters.
So it's important that you lock these things in. And
you know, some traumatic things that have occurred in our lives,
we we don't want to live those experiences again. However,
as actors, there's an understanding and an authenticity of that pain.
(20:05):
And if your character is in pain, then you have
that You can relate to that pain and you can
be that pain, be in that pain of your character. Okay,
so I like that one. What are your fears? Just
again honest with yourself. So this one is number three.
Failure is lack of preparation. There are no secrets to success.
(20:31):
It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning
from failure. Callin pal Fat recissily. So what I talked
about in this chapter is how you need to prepare.
It's still like sometimes I say to myself, Oh, Tracy,
you don't need to teach anymore. These actors are working
(20:52):
and they're doing these things right. And then I go
to a session or a class and just recently and
an actress said to me, well, it's just say in mine.
So what I'm gonna do is I'll memorize the lines
first and then I'll schedule a session with you. And
I said, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what
it is. Memorizing lines if you don't do the work
(21:14):
to understand what the journey of your character is and
if we have any parallels there. Right, So if my
character went to let's say, my character went to Catholic school,
uh and went through Catechism, Now that's a story that
I am very familiar with. I don't know why I
(21:34):
said it, but I am very familiar with it. And um,
I would know of that experience of that character going
to Catholic school and the Retinians and blah blah blah blah,
It is so important when you guys get the size
first to read it the first time you read it,
everything action, everything, and then sit back and comprehend it
(21:58):
to yourself. Oh, so this scene is about a scene
that we did in one of our class and sessions.
This uh, man and woman are just drawn to each
other and they have this amazing energy and they come
together only to find out that he's married. But you
have to understand, as a man playing this character, the
(22:23):
psyche of a man who approaches a woman at his wedding.
I forgot to include that at his wedding to see
her yet because he's attracted her and he just got married.
Like that's like beyond cheating one to one. That sounds
the whole ava. But my point is you need to
understand why your characters behave the way they do, and
(22:45):
so in creating a character breakdown. If you don't have
the full script, you have the freedom to create it.
So you can say, well, his father was a serial adulter,
and um, he saw his mother go through this and stuff.
But he was like, oh, well, you know it's kind
of cool growing up like because when he was a teenager. Well,
(23:07):
you just build a script sides are blueprints. It's your
job as an actor to add the utteries and the
muscle and build these characters from the information that you have.
So that's all preparation. That's all preparation, and that's what failure.
Lack of failure is when actors don't do the work
(23:29):
and they come in and they just read the lines,
or they now in self tape, they're just reading lines
back and forth. You say your life, I say my line.
And that's not how we live in real life. So
training is going to tell you that, because that's where
you're gonna learn how to do the work, to prepare.
So um, this is one of my favorite chapters because
(23:52):
you have to understand, Okay, we're gonna do a part
two on this, and I'm so excited because that went
by really fast. I'm gonna give you an exercise from
chapter three, and this is, let me pick a how
much time a day this is preparation. How much time
a day do you devote to your craft? How much
(24:14):
time a day do you craft you just carve out
for Let me work on my monologue, let me work
on a scene. Those things, and and and more importantly,
more than anything else, read aloud every single day. Give
used to other people's words in your mouth. Not everybody
speaks how you speek, and you have to be comfortable
(24:36):
with that hearing it and coming out in your mouth.
I just want to say I had a pleasure of
pleasure sharing excerpts of my chapter with you, um chapters
The Spirited Actor Principles for a Successful Audition by Tracy Moore,
and you can purchase that at author house dot com
(24:57):
or Amazon dot com or I forgot, aren't noful. So
I so appreciate, love your support, and really take the
time and just constantly be in in this checking in mode,
checking in how you feel, gauging how you feel about
(25:18):
a self tape, gauging how you feel about, you know,
taking your classes. Just check in and know that dreams
do come true. They really do come true. And it's
not your your job to know when that's gonna happen
or how it's gonna happen. You do the work it
is going to happen, because all of this right now
(25:40):
is a part of the happening. It is happening. Okay, Wow,
that went by so fast. Okay, So I want to say,
now I know my my students and I trust that
you guys have documented things that I've said, so I'm
grateful we are going to and I'm really excited we
(26:00):
have a monologue for you guys in Class and Session.
