April 22, 2025 • 61 mins
How do I craft an authentic performance under time constraints? Celebrated acting coach Warner Loughlin joins How We Role to share her revolutionary techniques for preparing roles under tight time constraints, including:
- Quick script analysis & scene arcs
- The patterns of behavior we shouldn't ignore
- Treating auditions as "collaborative meetings" & more
For nearly 3 decades Warner Loughlin has empowered actors. She has coached Emmy, Golden Globe, Tony and Grammy winners, including talents like Oscar-nominee Amy Adams, Glen Powell, Ryan Reynolds, Matt Bomer and White Lotus star Michelle Monaghan to name a few. Known for her warmth and intuitive approach, Warner’s technique shatters the myth that an actor's past emotional traumas must be the fuel or foundation for their work.
Spelled out in her beautiful book The Warner Loughlin Technique: An Acting Revolution, Warner’s method is imaginative, practical and psychologically deep, giving actors a safe and effective way to access emotion and create extremely nuanced and unique performances. Warner studied Contemporary Literature and Shakespeare at Oxford University and received her BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You can find out more about her and her sensational acting studio at www.warnerloughlin.com.
This is - How We Role. Get cast today at castingnetworks.com.
Follow Host, Actor and Producer Robert Peterpaul (Amazon's Sitting in Bars with Cake, The Art of Kindness podcast) on Instagram @robpeterpaul and learn more at robertpeterpaul.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Warner Loughlin, I'm 5'3" and I'm an
acting coach, and this is how weRoll.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
When it comes to working in entertainment,
there's a lot of hows, and theyall boil down to how we navigate
this wild industry.
While how we follow our dreamsis uncertain, how we roll along
the way is in our hands.
Welcome to how we Roll, apodcast for actors by Casting
Networks.
Hello actors, it's your friend,robert Peterpaul.
(00:34):
Thank you for tuning back inQuick cue what actors have
inspired you lately.
I've really admired the cast ofthe White Lotus.
I know I'm not alone here.
They chewed up some reallyintense monologues, including
the veteran actor Sam Rockwell.
I recently heard him discussthat he almost didn't take his
supporting role because he wason another project and he felt
(00:57):
like he didn't have enough timeto properly prepare for this one
.
This got my gears turning.
I mean, what even is the idealprep time To me?
Sometimes it feels like I couldnever have enough, and other
times I love not having the timeto overthink.
Anyway, time is not often onour side in this industry, so
(01:19):
it's handy to know how to bringa person to life under tight
time constraints.
A lovely creative who helpsactors do this professionally is
today's guest, famed actingcoach, warner Laughlin.
For nearly three decades,warner Laughlin has empowered
actors.
She has coached Emmy, goldenGlobe, tony and Grammy winners,
(01:43):
including folks like Amy Adams,glenn Powell, matt Bomer and
even White Lotus star, michelleMonaghan.
Known for her warmth andintuitive approach, warner's
technique shatters the myth thatan actor's past emotional
trauma must be the fuel orfoundation of their work.
Spelled out in her beautifulbook, which I highly recommend,
(02:05):
the Warner Laughlin Technique.
Warner's method is imaginative,practical and psychologically
deep, giving actors safe andeffective ways to access emotion
and create extremely nuanced,unique performances.
Warner studied contemporaryliterature and Shakespeare at
Oxford University and receivedher BA from the University of
(02:29):
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
You can find out more about herand her sensational acting
studio at warnerloughlincom.
Warner is a true champion forartists and I hope this
conversation makes you feelempowered.
This is how we roll with rolepreparation under tight time
(02:52):
constraints, featuring WarnerLaughlin and I.
Warner, I'm so glad to share aspace with you today.
Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Robert, I'm so glad to see you.
You do so much for actors.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, right, back at you.
I admire you immensely, as I'vealready told you before we
started recording here, and,like many other actors, I have
just been transformed by yourrevolution, your book, the
Warner Laughlin Technique.
If you don't have this book,get up.
Well, pause this drive safelyand go buy it.
We're just on Amazon, right?
I guess we don't have to go tobookstores anymore, but I love
(03:35):
bookstores.
I'm really rambling, but thankyou, warner, I'm so excited to
connect with you today.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Me too you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That's so sweet.
I like that was much moresuccinct than me.
I'm like well, we're going tofocus on something today that's
in your treasure trove of a book.
It's a bit of a smaller chapter.
There's so much in there, butit's done brilliantly and I
think it's something a lot ofactors will find useful.
So we're going to talk allabout prepping for roles under
(04:03):
tight circumstances, tight timeconstraints, which essentially
is an audition, I guess, or, ifwe're lucky, a last minute
booking.
So we're going to really kindof fast track, breathing life
into a role.
How does that sound?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sounds amazing and like such a fun, good and very
needed topic, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I think so too.
It's a question I get a lot ishow do I prepare for an audition
very quickly?
And one of the things I reallylove about your work just to get
some context here is thatyou're one of us.
You started out as an actor,once an actor, always an actor,
I think.
And so, before we kind of divein, I would love if you could
tell listeners this fantasticstory of how you kind of
(04:46):
organically took a little U-turnfrom your actor path into the
coaching lane.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Which if you had asked me, you know years ago.
If you had said years agoyou're going to be an acting
coach, I would have gone.
What it was?
Completely by accident, afriend of mine who's a manager
asked me to lunch.
We were just good buddies.
He wasn't my manager.
(05:12):
So I went to his office, we hadlunch and he goes oh, warner
Warner, I've got this actor.
He cannot book.
He's so talented but he can'tbook a job.
Would you please work with him?
And I said I'm not a coach, Ican't.
I'm an actor, I'm not a coach,I don't know.
I said, plus, I do somethingreally odd.
(05:32):
I've got this well, it's notodd, but it's a little bit
different acting technique.
And he goes just do it for me.
So I relented, I said yes, okay,I'll work with him.
I worked with him and I hadforgotten something in his
office.
And so three days after that Iran back up to his office to
(05:54):
retrieve it and he's on thephone and he he said he gives me
this finger up and he puts thephone on speakerphone and he
goes.
Can you say that again?
And he was on the phone tocasting.
I'm like please don't say itwas me, because the casting
director said who coached him?
I'm like, don't say it was me,it was me.
(06:15):
Because I'm like, did he tankcasting is like we're gonna
freaking give him the job anyway.
That casting director ended upsending people to me and I would
just tell them I'm an actor,I'm not a coach, but come on
over.
I'll help you out, which isexactly how the whole studio
(06:35):
started.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I love that, and I know you weren't even charging
people at first, which I justthink speaks to how passionate
you are about it think speaks tohow passionate you are about it
.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I just love to see people fly.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It floats my boat a lot more than when I booked a
job.
Yeah, I feel the same.
I love that, and over the yearsyou kind of fleshed out this
technique.
I guess that you had in yourhead.
I'm sure that was a process ofactually taking it out of your
head and then translating it toeverybody else.
I know it's hard for a lot ofactors to kind of conjure up and
think about what they're evendoing, and I sort of feel like
most of us try the big standardmethods you know, and then we
(07:12):
kind of cobble together our ownthing.
Yours is so beautiful because,again, it's so tangible, so
accessible, it makes it so easyand fun and it kind of boils it
down to my favorite thing, whichis imagination, playing with
our imaginations.
We're all just kids in theplayground, so can you please
just give listeners like aReader's Digest version of this
(07:32):
beautiful technique that we'regoing to touch on today?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Thank you, Robert, so much.
We all start with what's on thepage.
What does the writer give us?
And we are like littledetectives trying to find out
who is this person and whatmakes this person tick.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yes, I have a magnified glass right here.
I wish I did.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right.
So we start with the givens.
Just what are the facts?
What are the facts?
Where does this take place?
What genre is it?
Who is this person I'm about toplay?
Uh, where does he or she fitinto the scope of everything?
Then we go to the howls ofbehavior.
How is the character behaving?
(08:10):
Is he or she behavingdismissively in the face of
relationships or, um, is thischaracter guarded or is this
character very aggressive?
I mean any number of things.
But we take the dialogue and welook at the howls of behavior,
and then we start, ourimaginations start to fly and we
(08:31):
go hmm, I wonder, perhapsbecause why, what are this
character's?
Maybe issues back in theiryounger lives?
And then we this is such thenutshell version but in the
younger life, what might havehappened to this character to
make them the adult that theyare today?
(08:53):
What were the circumstancesbehind it?
What events, life events didthey lead that brought them to
be the person they are today?
Which helps us kind of get outof ourselves and into somebody
else's skin and their hearts andthoughts.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and you're all about that.
I think the book opens with aquote about seeing through
someone else's eyes instead ofsort of like making it about you
.
That's trickled throughout thebook and you know it's been such
a hit, this technique.
Again, I love the book.
I know so many people do.
You've had such success withyour studio as it organically
developed.
I do need to touch on the factthat you've also had success in
(09:33):
regards to the people you'recoaching, like Amy Adams and
Ryan Reynolds, to the studentsat your studio.
Again, I know, like an Amy anda Ryan, they're probably not
auditioning anymore.
I think they've earned that,but they might still have to
prep for a role really quickly.
And so, before we get into likethe granular details of that I
can never say that word, I don'tknow why I always choose it
(09:56):
Granular, that could be like awarm up Irish wristwatch,
granular you know what commonhabits or mindsets have you seen
that set people that we allsort of maybe worship and give
Oscars to apart while preparingfor roles?
Have you seen like a commonthread with those folks?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It is the same with the Oscar winners that I coach,
as it is with any other actor.
There is no huge differencebetween.
I mean, we're all actors, soevery actor, even the ones that
we think, oh, they know it all.
(10:37):
There's no difference.
Everybody still gets a littlenervous on day one of shooting.
Everybody still feels like haveI prepped enough?
Have I done enough?
Do I know this character?
It's the same feeling.
I don't think we ever get ridof that feeling in our whole
(10:58):
lives.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You know you're reminding me too of something in
the book that I won't spoil,but there's this wonderful
metaphor with a vase wheresomeone puts marbles in and they
say is it full?
And then they pour sand overthat and they say now is it full
?
And it's sort of what we'regoing to touch on today.
I think putting just themarbles into a jar, let alone
all the other stuff, can beenough.
It's like it'll never be enoughif you keep pushing yourself.
(11:21):
So let's kind of roll into thisquick role preparation process,
starting at level one.
Okay Ding, I just got a littleCasting Networks notification
that I have an audition due in aday.
Warner, I got a lot to do todayalready.
I have to break this down.
So I have the sides, I have theemail from casting.
(11:41):
What would you recommend I dofirst, before anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay, this is all, depending on how much time do
you have.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Let's say I have just a day or two.
It's like a TV film situation.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Okay, plenty of time for an audition.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Plenty of time.
Yeah, first of all, let's don'tpanic.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, okay, unclench my arms, shake all, let's don't
panic.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Okay, okay, unclench my arms shake it out.
If you've gotten script, readit, because sometimes when you
just look at sides, there's sucha standalone thing that the
script will give us so much morein terms of tone, where the
character fits in with all theother players and all of that.
(12:26):
So it's super important, if youcan and if you have time, to
read that script.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Because you could read the script and just kind of
look at your sides like we allwant to rush to our scenes and
not realize in the other scenesmaybe there's characters calling
the I mean characters aninteresting word, but there's
other characters calling yourcharacter, you know, like an
a-hole or something, and so yougo like, oh, maybe he's not a
nice person, right?
So that's a smart idea to tryand gather all that information.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You get so many more little jewels when you do that.
Yeah.
And sometimes I read scriptsjust for fun.
Yeah, I know that's nerdy, butyeah.
But yeah, you get so much moreum information when you do that,
so first of all, do that now.
Sometimes we don't have thescript right.
We got to go to that characterbreakdown that casting gives us.
