October 29, 2025 • 46 mins
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Dean unpacks the turning point that changed his work: an acting class with Aaron Speiser that replaced “how should this look?” with “what does this human believe right now?” We dig into the “moment before,” the trap of starting scenes in a pre-selected emotion, and why memorizing like a song locks rhythm and kills spontaneity. Dean’s mantra is ruthless and liberating: lines matter for understanding, presence matters for meaning.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously. If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hey, this is Dean and I'm still here.
(00:03):
My butt hurts.
But I guess this is part two, solet's go.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
I'm TJ.
SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
And as always, I'm Play-Doh.
SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
Back.
What do you mean?
Back?
unknown (00:16):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
You ready?
You ready?
You ready, ready?
Ready, ready?
Nice.
What you thinking?
What you think?
You've got something pondering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:22):
Yeah.
Well, like I said, I I want toask my usual question, but we've
already covered you getting intothe biz.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
I mean, I can keep going.
I stumbled.
I stumbled into Los Angeles.
And then randomly enough, it wasa where I first started working
when I was a kid was at askating rink, being like a DJ.
And the family that owned theskating rink was just fantastic
family.
And it turned out the olderbrother had moved there or to
(00:50):
like San Diego-ish area,somewhere in between.
And so I I was I moved and wentto Los Angeles, like everyone,
enjoyed my car for a littlewhile, did not tell my parents
that.
And then found Tim.
And I was like, all right, cool.
I'll go, I'll go stay with them.
And then I was just driving backand forth for a bit.
And then eventually a friend ofa friend was like, Yeah, you can
come crash on our couch.
I was like, oh, nice.
(01:10):
So I took that route.
And, you know, like everyone,started off doing a little extra
work, that kind of stuff.
Uh met my first group of likeBFFs in Los Angeles that are
still like some of my bestfriends today.
They were all from Texas.
So then every time we'd go out,you know, the girls be like, Oh,
hey, hey, buddy, are y'all allfrom Texas?
Oh, yeah, we're all from Texas.
Well, Dean's from a suburb ofTexas.
(01:35):
Louisiana.
Still friends with them todaybecause they're so lovingly
hateful.
And from a suburb of Texas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then stumbled into a anacting class uh with a guy named
Aaron Spiser.
And then world changed.
And that's when I was like,nope, not leaving this for a
(01:57):
while.
SPEAKER_02 (01:58):
What was your favorite show or one of your
favorite shows that you'veworked on?
SPEAKER_00 (02:03):
Hmm.
You know, we did a a silly sharkmovie in in Mississippi back in
the day called us um calledMississippi River Shark at the
time.
And the the fun part about itwas that when the the producer
called me, he was like, hey,we're doing this film in
Mississippi, and um I have oneof the leads I'd love for you to
(02:24):
look at.
So I'm just gonna show you thescript.
Okay, great.
Reading through the script, I'mlike, alright, cool.
Same roles I'm used to playing,no big deal.
I can do that in my sleep.
We're good.
It's like, all right, great.
You liked it?
Yeah, yeah, cool.
It's like I just thought thatrole would be like so much fun
for you.
Oh, okay.
Cool, thanks, man.
So we jump on a little uh Zoomjust to kind of talk about
(02:45):
stuff.
And he's like, So did you likewhat what was like, you know,
what's your favorite thing aboutthe script so far?
I'm like, oh, I mean it's cool.
I like, you know, we've got aneat relationship with humanity.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
The other role.
The Wyatt role?
Really?
Fuck yeah.
Yes, let's do it.
Cause it was like the weird,weird dude in the he's like the
(03:09):
threesome that shows up betweenthe relationship.
SPEAKER_03 (03:11):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
And I was like, oh, absolutely.
Because, you know, a goodportion of that period of time,
I was usually clean-shaven.
And like, it's funny when cashdirectors get to know you in
their their their way, becauseuh, you know, out of like the
four or five I dealt withthroughout the Southeast, they
all had their mind made up ofwhat I was.
So one never called me in unlessI had a beard.
(03:33):
One never caught me in unless Iwas clean shaven and in a suit,
you know.
And it everybody kind of had mewhere they wanted me when I got
something like that.
There was, you know, just astraight producer call.
It was like, yeah, I want you todo blah, blah, blah.
And it's the weird dude.
I'm like, this is like a dream.
Thank you.
It's like I thought you'd enjoyit.
I was like, I felt like this wasvery much a personality.
I'm like, oh yeah, he's soannoying.
(03:56):
But the interesting part is ifyou have me on like a 22-minute
comedy style show, or I'mplaying the comedic relief that
is like, for lack of betterwords, the person that's always
on versus dramatic role orsomething very serious or their
serious tone.
You know, I'm always in the theway of thinking that depending
(04:17):
on my my human that I am at them at the moment, I'm probably
gonna stay close to, you know,I'm not like I'm not playing the
serial killer and then jumpingstraight to jokes.
Lunchtime, I'm sorry.
But during majority, if we'relike, you know, back-to-back
shooting, there's kind of cutsin between, but mostly we're
just you know going forward,it's gonna be that human being
you're dealing with.
I'm not like psychotic to thepoint that you're like, hey,
(04:39):
how's your daughter?
I don't have a daughter.
If there's an accent, the accentdoesn't leave.
If there's a you know a way ofof behavior that goes with it,
that thing's staying.
So when you have me on a22-minute comedy and I'm the one
that's always on, I'm a lot.
To the point that there was ascene, and uh, I remember
(05:00):
because uh lady named MistyTally was directing it, and she
came over and um she was like,hey, because originally it was
the sci-fi movie was supposed tobe kind of serious, right?
And like it's just not that thatscript.
It's a it's a sci-fi sharkmovie.
If you're squirting blood that'scoming from a shark that's in
the water, clearly we're pastthe point of this being
completely serious.
We're not we're not there.
(05:20):
And they had the realizationbefore we started shooting that,
okay, yeah, this is this istotally comedy.
Let's let's use it.
So they gave me more freedom,and that just automatically
speeds things up, right?
So we get to a scene and uhMisty was like, hey, so there's
supposed to be this like youknow, a couple seconds of this
scene where you're grabbing theguns, you're packing them up,
(05:42):
and we're you know, you'reheading off to go meet
everybody.
Like, okay.
But because the way we'reshooting, everything's going so
much faster, I need to feel likelike a good four to five minutes
at least.
Okay.
What are you gonna do four tofive minutes?
Like, if you said I can, you'regood.
Are you are you okay with that?
Okay, let's see.
(06:02):
And literally they had to cutbecause I was I I will play.
If you let me play, I'm afucking kid in the candy store.
Let me go.
I'll make stuff up.
I had myself wrapped in the bag.
It made sense to that humanbeing.
But if you were not that humanbeing, you're like, what is
going on with you?
So, you know, benefits benefitsdon't guess.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
What was it about that class that you referenced
that changed things for you?
What what stands out in yourmind about that class that all
of a sudden it was different?
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Truth.
So so many classes for acting isabout acting.
And it was truth.
You know, Aaron's like the onlycoach Will Smith's ever had.
He's he's just one of those guysthat has always coached like
humongous people, but always didhis own his own little studio
and kept his classes going anddoing that.
So you were able to like, youknow, you'd be doing your scene,
and hey, Will Smith's sitting inthe fucking audience.
(07:00):
That's cool.
Okay.
I'm not don't tell me thatagain.
You know, because then you're inyour head.
But what was so great with Aaronis the talk was never
necessarily about, hey, let'stalk about your technique.
It was let's talk about the lifethat's going on, right?
This is all human behavior.
It's it's why my my brain hasevolved to looking at the acting
(07:24):
the way that I do, and I'll I'llget to there later.
It's a weird perspective, butdifferent.
And understanding that this ishuman behavior, that we're not
creating character, we're justallowing other human traits and
and belief systems to be ourown.
Like I say, I probably teachmore from an Eckhart Tolle book
and a Tony Robbins book than Ido from Uda Hagen, even though I
use Uda Hagen as some of mybasic technique methods.
(07:46):
But when you understand thatyou're not, you know, you let go
of that performance idea.
Like I'm not even a big fan ofthe word performance, because
performance might be useful ifwe're talking about how to make
sure the audition's worthy.
But when you're talking aboutbeing present in the moment of
being this human, living from Ato B, C to D, there is no
(08:06):
performance, right?
You once you've once you'veowned the belief system, there
is no more character, if youwant to call it.
It's you.
And then you can't do anythingwrong.
Because it's you.
You're you're you're livingtruthfully in the moment.
You might have adopted beliefsystems, which by adopting those
shifts you.
(08:28):
But that's what we go back towhen we were talking about, you
know, human beings and actorsalways thinking, oh, I get to be
a character, I get to be someoneelse.
It's like, no, you don't get toescape.
You can you can act like someoneelse, but you never get to leave
you.
So can you adopt or allow thingsthat make you live differently,
(08:52):
not act differently.
For you know, for instance,someone that grows up having an
abusive father, if someoneraised their hand to them, they
might flinch just out of out oflife habit, right?
They might hit back just notknowing.
That's a different, a differentperspective of being the human
being in scenes than let me seehow they would act and then try
(09:17):
to act the way I think the scenewould look.
To me, that's acting.
What we're doing, especiallywhen it comes to more like
films, film and TV versus like astage, because the stage, I get
it.
There's a there's a I have to bea vocal to a certain extent.
It's a different muscle, right?
I always say like a lion and ahouse cat.
I'm not gonna get in the ringwith a lion because it's big,
(09:40):
and I know it's big, but we'reaware of that.
I'll fuck with Awsky, but thatcat might fuck me up because
those little things areferocious and you just never
know when it's gonna happen.
And that's to me, film andtelevision.
All that stuff's in there.
We're not trying to showanybody, but the camera's
getting everything because theintention and the reality that's
(10:00):
going on for you.
Whether that, and you know, Ialways say like with adults, I
want it to be real.
For kids, I'll just say, hey,let's let's play for real.
Because kids don't need that.
They can they can they can playfor real.