So when we come back to the Spirited Actor Podcast
with me, Tracy Moore, Elsa Lathan, our casting director is
going to introduce our monologue done by a Spirited Actor alumna.
Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me, Tracy Bard.
(26:21):
I'm so excited because Class and Session today is a monologue.
So I want and you guys put dance together for
casting director, and you guys need to send your pictures
and resumes to Elsa Lathan. Put you rance together for
we refer to here as wonder woman. Elsa Lathan. Hey, Hey, hey, hey,
(26:44):
so Elsa, what do we have today today? We're so
excited we have a the Spirited Actor Podcast newvie today.
He is one of our Spirited Actor alumni. Okay is
a wonderful actress. And we have miss Tatiman today. Yeah,
(27:10):
welcome to Thank you, thank you for having to me.
I really appreciate you guys asking me to come through.
I truly appreciate it. I appreciate you being here because um,
you know, as a casting director, it's very challenging for
us to turn off like um, and we don't want
to turn off that that that instinct of we feel
(27:32):
connected and we and actors resonate with us. And when
you did your monologue and class, I was like, you
have to come on and do this monologue. Yeah, yeah,
so tell us what the name of the monologue is
and okay, um, it is from the show I May
Destroy You. So take a breath and whenever you are ready. Well,
(27:58):
Bob probably does think you're crazy. He he thinks all
this is a little bit much in this whole personal
space thing is taken it a bit too far. And
he's he's confident in his in his point of view
because he's gone exploring to see what boundaries and violations
(28:23):
women are going on about. Because Bob is thorough and
in his exploration, he found the line that separates himself
from everyone else, and rather than crossing that line, he
tiptoes on it. And he's experienced the feeling of being
(28:47):
on the border, on the boundary, right on the line
of neither being in one place or another. And he's
seen that in that gray area where nothing is quite
clear here. No one can be clear. So we can't articulate,
(29:09):
and and and we fuddle our words, and we can't
quite pinpoint what it is he did that we felt
was so wrong. So, yeah, he thinks you're crazy. Yeah
he thinks he's the smartest man in the room who
knows all things. Because Bob has observed the details, it's
(29:36):
time that we start observing Bob and letting him know
that we too see the details. Oh, we see you, Bob.
And because we see you, were right there with you,
tiptoeing on the line, right behind you, and in that
place where rules and clarity and laws and separations cease
(30:03):
to exist, will show you exactly what we mean by violation.
See applause, applause to show absolutely excellent, excellent. The thing
that I love in the beginning is that I could
(30:23):
honestly turn the volume down and enjoy watching you just
as much as I enjoy hearing the dialogue that you say,
thank you. You've made such an incredible connection with who
you're talking to. The clarity of how I feel that
person and feels based on your reactions, based on your breasts,
(30:47):
based on your emphasis, is like I mean it was chilling.
And the way you were so calculating to get to
your intention was, which was to expose Bob and let
him know. You may have details, Bob, but we got
details and we're watching you, Bob, and we got some
(31:08):
stuff when you, Bob. So if you want to understand
what violation means, test us to do it again, Bob,
I dare you right? So that's what we felt like
at the end. And it was such an empowering, peaceful woman.
It felt like a woman standing up for herself and
other women. And when we talk about the me Too movement,
like really, seriously, this has been going on for with
(31:32):
women from the first breath of life on this earth.
Women have been abused sexually and you know, so it's
like when you, as a woman are molested, you as
a woman stand up and say no more and you
own your body and you own yourself. That is so powering.
And then to have this this group of women, you know,
(31:53):
this team behind you standing with you like yeah, we
got you, we we got your back. You know. So
I just feel like you, um whatever the experiences that
you've had and been able to um cite for some
of that and and merge it into this monologue. It
makes it so authentic and just so real that I
(32:18):
get lost in knowing it. It's not you, Tisha, Like
right now, it's really interesting because there's two sides to you.
There really clearly is the personality of Tisha and then
whatever character you have body, it's this character right now.
So when you let that character go really quickly, so
are you good to hold onto that minute a little longer?
(32:39):
But when you let that character to go and you went,
see that was t Sha. So to be able to
see that clearly how you morphed into that other character.