(13:16):
I sometimes take thosebreakdowns with a little tiny
grain of salt because you're notquite sure who might have
written those.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, and sometimes they don't have the full script
either.
The person writing those?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Right right, but it does give us a little flavor and
a flair.
I also read all the othercharacters, because sometimes in
a breakdown they'll have allthe other characters listed so
you can kind of get an idea ofthings.
They'll have a loglinestoryline.
Usually that gives us moreclues.
I always look at who'sproducing, who's directing and
(13:57):
who's casting, because well,first of all, casting directors
are your best buds.
I know we tend to see them asthey can keep us from getting a
job.
Maybe we should look at themlike they can help us get a job
right, yeah.
But different casting directorstend to like different things.
(14:18):
Things like I know some castingdirectors like really kind of
low-key performances, some, uh,like a little more enthusiastic,
whatever.
But no, no, casting directorsand what they cast um directors
know what they've done before,so all of those things can give
(14:40):
us little clues as to what we'reabout to do right.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I love that Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Now we've read the script.
Okay, we've looked at thebreakdown.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Wait, let's stop at this first script to read, if
you don't mind, Because, Warner,you touch on something that I
know to be true.
And yet every time I read ascript for the first time, I
have to fight myself not tostart sort of reading the lines
as if I think I'm already thecharacter.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Thank you.
Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, talk to me about that please.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We need to read the script at arm's length and the
signs at arm's length, meaningread it as if you were going to
tell a friend of yours about it.
Be a detective, remove yourselfa little bit, because you can
be far more objective when weremove ourselves a bit right.
Otherwise, we tend to fall intothings like oh, I know how that
(15:34):
should sound, or how did I saythis?
Or oh, I felt like that, I justfelt like that last week,
things like that.
We want to kind of avoid that.
So we want to be as objectiveas possible in the beginning,
because, again, you'll get farmore clues.
Yeah, yeah, we don't want tomake ready decisions at that
point.
We want to see the overallpicture of things.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And that goes to, I think, for being a co star on a
show, a guest star or any lastminute booking.
You don't know what thedirector has in mind.
So if you go there with youridea, you know I did a film once
where the whole scene was basedaround the sun setting and then
we got there and production hadbeen running way behind and
there was no sun setting.
So they're like just improvisekind of, throw it all out there,
(16:17):
and if you're so married toyour ideas, it makes it really
hard to kind of be flexible.
So, married to your ideas, itmakes it really hard to kind of
be flexible.
So I like that.
The first approach, the firstread, is very big picture.
Just we're storytelling, we'relearning the story, not the
person.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You are so smart.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh, I read your book Warner.
Okay, that's what makes me haveany sort of knowledge, any
brain cells.
What's your advice, kind of?
Also, there's another peskyurge in the beginning that I
have to fight.
Maybe it's just me, maybe not,but I always have that thought
of what does casting want?
I'm an actor, I can give themanything.
I can give them what they want.
(16:53):
So what's your advice on sortof I know it's better to fight
that and sort of let yourselfshine through and show them your
unique you versus trying topigeonhole yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Right At this point in the stage of the game, when
we say what does casting want,we start to go towards a
result-oriented outcome.
We haven't dug in the characterenough.
Even though we're going to goput this down on tape tomorrow
or walk in the audition roomtomorrow, we haven't dug down
deep enough.
Don't worry about what theywant.
They want you.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's so sweet.
Everybody rewind that replay,that, write it on your walls, so
okay.
So once we've we've read thescene a couple of times, you say
in your book read it as if youhave all the time in the world,
kind of take the pressure off.
You're really wonderful atreminding actors to do that.
I know you recommenddetermining one of the first
things the what.
(17:45):
What type of scene is this?
Is it a breakup?
Are we exchanging money?
Am I buying something?
Is there a different undertone?
Are there certain things actorscan do to really hone in on
that what?
And the point of the scene,Because sometimes our
imaginations can run a littletoo far and we're like no's
really about this, because ofthe other backstory I created,
what's your, what's yoursuggestion there?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
exactly.
Well, first of all, let's startwith genre right, yes, we'll
start with the genre, like isthis a?
It's a horror movie, is it a um, is it comedy?
Is it a dramedy?
What is?
What's the genre here and thatwill tell us the tone, how deep
psychologically is.
Is it a heavy drama or is it alittle bit on the lighter side,
(18:30):
that sort of thing?
Let me see if I can back intothat question.
Robert, ask me again Now.
My mind just went no, that was.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's a.
That's a great way to kind ofget into it there.
You know the, the genre, that'sa good place.
I was thinking.
It's like I always go back tothat thing.
We learned in school early onthe five w's, the who, what,
where, when and why, and youtalk about especially when you
don't have a lot of time, eventhough we're pretending we do
mentally the what is soimportant, because if you can
get have a lot of time, eventhough we're pretending we do
mentally the what is soimportant, because if you can
get that, what sort of therelationships and everything
(19:07):
else stems from there.
So do you have any, I guess,tips on really just like finding
the what, like where is thewhat in a scene when we're
looking at it?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Where is the what?
Yes, well, you can kind of tell.
Is it a breakup scene?
Does my character want to staywith this character?
What is my character trying toget from this other person, or
what is that other person tryingto get from me?
It's really important to seethe arc of the scene.
We never walk in a scene theway we leave it, and it's really
(19:39):
so much easier to tell howwe're leaving the scene.
Am I yelling at this person?
Is he yelling at me?
Yeah.
No, have we made up in thisscene, you know?
So I mean it tells us a lotwhat happens at the end of the
scene.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, you always want somewhere to go right.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Want somewhere to go.
So, however, we walk out ofthat scene is not how we're
going to enter the scene.
However we walk out of thatscene is not how we're going to
enter the scene.
So if it's, for example, if weend up breaking up at the end of
the scene, we have it broken upat the top of the scene.
Does my character want to stayin this relationship?
Does my character want to lethim down gently, or do I love
(20:20):
him or her desperately?
I mean, what is it you know?
So we never enter the way youleave.
So look at the emotion, at theend of the scene first.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, and that's smart for the really sort of
quick co-star roles as well,right, I think that sometimes
sets you apart when you actuallyenter a scene differently.
Let's say you have one line,you're delivering flowers and
you're saying, can you sign forthis?
It's like are're deliveringflowers and you're saying, can I
, can you sign for this?
It's like are you enteringrushed and then maybe leaving a
little bit peeved because theytook your pen or whatever it is.
It's like making those choicesI think is helpful in these
(20:50):
quick roles as well.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yes, there is an actual arc, even in, like a one
line co-star.
Look for it, find it, you'llfind it Right.
One thing thing about co-starswe don't want to be.
Oh, what's the word somebodyused with me once?
Oh, like a ham or stealing thefocus of the scene yeah,
stealing the scene right,stealing the scene you, you are
(21:15):
there to to help progress thescene, and so keeping that in
mind kind of is helpful.
With those one line, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Well, one of the most helpful things for me, one of
my favorite things to do, thatI've learned from you which
sometimes we hear them calledother things in other methods,
but the way you kind of lay itout there again is so accessible
and I've just latched onto itare the givens.
So that's something I alwaysstart with, no matter what the
scene is.
I write down all the givens andthat's so fun to kind of go
(21:47):
through and sort of have againor you can correct me here if
I'm wrong but that like stepback look of just writing down
the facts.
So instead of writing likethey're angry at that point, you
would just write whatever thefact is and leave emotion out of
it.
For now Can you speak to thatprocess at all, because I think
it's such a fun, easy thing forus to do.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yes, and it helps us be a little objective too.
Like the givens might be,upscale Manhattan restaurant
Gives us a clue.
Right, it might be he's dressed, or she's dressed in a cocktail
attire, for instance.
It might be.
These are just the facts.
So when we write down the factsand the reason I like to write
them down is because we'll oftenjust forget them when we're
(22:34):
building character, becauseyou'll be building a character,
then you'll go oh wait, mycharacter was in an upscale
Manhattan restaurant.
How did she get there?
I mean, so writing those factsdown, like she smokes or she
carries a gucci purse little,just little.
(22:55):
Things that you don't thinkabout, things that you know.
Just the facts, ma'am, that youcan prove in a court of law.
Those would be the givens right.
Yes.
Before we get to any kind ofbehavior.
Behaviors would be somethinglike oh, she was rude to the
waiter.
I gotcha, yeah.
When asked if she would like acocktail, she was rude to the
waiter.
She seems rude to the waiter.
(23:18):
That would be a behavior asopposed to a given, which is a
fact, because we're justassuming she was being rude to
the waiter, right.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yes, and the other scene partners, to mention, I
guess, the waiter.
If they're the scene partner,they're helpful for these clues
as well because they're alsoteaching us things.
So writing down all the factsfrom you know the quick
sometimes I'll go back.
I read a side so quick that Idid miss that like intro line
where it says even just sayingwhat time of day or where you
(23:48):
know is it, oh, it's cold, it'soutside.
You know that affects you aswell as a person.
So everything you're sort oftalking about, not just your
character.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Not just your character, everything, and
sometimes your sides will starthalfway down the page.
Everything, and sometimes yoursides will start halfway down
the page.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I always read even if it doesn't have anything to do
with the character.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I always read what's above that before the scene
starts.
It may or may not have anythingto do with my scene at hand or
my character at hand, but alwaysread that, because you never
know what clues you'll get fromthat.
Yeah, I'm going to say justanother thing thing, yeah,
usually casting will give us two, three scenes right after we've
looked at them all and kind ofbuilt character a little bit.
(24:30):
Um, look back at the scenes andnote sometimes they'll have the
scene numbers from the actualscript, so they'll have maybe
scene 22,.
And then your next set of sizemay be scene 94, and your next
set of size may be scene 123.
(24:51):
So you know where it hits inthe screenplay.
So you know that my characterhas changed over time right.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, that's smart time Right and also if it's a
smaller role.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
when you say what is casting looking for, you can
kind of discern oh, this is thehappy light scene, scene number
one.
Scene number two is a littleheavier, a little more dramatic,
so they want to see somethingdifferent from scene one or
scene two.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You got to paint with multiple colors, otherwise it's
just a white wall.
You know, that's a greatreminder.
So while we're sort of in thescript we've been talking about
it a bit already but what do youthink is the most effective way
to really do script analysisduring a time crunch?
I mean, I love that nerdy stuffyou get into the givens but
(25:53):
your method is very specific.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So what would you say to listeners that are in this
situation right now?
Let's just say that it's adrama.
Um, I'm going to look at myrelationship to the other
characters in the scene.
I do Does.
Do I feel like I've known theseother characters a long time?
If not, um, when did I meetthem?
How important are they to me?
(26:14):
Um, I might do a little bit ofwhat we call flashes, which is
just a little bitty memories andmaking up stories about how I
know this person.
Where did we meet?
What's our relationship beenlike?
If it's a long relationship, Imight go to different flashes of
him asking me out for the firsttime, our first dinner date, or
(26:40):
him meeting my parents, or usgoing on a vacation Just little
tiny memories that you build inthere.
Yeah, we call those flashes,but if you haven't read the book
, you don't necessarily have toread the book to do those.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, and it's similar to.
I mean, the way you break itdown is different, but I would
say it's akin to maybe abackstory, except instead of
writing it down, you actuallysit there and kind of go through
it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You're imagining it.
I mean, some people love towrite things down.
I think it's much more valuable, especially when you don't have
time, to imagine scenario inyour mind and make it vivid with
, incorporate in yourimagination smells and maybe
(27:28):
touch and taste and that sort ofthing that can help you really
feel like it's a memory of thisperson no-transcript life.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
because of this, I feel like it's a really helpful
life skill.
So thank you.
As humans, we're all eitherrepeating patterns from our
childhood or trying to mend themperhaps.
So I guess let's break down mypatterns right now.
No, I'm just kidding.
So I love how you kind of applythese patterns to your
technique.