There's no gap there.
So with a kid, you say let'splay for real, and you say, Oh
my god, that's the biggestspaceship ever.
(10:23):
It is immediately, right?
But the adult, is it what?
Is it like a circle?
Fuck, I don't what do you see?
Oh, I don't see anything, butI'm trying to like what would
we, what should we, what shouldwe make it?
Whatever you see, where are youat?
Look up there.
What do you see?
Sky.
(10:44):
Okay?
See a spaceship.
Right, but that's what I'masking.
Like, what kind of spaceship?
No, no, you stop it.
You know, we want our our brainshave gotten to a point, and it's
to me, it's always like a umit's a safety mechanism.
People tend to get quiet whenthe conversations start if
(11:04):
they're afraid they might saysomething silly.
The same as like your yourfriends and family will always
be like, Oh, you're acting.
What's your backup plan?
But it's not they don't mean itin that way.
For them, their perspective islove, and they're like, Well,
you know, I just I care for youand I want to make sure that you
have something.
Our perspective we see from onlyour POV, which is, why the fuck
(11:27):
would you ask me that?
You don't believe me?
You know, because ourself-deprecating mind, of
course, goes in that route.
So it's always for me, like, howcan I get here, live here, and
look out?
Once I can find that POV, that'sit.
I'm I'm here.
I don't have a um what would thecharacter do moments anymore.
There's only this is how I doit, or this is what I want.
(11:49):
How I do it will happen in themoment.
And I don't know.
And Aaron to me was that.
It became about the behavior andthe truth of of owning these
other things.
How you acted in the scene, Icould give a shit as long as it
was truthful.
And if it's truthful, it'sprobably great.
But if it's not real, if I'mjudging your acting, well, it's
(12:11):
probably bad acting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was him.
That was that was my uh myintroduction to my Jewish
whisperer.
SPEAKER_02 (12:20):
And what you describe with the UFO is when we
become adults, which one day Ihope to be one.
Someday.
Don't strive too hard.
We lose the permission to play.
Yeah.
You know?
So it's like the kid was like,Oh, look at that spaceship.
It's it looks like a cigar, eventhough the kid wouldn't know
(12:41):
what a cigar is.
And the adult's like, I don'twant to say the wrong thing and
get a bad grade in the class,and I have to achieve and be
great.
And once you can push that awayand just go back to being a kid
and just saying, there it is,I'm not gonna say that's all of
acting, but a good portion.
SPEAKER_00 (12:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, if you think about it,like you get you get a script,
and per the adult, that scriptis the rule book.
And all of a sudden, he liftshis left eyebrow.
What are you doing?
It said to do that.
But why are you doing it?
It's said to do that.
(13:20):
What what made you do that?
The script?
No.
And I've it's funny, I've hadI've had almost that exact same
conversation, not about theeyebrow.
What was it?
I was on a set, I was doingonset coaching for a film in
Alabama, I think.
Or no, maybe it's Georgia.
Maybe it's Georgia.
It was uh it was a newer actor,and I'm not gonna say nepotism,
(13:40):
but maybe.
And and I remember the directorgoing, hey, would you spend some
just spend some time?
It's you know, it's a littlescene, and uh, want to make sure
you know it's comfortable withwhat's going on.
I'm like, all right, cool.
So we sat down for a second andI was like, hey, what exactly is
kind of the moment before here?
Like what's what's going on foryou?
What do you mean?
Well, what's what's going on,what's going on before this
scene for you?
I don't know, I think we'reshooting after lunch.
(14:02):
Okay.
What in the script?
What happens before you for you,the human being that this let's
say, the character, before thecharacter steps into this scene
and says this dialogue, what ishappening?
Uh he's not in the scriptanymore than just that.
(14:26):
I know that.
I've read it.
But what do you what do youthink this human might be doing
right before this happens?
And then we work through thatand it's like, oh, okay, all
right, all right, so you rushinto this, you're running late,
and you just blurt out whateverthis this line is because
clearly you you're running latefrom something, right?
(14:47):
Yeah.
Okay, but you don't know what.
Why don't we figure it out?
I don't know.
Let's say you were taking ashit.
Okay.
Let's say you're taking a shit,and then you realize time went
off.
You gotta go.
I I would love to see yourunning here finishing, getting
the buckle done.
And then whatever happens therehappens.
Okay, and now all of a suddenyou see this light bulb that's
like, this is gonna be fun.
(15:09):
And as soon as the fun partkicks back in, this thing
becomes a whole new world.
Now acting has this enjoymentversus you know, it starts as
fun, but then people startgetting in their head about what
they have to make this sceneinto.
And now it's not only is itstressful, but now you have
expectations of what the scene'ssupposed to be, because in the
scene it says they angrily blahblah blah.
(15:30):
And TJ's probably heard me saythis before, but that's what I
call the button.
There's an on button and an offbutton.
To me, if you're trying to liveup the expectations that the
scene is supposed to be, becauseit's a an angry scene, then
you've press the button at thebeginning and and you start your
(15:50):
scene ready.
Right?
You're in you're in angry mode.
You have no clue why.
Nothing's happened to make youangry.
There was no moment before thatbrought you from anger.
You just started off fakinganger.
But if you start off fakinganger, then guess what has to
happen for the rest of thescene?
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
You gotta fake it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:10):
You have to fake it.
Well, I'm not I'm not reallyangry.
Great.
Don't come in angry.
But what is what if it'ssupposed to be angry?
What happens right before theanger starts?
Um she says, I can't believe youtold your mother that.
What did you say to what did shetell your mother?
(16:33):
I don't know.
Let's make it up.
Let's make it something thatfucking pissed you off.
Oh, and then the light againgoes off.
It's like, okay.
It's like great.
Now, moment before, somethingsimple.
You're in you're watching, youknow, Transformers with your
wife, everything's going great.
And then you step into this, andthen that triggers those things
(16:53):
that connected.
Synapse fires, and now somethingactually makes you angry, and
you don't have to fake itbecause all you had to do was
just be here watchingTransformers.
So we start real and then letthe scene or the other person,
because again, for me, this thishas to be us allowing everything
to be real.
I have to allow you to affectme.
(17:15):
If you call me whatever namethat's supposed to affect me, I
have to allow that to betruthful to me.
And on the regular human, mostof my work is let's remove all
that bullshit.
I don't care what anybody callsme.
You're not a child, you're notin high school.
Who cares what they think ofyou?
Just be here.
That's all we could do, right?
The rest of it, meh.
But when we turn back to thework, and that's the only on and
(17:38):
off button I really play with,is my actor takes everything
personal because I have to allowall these things to be mine,
right?
We're not playing enlightenedhuman beings.
We're playing some kooky regularhumans that have no idea outside
of the box.
They're truly just stuck intheir box and they see life from
their perspective.
Us as humans, we can actuallyevolve further than that, most
(18:01):
of us, some of us, and we canallow ourselves to see from both
perspectives.
While yes, you can throw me inanything and I can just truly
be, and I'm good to go.
If it's something specific thatyou give me time to then go put
some time into and find thatworld for me, it's just a whole
nother level.
Because that's to me, that'swhen you get to see, that's when
(18:23):
you finish the scene and someonegoes, Why the hell did you do
that?
Felt real.
That's fantastic.
Let's do it again.
Versus that looked well thoughtout.
Thanks.
That's not a compliment to me.
Right.
(18:43):
Right.
It's just not, you know, no onelike we were talking the other
day, TJ.
It's like no one ever says, Man,you really got all your lines
right.
That's where we're that's ourbottom line.
We're starting low.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
That's right.
Very cool.
So let's talk to your actingcommunity.
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (19:04):
You want to give me how I got to that thing?
SPEAKER_01 (19:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
So with Aaron, you know, I grew up Catholic.
Um and like choose to teachcatechism Catholic.
And then moved to Los Angeles.
And I've always I've always justbeen interested in in God and
spirituality and just, you know,whatever, whatever that meant to
everybody else.
And I remember like I was thehow this is how Catholic I was.
I was rollerblading with mybishop.
(19:31):
That came out of my mouth.
And I remember saying, What doyou what do you think about
Buddhism?
You know, I've been reading somestuff about it, and it's like,
oh, it's a very it's aninteresting spirituality.
But you know, if you'reCatholic, you don't mean you
don't have to worry about it toomuch.
But I'm but I'm human.
Like there's like millions ofpeople that believe in that.
(19:51):
Wouldn't that shouldn't,wouldn't, you know, how would
that not give me some moreinformation?
Well, I mean you can if you wantto.
And to me, that one little thingwas like, this is what the box
is like.
This is what it's like living ina box.
So when I started takingcharacter with Aaron, every
character I'd go to, because tome spirituality was interesting,
(20:12):
I would always find whatspirituality or what their
belief system was.
Because you know, most of uslive we live our day-to-day life
based on these belief systemsthat we've had since we were
probably a child.
We've never questioned before.
And then that and people'sopinions helped us become the
character we are now.
And we're all character, we'rejust not all aware of it.
(20:34):
So when I would do those, everytime I got to me, every time I
got to play with anothercharacter, I was like, cool.
I get to understand what theperspective is from their shoes
in a deeper way than just like,oh yeah, no, I've played that
character before.
No, I I want to understand itfrom their POV to the point that
if like it was something that Ibelieved opposite of, I wanted
to get to the point that I couldI could argue with me to prove
(20:56):
it wrong.
And I feel like I kind of gotthere.
So out of digging throughout thespiritualities of everything,
and then that drove me to kindof the science and metaphysics,
kind of wrapped in all of that.
And all throughout this time,I'm still continuing my my
training as an actor.
I started coaching people forErin and doing that kind of
stuff for auditions and thingslike that.
And I'd started coaching my onmy own before I left Los
(21:19):
Angeles, and then kind ofstarted diving into some of the
different spirituality, likespiritual groups out there as
well.
That's a lot when some of themanifestation kind of stuff was
popping up.
And uh, I don't know if you knowof anything about Abraham Hicks,
that kind of world.