I mean, that's what acting and the you use and
the word authenticity, it resonates with me because I'm telling you,
(33:01):
I was I was thinking about this idea of perfection
and I was saying to myself, I don't strive for perfection,
I strive for authenticity. And I was just saying that
to myself the other day. So you said, it warms
the comis of my heart. A new word to do,
(33:23):
and now Spruce is gonna run with that word. Okay.
So thank you again, Tsha. Tisha Hickman Spirit Actor Alumni,
thank you again for such an awesome woman's Thank you
and we're gonna be back with the Spirited Actual Podcast
with me Tracy Moore. I'm going to give you love,
(33:48):
and now it's time forgive love. If I had to choose,
and I do, I would choose to be happy all
the time. I know, trust me. I grew My friends
thought I was crazy, my family thought I was crazy.
But I like being happy. I like feeling happy. I
like laughing. I like the joy of it and how
(34:13):
it just makes everything about your being just light up.
You feel like nothing is impossible, that when you put
your mind to it, you can accomplish anything when you're happy.
And it's not easy for everyone to just adapt and just, uh,
(34:33):
you know, I'm happy. It's a process because I wasn't.
I wasn't. I feel like growing up in San Francisco
in the late sixties early seventies and just seeing a
lot of things happen in my community and just around
the world. It wasn't a happy place. It didn't always
(34:55):
feel like a happy place. It felt like struggle. It
felt like just reas a stance. But I felt like,
regardless of what was happening on the outside, I learned
at a very early age to teach myself to make
sure I felt good on the inside. And somehow, as
I get wiser in my age, I learned that that's good.
(35:20):
That yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on, but
if you can retreat to that happy place, it changes things.
It moves things. So find your happy place, don't forget
to look out for us 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
(35:43):
on Steroids will be streaming on the Crackle network. I'll
keep you posted. Thank you for joining us on the
Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I look forward
to our next Spirited Podcast. 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 transition to
a celebrity acting coach after I cast a film New
Jersey Drive with executive producers Spike Lee and director Nick Thomas.
I audition every rapper from Biggias Balls 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 Ye from The
Breakfast Club, and Vanessa Simmons, to name a few. I
also coach sports stars and host as well. I feel
(00:44):
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. I get that, but being remembered by
a casting director that is powerful. And now it's time
for meditation of the day. Your soul is attracted to
(01:08):
people the same way flowers are attracted to the sun.
Surround yourself only with those who you want to see
you grow. So it has been an absolute world when
um reading the text and the d M s and
the emails from people who are getting wind of inside
(01:30):
the Black Box with Jill Morton and myself and Spruce
extraordinaire who's on here one of the producers, and to
feel the love that is generating, I had to sit down.
I had to really sit down, and I said, I've
been crying since last Monday because it is overwhelming to
(01:54):
know that first of all, I have a reach like
this with so many people and and eclectic blend of people,
and then the reach of touching them, touching their lives,
being a part of their lives. And so every day
I sit down and I thank God that I had
(02:20):
the ability to do this unconsciously because when I think
about reading it, and how you know, I fall asleep
sometime reading some of the I G messages, But that
I'm not consciously you know, counting or consciously watching what
I do. I'm just doing it. And that's how we
(02:42):
should live our lives, and that's how I want to
continue to live my life, to unconsciously just give and
then you see how it blossoms and it pays itself
forward to other people. Today I will be conscious of
my giving. Before we get started, I'd like to remind
(03:03):
everyone to look out for my new show Inside the
Black Box. I'll be co hosting with the great Joe Morton.
Will be on Crackle Network real soon. I'll keep you posted.
Welcome to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore.
You know, for years, I've always said to my friends
(03:24):
when they're like, you know, what do you do? Do
you go to work in the morning, you're on the
set whatever, And I would say, I don't go to work.
I go to fun. And so that's what I feel
like on my podcast. It's always so much fun. So
today you have me again all to yourself, and I'm
so excited to share my book with you, The Spirited
(03:45):
Actor Principles for a Successful Audition. I was so blessed
to write this book in two thousand and four, and
I it came from actually my live auditions because is
actors would come in and different things they would do
or say, and I would make notes and say, if
(04:07):
I ever got the opportunity to speak on a panel,
or if I ever got the opportunity to teach, these
are some of the things that I'm going to say,
and in that process, I decided, well, let me just
write a book, and you know, just write it in
the book for them. And that's where this comes from
The Spirited Actor Principles of a Successful Audition by Tracy Moore.