Can you speak to that?
(28:33):
I know, in a quick preparationprocess you may not have as much
time to focus on that, but youmight as much time to focus on
that, but you might, but youmight, you just might.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
We seek to repeat that that we've known since
childhood, or we seek to repair.
So it's either repeat or repair.
So if you're doing a character,and this character is harsh
towards a child, for example,and this character is harsh
towards a child, for example,you can pretty much assume that
in your quick backstory you'regoing to make because we only
(29:10):
have until tomorrow- In thequick backstory, you might go
back into your character'schildhood and go oh, how did my
mom treat me?
Because this character now isrepeating that pattern.
We seek to repeat that thatwe've known since childhood.
Or there are times when, as anadult, we will realize the
patterns that we experienced inchildhood and we'll go oh, I'm
(29:33):
not going to do that anymorewhich will cause a very
different adult behavior right.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So someone who might've been abused as a child
may you know, physically abusedas a child may now go.
Oh, I'm going to make sure totreat everyone with kindness.
They may end up being a peoplepleaser.
They may end up you know ahundred different things, but it
does give us an insight intothe lives that we've led in the
(30:00):
past, because everything thathappened to us in our childhood
and in our formative yearsshapes who we are today, how we
treat people, how we view theworld, how we look at the world.
That's why creating that littlebackstory for your character
can help you solidly be anotherperson, rather than just going
from our own life experiences,because that character may have
(30:24):
similarities to you, but thatcharacter isn't you, with your,
with the life that you've led.
Yeah, the two lives may cross,which is, which is nice, but
it's not exactly the same.
Right, it'll be much morepowerful, and it helps with too,
because when we have to beourselves, we can.
(30:45):
It's like we want to put upthis little shield and go no,
you're right.
But when we're a character, it'smuch easier to be a character.
You're much freer being acharacter.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, I come to that clip.
I think it honestly was anadvertisement for that
masterclass online platform withHelen Mirren, where she walks
into the room and sits down andshe says what I did is one of
the hardest things to do walkinto a room as yourself.
(31:17):
Again, there's heaps and heaps.
It's pretty much every page.
But I loved reading about howAmy Adams took her Catch Me, if
you Can character Brenda out fora little spin to prepare for
the role she put on prostheticsI think dental braces.
She changed her hair, she usedan accent, like a little
Southern accent, went to adepartment store, and so I feel
like doing that can really upthe stakes.
(31:38):
I remember after I read it, Idid it for the next thing I was
preparing for and it was.
It was fun because you're likeyou know you have to really
commit to the bit.
Do you recommend those sorts ofexercises to people, even if
they don't have much time?
Is that?
Is that something you wouldrecommend everybody trying out
there?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sure, why not?
I mean, you can.
You can wash dishes as thecharacter.
You don't even have to go outof your place, you can vacuum.
That sounds awful, doesn't?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
it.
Hey, mrs Doubtfire, that's oneof the most iconic scenes.
Is Robin Williams vacuuming?
Look at that.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Good job, I hadn't even thought of that.
You can brush your teeth withthe character thoughts.
What that is is just gettingthe character thoughts into your
body.
Character thoughts are huge.
Character thoughts can save usfrom so much Speaking of
auditions before the scenehappens.
We want to always be sure wehave a character thought in our
(32:35):
mind.
And I love to call that the hardinner monologue, the prior
instant thought, meaning what ismy character thinking exactly
and the words that my characteris thinking it before the scene
starts.
We can't think a personalthought and a character thought
at the same time, right?
You can't think a Robertthought and a character thought
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
My brain will try Warner.
Okay, you can.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Our brains try, because our brains before an
audition, whether that be inperson or we're putting
ourselves down on tape, is oh,I'm having such a bad hair day.
Or why did I wear this?
Oh, should I have one, should Ihave?
Oh, my makeup looks oh,whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Triggered.
Yes, yeah, triggered right.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
We think all these thoughts.
So to keep us from doing thatand to keep us centered on the
character, this is this is goodfor shooting as well, huge for
shooting you have to.
Well, it will help you to havethat character thought.
It might be something as simpleand I love to keep them simple
(33:37):
like should I go in that roomnow, or whatever your
character's thinking, it dependson what's going on in the
beginning of the scene obviouslyno-transcript, so on the day
(34:50):
and then they may choose adifferent one on the day when
they're shooting.
If a director wants to go in adifferent direction in the scene
, it helps if you change yourprior instant thought, your
character's exact thought before, because whatever your
character is thinking in thebeginning of the scene, that's
what's going to get you out ofthe gate into the scene.
(35:13):
And it will take you out of thegate and into the scene in a
whole different direction if youchange that prior instant
thought.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I love that.
I think that's so tangible andfun.
Would you say that's somethingyou derive again from the text,
or is it something you just trydifferent options of?
Because obviously we're goingto enter a scene very
differently if we just got aticket because we sped here and
we're running late, versus youknow whatever else we were
thinking about, and then we'recoming in thinking, oh, that
police officer got me, you know.
(35:41):
So where would you say the bestplace?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
to find these is.
It depends on what's going onin the beginning of the scene.
Is my character nervous aboutwalking into this room?
Then the prior instant thoughtmight be something along the
lines of why did I wear thisRight?
Yeah, is the character give meanother, for instance, and I'll
(36:05):
give you a prior instance?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Oh, I love this.
This is fun.
Okay, everybody also think ofone at home.
And if we get the same one, youwin a free Casting Networks
membership.
No, I'm just kidding, I can'tpromise that.
I'm so sorry.
Okay, so let's say I'm in thescene is hungry.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And is not allowed to eat in the scene.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yes, they're going to be signing their mortgage for
an hour and they're not to beable to leave the room Signing
their new home lawyer things.
Okay, Ooh, is that from?
Is that from her?
Is that because I just had todo?
That Warner baby.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I love that so much.
It's like well, if I don't eatnow, I don't have time to go to
the deli down the street.
Oh God, okay, don't let mefaint.
Yeah, that's a good priori,simple.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's fine.
Okay, that's a really greatexercise.
I hope everybody tries that outat home before their next
audition and I think it canshake the nerves, like we were
saying.
You know, speaking of nerves,obviously it can kind of make or
break how a situation goes.
Even if you're in yourapartment with your partner
recording, you know it's thesame.
That brings a different energy.
(37:18):
Even if you go into a room andyou're with a casting director,
it can always change theaudition.
So do you have any other go-tostrategies for actors to kind of
help them stay grounded andmaybe walk in a bit more
confident?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Let's if we could talk about mindset for just a
minute.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Oh, please, that's what I'm dancing around.
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yay, we want to think just the word audition is like
make or break.
This is going to depend on if Ican pay my rent or pay my
mortgage, or this is going tomake the difference in my career
.
No one audition is going to.
We don't that out of oursystems.
(38:00):
Yes, it's an audition, butlet's call it a collaborative
meeting.
Let's think of the audition asthe gig and let's think of it
not as we're going to go in thatroom to get something or I'm
going to go on tape to getsomething.
Let's think of it as I'm goingto do this to give something.
So it's giving, it's notexpecting anything back from it,
(38:23):
and I think that's huge.
I was just talking with a girlyesterday.
As a matter of fact, she's likegosh, auditions are so hard now
because they're few and farbetween for me right now.
And she said when I was alittle younger I might have 10 a
week and it was like nothing.
I just go do it, I do the nextone, I do the next one.
And I think sometimes we placetoo much importance on any one
(38:48):
thing, any one audition, so itbecomes so vitally important
that, oh, he just sees up Like Ihave to be good, I have to be
good, I have to be good.
Rather than getting back to thebasics of let me get this
character down as much as I havetime to do, and then I'm going
to go either on tape probably ontape these days.
(39:10):
Yeah.
I'm going to remember my priorinstant thoughts because that's
hugely important.
The first little bit thatcasting sees you leaves a
psychological impression.
So that prior instant thought Ithink is huge.
But I'm going to play and I'mgoing to enjoy this character
and I'm going to have fun.
(39:31):
This is the gig.
It's the gig.
Another thing about nerves.
I mean sometimes you know ourhands will sweat, so I've got an
errant hair that will just notleave me alone.
Me too.
Sometimes we get cotton mouth,we'll get sweaty palms and
(39:51):
you'll go God, don't be nervous,don't be nervous, don't be
nervous.
The only thing our brain hearsis nervous.
So if we just breathe inthrough the nose, out through
the mouth, if we just breathe inthrough the nose, out through
the mouth, plant your feet,ground yourself and then go oh
look, how excited I am, becausethe body doesn't know the
difference between nerves andexcitement.
(40:12):
Sometimes yeah.
So, the more we try to deny,don't be nervous.
Don't be nervous, you're goingto be.
Yeah, you're fighting.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
I love that little switcheroo flipping the script.
You know, I always find itamazing Speaking of scripts.
It's like you can have the samescript, the same side, in your
hand and you could have it foran audition, or you could have
it after someone says you gotthe part and it's the same
script.
You're doing maybe the samething, but it's just that.
Yes, that changes maybe howit's delivered and it's all.
(40:42):
This stuff is like apsychological experiment.
You can be in the same room,but the person behind the table
is completely confident eatinglunch just themselves, and
you're, you know, like a basketcase.
So all this stuff is so helpfulbecause it's again, we need
those like little I guess I callthem not not life vests, but
like little floaties that we canjump onto in the sea.
(41:03):
I don't know why.
I needed a metaphor.
Yeah, we need floaties.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I like your metaphor, though I like your metaphor, so
treat the audition as if it'sthe job.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I'm writing that down .
You know all this said.
I think if we could distillmaybe this into like a short and
sweet three-step, evenpreparation checklist for actors
, like what would you say?
Their top three must do thingsto hit to kind of make sure
you're bringing a character tolife in a very short amount of
time.
It can be the things we'vecovered, but are there three
(41:35):
that you that stick out to you?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
know the genre.
Create a quick backstory.
Never enter the scene the wayyou leave it.
Have some fun.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Oh, I love the last one.
That's why I play Dolly Partonbefore auditions sometimes,
because she gets me going.
I love it.
Yeah Well, now we're going togo two doors down to play a
little game called CastingKeywords, so this will be fun.
I'm going to throw out somekind of statements or topics
surrounding actors and rolepreparation, and you please say
(42:10):
the first piece of advice thatpops into your head.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
It's kind of like a Rorschach test, right.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
A little bit.
Yes, we are going to have a lotof information about you after
this is done, no, so okay, allright.
So they're going to be a lot ofinformation about you after
this is done now.
So, okay, all right.
So they're going to be random,but, again, like, the whole goal
is to give actors tangibleadvice, which you're really good
at, so I think you'll be great.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Okay, dialects don't feel as if you have to use the
dialect in an audition, if youfeel that it holds you back from
the character.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
That's good, okay, warmups.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
It depends on if it's an in-person audition or a
self-tape.
I think breathing is hugelyimportant for warmups.
Sometimes we need a vocalwarmup, but I think definitely
breathing, centering, thinking,character thoughts are a very
good warmup for auditions.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, breathing's always smart because it means
you're not in the ground.
Okay, cold reads.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Cold reads used to be a thing a whole lot of years
ago.
We don't see them so oftenanymore.
But read it over very quicklyAgain, discern very quickly who
is this girl, who is this guy.
Quick personality assessmentand do your best.
(43:33):
Because it's cold, becauseyou're doing it right here,
right now, right, yeah, Iremember back in my day you'd be
in an audition and castingwould go oh, would you mind just
looking at this role instead?
Your answer should beabsolutely right and then ask
(43:55):
could I take 10 minutes, then goin the restroom, close the
stall, sit down and read it andmake some quick judgments on
that.
But that doesn't happen sooften these days.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Well, let's pull over there for one second, because I
think it might've been a coupleof years ago now, but I one
time went in literally the linewas hey, and it was a Netflix
show and it was my first timethere and I was, you know, I was
really excited and trying notto get too excited.