So I'm reading some of theseother books that funny enough,
when you when you go into and Ilook back at like stuff Aaron
used to give us back in the day,gives you like this big book of
(21:42):
pamphlets and different papersand stuff.
And I went back to like thereading list years later, and a
few of these books that Ieventually stumbled on myself,
and I was like, oh, I figuredlife out.
He had in there, and I'm like,ah, that fucker still has me.
But from reading and goingthrough these things, I it
started affecting the way Icoach.
So when I'm coaching actors, italways came back to a level of
(22:05):
that belief system versus justlike this is character and this
is outside of you.
I would stop going, hey, howwould you do this if?
And I would start saying, let'squiet down and go inside and see
what this feels like.
Because when you start gettingtapped in, you know, to me,
we're all we're all a portion,we're all a part of this, this
(22:25):
God source, whatever you want tocall it.
So if I can start tweaking thesethings, you start widening your
perspective.
And for acting, when you'retrying to play any character, I
don't care if it's Hitler, youhave to be able to find a place
that you are doing somethingfrom the standpoint that you
believe it is good.
And that is the hardest part foreveryone to get to.
(22:45):
But if you can get to that, thenit also immediately drops all of
your judgment.
And then when that's gone, youstart looking at the whole world
with a whole new set of eyeballsbecause you don't have the
judgment of going, oh, they'redoing it because they're evil,
they're doing it because they'rebad, they're doing it because
they want.
All of a sudden, you're like,they're doing it because they
think that's good somehow.
(23:06):
And you start being able to lookat that from a whole new way,
and then your own life dropsthis huge portion of judgment
that you grew up with becauseit's habit.
You you can't not find judgmentin some way, shape, or form
being around other humans.
It just is what it is, right?
So the more I kept kind offiguring those things out, I
(23:28):
started adjusting how I wascoaching, and my the actors were
getting tons out of it for theirwork.
But I have I have likepsychiatrists and therapists
that were coming back and belike, you know, I use some of
these things in my work now.
Like, really?
Yeah.
Because it it it would helppeople find a deeper part of
themselves that they weren'tcomfortable finding before.
(23:50):
Or if you think about theperformance psychology, if I can
play the person that I think Ihate and I can truly try to see
something in that perspective,all of a sudden that hate's
gone, and all of that weightthat made you feel like shit all
the time is also gone.
You can start forgiving peoplefor stuff that you might have
thought was the worst thingyou've ever thought they could
(24:10):
do.
And now you see it from adifferent point of view, and
you're like, they didn't knowany better.
The example we used earlierabout the the abusive dad, the
abusive dad wasn't hitting hiskid because he thought that was
the best thing to do.
He was doing it because hethought that was the best way to
help him learn, or it was hisshortcomings at the time.
So while that doesn't givejustification for hitting a kid,
(24:31):
sure, it gives you a perspectiveto understand where that person
was that allows you to forgivethem, that also allows you to
go, huh, that was weighing on memore than them.
And it's just the the thementality and the mindset that
would get changed through someof these things that made me
start going, I want to, I wantto offer this to humans more
(24:53):
than necessarily just actors.
Because you know, when it's inthat the actor box, people just
automatically go, Oh, yeah, Idon't really want to be an
actor.
And like coaching CEOs andthings, as soon as they heard
the word, they're like, I don'tneed an acting coach.
Oh, well, if it makes you feelany better, I'm I'm really just
trying to help you stop doingthat acting bullshit that you're
(25:14):
doing on camera that I see allover your social media.
SPEAKER_01 (25:16):
What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Well, I mean you're you're kind of acting
professional when you get onyour social media, because I
didn't see that guy in thismeeting at all.
Well, yeah, because you have tobe professional when you do you?
Because if I if I were gonnahire you, I'd want to know that
the person that shows up thatI'm finding, I feel like I know,
not all of a sudden is acompletely different human
being.
All right, we can we can trythis.
And then all of a sudden there'sa little bit of like, a little
(25:40):
scratch of the surface.
But yeah, so going through allthat, I wanted to, after
pandemic and all that cray craythat went through, my wife went
through some health stuff and Itook a huge break try just
taking care of you know home andfamily and kiddo.
And then as I started comingback to this, I was like, yeah,
I'd love to just open the studioagain and start doing that.
Because my most fun was having afull-on studio here in New
(26:01):
Orleans from audition, auditiontechnique to a beginning
technique going through likeactual scene study and going up
from an intermediate andadvanced and then an actual
masterclass.
That's the most fun for me.
I I enjoy being in the thick ofit, and you have a full set that
you get to play with to be ahuman because that's when you
get to see all of the actualthings that happen.
(26:23):
When you have to actually get upand walk over to do something,
all of a sudden you're like,Since when do you walk like
that?
What do you mean?
Why are you walking so funny?
I've always walked like that.
No, no, no, no.
Maybe it's character.
Mm-mm.
No, that was a good try, butthat's definitely not character.
You know, it's like you get tosee the full body do stuff.
(26:44):
Whereas an audition, we have alittle bit of a a box we can
only play in.
So there's a limit.
Now, you have a room, sohopefully your camera can and
can view you enough that we cando a little bit of a scene study
from from being on camera now,too, which works to an extent.
And uh I was trying to figureout how to do that again, but
you know, then you gotta pay fora studio, you gotta have this,
(27:07):
and it's overhead.
And I'm like, I don't, I don'treally want to, I don't want
actors to be the industry's notgoing crazy.
The last thing I want is anyonehaving to go, you know, pay for
expensive classes.
So I'm like, how can we, how canI find a happy medium?
So I started Tilt originally washere's a god-awful amount of
hours from all the workshopsI've done over the years.
(27:27):
They'll be in there.
Here's courses on full-ontechnique that also kind of
combines that manifestationactor-tractor method that I've
kind of figured out over theyears.
It's in there.
And then there's a fast-trackedacting, and I kind of set it to
where it's like, you know, whenyou first start acting and you
start auditioning because youthink that's what you're
supposed to do first, but youhave no clue what you're doing,
(27:48):
and you don't want to go take aclass and actually learn a
full-on technique that takes waytoo long.
I want to act now.
So the fast-tracked is likehere, here's like the
kindergarten version of how tounderstand what you're doing so
you don't make a complete foolof yourself.
And you can get some headshotsand resumes, and it looks like a
professional setup while you'regoing through an actual
(28:08):
technique class and learning howto actually act until you get to
an audition class and a masterclass and all that stuff.
I had all that and I was like,yeah, I can just offer this 47
bucks a month, and we'll dolike, you know, once a week,
we'll jump on for live session.
And that way I can kind of helppeople where they're at and
whatever.
And then I got antsy, like fourdays in.
I want to teach.
I want to, I want to be in theclass, I want to do something.
(28:30):
So when she was like, well, whydon't you just add a couple, you
know, some live sessions whereyou guys can still do, you know,
audition technique and that kindof stuff in the group.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (28:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:39):
Yeah, I'll just do that.
So like two days passed by andthen I I put it to 99 bucks a
month because I had adjustedstuff.
I'm like, all right, if we'regonna be doing classes, they're
gonna be here a lot and it'sit's worth it, so I'll switch it
to this.
Plus, you know, when you havesomething too cheap, the mind's
just like that's it's justwhatever.
I'll show up when I want to.
And then Michelle's like, so doyou adjust thing?
I was like, yeah, yeah, I madethere's like eight live sessions
(29:02):
now.
Eight?
I thought you were just gonnaadd like a couple.
I would there's a couple.
There's a couple more.
So now it's eight live sessionsa week.
But like, you know, two of themare you know, like 30 to 45
minute sessions.
We're doing some kind of mindsetstuff and structuring out your
week, make sure you got youryour goals and kind of some
accountability stuff, becausethat's some of what I do when
I'm consulting for coaches andstuff.
(29:24):
And then, you know, midweek waslike a hump day Wednesday, so we
just meet up in the morningsagain.
How's those three things going?
Let's finish up the week strong.
What are we working on?
And then the way I'm off at thebeginning as well.
So it's just kind of two of themare more us chatting, going
through that, and then we've gotsome actual kind of let's bring
your work and work on something,and then kind of an improv
(29:44):
version of it.
Because to me, being truthfullyliving in the moment and doing
something with someone that is,you know, given circumstances
not necessarily yours, that'sacting.
We still have to work on thesame muscle.
So if we can get you feeling themuscle and you don't have to
worry about dialogue or gettingthings right, because you know.
The brain and the actor when itcomes to getting your dialogue
right, all of a sudden's likethe most important thing.
(30:05):
And I'm like, that's literallythe last, the last thing I worry
about.
I use the dialogue because Ihave to understand the scene,
character, the terms, who thesepeople are, what's going on, who
am I, all that stuff.
But I'm not trying to memorizeany of that because then it
becomes that like you justmemorized a song, and now you
can only say it back if thetune's the same.
And that's when you get thoseactors that are just giving you
(30:26):
the same one over and over.
And I used to love those actorsin class because I would fuck
some stuff up.
I'd step on your feet or just dosomething to just totally ruin
the scene.
Some people love working withme, other people is like, I'm
not, I'm not, mm-mm, nottonight.
But yeah, so I built that out,and uh it's still got all the
courses and all the other stuff,and then there's some sessions
(30:47):
where you'll be you'll have mekind of live.
You can post as many likeauditions that you've done in
the section, and we can kind oftalk about it by there.
Say you've you know you've gotan audition due Thursday, but
you want to get something ontape Monday and get some
feedback, cool, get it on there,throw it under that section,
I'll give you some feedback, andthen you can do a retake if
there's some stuff to work on.
SPEAKER_01 (31:03):
The way I've been describing it is it's more than
just acting classes and andone-on-one.
It's a it's a community uh oflike-minded people because
there's a chat section in there,and I mean, just the other day I
was in there looking around andyou you messaged me, and we
ended up jumping on a call andand had a a virtual session
(31:28):
right then.
Yeah.
And there's other people postingcomments, and I you know, I
already made another friend.
It's it is, it's a community,and it's it's really cool.