(04:32):
And the cool thing that I love about this book
is that I gave you guys space to write different
things like this is remind yourself daily of why you
want to be an actor. So it's to me. I
wanted to create a book where actors could like fold
it and roll it up and stuff it in their
purs or their back pocket and just simple reminders for
(04:56):
themselves how powerful and strong they are as manifestos because
they're going to manifest their dreams. So today I want
to just give you some little gyms from each chapter.
I encourage you to go to Amazon or you can
go to author's House dot com and you can purchase
(05:20):
the book as well. But I wanted to share I
just feel like my life and especially now that for
those of you who uh, I don't know, I have
a show coming up called Inside the Black Box with
Joe Morton and Emmy Award winning Joe Morton and we
are co hosting together and it launches on February sixteenth
(05:42):
on Crackle Plus for free. So download the app and
please support us. UM just a dynamic platform to showcase
new talent, but also really take a moment to just
tap into the stories of people of color, actors, directors, producers,
(06:03):
casting directors, and you know, for me, we know the
problems in the industry and that diversity in the industry
or or the non diversity in the industry. My prayer
is that this show moves in the direction of solutions
and that you know, we come together as an actor
community of diversity, strengthened and trained. And then you know,
(06:27):
just like there are not a lot of people of
color who can green light at studios, you know, creating
more opportunities, budgets you know, fair and equal budgets, fair
and equal salaries. UM. So moving in the direction of
finding ways to close some of those gaps because as
African Americans, I feel like we have not touched on
(06:51):
a point of all the stories in which we have
to tell, and we're seeing more of those two there's
a platform for that, so I'm really excited about that.
So Inside the Black Box with Emmy Award winning Joe
Morton and Tracy Moore so excited so join us. Okay,
So I wanted to say that I feel so blessed
(07:12):
in my life as well because I champion actors. I
love actors like I just feel like I've always been
an actor's advocate, right and so UM, I've always thought
of ways to help through my classes or you know,
this being a book and keeping you encouraged and motivated
on this journey. When I decided that I was going
(07:35):
to write the book, UM, I was with one of
my clients and Spirit just said to me, like, you know,
they should write your UM forward. You should ask them
right your forward. And I was like uh, and They're
like no, And so I asked them, all right my foreword.
They wrote my foreword and I just wanted to just
read UM. One of my favorite the whole thing is
(07:57):
my favorite. But this was something and that I really
loved UM. So it says Tracy has been instrumental in
teaching me about intricacies of performing in front of the camera.
I never step foot on a film set without her
as a musician. I'm very headstrong about how I expressed myself.
(08:19):
Nobody tells Buster Rhymes how to write, produce, or deliver
a song. But Tracy has showed me the importance of
taking direction, knowing when to improv and knowing when not to,
understanding when to listen and when to voice my own
opinion about a role. This has proved invaluable to me
when working with directors, writers and other artists. Tracy has
(08:41):
also given me the courage to begin developing and writing
my own projects. It's because of her encouragement and guidance
that I've explored so many uncharted territories. So that was
from Mr. Buster Rhymes, and I was so grateful, And
those words were new to me. I feel excuse me
after of a connection. I never heard those words. So
(09:02):
that was such a blessing. Okay, so we're gonna dive
into this because I got ten chapters. So, um, I'm
really big. You guys know this on quotes, and so
I always have a quote and I want to share
this one with you. Um. So chapter one is called
getting your foot in the Door. There are three types
(09:25):
of people in the world, those who make things happen,
those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.
Anonymous So getting your foot in the door for me
starts with before you start rehearsing lines, preparing your Oscar
Award winning speech, really having an honest conversation with yourself
(09:50):
about this journey in being an actor. And if you
have issues with people taking pictures of you, or if
you have shoes um with you know, having to learn
lines uh and memorization in a day or two. There
are certain things that you have to be honest with
(10:11):
yourself and say, maybe this isn't the job for me.
The most important for me is patients because regardless of
how anxious you are to get an agent to get
on the set, it's not going to happen until you're ready.