And then in the room I guess myyou know, I was really excited
and trying not to get tooexcited.
And then in the room I guess myhey was interesting because
(44:28):
then they said take a look atthis.
And of course it was like athree page monologue essentially
.
And so I was excited and I hadthe wherewithal I knew probably
from reading your book to saycan I just have a moment?
And I stepped outside and Ithink in that moment it actually
was a little detrimental to mebecause it gave me more time to
psych myself out.
So when you take the time toreally like break everything
down, like you're saying in thisscenario or could be applied to
(44:51):
other situations, how do youkind of keep from getting in
your own way in those moments?
Do you have any advice there?
I know we're in the middle of aflash round, but this could be
a big flash.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Take the focus off yourself and put the focus on
the character.
Wow, that's perfect.
Even on set, sometimes whenwe're shooting, things will trip
you up right and we get in ourheads and go, oh gosh, I
shouldn't have said that linethat way.
That sounded so stupid.
(45:24):
So what we're doing is watchingourselves right, Rather than
being the character, and thebest way to pop your focus back
to the moment at hand is tofocus on the other actor and
think a character thought sowhile you're out of that room
looking at that three-pagemonologue not about me, it's
about this character.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, is that what you tell folks when you're with
them on set?
Because I know a lot of peopleare lucky to have you on set
with them.
And there's a great story aboutpivoting with Ryan Reynolds
that I won't spoil from.
I actually really loved thatmovie where you know he's buried
well, he's in a coffin.
Okay, I won't spoil anything,but you talk about the pivot in
that scenario.
So are those, let's say,someone isn't blessed enough to
(46:06):
have you on set with them?
But is that the kind of thingyou would say to somebody in
that moment is look at the otherperson in the scene, you know,
shake it out.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, absolutely Focus on them, because when we
focus on ourselves, we'rewatching ourselves and we want
to take care not to watchourselves, right.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah Well, speaking of watching ourselves eye
contact, what would you, whatwould you say about that?
Because I think that can be abit of a pitfall.
It's like sometimes we lockonto the scene, partner, and we
just are afraid to look anywhereelse.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Right, Like when we're talking out, like if I'm
thinking I'm looking off rightnow.
That's not distracting, right?
So don't feel like we have toconnect, Connect, connect,
connect connect, I know Sundayin the Park with George.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Connect George.
That's something Meryl Streep Imean she could do no wrong in
my book but does beautifully.
If you watch any of her scenes.
She's kind of always lookingaround.
She rarely is like she'schoosing when to make eye
contact.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
She's kind of always looking around.
She rarely is like she'schoosing when to make eye
contact.
It's natural.
It's because you're focused onthe character.
If you're focused on thecharacter, you're not thinking
about I've got to make eyecontact, because one thing we
don't want to think about isI've got to give to the actor.
We just want to be thecharacter, and when we're just
being the character, we justnaturally look where our eyes
naturally look.
Another thing that you want toavoid is doing this eye to eye
(47:25):
to eye to eye to eye like this.
We don't do that in real life,but we feel that that's very
dramatic.
It's not.
We don't want to do that in aclose-up.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
No, yes, and you do see that on TV pretty often and
I think it's sort of like maybepick one eye to look at.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, yeah, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
we don't want to search, I know I'm like this is
like an eye exercise, I can'teven.
I think I just went cross-eyed.
Ok, memorization, just I guess.
In general, yeah, what are sometips there?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Get your character down first, because once you get
your character down, even ifyou've only had 30 minutes to
work on your character, do thatbefore you put it into rote
memory.
Because if you learn your linesfirst, it's going to come out
in a sing-song kind of rotefashion.
Very difficult to get it out ofour heads that way, especially
(48:17):
if you're lucky enough to go infor an in-person audition and
casting wants to give you a note.
It's hard to get that read outof our minds.
But lines are so much easier tomemorize once you know more
about your character becauseyour character is going to feel
like saying that Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Okay, and this might be more in an audition setting,
but wardrobe slash props.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I don't love props in an audition.
I like to use space work Like.
This is a phone.
I'm talking on the phone rightnow.
I mean it's perfectly, I meanit's fine right.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
We don't want to do that, Not this right.
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
The space, the space that that it would take in our
hand for the phone, right, Ifyour character needs to drink
water, I think a glass of wateris perfectly fine.
If you're going to shoot a gun,let's don't do this, but you
(49:15):
might be playing a cop and thespace that your hand would
encompass that firearm forinstance you might need that in
the scene.
But if we can avoid props in anaudition, I think that that's
probably better.
We don't want to wear thingsthat are busy or distracting,
like Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Maybe, playing a rocker.
(49:36):
Maybe a black plain t-shirt isbetter, something that's not
distracting and busy for sure.
Yeah, you don't want to dresslike the character, like you
don't want to wear a policeman'suniform, even if you're playing
, you know, auditioning for apolice or a nurse outfit or a
doctor's lab coat.
(49:56):
We just want to give thesuggestion of the character,
because we want them to see yourface, not what you're wearing.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Not the prosthetics and the sexy nurse outfit from
Halloween that's in your closet.
Not speaking from experience oranything, no, I think that's
wonderful advice.
Okay, so we got a job.
What are your thoughts onon-set etiquette?
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Ah, every set?
That's such a good question,honey.
Every set is different.
Every set has a different setof politics, as it were.
The number one on the show, thenumber one on the call sheet,
usually sets the tone.
The director set the tone.
(50:41):
Lay back, see what the tone.
The director set the tone.
Lay back, see what the tone ofthe set is.
You know, if you're number twoon the call sheet, it's going to
feel different than if you'renumber 16 on the call sheet.
Right, but always be on time.
Always listen to your ADs.
You know they need you inmakeup.
Yes, sir, you know on to you inmakeup.
Yes, yes, sir, you know you'reon to makeup.
(51:02):
Just be kind.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Oh, I love that you talk a lot about kindness, which
I appreciate because I feellike that's what we need more of
in this world, actually notjust this industry and I think
if we're approaching it fromthat aspect, you can't go wrong.
I guess the tricky thing andit's brilliant what you just
said is everybody experienceskindness in a different way,
which is important forcharacters maybe as well, and
(51:27):
you might think that, likefinding the solution for
somebody during a problematicmoment is kind, but to them,
they don't want the solution.
That's actually unkind.
They just want you to sit withthem.
So it's interesting and I thinkwhat you said about assessing a
vibe is similar on a set.
You know, if you're on like aChristopher Nolan set, he
famously takes away all the cellphones.
So if you whip out a cell phone, that's actually not great
(51:49):
etiquette.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Like I would, yeah, leave your phone in your trailer
.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh, in general, that's a good note, probably
Because you also want toexperience it right, you want to
enjoy your time yeah, or if youhave to have it on set with you
, make sure that it's not evenon vibrate.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
You know, yeah, it's got to be on silent, but um,
there's one thing that I thoughtwas so lovely.
I was on set and I wasn'tcoaching this actor, but I was
coaching another actor on set.
He would go and buy lotterytickets for the entirety of the
(52:28):
crew Every single Friday.
Wow.
Yeah, and he would come and hewould give every single crew
member a lottery ticket, scratchoff tickets, right.
And I said oh, hugh, why do youdo that?
And he said that's how I get toknow everyone on the crew.
He said but the bad thing is isthat they never give me a
(52:50):
Friday off.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
I thought you were going to say they don't give
them a cut if they win.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
But I mean, I'm not saying go buy lottery tickets
for the crew.
By any stretch of theimagination he's a big, huge
celebrity.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Oh yeah, Can you share who that is?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
It was Hugh Jackman.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Oh, that checks out.
What a gem.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
He was just the most delightful.
Like I say, I was not workingwith him.
I was working with someone elseon that set, but he was just
such a delightful, delightfulhuman being.
Yeah, just such a delightful,delightful human being.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yeah, he's a kind soul.
He literally, when I was anintern at NBC, I was just a
little, you know, smurf, I meanI wasn't blue, I don't know why
that word came to mind Behind adesk and he came in and he made
a point to introduce himself andthen, when he left, he turned
around, shook my hand and saidthank you, Robert, and
remembered my name.
And it's such a simple humanthing.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Kindness right, it's kindness.
So when you're on set, you knowkindness to the grips and the
DP and the, you know craftservices and you know the makeup
people here.
Just lead with kindness.
See what you can observe, seewhat you can learn.
I was coaching once on set andI got to be really good friends
(54:02):
with his DP and he's like whatdo you see, warner?
I said okay, let's trade.
I will tell you what I see inthe acting.
You tell me what you see in thelighting.
I learned so much about his job.
It was fascinating.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Yeah, yeah, home, or whatever feelings are coming up
for you.
You can remember that there'smaybe 20 people in a room
figuring out something elsethat's important.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Exactly right.
And remember, as actors, whenwe leave that set crew is going
to be there hours after we are,so maybe you know 2 am crew's
going to be there to maybe firstlight.
They're just such delightful,wonderful people, crew.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, so are you, and I wish I could keep you here
until 2 am.
I know I got to let you go, soif we could end our lovely time
together by you just sharing.
I'm calling it a got and a give, so, almost like the givens, I
would like to end on aninspiring note for listeners.
So if you could give us some ofthose Laughlinisms?
Inspiring note for listeners,so if you could give us some of
those Laughlinisms.
First, what's the best piece ofadvice that you got from
(55:25):
someone in this industry?
Speaker 1 (55:29):
I've been around a lot of years.
I have a lot of.
Let me think about that.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Oh yeah, take your time.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Always remember who you are.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
I love that.
I think knowing who we are canget lost sometimes right when
you're trying to channel allthese other people, and you kind
of need that foundation andyou've had that, I think, in
your career.
Just looking at it andresearching you, it's like
knowing that you are an actingcoach and you're great at that.
And you had that lovely castingdirector who said you know,
(56:02):
make that decision.
Who are you basically?
Are you going to be an actor oran acting coach?
And I think that's a greatreminder for everybody out there
.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah, and be happy and proud of who you are.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Oh, that can be hard, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
No matter what you know, our past may have been or
backgrounds may have been or anyof that just happy and proud
and grateful.
I take time to be gratefulevery day, even if it's for the
flowers blooming out there.
I know that sounds reallycheesy.
No, I love it.
Take a moment of gratitude forthings that I have, would I love
(56:56):
it a huge thing.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Yeah, I'm grateful that you exist in this industry.
Honestly, I'm grateful for you.
Oh, thank you.
Well, the second aspect is thegive.
So what advice and it might besimilar, but what advice would
you give to people everybody outthere listening who's looking
to consistently work in thisindustry?
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Ah, ego is the great killer of creativity ego is the
great killer of creativity.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Leave ego at the door .
Create, right.
I love that.
And you see that with all sortof the buzzworthy performances,
it's like, well, they're clearlythey're.
They're snot coming down theirnose and they're crying.
I don't think they care whatthey look like.
Right, right, viola, davis.
No, okay, I think that's.
I think that's a great place toleave it.
Thank you just so much for allthe work you do.
I honestly feel like and thismight sound cheesy I'm a cheese
(57:49):
ball, but I was thinking aboutjust this beautiful legacy that
you're building and I truly feellike you are a lighthouse for
actors.
You are like that guiding lightthat we need.
I've had so many C metaphorstoday.
I don't know why, but I'm justreally, really grateful that you
exist, that you wrote this book.
Everybody, please run to yourphone, I guess, and order the
(58:12):
Warner Laughlin Technique onAmazon.
The cover almost looks like theBig Little Lies.
Is it Big Little Lies cover?
Speaker 1 (58:23):
It looks like you did it first, though I did it first
.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Leanne Moriarty did it second.
Right, yeah, there we go.
Okay, Leanne, you should get acopy too.