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
I'm enjoying it.
Yeah, and let's be real, it's2025.
The political spectrum haspeople at their each other's
necks for the most ridiculousshenanigans.
So I wanted somewhere that wecould all have some positive
conversation.
And I wanted the ability to kicksomeone out if I have to.
Because it's, you know, look, wewe've it's a it's a tough world
(32:01):
out there.
Um, this industry, the way it'sset up, is can be beastly if you
don't have the right perspectiveor the right setup or the right
mentor telling you, you know,the right way to look at some of
this stuff.
I mean, you we're we literallysigned up to go hope people
approve us for our art everyday, sometimes five to six times
(32:21):
a day.
That can be grueling if youdon't have the right mindset
around it.
And I think to me, the mindsetis probably 80% of what we do.
Because if I can get your mindstraight, then you can be
present, you can be in themoment because your fear level
of trying to get it right likethe scene should be or the
casting director would like ismm gone.
(32:42):
Nobody's on a pedestal.
Because if you put castingdirectors or directors or
anybody else on a pedestal, youhave to look up and they have to
look down.
I don't want nobody looking downat me.
I will pass on an audition ifit's just not for me.
I don't want to waste my time, Idon't want to waste their time.
I don't, I got other stuff I'drather do.
I don't, I'm not gonna go, it'spractice, you should do it
(33:02):
anyway.
No, that's good.
I'm good.
I'll practice if I want topractice, but I'm not gonna go
through the like you've got twohours to get it done and get it
on and sent off.
And nah, that anxiety stays withme for the rest of the week.
That takes away from my kid,that takes away from my wife.
I'm good.
And it you you guys weren'tthere, but like even when we had
person, like in live, in-personclasses, I never hesitated.
(33:24):
Like, if it was, you know, wehad scene study that night, if
if we were, if I had a goodthree to four hours ahead of
time, and if something was goingon for me energetically, and I
was like, look, I'm not in theplace that I would want to be to
bring to my students, then I'mgonna let you know ahead of
time.
Hey, this class will not countagainst you, but we're gonna
we're gonna move class next weekand uh we'll see you then.
Because I don't want to, Imostly from understanding
(33:47):
metaphysics and the spiritualityand that connection that we
have.
When I get into a scene withyou, we are exchanging energy.
If you're both really goodactors, I feel what you feel and
you feel what I feel.
My first example is when youcome into class, I will line
people up along the wall, notthe wall, because then they're
backed up, but just in front ofthe class, right?
(34:08):
And we'll get into a line.
And I usually do this when we'restarting like a brand new
workshop because people don'thave the context of what acting
is versus being truthful.
And I say, I want, I want youguys to understand this.
I want you to energetically feelwhat the difference is.
I'm gonna tell you all that Ihate you right now.
So just pre-warning.
And I'll walk down the room,walk walk down each person, take
(34:28):
a second.
I hate you.
I hate you, I hurt you, right?
I'm hating them.
And then I finish, I'm like, allright, anybody take that
personal?
No?
Cool.
That's acting.
Ready?
Now we're gonna do the otherone.
And I'll walk through with theintention.
I hate you.
I fucking hate you.
(34:51):
I really hate you.
And I would just walk down andI'd step back.
Cool.
Anybody take that personal?
I hate you.
That was gross.
People were just like, that wasthat was horrible.
That felt so nasty.
Yeah.
That's what it should feel likewhen you're in the present
(35:11):
moment of a scene.
You should feel if someone is ahorrible human, you should feel
the horrible human, not the guyyou had lunch with.
unknown (35:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:21):
And it's gonna feel funky because that you don't
have to talk.
I can walk down that same rowand not say a damn thing, and
you can feel what I feel.
And if you can do that, now wecan worry about dialogue.
Because you have an intention,you know what you're after, and
you're gonna affect people.
When we when I would coach kids,like if we had to get something
fast and on on tape quick, Iwould kind of I I I call a
(35:43):
character into them, like ifit's a scene where they're
dealing with a monster orwhatever, I would let myself
take a little monstery out and Isay, look, all right, I'm gonna
I'm gonna take as much as this,so it's probably gonna scare you
a little bit so that we can bein it for the moment.
I'm gonna stay back here behindcamera, so you know it's not
gonna feel I'm not gonna closeto you, but I want you to know
that I'm gonna try to give youas much as I can so you're a
little bit scared.
SPEAKER_03 (36:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (36:05):
And they you know, it was fun for them.
And every once in a while they'dbe like, that one was scary.
That's probably our take,though.
Because they knew they werelike, that was oh yeah, I'm
gonna go to the bathroom, I'llbe right back.
But they got to feel that enoughthat they didn't have to act.
And once you can feel thatlittle moment of like, oh man,
(36:26):
that was truthful, and thenyou're hooked.
Because once you can feel thattruthful stuff, and that's I I
remember being in Aaron's class,and it was back to back.
I had gone from his likebeginner technique class to his
advanced scene study class intwo or three months or something
like that.
And uh, I had finished a scene,my scene partner, and we both
sit down.
(36:47):
He's very much like BillyCrystal.
So he he sits at his spine andgoes, Dang.
You're one of the best actors Ihave.
Thanks, Aaron.
What um what do you mean bythat?
(37:07):
Like, I'm not joking.
You're one of the best actors Ihave.
Go on.
It's like you have made it thisfast to my advanced scene study
class, and I just realizedyou're still acting.
I didn't I I I didn't know.
I just realized it.
That's how good of an actor youare.
You faked it that far that youwere in my advanced scene study
class, and I didn't know youwere still faking it.
(37:29):
And I'm like, okay.
Thanks for the compliment.
Let's do the scene again.
He's like, okay.
So we did the scene again.
And for whatever reason, thatclicked so clear to me that I
stepped out, got back,completely ran through my moment
before my head, and whateverfelt was felt.
(37:50):
And then we started the scene.
And we finished, and he goes,How was that?
I don't remember shit.
Good.
Welcome to the class.
I was like, but that was it.
Like as soon as you felt thatand you realized you weren't,
you weren't, you weren't doinganything because you were in it.
(38:12):
Like you don't, you don't finishhaving a conversation before you
meet your wife and you're like,all right, I'm gonna go to the
bathroom, you get down to sit inthe toilet, and you're like,
yeah, it was a good scene.
You're not, you know.
You're just not.
Now there's sometimes I likeBrian, I you we probably shoot
for the good scene.
But most of the time, you don'twalk away from a conversation
thinking, yeah, I acted welltoday.
SPEAKER_02 (38:32):
Right.
But that was.
Speaking of walking away, yeah.
We're gonna have to call it.
SPEAKER_00 (38:38):
Call it, call it.
Yeah, I don't even know whattime it is.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna give youthe second version of the the
time that that thing came backaround to me.
I'm in Atlanta.
I was I think I had drove up forcallbacks for something, booked
something, drove back to NewOrleans to shoot, no sleep,
(38:58):
drove right back to Atlanta forcallbacks for Iron Man
something, maybe three orsomething.
And I'm in the room, and I youknow, I was running it on and
off on the way there.
My wife and I stopped tosomewhat take a nap in the
seediest motel.
(39:18):
Like I I put I I put a blanketon the floor so my dog didn't
walk on it.
And uh I go into the call intothese callbacks or the audition,
I think it's the first round,and uh I meet casting and I'm
just like somewhat wired oncaffeine, maybe some sleep.
My brain's not there whatsoever.
And I'm just I had told them I'dbe there, so I'm like, look, I'm
(39:41):
I'm a word guy.
If I gave you my word, I'm gonnabe there.
So I go in.
Like, all right, nice to meetyou, Dean.
Um, we're really excited.
We've been looking forward toseeing you.
Uh blah, blah, blah.
You have any questions?
No, no, let's let's go wheneveryou're ready.
Okay, let's do it.
So they start the scene, and Ijust acted like a motherfucker.
(40:01):
I'm acting, and I'm like, I'mprobably on like line five, and
all of a sudden I just went andthen did the rest of the scene
as a fing human being.
And I they probably thought Iwas so bipolar.
Because in my head, it justclicked to me.
I was like, you, what are youdoing?
And I just turned off, lockedback into her, heard her line,
(40:25):
and kept going.
But as a human, and I could onlyimagine, because it probably
went from like clown characterto like, this is a human.
This is a human that juststepped into my office.
And that brought me back aroundto the Aaron Spiser time where
he was like, Yeah, best actingever.
(40:46):
And that was not acting, like itwas it was way beyond the worst.
And I got back in the car and Itold Michelle and she was like,
Yeah, but it's probably one ofthose times where you know you
like you think you did reallybad.
I was like, No, no.
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
No, that was that was bad.
That's like a I don't know thatI want him coming back because
that creeped me out bad.
That's how bad that one was.
(41:07):
And she's like, Are you sure?
Like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:11):
Did you hear from him after that?
SPEAKER_00 (41:13):
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
Nope.
Nope.
Iron Man definitely got castwithout me.
But I am looking forward toworking with John with uh Robert
Downey Jr.
someday.
I want to do a Wing Chung moviewith him.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Martial artist, and we we're ina similar thing there.
So mostly I just wanted to hitme.
Insurance purposes.
SPEAKER_02 (41:34):
And on that note.
SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
Excellent.
Well, Dean, thank you forjoining us.
It's been a long time coming.
And I want to see you have ifyou have some socials that you
want to mention.
No, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (41:51):
I don't want people.
Don't find me.
Thanks for joining us.
No, because no, TJ's alreadygonna go try to find stuff
already.
Uh yeah, everything, everythingis at the Dean West.
Uh, pretty easy.
Even even the website is atthedeanwest.com and you can find
everything from there.
Facebook's the same, and I thinkthe only difference is LinkedIn,
but you know, actors don't dothat.
Yeah.
(42:11):
Actors don't do that.
Actors don't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (42:15):
And they can find the uh they can find Telqua
right down below.
That was articulate.
Brian and I talked about a word.
SPEAKER_00 (42:27):
What about everybody you take with our word that we
open this with?