And when you get on the set, the assumption is
(10:31):
that you're working actor. So nobody's gonna take your hand
and walk you around set and say get your mark
and first teammates. This no expectations, so that you know this.
So there's a lot of work involved in being an actor,
and you need to have that private conversation with yourself
(10:51):
as to whether or not you have the stamina to
do this. And there's energy that takes up time that
you guys need to delete, right, So energy like um,
you may get mad. Let's be honest. Some people get mad.
You may get mad that you did not get that
role and you harp about it. That energy has wasted.
(11:12):
You have no time to harp. Take another class, work
on your monologue, join an actor's troupe. But keep moving
and improving. Oh holt, that might be another book, Elsa.
Keep moving and improving on your craft. You have to
work on your craft. So my biggest, biggest, biggest jewel
(11:35):
to give you from this chapter one is really be
honest with yourself and understand what it means to be
a working actor. And you know, if you like one
of my guests, I love him on Inside the Black
Box is Mark Quan Smith. He is executive producer, creator
of Godfather of Harlem. And he said, if you don't
(11:58):
like the taste of raw the noodles like consistently, this
might not be the gig for you. You are not
always going to have Mr Child's um money to to,
you know, eat at his restaurant. So are you prepared
for that? When I first came to New York, a
lot of New York actors who are very successful today.
(12:19):
I remember in New York like you can sort of
delay the eviction process, and so you know they knew
the whole process and the court system to avoid all
of these things. So, I mean there's just a lot
of uncertainty, and you have to be able to really
believe that you have a safety, that that's fair to
(12:41):
catch you, and that this is what you're supposed to do. Okay, Um,
that's from chapter one. I also talk about in chapter one. Um,
you know definitions, because it's important that you guys are educated.
This is called show business. It's not show art or
show craft, and so you want to know the terminology
and the burbage that we use in this industry. Okay,
(13:06):
so um, and then you know what an open call
is as opposed to a schedule. But of course this
was written in two thousand four when we had live auditions,
and now we have self tapes. There's still a bunch
of stuff that you can apply from this book to
yourself tapes. Um, same thing. The purpose is to have
(13:27):
a successful audition, and there's principles in here to show
you that the exercise. I'm just randomly choose an exercise
in chapter one. So in chapter one, I have questions
like this where I say describe your plan for your
acting career. And then I have you know, these lines
(13:48):
for you guys, and you can't see it, um, you
have to purchase the book. So I have these lines
where you can write. There's something I'm a writer and
authentic writer, pen to paper, and there's something about the
relationship to me with the pen and paper and you
writing and commitment. So I just wanted to encourage my
(14:10):
students to write more and write with pens and papers. Um.
So moving on to chapter two. Chapter two is called
check in with yourself. If you have no confidence in self,
you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence,
you have one even before you started, Marcus Garvey. So
(14:34):
chapter two and checking in with yourself is also about,
you know, for me, the spirit, it's it's really the
internal check in. Continuing on the thought of being honest
and having a self talk about being on this journey
checking in and especially now with the pandemic and you know,
(14:55):
just a lot of energy that's heightened. It's important to
check in with your mental, your physical, and your spiritual
and just to feel like you're aligned, feel like you
have some footing and grounding that um. Just substained to
you because not everybody is handling or experiencing this pandemic
(15:17):
in a way that is strong, um, you know, hopeful.
So we have to be conscious of that, and we
have to be conscious of that for ourselves as well.
So for me, checking in is so important to create
some sort of ritual. Um, whether it's like I love
I found something on Instagram where this woman was talking
(15:39):
about self care and she has this ritual of burning
a candle um setting up her bath and it just, uh,
it was so relaxing and just watching it. You need
to quiet your mind. Uh, you need to settle your soul.
A lot of times act yours get panic attacks, uh
(16:02):
doing self tapes, especially if your agent or your manager
or actors access reaches out and says, you know, it's
a Wednesday and your audition is due Thursday at five pm.
That could cause a little anxiety and stress if you're
not prepared for something like that. So knowing that that
really exists in the industry, that should give you a
(16:25):
little little a little comfort, you know. Like, and people
complain to me sometimes actors will say it's the last minute.
I'm like, no, it's not the last minute. It's my
job as a casting director to put the sides together
for you, to choose the sides, and to distribute the sides.