But thank you so much, Lorna.
I just think you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I think you're amazing, Robert, and all you do
for actors.
Thank you for being alive.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for existing 2025'strying to take me down, but you
know what we're going to powerthrough Warner.
We got this Right, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
Thank you.
Hi, I'm Warner Loughlin, I'm 5'3" and I'm an
acting coach, and this is how weRoll.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
When it comes to working in entertainment,
there's a lot of hows, and theyall boil down to how we navigate
this wild industry.
While how we follow our dreamsis uncertain, how we roll along
the way is in our hands.
Welcome to how we Roll, apodcast for actors by Casting
Networks.
Hello actors, it's your friend,robert Peterpaul.
(00:34):
Thank you for tuning back inQuick cue what actors have
inspired you lately.
I've really admired the cast ofthe White Lotus.
I know I'm not alone here.
They chewed up some reallyintense monologues, including
the veteran actor Sam Rockwell.
I recently heard him discussthat he almost didn't take his
supporting role because he wason another project and he felt
(00:57):
like he didn't have enough timeto properly prepare for this one
.
This got my gears turning.
I mean, what even is the idealprep time To me?
Sometimes it feels like I couldnever have enough, and other
times I love not having the timeto overthink.
Anyway, time is not often onour side in this industry, so
(01:19):
it's handy to know how to bringa person to life under tight
time constraints.
A lovely creative who helpsactors do this professionally is
today's guest, famed actingcoach, warner Laughlin.
For nearly three decades,warner Laughlin has empowered
actors.
She has coached Emmy, goldenGlobe, tony and Grammy winners,
(01:43):
including folks like Amy Adams,glenn Powell, matt Bomer and
even White Lotus star, michelleMonaghan.
Known for her warmth andintuitive approach, warner's
technique shatters the myth thatan actor's past emotional
trauma must be the fuel orfoundation of their work.
Spelled out in her beautifulbook, which I highly recommend,
(02:05):
the Warner Laughlin Technique.
Warner's method is imaginative,practical and psychologically
deep, giving actors safe andeffective ways to access emotion
and create extremely nuanced,unique performances.
Warner studied contemporaryliterature and Shakespeare at
Oxford University and receivedher BA from the University of
(02:29):
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
You can find out more about herand her sensational acting
studio at warnerloughlincom.
Warner is a true champion forartists and I hope this
conversation makes you feelempowered.
This is how we roll with rolepreparation under tight time
(02:52):
constraints, featuring WarnerLaughlin and I.
Warner, I'm so glad to share aspace with you today.
Hello.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Robert, I'm so glad to see you.
You do so much for actors.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Oh, right, back at you.
I admire you immensely, as I'vealready told you before we
started recording here, and,like many other actors, I have
just been transformed by yourrevolution, your book, the
Warner Laughlin Technique.
If you don't have this book,get up.
Well, pause this drive safelyand go buy it.
We're just on Amazon, right?
I guess we don't have to go tobookstores anymore, but I love
(03:35):
bookstores.
I'm really rambling, but thankyou, warner, I'm so excited to
connect with you today.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Me too you.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
That's so sweet.
I like that was much moresuccinct than me.
I'm like well, we're going tofocus on something today that's
in your treasure trove of a book.
It's a bit of a smaller chapter.
There's so much in there, butit's done brilliantly and I
think it's something a lot ofactors will find useful.
So we're going to talk allabout prepping for roles under
(04:03):
tight circumstances, tight timeconstraints, which essentially
is an audition, I guess, or, ifwe're lucky, a last minute
booking.
So we're going to really kindof fast track, breathing life
into a role.
How does that sound?
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Sounds amazing and like such a fun, good and very
needed topic, I think.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
I think so too.
It's a question I get a lot ishow do I prepare for an audition
very quickly?
And one of the things I reallylove about your work just to get
some context here is thatyou're one of us.
You started out as an actor,once an actor, always an actor,
I think.
And so, before we kind of divein, I would love if you could
tell listeners this fantasticstory of how you kind of
(04:46):
organically took a little U-turnfrom your actor path into the
coaching lane.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Which if you had asked me, you know years ago.
If you had said years agoyou're going to be an acting
coach, I would have gone.
What it was?
Completely by accident, afriend of mine who's a manager
asked me to lunch.
We were just good buddies.
He wasn't my manager.
(05:12):
So I went to his office, we hadlunch and he goes oh, warner
Warner, I've got this actor.
He cannot book.
He's so talented but he can'tbook a job.
Would you please work with him?
And I said I'm not a coach, Ican't.
I'm an actor, I'm not a coach,I don't know.
I said, plus, I do somethingreally odd.
(05:32):
I've got this well, it's notodd, but it's a little bit
different acting technique.
And he goes just do it for me.
So I relented, I said yes, okay,I'll work with him.
I worked with him and I hadforgotten something in his
office.
And so three days after that Iran back up to his office to
(05:54):
retrieve it and he's on thephone and he he said he gives me
this finger up and he puts thephone on speakerphone and he
goes.
Can you say that again?
And he was on the phone tocasting.
I'm like please don't say itwas me, because the casting
director said who coached him?
I'm like, don't say it was me,it was me.
(06:15):
Because I'm like, did he tankcasting is like we're gonna
freaking give him the job anyway.
That casting director ended upsending people to me and I would
just tell them I'm an actor,I'm not a coach, but come on
over.
I'll help you out, which isexactly how the whole studio
(06:35):
started.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I love that, and I know you weren't even charging
people at first, which I justthink speaks to how passionate
you are about it think speaks tohow passionate you are about it
.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
I just love to see people fly.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
It floats my boat a lot more than when I booked a
job.
Yeah, I feel the same.
I love that, and over the yearsyou kind of fleshed out this
technique.
I guess that you had in yourhead.
I'm sure that was a process ofactually taking it out of your
head and then translating it toeverybody else.
I know it's hard for a lot ofactors to kind of conjure up and
think about what they're evendoing, and I sort of feel like
most of us try the big standardmethods you know, and then we
(07:12):
kind of cobble together our ownthing.
Yours is so beautiful because,again, it's so tangible, so
accessible, it makes it so easyand fun and it kind of boils it
down to my favorite thing, whichis imagination, playing with
our imaginations.
We're all just kids in theplayground, so can you please
just give listeners like aReader's Digest version of this
(07:32):
beautiful technique that we'regoing to touch on today?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Thank you, Robert, so much.
We all start with what's on thepage.
What does the writer give us?
And we are like littledetectives trying to find out
who is this person and whatmakes this person tick.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yes, I have a magnified glass right here.
I wish I did.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right.
So we start with the givens.
Just what are the facts?
What are the facts?
Where does this take place?
What genre is it?
Who is this person I'm about toplay?
Uh, where does he or she fitinto the scope of everything?
Then we go to the howls ofbehavior.
How is the character behaving?
(08:10):
Is he or she behavingdismissively in the face of
relationships or, um, is thischaracter guarded or is this
character very aggressive?
I mean any number of things.
But we take the dialogue and welook at the howls of behavior,
and then we start, ourimaginations start to fly and we
(08:31):
go hmm, I wonder, perhapsbecause why, what are this
character's?
Maybe issues back in theiryounger lives?
And then we this is such thenutshell version but in the
younger life, what might havehappened to this character to
make them the adult that theyare today?
(08:53):
What were the circumstancesbehind it?
What events, life events didthey lead that brought them to
be the person they are today?
Which helps us kind of get outof ourselves and into somebody
else's skin and their hearts andthoughts.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, and you're all about that.
I think the book opens with aquote about seeing through
someone else's eyes instead ofsort of like making it about you
.
That's trickled throughout thebook and you know it's been such
a hit, this technique.
Again, I love the book.
I know so many people do.
You've had such success withyour studio as it organically
developed.
I do need to touch on the factthat you've also had success in
(09:33):
regards to the people you'recoaching, like Amy Adams and
Ryan Reynolds, to the studentsat your studio.
Again, I know, like an Amy anda Ryan, they're probably not
auditioning anymore.
I think they've earned that,but they might still have to
prep for a role really quickly.
And so, before we get into likethe granular details of that I
can never say that word, I don'tknow why I always choose it
(09:56):
Granular, that could be like awarm up Irish wristwatch,
granular you know what commonhabits or mindsets have you seen
that set people that we allsort of maybe worship and give
Oscars to apart while preparingfor roles?
Have you seen like a commonthread with those folks?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It is the same with the Oscar winners that I coach,
as it is with any other actor.
There is no huge differencebetween.
I mean, we're all actors, soevery actor, even the ones that
we think, oh, they know it all.
(10:37):
There's no difference.
Everybody still gets a littlenervous on day one of shooting.
Everybody still feels like haveI prepped enough?
Have I done enough?
Do I know this character?
It's the same feeling.
I don't think we ever get ridof that feeling in our whole
(10:58):
lives.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
You know you're reminding me too of something in
the book that I won't spoil,but there's this wonderful
metaphor with a vase wheresomeone puts marbles in and they
say is it full?
And then they pour sand overthat and they say now is it full
?
And it's sort of what we'regoing to touch on today.
I think putting just themarbles into a jar, let alone
all the other stuff, can beenough.
It's like it'll never be enoughif you keep pushing yourself.
(11:21):
So let's kind of roll into thisquick role preparation process,
starting at level one.
Okay Ding, I just got a littleCasting Networks notification
that I have an audition due in aday.
Warner, I got a lot to do todayalready.
I have to break this down.
So I have the sides, I have theemail from casting.
(11:41):
What would you recommend I dofirst, before anything else?
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Okay, this is all, depending on how much time do
you have.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Let's say I have just a day or two.
It's like a TV film situation.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Okay, plenty of time for an audition.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Plenty of time.
Yeah, first of all, let's don'tpanic.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, okay, unclench my arms, shake all, let's don't
panic.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Okay, okay, unclench my arms shake it out.
If you've gotten script, readit, because sometimes when you
just look at sides, there's sucha standalone thing that the
script will give us so much morein terms of tone, where the
character fits in with all theother players and all of that.
(12:26):
So it's super important, if youcan and if you have time, to
read that script.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Because you could read the script and just kind of
look at your sides like we allwant to rush to our scenes and
not realize in the other scenesmaybe there's characters calling
the I mean characters aninteresting word, but there's
other characters calling yourcharacter, you know, like an
a-hole or something, and so yougo like, oh, maybe he's not a
nice person, right?
So that's a smart idea to tryand gather all that information.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You get so many more little jewels when you do that.
Yeah.
And sometimes I read scriptsjust for fun.
Yeah, I know that's nerdy, butyeah.
But yeah, you get so much moreum information when you do that,
so first of all, do that now.
Sometimes we don't have thescript right.
We got to go to that characterbreakdown that casting gives us.
(13:16):
I sometimes take thosebreakdowns with a little tiny
grain of salt because you're notquite sure who might have
written those.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, and sometimes they don't have the full script
either.
The person writing those?
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Right right, but it does give us a little flavor and
a flair.
I also read all the othercharacters, because sometimes in
a breakdown they'll have allthe other characters listed so
you can kind of get an idea ofthings.
They'll have a loglinestoryline.
Usually that gives us moreclues.
I always look at who'sproducing, who's directing and
(13:57):
who's casting, because well,first of all, casting directors
are your best buds.
I know we tend to see them asthey can keep us from getting a
job.
Maybe we should look at themlike they can help us get a job
right, yeah.
But different casting directorstend to like different things.
(14:18):
Things like I know some castingdirectors like really kind of
low-key performances, some, uh,like a little more enthusiastic,
whatever.
But no, no, casting directorsand what they cast um directors
know what they've done before,so all of those things can give
(14:40):
us little clues as to what we'reabout to do right.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I love that Okay.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Now we've read the script.