SPEAKER_01 (42:33):
Yeah.
Yeah, that threw me offcompletely.
I'm still trying to scrabblethat one out in my brain.
But yeah, they can find the TiltActing School in the link down
below.
SPEAKER_00 (42:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Come join us.
We'll play for a bit.
I expect to see Brian in theresoon.
He's got to bring me this uhthis audition he told me you
can't share yet.
SPEAKER_02 (42:56):
Yeah.
Oh my god, the pressure.
The pressure.
SPEAKER_00 (43:00):
Hey, you brought you told me Cajun Wizard.
I'm like, yeah, I want to seethat.
Cajun Jedi.
Oh yeah, I want to s I want tosee the Cajun Jedi.
We'll we'll record the sessionsfor sure so that we can we can
share.
You can share it with everyonelater.
SPEAKER_02 (43:12):
Definitely.
Extra feedage, uh footage, uhfeedage?
Extra feetage on the DVD and theblue.
SPEAKER_01 (43:18):
See, we talk for a living.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
Man, it's a good thing.
Again, there's like a multiplepersonality situation I have
going on up here, and most ofthe time they're they're over
here in the closet, and I keepthem there safely.
But they've all got accents,like my kid deals with them, and
uh we didn't touch on any ofthose, so we made it through two
episodes and you didn't meet anyof them.
That's that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
We might have to do part three coming up.
SPEAKER_00 (43:43):
Go go find the movie End Trip, E-N-D-T-R-I-P, and
there's there's um some of themthat show face in there.
I'll say it that way.
SPEAKER_02 (43:52):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (43:53):
Yeah.
Other than that, thank you guys.
This was a pleasure.
Had a good time.
Nice.
SPEAKER_02 (43:58):
You're welcome.
We had a blast.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:01):
We need to we also need to plug your podcast, Dean.
SPEAKER_00 (44:04):
Yeah, sure.
Uh come find me everywhere, uh,the Dean West Perspective.
And uh it's it's all kind ofpsycho babble from the industry
stuff all the way to my myspiritual weirdness that my
woo-woo comes together in oneplace, so feel free to check me
out.
SPEAKER_01 (44:19):
Yeah, you've had a pretty eclectic gathering of
guests on your show.
SPEAKER_00 (44:24):
Yeah, it started off where I was like, yeah, I want
to do something for industrystuff, but then you know, my
again, you've heard now what mymind goes to when it talks about
acting.
To me, acting in life andeverything is just a a combined
thing.
So I I couldn't just go therebecause if you're taking in your
your regular life and yourhealth and the stuff that's
(44:47):
going on in our world and us asactors, all of that to me is
combined because we're affectedby everything and we're working
on the truthfully creating life.
So why would I why would I wantto put that in a box?
SPEAKER_02 (44:58):
Yeah.
Go online and find his woo-woo.
Woo-woo.
SPEAKER_00 (45:04):
You want a real weird, a weird one?
Oh man.
Um yeah, I'm gonna say it.
So when I was a kid, when I wasa kid, uh when I was a kid, uh I
didn't want to wipe my own butt.
Do you think we're going there?
SPEAKER_02 (45:19):
Here we go.
SPEAKER_00 (45:21):
So I would uh instead of like I was
embarrassed to be like, hey,somebody can wipe my butt unlike
a unlike my five-year-old.
And so from the bathroom, mygrandma would always just hear,
woo-hoo.
SPEAKER_03 (45:34):
Woo woo.
SPEAKER_00 (45:36):
I can only expect when I'm gonna get walking in
public now.
SPEAKER_02 (45:39):
But yeah, that's what I told people to go find
online, and we're out of here.
Goodbye.
Good night, folks.
Hey, this is Dean and I'm still here.
(00:03):
My butt hurts.
But I guess this is part two, solet's go.
SPEAKER_01 (00:09):
I'm TJ.
SPEAKER_02 (00:10):
And as always, I'm Play-Doh.
SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
Back.
What do you mean?
Back?
unknown (00:16):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (00:16):
You ready?
You ready?
You ready, ready?
Ready, ready?
Nice.
What you thinking?
What you think?
You've got something pondering.
SPEAKER_02 (00:22):
Yeah.
Well, like I said, I I want toask my usual question, but we've
already covered you getting intothe biz.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
I mean, I can keep going.
I stumbled.
I stumbled into Los Angeles.
And then randomly enough, it wasa where I first started working
when I was a kid was at askating rink, being like a DJ.
And the family that owned theskating rink was just fantastic
family.
And it turned out the olderbrother had moved there or to
(00:50):
like San Diego-ish area,somewhere in between.
And so I I was I moved and wentto Los Angeles, like everyone,
enjoyed my car for a littlewhile, did not tell my parents
that.
And then found Tim.
And I was like, all right, cool.
I'll go, I'll go stay with them.
And then I was just driving backand forth for a bit.
And then eventually a friend ofa friend was like, Yeah, you can
come crash on our couch.
I was like, oh, nice.
(01:10):
So I took that route.
And, you know, like everyone,started off doing a little extra
work, that kind of stuff.
Uh met my first group of likeBFFs in Los Angeles that are
still like some of my bestfriends today.
They were all from Texas.
So then every time we'd go out,you know, the girls be like, Oh,
hey, hey, buddy, are y'all allfrom Texas?
Oh, yeah, we're all from Texas.
Well, Dean's from a suburb ofTexas.
(01:35):
Louisiana.
Still friends with them todaybecause they're so lovingly
hateful.
And from a suburb of Texas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then stumbled into a anacting class uh with a guy named
Aaron Spiser.
And then world changed.
And that's when I was like,nope, not leaving this for a
(01:57):
while.
SPEAKER_02 (01:58):
What was your favorite show or one of your
favorite shows that you'veworked on?
SPEAKER_00 (02:03):
Hmm.
You know, we did a a silly sharkmovie in in Mississippi back in
the day called us um calledMississippi River Shark at the
time.
And the the fun part about itwas that when the the producer
called me, he was like, hey,we're doing this film in
Mississippi, and um I have oneof the leads I'd love for you to
(02:24):
look at.
So I'm just gonna show you thescript.
Okay, great.
Reading through the script, I'mlike, alright, cool.
Same roles I'm used to playing,no big deal.
I can do that in my sleep.
We're good.
It's like, all right, great.
You liked it?
Yeah, yeah, cool.
It's like I just thought thatrole would be like so much fun
for you.
Oh, okay.
Cool, thanks, man.
So we jump on a little uh Zoomjust to kind of talk about
(02:45):
stuff.
And he's like, So did you likewhat what was like, you know,
what's your favorite thing aboutthe script so far?
I'm like, oh, I mean it's cool.
I like, you know, we've got aneat relationship with humanity.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
The other role.
The Wyatt role?
Really?
Fuck yeah.
Yes, let's do it.
Cause it was like the weird,weird dude in the he's like the
(03:09):
threesome that shows up betweenthe relationship.
SPEAKER_03 (03:11):
Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
And I was like, oh, absolutely.
Because, you know, a goodportion of that period of time,
I was usually clean-shaven.
And like, it's funny when cashdirectors get to know you in
their their their way, becauseuh, you know, out of like the
four or five I dealt withthroughout the Southeast, they
all had their mind made up ofwhat I was.
So one never called me in unlessI had a beard.
(03:33):
One never caught me in unless Iwas clean shaven and in a suit,
you know.
And it everybody kind of had mewhere they wanted me when I got
something like that.
There was, you know, just astraight producer call.
It was like, yeah, I want you todo blah, blah, blah.
And it's the weird dude.
I'm like, this is like a dream.
Thank you.
It's like I thought you'd enjoyit.
I was like, I felt like this wasvery much a personality.
I'm like, oh yeah, he's soannoying.
(03:56):
But the interesting part is ifyou have me on like a 22-minute
comedy style show, or I'mplaying the comedic relief that
is like, for lack of betterwords, the person that's always
on versus dramatic role orsomething very serious or their
serious tone.
You know, I'm always in the theway of thinking that depending
(04:17):
on my my human that I am at them at the moment, I'm probably
gonna stay close to, you know,I'm not like I'm not playing the
serial killer and then jumpingstraight to jokes.
Lunchtime, I'm sorry.
But during majority, if we'relike, you know, back-to-back
shooting, there's kind of cutsin between, but mostly we're
just you know going forward,it's gonna be that human being
you're dealing with.
I'm not like psychotic to thepoint that you're like, hey,
(04:39):
how's your daughter?
I don't have a daughter.
If there's an accent, the accentdoesn't leave.
If there's a you know a way ofof behavior that goes with it,
that thing's staying.
So when you have me on a22-minute comedy and I'm the one
that's always on, I'm a lot.
To the point that there was ascene, and uh, I remember
(05:00):
because uh lady named MistyTally was directing it, and she
came over and um she was like,hey, because originally it was
the sci-fi movie was supposed tobe kind of serious, right?
And like it's just not that thatscript.
It's a it's a sci-fi sharkmovie.
If you're squirting blood that'scoming from a shark that's in
the water, clearly we're pastthe point of this being
completely serious.
We're not we're not there.
(05:20):
And they had the realizationbefore we started shooting that,
okay, yeah, this is this istotally comedy.
Let's let's use it.
So they gave me more freedom,and that just automatically
speeds things up, right?
So we get to a scene and uhMisty was like, hey, so there's
supposed to be this like youknow, a couple seconds of this
scene where you're grabbing theguns, you're packing them up,
(05:42):
and we're you know, you'reheading off to go meet
everybody.
Like, okay.
But because the way we'reshooting, everything's going so
much faster, I need to feel likelike a good four to five minutes
at least.
Okay.
What are you gonna do four tofive minutes?
Like, if you said I can, you'regood.
Are you are you okay with that?
Okay, let's see.
(06:02):
And literally they had to cutbecause I was I I will play.
If you let me play, I'm afucking kid in the candy store.
Let me go.
I'll make stuff up.
I had myself wrapped in the bag.
It made sense to that humanbeing.