I can't do that until the director of the producer
released that. So if it looks like the last minute,
(16:47):
it's not the last minute for us, because we believe
her actors and you should be prepared and ready at
all time and any time. And that's what training does.
So create some thing for yourself or you know, do
do something for yourself once a day, you know, like
if you want to go to Starbucks, if you want
(17:08):
to walk through the park to get home instead of
taking the bus or the train, like breathing in some
clean air. We again being conscious that it is COVID
and certain things are limited, but really really make sure
that you take time and celebrate or embrace yourself every day, right,
not depending or relying on anybody else. We have to
(17:31):
do it for ourselves. Self care is imperative, imperative, and
when we see that someone else is out of alignment,
you know, it's important that we check in and just
make sure, you know, we help as much as we
can or do whatever it is that we can. So
that's checking in with this yourself and understanding also the business.
(17:54):
A lot of times actors are like, I want to
be famous. Um, okay, well this is what I'll say.
When you do great work, you attract attention. Okay. So
what that means is that people will see you. Casting
directors will see you, directors, producers will see you. And
the more they see you, the more you will get
(18:16):
the ability to showcase your talent and showcase your work.
So it's really super important that you guys understand what
it means to be famous. Okay, don't be concerned about
being famous, be concerned about doing great work. That's what
you want to do. I work with actors to be
great actors, not to be famous. Your work will speak
(18:39):
of that. Okay. So in terms of an exercise for
chapter two, okay, what are your fears? What are your fears?
And you have room to list it and and this
is yours, So if you choose to share it, that's
your decision. But this is yours, and you should be
(18:59):
honest with yourself and list your fears. And sometimes you know,
you might list something that you confronted for the first time,
that you've really confronted for the first time. As actors,
all of your experiences are jewels, because when it's time
for you to create these carriacters and be these characters,
you can pull from your your tool kit. You can
(19:21):
pull from Oh, I remember when I was in the
village and this woman was walking in a certain way.
This character, she has a physical element in her leg
I'm going to walk this way. I'm going to use
that walk that I remember. Or when I was on
subway and I was eavesdropping on conversation, this woman had
an interesting stutter and I remembered it. So I'm going
(19:43):
to incorporate it in this character because this character stutters.
So it's important that you lock these things in. And
you know, some traumatic things that have occurred in our lives,
we we don't want to live those experiences again. However,
as actors, there's an understanding and an authenticity of that pain.
(20:05):
And if your character is in pain, then you have
that You can relate to that pain and you can
be that pain, be in that pain of your character. Okay,
so I like that one. What are your fears? Just
again honest with yourself. So this one is number three.
Failure is lack of preparation. There are no secrets to success.
(20:31):
It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning
from failure. Callin pal Fat recissily. So what I talked
about in this chapter is how you need to prepare.
It's still like sometimes I say to myself, Oh, Tracy,
you don't need to teach anymore. These actors are working
(20:52):
and they're doing these things right. And then I go
to a session or a class and just recently and
an actress said to me, well, it's just say in mine.
So what I'm gonna do is I'll memorize the lines
first and then I'll schedule a session with you. And
I said, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what
it is. Memorizing lines if you don't do the work
(21:14):
to understand what the journey of your character is and
if we have any parallels there. Right, So if my
character went to let's say, my character went to Catholic school,
uh and went through Catechism, Now that's a story that
I am very familiar with. I don't know why I
(21:34):
said it, but I am very familiar with it. And um,
I would know of that experience of that character going
to Catholic school and the Retinians and blah blah blah blah,
It is so important when you guys get the size
first to read it the first time you read it,
everything action, everything, and then sit back and comprehend it
(21:58):
to yourself. Oh, so this scene is about a scene
that we did in one of our class and sessions.
This uh, man and woman are just drawn to each
other and they have this amazing energy and they come
together only to find out that he's married. But you
have to understand, as a man playing this character, the
(22:23):
psyche of a man who approaches a woman at his wedding.
I forgot to include that at his wedding to see
her yet because he's attracted her and he just got married.
Like that's like beyond cheating one to one. That sounds
the whole ava. But my point is you need to
understand why your characters behave the way they do, and
(22:45):
so in creating a character breakdown. If you don't have
the full script, you have the freedom to create it.