Okay, we've looked at thebreakdown.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Wait, let's stop at this first script to read, if
you don't mind, Because, Warner,you touch on something that I
know to be true.
And yet every time I read ascript for the first time, I
have to fight myself not tostart sort of reading the lines
as if I think I'm already thecharacter.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Thank you.
Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Yeah, talk to me about that please.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We need to read the script at arm's length and the
signs at arm's length, meaningread it as if you were going to
tell a friend of yours about it.
Be a detective, remove yourselfa little bit, because you can
be far more objective when weremove ourselves a bit right.
Otherwise, we tend to fall intothings like oh, I know how that
(15:34):
should sound, or how did I saythis?
Or oh, I felt like that, I justfelt like that last week,
things like that.
We want to kind of avoid that.
So we want to be as objectiveas possible in the beginning,
because, again, you'll get farmore clues.
Yeah, yeah, we don't want tomake ready decisions at that
point.
We want to see the overallpicture of things.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And that goes to, I think, for being a co star on a
show, a guest star or any lastminute booking.
You don't know what thedirector has in mind.
So if you go there with youridea, you know I did a film once
where the whole scene was basedaround the sun setting and then
we got there and production hadbeen running way behind and
there was no sun setting.
So they're like just improvisekind of, throw it all out there,
(16:17):
and if you're so married toyour ideas, it makes it really
hard to kind of be flexible.
So, married to your ideas, itmakes it really hard to kind of
be flexible.
So I like that.
The first approach, the firstread, is very big picture.
Just we're storytelling, we'relearning the story, not the
person.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You are so smart.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Oh, I read your book Warner.
Okay, that's what makes me haveany sort of knowledge, any
brain cells.
What's your advice, kind of?
Also, there's another peskyurge in the beginning that I
have to fight.
Maybe it's just me, maybe not,but I always have that thought
of what does casting want?
I'm an actor, I can give themanything.
I can give them what they want.
(16:53):
So what's your advice on sortof I know it's better to fight
that and sort of let yourselfshine through and show them your
unique you versus trying topigeonhole yourself.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Right At this point in the stage of the game, when
we say what does casting want,we start to go towards a
result-oriented outcome.
We haven't dug in the characterenough.
Even though we're going to goput this down on tape tomorrow
or walk in the audition roomtomorrow, we haven't dug down
deep enough.
Don't worry about what theywant.
They want you.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's so sweet.
Everybody rewind that replay,that, write it on your walls, so
okay.
So once we've we've read thescene a couple of times, you say
in your book read it as if youhave all the time in the world,
kind of take the pressure off.
You're really wonderful atreminding actors to do that.
I know you recommenddetermining one of the first
things the what.
(17:45):
What type of scene is this?
Is it a breakup?
Are we exchanging money?
Am I buying something?
Is there a different undertone?
Are there certain things actorscan do to really hone in on
that what?
And the point of the scene,Because sometimes our
imaginations can run a littletoo far and we're like no's
really about this, because ofthe other backstory I created,
what's your, what's yoursuggestion there?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
exactly.
Well, first of all, let's startwith genre right, yes, we'll
start with the genre, like isthis a?
It's a horror movie, is it a um, is it comedy?
Is it a dramedy?
What is?
What's the genre here and thatwill tell us the tone, how deep
psychologically is.
Is it a heavy drama or is it alittle bit on the lighter side,
(18:30):
that sort of thing?
Let me see if I can back intothat question.
Robert, ask me again Now.
My mind just went no, that was.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
That's a.
That's a great way to kind ofget into it there.
You know the, the genre, that'sa good place.
I was thinking.
It's like I always go back tothat thing.
We learned in school early onthe five w's, the who, what,
where, when and why, and youtalk about especially when you
don't have a lot of time, eventhough we're pretending we do
mentally the what is soimportant, because if you can
get have a lot of time, eventhough we're pretending we do
mentally the what is soimportant, because if you can
get that, what sort of therelationships and everything
(19:07):
else stems from there.
So do you have any, I guess,tips on really just like finding
the what, like where is thewhat in a scene when we're
looking at it?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Where is the what?
Yes, well, you can kind of tell.
Is it a breakup scene?
Does my character want to staywith this character?
What is my character trying toget from this other person, or
what is that other person tryingto get from me?
It's really important to seethe arc of the scene.
We never walk in a scene theway we leave it, and it's really
(19:39):
so much easier to tell howwe're leaving the scene.
Am I yelling at this person?
Is he yelling at me?
Yeah.
No, have we made up in thisscene, you know?
So I mean it tells us a lotwhat happens at the end of the
scene.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, you always want somewhere to go right.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Want somewhere to go.
So, however, we walk out ofthat scene is not how we're
going to enter the scene.
However we walk out of thatscene is not how we're going to
enter the scene.
So if it's, for example, if weend up breaking up at the end of
the scene, we have it broken upat the top of the scene.
Does my character want to stayin this relationship?
Does my character want to lethim down gently, or do I love
(20:20):
him or her desperately?
I mean, what is it you know?
So we never enter the way youleave.
So look at the emotion, at theend of the scene first.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, and that's smart for the really sort of
quick co-star roles as well,right, I think that sometimes
sets you apart when you actuallyenter a scene differently.
Let's say you have one line,you're delivering flowers and
you're saying, can you sign forthis?
It's like are're deliveringflowers and you're saying, can I
, can you sign for this?
It's like are you enteringrushed and then maybe leaving a
little bit peeved because theytook your pen or whatever it is.
It's like making those choicesI think is helpful in these
(20:50):
quick roles as well.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yes, there is an actual arc, even in, like a one
line co-star.
Look for it, find it, you'llfind it Right.
One thing thing about co-starswe don't want to be.
Oh, what's the word somebodyused with me once?
Oh, like a ham or stealing thefocus of the scene yeah,
stealing the scene right,stealing the scene you, you are
(21:15):
there to to help progress thescene, and so keeping that in
mind kind of is helpful.
With those one line, yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Well, one of the most helpful things for me, one of
my favorite things to do, thatI've learned from you which
sometimes we hear them calledother things in other methods,
but the way you kind of lay itout there again is so accessible
and I've just latched onto itare the givens.
So that's something I alwaysstart with, no matter what the
scene is.
I write down all the givens andthat's so fun to kind of go
(21:47):
through and sort of have againor you can correct me here if
I'm wrong but that like stepback look of just writing down
the facts.
So instead of writing likethey're angry at that point, you
would just write whatever thefact is and leave emotion out of
it.
For now Can you speak to thatprocess at all, because I think
it's such a fun, easy thing forus to do.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yes, and it helps us be a little objective too.
Like the givens might be,upscale Manhattan restaurant
Gives us a clue.
Right, it might be he's dressed, or she's dressed in a cocktail
attire, for instance.
It might be.
These are just the facts.
So when we write down the factsand the reason I like to write
them down is because we'll oftenjust forget them when we're
(22:34):
building character, becauseyou'll be building a character,
then you'll go oh wait, mycharacter was in an upscale
Manhattan restaurant.
How did she get there?
I mean, so writing those factsdown, like she smokes or she
carries a gucci purse little,just little.
(22:55):
Things that you don't thinkabout, things that you know.
Just the facts, ma'am, that youcan prove in a court of law.
Those would be the givens right.
Yes.
Before we get to any kind ofbehavior.
Behaviors would be somethinglike oh, she was rude to the
waiter.
I gotcha, yeah.
When asked if she would like acocktail, she was rude to the
waiter.
She seems rude to the waiter.
(23:18):
That would be a behavior asopposed to a given, which is a
fact, because we're justassuming she was being rude to
the waiter, right.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yes, and the other scene partners, to mention, I
guess, the waiter.
If they're the scene partner,they're helpful for these clues
as well because they're alsoteaching us things.
So writing down all the factsfrom you know the quick
sometimes I'll go back.
I read a side so quick that Idid miss that like intro line
where it says even just sayingwhat time of day or where you
(23:48):
know is it, oh, it's cold, it'soutside.
You know that affects you aswell as a person.
So everything you're sort oftalking about, not just your
character.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Not just your character, everything, and
sometimes your sides will starthalfway down the page.
Everything, and sometimes yoursides will start halfway down
the page.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I always read even if it doesn't have anything to do
with the character.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
I always read what's above that before the scene
starts.
It may or may not have anythingto do with my scene at hand or
my character at hand, but alwaysread that, because you never
know what clues you'll get fromthat.
Yeah, I'm going to say justanother thing thing, yeah,
usually casting will give us two, three scenes right after we've
looked at them all and kind ofbuilt character a little bit.
(24:30):
Um, look back at the scenes andnote sometimes they'll have the
scene numbers from the actualscript, so they'll have maybe
scene 22,.
And then your next set of sizemay be scene 94, and your next
set of size may be scene 123.
(24:51):
So you know where it hits inthe screenplay.
So you know that my characterhas changed over time right.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Yeah, that's smart time Right and also if it's a
smaller role.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
when you say what is casting looking for, you can
kind of discern oh, this is thehappy light scene, scene number
one.
Scene number two is a littleheavier, a little more dramatic,
so they want to see somethingdifferent from scene one or
scene two.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You got to paint with multiple colors, otherwise it's
just a white wall.
You know, that's a greatreminder.
So while we're sort of in thescript we've been talking about
it a bit already but what do youthink is the most effective way
to really do script analysisduring a time crunch?
I mean, I love that nerdy stuffyou get into the givens but
(25:53):
your method is very specific.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
So what would you say to listeners that are in this
situation right now?
Let's just say that it's adrama.
Um, I'm going to look at myrelationship to the other
characters in the scene.
I do Does.
Do I feel like I've known theseother characters a long time?
If not, um, when did I meetthem?
How important are they to me?
(26:14):
Um, I might do a little bit ofwhat we call flashes, which is
just a little bitty memories andmaking up stories about how I
know this person.
Where did we meet?
What's our relationship beenlike?
If it's a long relationship, Imight go to different flashes of
him asking me out for the firsttime, our first dinner date, or
(26:40):
him meeting my parents, or usgoing on a vacation Just little
tiny memories that you build inthere.
Yeah, we call those flashes,but if you haven't read the book
, you don't necessarily have toread the book to do those.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
No, and it's similar to.
I mean, the way you break itdown is different, but I would
say it's akin to maybe abackstory, except instead of
writing it down, you actuallysit there and kind of go through
it.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
You're imagining it.
I mean, some people love towrite things down.
I think it's much more valuable, especially when you don't have
time, to imagine scenario inyour mind and make it vivid with
, incorporate in yourimagination smells and maybe
(27:28):
touch and taste and that sort ofthing that can help you really
feel like it's a memory of thisperson no-transcript life.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
because of this, I feel like it's a really helpful
life skill.
So thank you.
As humans, we're all eitherrepeating patterns from our
childhood or trying to mend themperhaps.
So I guess let's break down mypatterns right now.
No, I'm just kidding.
So I love how you kind of applythese patterns to your
technique.
Can you speak to that?
(28:33):
I know, in a quick preparationprocess you may not have as much
time to focus on that, but youmight as much time to focus on
that, but you might, but youmight, you just might.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
We seek to repeat that that we've known since
childhood, or we seek to repair.
So it's either repeat or repair.
So if you're doing a character,and this character is harsh
towards a child, for example,and this character is harsh
towards a child, for example,you can pretty much assume that
in your quick backstory you'regoing to make because we only
(29:10):
have until tomorrow- In thequick backstory, you might go
back into your character'schildhood and go oh, how did my
mom treat me?
Because this character now isrepeating that pattern.
We seek to repeat that thatwe've known since childhood.
Or there are times when, as anadult, we will realize the
patterns that we experienced inchildhood and we'll go oh, I'm
(29:33):
not going to do that anymorewhich will cause a very
different adult behavior right.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
So someone who might've been abused as a child
may you know, physically abusedas a child may now go.
Oh, I'm going to make sure totreat everyone with kindness.