But if you were not that humanbeing, you're like, what is
going on with you?
So, you know, benefits benefitsdon't guess.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
What was it about that class that you referenced
that changed things for you?
What what stands out in yourmind about that class that all
of a sudden it was different?
SPEAKER_00 (06:38):
Truth.
So so many classes for acting isabout acting.
And it was truth.
You know, Aaron's like the onlycoach Will Smith's ever had.
He's he's just one of those guysthat has always coached like
humongous people, but always didhis own his own little studio
and kept his classes going anddoing that.
So you were able to like, youknow, you'd be doing your scene,
and hey, Will Smith's sitting inthe fucking audience.
(07:00):
That's cool.
Okay.
I'm not don't tell me thatagain.
You know, because then you're inyour head.
But what was so great with Aaronis the talk was never
necessarily about, hey, let'stalk about your technique.
It was let's talk about the lifethat's going on, right?
This is all human behavior.
It's it's why my my brain hasevolved to looking at the acting
(07:24):
the way that I do, and I'll I'llget to there later.
It's a weird perspective, butdifferent.
And understanding that this ishuman behavior, that we're not
creating character, we're justallowing other human traits and
and belief systems to be ourown.
Like I say, I probably teachmore from an Eckhart Tolle book
and a Tony Robbins book than Ido from Uda Hagen, even though I
use Uda Hagen as some of mybasic technique methods.
(07:46):
But when you understand thatyou're not, you know, you let go
of that performance idea.
Like I'm not even a big fan ofthe word performance, because
performance might be useful ifwe're talking about how to make
sure the audition's worthy.
But when you're talking aboutbeing present in the moment of
being this human, living from Ato B, C to D, there is no
(08:06):
performance, right?
You once you've once you'veowned the belief system, there
is no more character, if youwant to call it.
It's you.
And then you can't do anythingwrong.
Because it's you.
You're you're you're livingtruthfully in the moment.
You might have adopted beliefsystems, which by adopting those
shifts you.
(08:28):
But that's what we go back towhen we were talking about, you
know, human beings and actorsalways thinking, oh, I get to be
a character, I get to be someoneelse.
It's like, no, you don't get toescape.
You can you can act like someoneelse, but you never get to leave
you.
So can you adopt or allow thingsthat make you live differently,
(08:52):
not act differently.
For you know, for instance,someone that grows up having an
abusive father, if someoneraised their hand to them, they
might flinch just out of out oflife habit, right?
They might hit back just notknowing.
That's a different, a differentperspective of being the human
being in scenes than let me seehow they would act and then try
(09:17):
to act the way I think the scenewould look.
To me, that's acting.
What we're doing, especiallywhen it comes to more like
films, film and TV versus like astage, because the stage, I get
it.
There's a there's a I have to bea vocal to a certain extent.
It's a different muscle, right?
I always say like a lion and ahouse cat.
I'm not gonna get in the ringwith a lion because it's big,
(09:40):
and I know it's big, but we'reaware of that.
I'll fuck with Awsky, but thatcat might fuck me up because
those little things areferocious and you just never
know when it's gonna happen.
And that's to me, film andtelevision.
All that stuff's in there.
We're not trying to showanybody, but the camera's
getting everything because theintention and the reality that's
(10:00):
going on for you.
Whether that, and you know, Ialways say like with adults, I
want it to be real.
For kids, I'll just say, hey,let's let's play for real.
Because kids don't need that.
They can they can they can playfor real.
There's no gap there.
So with a kid, you say let'splay for real, and you say, Oh
my god, that's the biggestspaceship ever.
(10:23):
It is immediately, right?
But the adult, is it what?
Is it like a circle?
Fuck, I don't what do you see?
Oh, I don't see anything, butI'm trying to like what would
we, what should we, what shouldwe make it?
Whatever you see, where are youat?
Look up there.
What do you see?
Sky.
(10:44):
Okay?
See a spaceship.
Right, but that's what I'masking.
Like, what kind of spaceship?
No, no, you stop it.
You know, we want our our brainshave gotten to a point, and it's
to me, it's always like a umit's a safety mechanism.
People tend to get quiet whenthe conversations start if
(11:04):
they're afraid they might saysomething silly.
The same as like your yourfriends and family will always
be like, Oh, you're acting.
What's your backup plan?
But it's not they don't mean itin that way.
For them, their perspective islove, and they're like, Well,
you know, I just I care for youand I want to make sure that you
have something.
Our perspective we see from onlyour POV, which is, why the fuck
(11:27):
would you ask me that?
You don't believe me?
You know, because ourself-deprecating mind, of
course, goes in that route.
So it's always for me, like, howcan I get here, live here, and
look out?
Once I can find that POV, that'sit.
I'm I'm here.
I don't have a um what would thecharacter do moments anymore.
There's only this is how I doit, or this is what I want.
(11:49):
How I do it will happen in themoment.
And I don't know.
And Aaron to me was that.
It became about the behavior andthe truth of of owning these
other things.
How you acted in the scene, Icould give a shit as long as it
was truthful.
And if it's truthful, it'sprobably great.
But if it's not real, if I'mjudging your acting, well, it's
(12:11):
probably bad acting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And that was him.
That was that was my uh myintroduction to my Jewish
whisperer.
SPEAKER_02 (12:20):
And what you describe with the UFO is when we
become adults, which one day Ihope to be one.
Someday.
Don't strive too hard.
We lose the permission to play.
Yeah.
You know?
So it's like the kid was like,Oh, look at that spaceship.
It's it looks like a cigar, eventhough the kid wouldn't know
(12:41):
what a cigar is.
And the adult's like, I don'twant to say the wrong thing and
get a bad grade in the class,and I have to achieve and be
great.
And once you can push that awayand just go back to being a kid
and just saying, there it is,I'm not gonna say that's all of
acting, but a good portion.
SPEAKER_00 (12:58):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, if you think about it,like you get you get a script,
and per the adult, that scriptis the rule book.
And all of a sudden, he liftshis left eyebrow.
What are you doing?
It said to do that.
But why are you doing it?
It's said to do that.
(13:20):
What what made you do that?
The script?
No.
And I've it's funny, I've hadI've had almost that exact same
conversation, not about theeyebrow.
What was it?
I was on a set, I was doingonset coaching for a film in
Alabama, I think.
Or no, maybe it's Georgia.
Maybe it's Georgia.
It was uh it was a newer actor,and I'm not gonna say nepotism,
(13:40):
but maybe.
And and I remember the directorgoing, hey, would you spend some
just spend some time?
It's you know, it's a littlescene, and uh, want to make sure
you know it's comfortable withwhat's going on.
I'm like, all right, cool.
So we sat down for a second andI was like, hey, what exactly is
kind of the moment before here?
Like what's what's going on foryou?
What do you mean?
Well, what's what's going on,what's going on before this
scene for you?
I don't know, I think we'reshooting after lunch.
(14:02):
Okay.
What in the script?
What happens before you for you,the human being that this let's
say, the character, before thecharacter steps into this scene
and says this dialogue, what ishappening?
Uh he's not in the scriptanymore than just that.
(14:26):
I know that.
I've read it.
But what do you what do youthink this human might be doing
right before this happens?
And then we work through thatand it's like, oh, okay, all
right, all right, so you rushinto this, you're running late,
and you just blurt out whateverthis this line is because
clearly you you're running latefrom something, right?
(14:47):
Yeah.
Okay, but you don't know what.
Why don't we figure it out?
I don't know.
Let's say you were taking ashit.
Okay.
Let's say you're taking a shit,and then you realize time went
off.
You gotta go.
I I would love to see yourunning here finishing, getting
the buckle done.
And then whatever happens therehappens.
Okay, and now all of a suddenyou see this light bulb that's
like, this is gonna be fun.
(15:09):
And as soon as the fun partkicks back in, this thing
becomes a whole new world.
Now acting has this enjoymentversus you know, it starts as
fun, but then people startgetting in their head about what
they have to make this sceneinto.
And now it's not only is itstressful, but now you have
expectations of what the scene'ssupposed to be, because in the
scene it says they angrily blahblah blah.
(15:30):
And TJ's probably heard me saythis before, but that's what I
call the button.
There's an on button and an offbutton.
To me, if you're trying to liveup the expectations that the
scene is supposed to be, becauseit's a an angry scene, then
you've press the button at thebeginning and and you start your
(15:50):
scene ready.
Right?
You're in you're in angry mode.
You have no clue why.
Nothing's happened to make youangry.
There was no moment before thatbrought you from anger.
You just started off fakinganger.
But if you start off fakinganger, then guess what has to
happen for the rest of thescene?
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
You gotta fake it.
SPEAKER_00 (16:10):
You have to fake it.
Well, I'm not I'm not reallyangry.
Great.
Don't come in angry.
But what is what if it'ssupposed to be angry?
What happens right before theanger starts?
Um she says, I can't believe youtold your mother that.
What did you say to what did shetell your mother?
(16:33):
I don't know.
Let's make it up.
Let's make it something thatfucking pissed you off.
Oh, and then the light againgoes off.
It's like, okay.
It's like great.
Now, moment before, somethingsimple.
You're in you're watching, youknow, Transformers with your
wife, everything's going great.
And then you step into this, andthen that triggers those things
(16:53):
that connected.
Synapse fires, and now somethingactually makes you angry, and
you don't have to fake itbecause all you had to do was
just be here watchingTransformers.
So we start real and then letthe scene or the other person,
because again, for me, this thishas to be us allowing everything
to be real.
I have to allow you to affectme.
(17:15):
If you call me whatever namethat's supposed to affect me, I
have to allow that to betruthful to me.
And on the regular human, mostof my work is let's remove all
that bullshit.
I don't care what anybody callsme.
You're not a child, you're notin high school.
Who cares what they think ofyou?
Just be here.
That's all we could do, right?
The rest of it, meh.
But when we turn back to thework, and that's the only on and
(17:38):
off button I really play with,is my actor takes everything
personal because I have to allowall these things to be mine,
right?
We're not playing enlightenedhuman beings.