So you can say, well, his father was a serial adulter,
and um, he saw his mother go through this and stuff.
But he was like, oh, well, you know it's kind
of cool growing up like because when he was a teenager. Well,
(23:07):
you just build a script sides are blueprints. It's your
job as an actor to add the utteries and the
muscle and build these characters from the information that you have.
So that's all preparation. That's all preparation, and that's what failure.
Lack of failure is when actors don't do the work
(23:29):
and they come in and they just read the lines,
or they now in self tape, they're just reading lines
back and forth. You say your life, I say my line.
And that's not how we live in real life. So
training is going to tell you that, because that's where
you're gonna learn how to do the work, to prepare.
So um, this is one of my favorite chapters because
(23:52):
you have to understand, Okay, we're gonna do a part
two on this, and I'm so excited because that went
by really fast. I'm gonna give you an exercise from
chapter three, and this is, let me pick a how
much time a day this is preparation. How much time
a day do you devote to your craft? How much
(24:14):
time a day do you craft you just carve out
for Let me work on my monologue, let me work
on a scene. Those things, and and and more importantly,
more than anything else, read aloud every single day. Give
used to other people's words in your mouth. Not everybody
speaks how you speek, and you have to be comfortable
(24:36):
with that hearing it and coming out in your mouth.
I just want to say I had a pleasure of
pleasure sharing excerpts of my chapter with you, um chapters
The Spirited Actor Principles for a Successful Audition by Tracy Moore,
and you can purchase that at author house dot com
(24:57):
or Amazon dot com or I forgot, aren't noful. So
I so appreciate, love your support, and really take the
time and just constantly be in in this checking in mode,
checking in how you feel, gauging how you feel about
(25:18):
a self tape, gauging how you feel about, you know,
taking your classes. Just check in and know that dreams
do come true. They really do come true. And it's
not your your job to know when that's gonna happen
or how it's gonna happen. You do the work it
is going to happen, because all of this right now
(25:40):
is a part of the happening. It is happening. Okay, Wow,
that went by so fast. Okay, So I want to say,
now I know my my students and I trust that
you guys have documented things that I've said, so I'm
grateful we are going to and I'm really excited we
(26:00):
have a monologue for you guys in Class and Session.
So when we come back to the Spirited Actor Podcast
with me, Tracy Moore, Elsa Lathan, our casting director is
going to introduce our monologue done by a Spirited Actor alumna.
Welcome back to the Spirited Actor Podcast with me, Tracy Bard.
(26:21):
I'm so excited because Class and Session today is a monologue.
So I want and you guys put dance together for
casting director, and you guys need to send your pictures
and resumes to Elsa Lathan. Put you rance together for
we refer to here as wonder woman. Elsa Lathan. Hey, Hey, hey, hey,
(26:44):
so Elsa, what do we have today today? We're so
excited we have a the Spirited Actor Podcast newvie today.
He is one of our Spirited Actor alumni. Okay is
a wonderful actress. And we have miss Tatiman today. Yeah,
(27:10):
welcome to Thank you, thank you for having to me.
I really appreciate you guys asking me to come through.
I truly appreciate it. I appreciate you being here because um,
you know, as a casting director, it's very challenging for
us to turn off like um, and we don't want
to turn off that that that instinct of we feel
(27:32):
connected and we and actors resonate with us. And when
you did your monologue and class, I was like, you
have to come on and do this monologue. Yeah, yeah,
so tell us what the name of the monologue is
and okay, um, it is from the show I May
Destroy You. So take a breath and whenever you are ready. Well,
(27:58):
Bob probably does think you're crazy. He he thinks all
this is a little bit much in this whole personal
space thing is taken it a bit too far. And
he's he's confident in his in his point of view
because he's gone exploring to see what boundaries and violations
(28:23):
women are going on about. Because Bob is thorough and
in his exploration, he found the line that separates himself
from everyone else, and rather than crossing that line, he
tiptoes on it. And he's experienced the feeling of being
(28:47):
on the border, on the boundary, right on the line
of neither being in one place or another. And he's
seen that in that gray area where nothing is quite
clear here. No one can be clear. So we can't articulate,
(29:09):
and and and we fuddle our words, and we can't
quite pinpoint what it is he did that we felt
was so wrong. So, yeah, he thinks you're crazy. Yeah
he thinks he's the smartest man in the room who
knows all things. Because Bob has observed the details, it's
(29:36):
time that we start observing Bob and letting him know
that we too see the details. Oh, we see you, Bob.