They may end up being a peoplepleaser.
They may end up you know ahundred different things, but it
does give us an insight intothe lives that we've led in the
(30:00):
past, because everything thathappened to us in our childhood
and in our formative yearsshapes who we are today, how we
treat people, how we view theworld, how we look at the world.
That's why creating that littlebackstory for your character
can help you solidly be anotherperson, rather than just going
from our own life experiences,because that character may have
(30:24):
similarities to you, but thatcharacter isn't you, with your,
with the life that you've led.
Yeah, the two lives may cross,which is, which is nice, but
it's not exactly the same.
Right, it'll be much morepowerful, and it helps with too,
because when we have to beourselves, we can.
(30:45):
It's like we want to put upthis little shield and go no,
you're right.
But when we're a character, it'smuch easier to be a character.
You're much freer being acharacter.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, I come to that clip.
I think it honestly was anadvertisement for that
masterclass online platform withHelen Mirren, where she walks
into the room and sits down andshe says what I did is one of
the hardest things to do walkinto a room as yourself.
(31:17):
Again, there's heaps and heaps.
It's pretty much every page.
But I loved reading about howAmy Adams took her Catch Me, if
you Can character Brenda out fora little spin to prepare for
the role she put on prostheticsI think dental braces.
She changed her hair, she usedan accent, like a little
Southern accent, went to adepartment store, and so I feel
like doing that can really upthe stakes.
(31:38):
I remember after I read it, Idid it for the next thing I was
preparing for and it was.
It was fun because you're likeyou know you have to really
commit to the bit.
Do you recommend those sorts ofexercises to people, even if
they don't have much time?
Is that?
Is that something you wouldrecommend everybody trying out
there?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sure, why not?
I mean, you can.
You can wash dishes as thecharacter.
You don't even have to go outof your place, you can vacuum.
That sounds awful, doesn't?
Speaker 2 (32:05):
it.
Hey, mrs Doubtfire, that's oneof the most iconic scenes.
Is Robin Williams vacuuming?
Look at that.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Good job, I hadn't even thought of that.
You can brush your teeth withthe character thoughts.
What that is is just gettingthe character thoughts into your
body.
Character thoughts are huge.
Character thoughts can save usfrom so much Speaking of
auditions before the scenehappens.
We want to always be sure wehave a character thought in our
(32:35):
mind.
And I love to call that the hardinner monologue, the prior
instant thought, meaning what ismy character thinking exactly
and the words that my characteris thinking it before the scene
starts.
We can't think a personalthought and a character thought
at the same time, right?
You can't think a Robertthought and a character thought
at the same time.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
My brain will try Warner.
Okay, you can.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Our brains try, because our brains before an
audition, whether that be inperson or we're putting
ourselves down on tape, is oh,I'm having such a bad hair day.
Or why did I wear this?
Oh, should I have one, should Ihave?
Oh, my makeup looks oh,whatever.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Triggered.
Yes, yeah, triggered right.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
We think all these thoughts.
So to keep us from doing thatand to keep us centered on the
character, this is this is goodfor shooting as well, huge for
shooting you have to.
Well, it will help you to havethat character thought.
It might be something as simpleand I love to keep them simple
(33:37):
like should I go in that roomnow, or whatever your
character's thinking, it dependson what's going on in the
beginning of the scene obviouslyno-transcript, so on the day
(34:50):
and then they may choose adifferent one on the day when
they're shooting.
If a director wants to go in adifferent direction in the scene
, it helps if you change yourprior instant thought, your
character's exact thought before, because whatever your
character is thinking in thebeginning of the scene, that's
what's going to get you out ofthe gate into the scene.
(35:13):
And it will take you out of thegate and into the scene in a
whole different direction if youchange that prior instant
thought.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
I love that.
I think that's so tangible andfun.
Would you say that's somethingyou derive again from the text,
or is it something you just trydifferent options of?
Because obviously we're goingto enter a scene very
differently if we just got aticket because we sped here and
we're running late, versus youknow whatever else we were
thinking about, and then we'recoming in thinking, oh, that
police officer got me, you know.
(35:41):
So where would you say the bestplace?
Speaker 1 (35:44):
to find these is.
It depends on what's going onin the beginning of the scene.
Is my character nervous aboutwalking into this room?
Then the prior instant thoughtmight be something along the
lines of why did I wear thisRight?
Yeah, is the character give meanother, for instance, and I'll
(36:05):
give you a prior instance?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Oh, I love this.
This is fun.
Okay, everybody also think ofone at home.
And if we get the same one, youwin a free Casting Networks
membership.
No, I'm just kidding, I can'tpromise that.
I'm so sorry.
Okay, so let's say I'm in thescene is hungry.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
And is not allowed to eat in the scene.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Yes, they're going to be signing their mortgage for
an hour and they're not to beable to leave the room Signing
their new home lawyer things.
Okay, Ooh, is that from?
Is that from her?
Is that because I just had todo?
That Warner baby.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I love that so much.
It's like well, if I don't eatnow, I don't have time to go to
the deli down the street.
Oh God, okay, don't let mefaint.
Yeah, that's a good priori,simple.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's fine.
Okay, that's a really greatexercise.
I hope everybody tries that outat home before their next
audition and I think it canshake the nerves, like we were
saying.
You know, speaking of nerves,obviously it can kind of make or
break how a situation goes.
Even if you're in yourapartment with your partner
recording, you know it's thesame.
That brings a different energy.
(37:18):
Even if you go into a room andyou're with a casting director,
it can always change theaudition.
So do you have any other go-tostrategies for actors to kind of
help them stay grounded andmaybe walk in a bit more
confident?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Let's if we could talk about mindset for just a
minute.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
Oh, please, that's what I'm dancing around.
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yay, we want to think just the word audition is like
make or break.
This is going to depend on if Ican pay my rent or pay my
mortgage, or this is going tomake the difference in my career
.
No one audition is going to.
We don't that out of oursystems.
(38:00):
Yes, it's an audition, butlet's call it a collaborative
meeting.
Let's think of the audition asthe gig and let's think of it
not as we're going to go in thatroom to get something or I'm
going to go on tape to getsomething.
Let's think of it as I'm goingto do this to give something.
So it's giving, it's notexpecting anything back from it,
(38:23):
and I think that's huge.
I was just talking with a girlyesterday.
As a matter of fact, she's likegosh, auditions are so hard now
because they're few and farbetween for me right now.
And she said when I was alittle younger I might have 10 a
week and it was like nothing.
I just go do it, I do the nextone, I do the next one.
And I think sometimes we placetoo much importance on any one
(38:48):
thing, any one audition, so itbecomes so vitally important
that, oh, he just sees up Like Ihave to be good, I have to be
good, I have to be good.
Rather than getting back to thebasics of let me get this
character down as much as I havetime to do, and then I'm going
to go either on tape probably ontape these days.
(39:10):
Yeah.
I'm going to remember my priorinstant thoughts because that's
hugely important.
The first little bit thatcasting sees you leaves a
psychological impression.
So that prior instant thought Ithink is huge.
But I'm going to play and I'mgoing to enjoy this character
and I'm going to have fun.
(39:31):
This is the gig.
It's the gig.
Another thing about nerves.
I mean sometimes you know ourhands will sweat, so I've got an
errant hair that will just notleave me alone.
Me too.
Sometimes we get cotton mouth,we'll get sweaty palms and
(39:51):
you'll go God, don't be nervous,don't be nervous, don't be
nervous.
The only thing our brain hearsis nervous.
So if we just breathe inthrough the nose, out through
the mouth, if we just breathe inthrough the nose, out through
the mouth, plant your feet,ground yourself and then go oh
look, how excited I am, becausethe body doesn't know the
difference between nerves andexcitement.
(40:12):
Sometimes yeah.
So, the more we try to deny,don't be nervous.
Don't be nervous, you're goingto be.
Yeah, you're fighting.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
I love that little switcheroo flipping the script.
You know, I always find itamazing Speaking of scripts.
It's like you can have the samescript, the same side, in your
hand and you could have it foran audition, or you could have
it after someone says you gotthe part and it's the same
script.
You're doing maybe the samething, but it's just that.
Yes, that changes maybe howit's delivered and it's all.
(40:42):
This stuff is like apsychological experiment.
You can be in the same room,but the person behind the table
is completely confident eatinglunch just themselves, and
you're, you know, like a basketcase.
So all this stuff is so helpfulbecause it's again, we need
those like little I guess I callthem not not life vests, but
like little floaties that we canjump onto in the sea.
(41:03):
I don't know why.
I needed a metaphor.
Yeah, we need floaties.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I like your metaphor, though I like your metaphor, so
treat the audition as if it'sthe job.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
I'm writing that down .
You know all this said.
I think if we could distillmaybe this into like a short and
sweet three-step, evenpreparation checklist for actors
, like what would you say?
Their top three must do thingsto hit to kind of make sure
you're bringing a character tolife in a very short amount of
time.
It can be the things we'vecovered, but are there three
(41:35):
that you that stick out to you?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
know the genre.
Create a quick backstory.
Never enter the scene the wayyou leave it.
Have some fun.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Oh, I love the last one.
That's why I play Dolly Partonbefore auditions sometimes,
because she gets me going.
I love it.
Yeah Well, now we're going togo two doors down to play a
little game called CastingKeywords, so this will be fun.
I'm going to throw out somekind of statements or topics
surrounding actors and rolepreparation, and you please say
(42:10):
the first piece of advice thatpops into your head.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
It's kind of like a Rorschach test, right.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
A little bit.
Yes, we are going to have a lotof information about you after
this is done, no, so okay, allright.
So they're going to be a lot ofinformation about you after
this is done now.
So, okay, all right.
So they're going to be random,but, again, like, the whole goal
is to give actors tangibleadvice, which you're really good
at, so I think you'll be great.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Okay, dialects don't feel as if you have to use the
dialect in an audition, if youfeel that it holds you back from
the character.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
That's good, okay, warmups.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
It depends on if it's an in-person audition or a
self-tape.
I think breathing is hugelyimportant for warmups.
Sometimes we need a vocalwarmup, but I think definitely
breathing, centering, thinking,character thoughts are a very
good warmup for auditions.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah, breathing's always smart because it means
you're not in the ground.
Okay, cold reads.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
Cold reads used to be a thing a whole lot of years
ago.
We don't see them so oftenanymore.
But read it over very quicklyAgain, discern very quickly who
is this girl, who is this guy.
Quick personality assessmentand do your best.
(43:33):
Because it's cold, becauseyou're doing it right here,
right now, right, yeah, Iremember back in my day you'd be
in an audition and castingwould go oh, would you mind just
looking at this role instead?
Your answer should beabsolutely right and then ask
(43:55):
could I take 10 minutes, then goin the restroom, close the
stall, sit down and read it andmake some quick judgments on
that.
But that doesn't happen sooften these days.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Well, let's pull over there for one second, because I
think it might've been a coupleof years ago now, but I one
time went in literally the linewas hey, and it was a Netflix
show and it was my first timethere and I was, you know, I was
really excited and trying notto get too excited.
And then in the room I guess myyou know, I was really excited
and trying not to get tooexcited.
And then in the room I guess myhey was interesting because
(44:28):
then they said take a look atthis.
And of course it was like athree page monologue essentially
.
And so I was excited and I hadthe wherewithal I knew probably
from reading your book to saycan I just have a moment?
And I stepped outside and Ithink in that moment it actually
was a little detrimental to mebecause it gave me more time to
psych myself out.
So when you take the time toreally like break everything
down, like you're saying in thisscenario or could be applied to
(44:51):
other situations, how do youkind of keep from getting in
your own way in those moments?
Do you have any advice there?
I know we're in the middle of aflash round, but this could be
a big flash.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
Take the focus off yourself and put the focus on
the character.
Wow, that's perfect.