We're playing some kooky regularhumans that have no idea outside
of the box.
They're truly just stuck intheir box and they see life from
their perspective.
Us as humans, we can actuallyevolve further than that, most
(18:01):
of us, some of us, and we canallow ourselves to see from both
perspectives.
While yes, you can throw me inanything and I can just truly
be, and I'm good to go.
If it's something specific thatyou give me time to then go put
some time into and find thatworld for me, it's just a whole
nother level.
Because that's to me, that'swhen you get to see, that's when
(18:23):
you finish the scene and someonegoes, Why the hell did you do
that?
Felt real.
That's fantastic.
Let's do it again.
Versus that looked well thoughtout.
Thanks.
That's not a compliment to me.
Right.
(18:43):
Right.
It's just not, you know, no onelike we were talking the other
day, TJ.
It's like no one ever says, Man,you really got all your lines
right.
That's where we're that's ourbottom line.
We're starting low.
SPEAKER_01 (18:57):
That's right.
Very cool.
So let's talk to your actingcommunity.
Sure.
SPEAKER_00 (19:04):
You want to give me how I got to that thing?
SPEAKER_01 (19:06):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
So with Aaron, you know, I grew up Catholic.
Um and like choose to teachcatechism Catholic.
And then moved to Los Angeles.
And I've always I've always justbeen interested in in God and
spirituality and just, you know,whatever, whatever that meant to
everybody else.
And I remember like I was thehow this is how Catholic I was.
I was rollerblading with mybishop.
(19:31):
That came out of my mouth.
And I remember saying, What doyou what do you think about
Buddhism?
You know, I've been reading somestuff about it, and it's like,
oh, it's a very it's aninteresting spirituality.
But you know, if you'reCatholic, you don't mean you
don't have to worry about it toomuch.
But I'm but I'm human.
Like there's like millions ofpeople that believe in that.
(19:51):
Wouldn't that shouldn't,wouldn't, you know, how would
that not give me some moreinformation?
Well, I mean you can if you wantto.
And to me, that one little thingwas like, this is what the box
is like.
This is what it's like living ina box.
So when I started takingcharacter with Aaron, every
character I'd go to, because tome spirituality was interesting,
(20:12):
I would always find whatspirituality or what their
belief system was.
Because you know, most of uslive we live our day-to-day life
based on these belief systemsthat we've had since we were
probably a child.
We've never questioned before.
And then that and people'sopinions helped us become the
character we are now.
And we're all character, we'rejust not all aware of it.
(20:34):
So when I would do those, everytime I got to me, every time I
got to play with anothercharacter, I was like, cool.
I get to understand what theperspective is from their shoes
in a deeper way than just like,oh yeah, no, I've played that
character before.
No, I I want to understand itfrom their POV to the point that
if like it was something that Ibelieved opposite of, I wanted
to get to the point that I couldI could argue with me to prove
(20:56):
it wrong.
And I feel like I kind of gotthere.
So out of digging throughout thespiritualities of everything,
and then that drove me to kindof the science and metaphysics,
kind of wrapped in all of that.
And all throughout this time,I'm still continuing my my
training as an actor.
I started coaching people forErin and doing that kind of
stuff for auditions and thingslike that.
And I'd started coaching my onmy own before I left Los
(21:19):
Angeles, and then kind ofstarted diving into some of the
different spirituality, likespiritual groups out there as
well.
That's a lot when some of themanifestation kind of stuff was
popping up.
And uh, I don't know if you knowof anything about Abraham Hicks,
that kind of world.
So I'm reading some of theseother books that funny enough,
when you when you go into and Ilook back at like stuff Aaron
used to give us back in the day,gives you like this big book of
(21:42):
pamphlets and different papersand stuff.
And I went back to like thereading list years later, and a
few of these books that Ieventually stumbled on myself,
and I was like, oh, I figuredlife out.
He had in there, and I'm like,ah, that fucker still has me.
But from reading and goingthrough these things, I it
started affecting the way Icoach.
So when I'm coaching actors, italways came back to a level of
(22:05):
that belief system versus justlike this is character and this
is outside of you.
I would stop going, hey, howwould you do this if?
And I would start saying, let'squiet down and go inside and see
what this feels like.
Because when you start gettingtapped in, you know, to me,
we're all we're all a portion,we're all a part of this, this
(22:25):
God source, whatever you want tocall it.
So if I can start tweaking thesethings, you start widening your
perspective.
And for acting, when you'retrying to play any character, I
don't care if it's Hitler, youhave to be able to find a place
that you are doing somethingfrom the standpoint that you
believe it is good.
And that is the hardest part foreveryone to get to.
(22:45):
But if you can get to that, thenit also immediately drops all of
your judgment.
And then when that's gone, youstart looking at the whole world
with a whole new set of eyeballsbecause you don't have the
judgment of going, oh, they'redoing it because they're evil,
they're doing it because they'rebad, they're doing it because
they want.
All of a sudden, you're like,they're doing it because they
think that's good somehow.
(23:06):
And you start being able to lookat that from a whole new way,
and then your own life dropsthis huge portion of judgment
that you grew up with becauseit's habit.
You you can't not find judgmentin some way, shape, or form
being around other humans.
It just is what it is, right?
So the more I kept kind offiguring those things out, I
(23:28):
started adjusting how I wascoaching, and my the actors were
getting tons out of it for theirwork.
But I have I have likepsychiatrists and therapists
that were coming back and belike, you know, I use some of
these things in my work now.
Like, really?
Yeah.
Because it it it would helppeople find a deeper part of
themselves that they weren'tcomfortable finding before.
(23:50):
Or if you think about theperformance psychology, if I can
play the person that I think Ihate and I can truly try to see
something in that perspective,all of a sudden that hate's
gone, and all of that weightthat made you feel like shit all
the time is also gone.
You can start forgiving peoplefor stuff that you might have
thought was the worst thingyou've ever thought they could
(24:10):
do.
And now you see it from adifferent point of view, and
you're like, they didn't knowany better.
The example we used earlierabout the the abusive dad, the
abusive dad wasn't hitting hiskid because he thought that was
the best thing to do.
He was doing it because hethought that was the best way to
help him learn, or it was hisshortcomings at the time.
So while that doesn't givejustification for hitting a kid,
(24:31):
sure, it gives you a perspectiveto understand where that person
was that allows you to forgivethem, that also allows you to
go, huh, that was weighing on memore than them.
And it's just the the thementality and the mindset that
would get changed through someof these things that made me
start going, I want to, I wantto offer this to humans more
(24:53):
than necessarily just actors.
Because you know, when it's inthat the actor box, people just
automatically go, Oh, yeah, Idon't really want to be an
actor.
And like coaching CEOs andthings, as soon as they heard
the word, they're like, I don'tneed an acting coach.
Oh, well, if it makes you feelany better, I'm I'm really just
trying to help you stop doingthat acting bullshit that you're
(25:14):
doing on camera that I see allover your social media.
SPEAKER_01 (25:16):
What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00 (25:18):
Well, I mean you're you're kind of acting
professional when you get onyour social media, because I
didn't see that guy in thismeeting at all.
Well, yeah, because you have tobe professional when you do you?
Because if I if I were gonnahire you, I'd want to know that
the person that shows up thatI'm finding, I feel like I know,
not all of a sudden is acompletely different human
being.
All right, we can we can trythis.
And then all of a sudden there'sa little bit of like, a little
(25:40):
scratch of the surface.
But yeah, so going through allthat, I wanted to, after
pandemic and all that cray craythat went through, my wife went
through some health stuff and Itook a huge break try just
taking care of you know home andfamily and kiddo.
And then as I started comingback to this, I was like, yeah,
I'd love to just open the studioagain and start doing that.
Because my most fun was having afull-on studio here in New
(26:01):
Orleans from audition, auditiontechnique to a beginning
technique going through likeactual scene study and going up
from an intermediate andadvanced and then an actual
masterclass.
That's the most fun for me.
I I enjoy being in the thick ofit, and you have a full set that
you get to play with to be ahuman because that's when you
get to see all of the actualthings that happen.
(26:23):
When you have to actually get upand walk over to do something,
all of a sudden you're like,Since when do you walk like
that?
What do you mean?
Why are you walking so funny?
I've always walked like that.
No, no, no, no.
Maybe it's character.
Mm-mm.
No, that was a good try, butthat's definitely not character.
You know, it's like you get tosee the full body do stuff.
(26:44):
Whereas an audition, we have alittle bit of a a box we can
only play in.
So there's a limit.
Now, you have a room, sohopefully your camera can and
can view you enough that we cando a little bit of a scene study
from from being on camera now,too, which works to an extent.
And uh I was trying to figureout how to do that again, but
you know, then you gotta pay fora studio, you gotta have this,
(27:07):
and it's overhead.
And I'm like, I don't, I don'treally want to, I don't want
actors to be the industry's notgoing crazy.
The last thing I want is anyonehaving to go, you know, pay for
expensive classes.
So I'm like, how can we, how canI find a happy medium?
So I started Tilt originally washere's a god-awful amount of
hours from all the workshopsI've done over the years.
(27:27):
They'll be in there.
Here's courses on full-ontechnique that also kind of
combines that manifestationactor-tractor method that I've
kind of figured out over theyears.
It's in there.
And then there's a fast-trackedacting, and I kind of set it to
where it's like, you know, whenyou first start acting and you
start auditioning because youthink that's what you're
supposed to do first, but youhave no clue what you're doing,
(27:48):
and you don't want to go take aclass and actually learn a
full-on technique that takes waytoo long.
I want to act now.
So the fast-tracked is likehere, here's like the
kindergarten version of how tounderstand what you're doing so
you don't make a complete foolof yourself.
And you can get some headshotsand resumes, and it looks like a
professional setup while you'regoing through an actual
(28:08):
technique class and learning howto actually act until you get to
an audition class and a masterclass and all that stuff.
I had all that and I was like,yeah, I can just offer this 47
bucks a month, and we'll dolike, you know, once a week,
we'll jump on for live session.