And because we see you, were right there with you,
tiptoeing on the line, right behind you, and in that
place where rules and clarity and laws and separations cease
(30:03):
to exist, will show you exactly what we mean by violation.
See applause, applause to show absolutely excellent, excellent. The thing
that I love in the beginning is that I could
(30:23):
honestly turn the volume down and enjoy watching you just
as much as I enjoy hearing the dialogue that you say,
thank you. You've made such an incredible connection with who
you're talking to. The clarity of how I feel that
person and feels based on your reactions, based on your breasts,
(30:47):
based on your emphasis, is like I mean it was chilling.
And the way you were so calculating to get to
your intention was, which was to expose Bob and let
him know. You may have details, Bob, but we got
details and we're watching you, Bob, and we got some
(31:08):
stuff when you, Bob. So if you want to understand
what violation means, test us to do it again, Bob,
I dare you right? So that's what we felt like
at the end. And it was such an empowering, peaceful woman.
It felt like a woman standing up for herself and
other women. And when we talk about the me Too movement,
like really, seriously, this has been going on for with
(31:32):
women from the first breath of life on this earth.
Women have been abused sexually and you know, so it's
like when you, as a woman are molested, you as
a woman stand up and say no more and you
own your body and you own yourself. That is so powering.
And then to have this this group of women, you know,
(31:53):
this team behind you standing with you like yeah, we
got you, we we got your back. You know. So
I just feel like you, um whatever the experiences that
you've had and been able to um cite for some
of that and and merge it into this monologue. It
makes it so authentic and just so real that I
(32:18):
get lost in knowing it. It's not you, Tisha, Like
right now, it's really interesting because there's two sides to you.
There really clearly is the personality of Tisha and then
whatever character you have body, it's this character right now.
So when you let that character go really quickly, so
are you good to hold onto that minute a little longer?
(32:39):
But when you let that character to go and you went,
see that was t Sha. So to be able to
see that clearly how you morphed into that other character.
I mean, that's what acting and the you use and
the word authenticity, it resonates with me because I'm telling you,
(33:01):
I was I was thinking about this idea of perfection
and I was saying to myself, I don't strive for perfection,
I strive for authenticity. And I was just saying that
to myself the other day. So you said, it warms
the comis of my heart. A new word to do,
(33:23):
and now Spruce is gonna run with that word. Okay.
So thank you again, Tsha. Tisha Hickman Spirit Actor Alumni,
thank you again for such an awesome woman's Thank you
and we're gonna be back with the Spirited Actual Podcast
with me Tracy Moore. I'm going to give you love,
(33:48):
and now it's time forgive love. If I had to choose,
and I do, I would choose to be happy all
the time. I know, trust me. I grew My friends
thought I was crazy, my family thought I was crazy.
But I like being happy. I like feeling happy. I
like laughing. I like the joy of it and how
(34:13):
it just makes everything about your being just light up.
You feel like nothing is impossible, that when you put
your mind to it, you can accomplish anything when you're happy.
And it's not easy for everyone to just adapt and just, uh,
(34:33):
you know, I'm happy. It's a process because I wasn't.
I wasn't. I feel like growing up in San Francisco
in the late sixties early seventies and just seeing a
lot of things happen in my community and just around
the world. It wasn't a happy place. It didn't always
(34:55):
feel like a happy place. It felt like struggle. It
felt like just reas a stance. But I felt like,
regardless of what was happening on the outside, I learned
at a very early age to teach myself to make
sure I felt good on the inside. And somehow, as
I get wiser in my age, I learned that that's good.
(35:20):
That yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on, but
if you can retreat to that happy place, it changes things.
It moves things. So find your happy place, don't forget
to look out for us 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
(35:43):
on Steroids will be streaming on the Crackle network. I'll
keep you posted. Thank you for joining us on the
Spirited Actor Podcast with me Tracy Moore. I look forward
to our next Spirited Podcast. Thank you
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