Even on set, sometimes whenwe're shooting, things will trip
you up right and we get in ourheads and go, oh gosh, I
shouldn't have said that linethat way.
That sounded so stupid.
(45:24):
So what we're doing is watchingourselves right, Rather than
being the character, and thebest way to pop your focus back
to the moment at hand is tofocus on the other actor and
think a character thought sowhile you're out of that room
looking at that three-pagemonologue not about me, it's
about this character.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
Yeah, is that what you tell folks when you're with
them on set?
Because I know a lot of peopleare lucky to have you on set
with them.
And there's a great story aboutpivoting with Ryan Reynolds
that I won't spoil from.
I actually really loved thatmovie where you know he's buried
well, he's in a coffin.
Okay, I won't spoil anything,but you talk about the pivot in
that scenario.
So are those, let's say,someone isn't blessed enough to
(46:06):
have you on set with them?
But is that the kind of thingyou would say to somebody in
that moment is look at the otherperson in the scene, you know,
shake it out.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, absolutely Focus on them, because when we
focus on ourselves, we'rewatching ourselves and we want
to take care not to watchourselves, right.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah Well, speaking of watching ourselves eye
contact, what would you, whatwould you say about that?
Because I think that can be abit of a pitfall.
It's like sometimes we lockonto the scene, partner, and we
just are afraid to look anywhereelse.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
Right, Like when we're talking out, like if I'm
thinking I'm looking off rightnow.
That's not distracting, right?
So don't feel like we have toconnect, Connect, connect,
connect connect, I know Sundayin the Park with George.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Connect George.
That's something Meryl Streep Imean she could do no wrong in
my book but does beautifully.
If you watch any of her scenes.
She's kind of always lookingaround.
She rarely is like she'schoosing when to make eye
contact.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
She's kind of always looking around.
She rarely is like she'schoosing when to make eye
contact.
It's natural.
It's because you're focused onthe character.
If you're focused on thecharacter, you're not thinking
about I've got to make eyecontact, because one thing we
don't want to think about isI've got to give to the actor.
We just want to be thecharacter, and when we're just
being the character, we justnaturally look where our eyes
naturally look.
Another thing that you want toavoid is doing this eye to eye
(47:25):
to eye to eye to eye like this.
We don't do that in real life,but we feel that that's very
dramatic.
It's not.
We don't want to do that in aclose-up.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
No, yes, and you do see that on TV pretty often and
I think it's sort of like maybepick one eye to look at.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Yeah, yeah, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (47:44):
we don't want to search, I know I'm like this is
like an eye exercise, I can'teven.
I think I just went cross-eyed.
Ok, memorization, just I guess.
In general, yeah, what are sometips there?
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Get your character down first, because once you get
your character down, even ifyou've only had 30 minutes to
work on your character, do thatbefore you put it into rote
memory.
Because if you learn your linesfirst, it's going to come out
in a sing-song kind of rotefashion.
Very difficult to get it out ofour heads that way, especially
(48:17):
if you're lucky enough to go infor an in-person audition and
casting wants to give you a note.
It's hard to get that read outof our minds.
But lines are so much easier tomemorize once you know more
about your character becauseyour character is going to feel
like saying that Brilliant.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Okay, and this might be more in an audition setting,
but wardrobe slash props.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
I don't love props in an audition.
I like to use space work Like.
This is a phone.
I'm talking on the phone rightnow.
I mean it's perfectly, I meanit's fine right.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
We don't want to do that, Not this right.
Don't do that.
Speaker 1 (48:55):
The space, the space that that it would take in our
hand for the phone, right, Ifyour character needs to drink
water, I think a glass of wateris perfectly fine.
If you're going to shoot a gun,let's don't do this, but you
(49:15):
might be playing a cop and thespace that your hand would
encompass that firearm forinstance you might need that in
the scene.
But if we can avoid props in anaudition, I think that that's
probably better.
We don't want to wear thingsthat are busy or distracting,
like Grateful Dead t-shirt.
Maybe, playing a rocker.
(49:36):
Maybe a black plain t-shirt isbetter, something that's not
distracting and busy for sure.
Yeah, you don't want to dresslike the character, like you
don't want to wear a policeman'suniform, even if you're playing
, you know, auditioning for apolice or a nurse outfit or a
doctor's lab coat.
(49:56):
We just want to give thesuggestion of the character,
because we want them to see yourface, not what you're wearing.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Not the prosthetics and the sexy nurse outfit from
Halloween that's in your closet.
Not speaking from experience oranything, no, I think that's
wonderful advice.
Okay, so we got a job.
What are your thoughts onon-set etiquette?
Speaker 1 (50:20):
Ah, every set?
That's such a good question,honey.
Every set is different.
Every set has a different setof politics, as it were.
The number one on the show, thenumber one on the call sheet,
usually sets the tone.
The director set the tone.
(50:41):
Lay back, see what the tone.
The director set the tone.
Lay back, see what the tone ofthe set is.
You know, if you're number twoon the call sheet, it's going to
feel different than if you'renumber 16 on the call sheet.
Right, but always be on time.
Always listen to your ADs.
You know they need you inmakeup.
Yes, sir, you know on to you inmakeup.
Yes, yes, sir, you know you'reon to makeup.
(51:02):
Just be kind.
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Oh, I love that you talk a lot about kindness, which
I appreciate because I feellike that's what we need more of
in this world, actually notjust this industry and I think
if we're approaching it fromthat aspect, you can't go wrong.
I guess the tricky thing andit's brilliant what you just
said is everybody experienceskindness in a different way,
which is important forcharacters maybe as well, and
(51:27):
you might think that, likefinding the solution for
somebody during a problematicmoment is kind, but to them,
they don't want the solution.
That's actually unkind.
They just want you to sit withthem.
So it's interesting and I thinkwhat you said about assessing a
vibe is similar on a set.
You know, if you're on like aChristopher Nolan set, he
famously takes away all the cellphones.
So if you whip out a cell phone, that's actually not great
(51:49):
etiquette.
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (51:51):
Right.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Like I would, yeah, leave your phone in your trailer
.
Speaker 2 (51:57):
Oh, in general, that's a good note, probably
Because you also want toexperience it right, you want to
enjoy your time yeah, or if youhave to have it on set with you
, make sure that it's not evenon vibrate.
Speaker 1 (52:08):
You know, yeah, it's got to be on silent, but um,
there's one thing that I thoughtwas so lovely.
I was on set and I wasn'tcoaching this actor, but I was
coaching another actor on set.
He would go and buy lotterytickets for the entirety of the
(52:28):
crew Every single Friday.
Wow.
Yeah, and he would come and hewould give every single crew
member a lottery ticket, scratchoff tickets, right.
And I said oh, hugh, why do youdo that?
And he said that's how I get toknow everyone on the crew.
He said but the bad thing is isthat they never give me a
(52:50):
Friday off.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
I thought you were going to say they don't give
them a cut if they win.
Speaker 1 (52:56):
But I mean, I'm not saying go buy lottery tickets
for the crew.
By any stretch of theimagination he's a big, huge
celebrity.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Oh yeah, Can you share who that is?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
It was Hugh Jackman.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Oh, that checks out.
What a gem.
Speaker 1 (53:09):
He was just the most delightful.
Like I say, I was not workingwith him.
I was working with someone elseon that set, but he was just
such a delightful, delightfulhuman being.
Yeah, just such a delightful,delightful human being.
Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yeah, he's a kind soul.
He literally, when I was anintern at NBC, I was just a
little, you know, smurf, I meanI wasn't blue, I don't know why
that word came to mind Behind adesk and he came in and he made
a point to introduce himself andthen, when he left, he turned
around, shook my hand and saidthank you, Robert, and
remembered my name.
And it's such a simple humanthing.
Speaker 1 (53:40):
Kindness right, it's kindness.
So when you're on set, you knowkindness to the grips and the
DP and the, you know craftservices and you know the makeup
people here.
Just lead with kindness.
See what you can observe, seewhat you can learn.
I was coaching once on set andI got to be really good friends
(54:02):
with his DP and he's like whatdo you see, warner?
I said okay, let's trade.
I will tell you what I see inthe acting.
You tell me what you see in thelighting.
I learned so much about his job.
It was fascinating.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Yeah, yeah, home, or whatever feelings are coming up
for you.
You can remember that there'smaybe 20 people in a room
figuring out something elsethat's important.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Exactly right.
And remember, as actors, whenwe leave that set crew is going
to be there hours after we are,so maybe you know 2 am crew's
going to be there to maybe firstlight.
They're just such delightful,wonderful people, crew.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Well, so are you, and I wish I could keep you here
until 2 am.
I know I got to let you go, soif we could end our lovely time
together by you just sharing.
I'm calling it a got and a give, so, almost like the givens, I
would like to end on aninspiring note for listeners.
So if you could give us some ofthose Laughlinisms?
Inspiring note for listeners,so if you could give us some of
those Laughlinisms.
First, what's the best piece ofadvice that you got from
(55:25):
someone in this industry?
Speaker 1 (55:29):
I've been around a lot of years.
I have a lot of.
Let me think about that.
Speaker 2 (55:33):
Oh yeah, take your time.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Always remember who you are.
Speaker 2 (55:40):
I love that.
I think knowing who we are canget lost sometimes right when
you're trying to channel allthese other people, and you kind
of need that foundation andyou've had that, I think, in
your career.
Just looking at it andresearching you, it's like
knowing that you are an actingcoach and you're great at that.
And you had that lovely castingdirector who said you know,
(56:02):
make that decision.
Who are you basically?
Are you going to be an actor oran acting coach?
And I think that's a greatreminder for everybody out there
.
Speaker 1 (56:10):
Yeah, and be happy and proud of who you are.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
Oh, that can be hard, right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:18):
No matter what you know, our past may have been or
backgrounds may have been or anyof that just happy and proud
and grateful.
I take time to be gratefulevery day, even if it's for the
flowers blooming out there.
I know that sounds reallycheesy.
No, I love it.
Take a moment of gratitude forthings that I have, would I love
(56:56):
it a huge thing.
Speaker 2 (56:57):
Yeah, I'm grateful that you exist in this industry.
Honestly, I'm grateful for you.
Oh, thank you.
Well, the second aspect is thegive.
So what advice and it might besimilar, but what advice would
you give to people everybody outthere listening who's looking
to consistently work in thisindustry?
Speaker 1 (57:16):
Ah, ego is the great killer of creativity ego is the
great killer of creativity.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Leave ego at the door .
Create, right.
I love that.
And you see that with all sortof the buzzworthy performances,
it's like, well, they're clearlythey're.
They're snot coming down theirnose and they're crying.
I don't think they care whatthey look like.
Right, right, viola, davis.
No, okay, I think that's.
I think that's a great place toleave it.
Thank you just so much for allthe work you do.
I honestly feel like and thismight sound cheesy I'm a cheese
(57:49):
ball, but I was thinking aboutjust this beautiful legacy that
you're building and I truly feellike you are a lighthouse for
actors.
You are like that guiding lightthat we need.
I've had so many C metaphorstoday.
I don't know why, but I'm justreally, really grateful that you
exist, that you wrote this book.
Everybody, please run to yourphone, I guess, and order the
(58:12):
Warner Laughlin Technique onAmazon.
The cover almost looks like theBig Little Lies.
Is it Big Little Lies cover?
Speaker 1 (58:23):
It looks like you did it first, though I did it first
.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
Leanne Moriarty did it second.
Right, yeah, there we go.
Okay, Leanne, you should get acopy too.
But thank you so much, Lorna.
I just think you're amazing.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I think you're amazing, Robert, and all you do
for actors.
Thank you for being alive.
Speaker 2 (58:36):
Oh, thank you.
Thank you for existing 2025'strying to take me down, but you
know what we're going to powerthrough Warner.
We got this Right, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:47):
Thank you.
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