And that way I can kind of helppeople where they're at and
whatever.
And then I got antsy, like fourdays in.
I want to teach.
I want to, I want to be in theclass, I want to do something.
(28:30):
So when she was like, well, whydon't you just add a couple, you
know, some live sessions whereyou guys can still do, you know,
audition technique and that kindof stuff in the group.
Okay.
SPEAKER_03 (28:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:39):
Yeah, I'll just do that.
So like two days passed by andthen I I put it to 99 bucks a
month because I had adjustedstuff.
I'm like, all right, if we'regonna be doing classes, they're
gonna be here a lot and it'sit's worth it, so I'll switch it
to this.
Plus, you know, when you havesomething too cheap, the mind's
just like that's it's justwhatever.
I'll show up when I want to.
And then Michelle's like, so doyou adjust thing?
I was like, yeah, yeah, I madethere's like eight live sessions
(29:02):
now.
Eight?
I thought you were just gonnaadd like a couple.
I would there's a couple.
There's a couple more.
So now it's eight live sessionsa week.
But like, you know, two of themare you know, like 30 to 45
minute sessions.
We're doing some kind of mindsetstuff and structuring out your
week, make sure you got youryour goals and kind of some
accountability stuff, becausethat's some of what I do when
I'm consulting for coaches andstuff.
(29:24):
And then, you know, midweek waslike a hump day Wednesday, so we
just meet up in the morningsagain.
How's those three things going?
Let's finish up the week strong.
What are we working on?
And then the way I'm off at thebeginning as well.
So it's just kind of two of themare more us chatting, going
through that, and then we've gotsome actual kind of let's bring
your work and work on something,and then kind of an improv
(29:44):
version of it.
Because to me, being truthfullyliving in the moment and doing
something with someone that is,you know, given circumstances
not necessarily yours, that'sacting.
We still have to work on thesame muscle.
So if we can get you feeling themuscle and you don't have to
worry about dialogue or gettingthings right, because you know.
The brain and the actor when itcomes to getting your dialogue
right, all of a sudden's likethe most important thing.
(30:05):
And I'm like, that's literallythe last, the last thing I worry
about.
I use the dialogue because Ihave to understand the scene,
character, the terms, who thesepeople are, what's going on, who
am I, all that stuff.
But I'm not trying to memorizeany of that because then it
becomes that like you justmemorized a song, and now you
can only say it back if thetune's the same.
And that's when you get thoseactors that are just giving you
(30:26):
the same one over and over.
And I used to love those actorsin class because I would fuck
some stuff up.
I'd step on your feet or just dosomething to just totally ruin
the scene.
Some people love working withme, other people is like, I'm
not, I'm not, mm-mm, nottonight.
But yeah, so I built that out,and uh it's still got all the
courses and all the other stuff,and then there's some sessions
(30:47):
where you'll be you'll have mekind of live.
You can post as many likeauditions that you've done in
the section, and we can kind oftalk about it by there.
Say you've you know you've gotan audition due Thursday, but
you want to get something ontape Monday and get some
feedback, cool, get it on there,throw it under that section,
I'll give you some feedback, andthen you can do a retake if
there's some stuff to work on.
SPEAKER_01 (31:03):
The way I've been describing it is it's more than
just acting classes and andone-on-one.
It's a it's a community uh oflike-minded people because
there's a chat section in there,and I mean, just the other day I
was in there looking around andyou you messaged me, and we
ended up jumping on a call andand had a a virtual session
(31:28):
right then.
Yeah.
And there's other people postingcomments, and I you know, I
already made another friend.
It's it is, it's a community,and it's it's really cool.
SPEAKER_00 (31:39):
I'm enjoying it.
Yeah, and let's be real, it's2025.
The political spectrum haspeople at their each other's
necks for the most ridiculousshenanigans.
So I wanted somewhere that wecould all have some positive
conversation.
And I wanted the ability to kicksomeone out if I have to.
Because it's, you know, look, wewe've it's a it's a tough world
(32:01):
out there.
Um, this industry, the way it'sset up, is can be beastly if you
don't have the right perspectiveor the right setup or the right
mentor telling you, you know,the right way to look at some of
this stuff.
I mean, you we're we literallysigned up to go hope people
approve us for our art everyday, sometimes five to six times
(32:21):
a day.
That can be grueling if youdon't have the right mindset
around it.
And I think to me, the mindsetis probably 80% of what we do.
Because if I can get your mindstraight, then you can be
present, you can be in themoment because your fear level
of trying to get it right likethe scene should be or the
casting director would like ismm gone.
(32:42):
Nobody's on a pedestal.
Because if you put castingdirectors or directors or
anybody else on a pedestal, youhave to look up and they have to
look down.
I don't want nobody looking downat me.
I will pass on an audition ifit's just not for me.
I don't want to waste my time, Idon't want to waste their time.
I don't, I got other stuff I'drather do.
I don't, I'm not gonna go, it'spractice, you should do it
(33:02):
anyway.
No, that's good.
I'm good.
I'll practice if I want topractice, but I'm not gonna go
through the like you've got twohours to get it done and get it
on and sent off.
And nah, that anxiety stays withme for the rest of the week.
That takes away from my kid,that takes away from my wife.
I'm good.
And it you you guys weren'tthere, but like even when we had
person, like in live, in-personclasses, I never hesitated.
(33:24):
Like, if it was, you know, wehad scene study that night, if
if we were, if I had a goodthree to four hours ahead of
time, and if something was goingon for me energetically, and I
was like, look, I'm not in theplace that I would want to be to
bring to my students, then I'mgonna let you know ahead of
time.
Hey, this class will not countagainst you, but we're gonna
we're gonna move class next weekand uh we'll see you then.
Because I don't want to, Imostly from understanding
(33:47):
metaphysics and the spiritualityand that connection that we
have.
When I get into a scene withyou, we are exchanging energy.
If you're both really goodactors, I feel what you feel and
you feel what I feel.
My first example is when youcome into class, I will line
people up along the wall, notthe wall, because then they're
backed up, but just in front ofthe class, right?
(34:08):
And we'll get into a line.
And I usually do this when we'restarting like a brand new
workshop because people don'thave the context of what acting
is versus being truthful.
And I say, I want, I want youguys to understand this.
I want you to energetically feelwhat the difference is.
I'm gonna tell you all that Ihate you right now.
So just pre-warning.
And I'll walk down the room,walk walk down each person, take
(34:28):
a second.
I hate you.
I hate you, I hurt you, right?
I'm hating them.
And then I finish, I'm like, allright, anybody take that
personal?
No?
Cool.
That's acting.
Ready?
Now we're gonna do the otherone.
And I'll walk through with theintention.
I hate you.
I fucking hate you.
(34:51):
I really hate you.
And I would just walk down andI'd step back.
Cool.
Anybody take that personal?
I hate you.
That was gross.
People were just like, that wasthat was horrible.
That felt so nasty.
Yeah.
That's what it should feel likewhen you're in the present
(35:11):
moment of a scene.
You should feel if someone is ahorrible human, you should feel
the horrible human, not the guyyou had lunch with.
unknown (35:20):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (35:21):
And it's gonna feel funky because that you don't
have to talk.
I can walk down that same rowand not say a damn thing, and
you can feel what I feel.
And if you can do that, now wecan worry about dialogue.
Because you have an intention,you know what you're after, and
you're gonna affect people.
When we when I would coach kids,like if we had to get something
fast and on on tape quick, Iwould kind of I I I call a
(35:43):
character into them, like ifit's a scene where they're
dealing with a monster orwhatever, I would let myself
take a little monstery out and Isay, look, all right, I'm gonna
I'm gonna take as much as this,so it's probably gonna scare you
a little bit so that we can bein it for the moment.
I'm gonna stay back here behindcamera, so you know it's not
gonna feel I'm not gonna closeto you, but I want you to know
that I'm gonna try to give youas much as I can so you're a
little bit scared.
SPEAKER_03 (36:05):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (36:05):
And they you know, it was fun for them.
And every once in a while they'dbe like, that one was scary.
That's probably our take,though.
Because they knew they werelike, that was oh yeah, I'm
gonna go to the bathroom, I'llbe right back.
But they got to feel that enoughthat they didn't have to act.
And once you can feel thatlittle moment of like, oh man,
(36:26):
that was truthful, and thenyou're hooked.
Because once you can feel thattruthful stuff, and that's I I
remember being in Aaron's class,and it was back to back.
I had gone from his likebeginner technique class to his
advanced scene study class intwo or three months or something
like that.
And uh, I had finished a scene,my scene partner, and we both
sit down.
(36:47):
He's very much like BillyCrystal.
So he he sits at his spine andgoes, Dang.
You're one of the best actors Ihave.
Thanks, Aaron.
What um what do you mean bythat?
(37:07):
Like, I'm not joking.
You're one of the best actors Ihave.
Go on.
It's like you have made it thisfast to my advanced scene study
class, and I just realizedyou're still acting.
I didn't I I I didn't know.
I just realized it.
That's how good of an actor youare.
You faked it that far that youwere in my advanced scene study
class, and I didn't know youwere still faking it.
(37:29):
And I'm like, okay.
Thanks for the compliment.
Let's do the scene again.
He's like, okay.
So we did the scene again.
And for whatever reason, thatclicked so clear to me that I
stepped out, got back,completely ran through my moment
before my head, and whateverfelt was felt.
(37:50):
And then we started the scene.
And we finished, and he goes,How was that?
I don't remember shit.
Good.
Welcome to the class.
I was like, but that was it.
Like as soon as you felt thatand you realized you weren't,
you weren't, you weren't doinganything because you were in it.
(38:12):
Like you don't, you don't finishhaving a conversation before you
meet your wife and you're like,all right, I'm gonna go to the
bathroom, you get down to sit inthe toilet, and you're like,
yeah, it was a good scene.
You're not, you know.
You're just not.
Now there's sometimes I likeBrian, I you we probably shoot
for the good scene.
But most of the time, you don'twalk away from a conversation
thinking, yeah, I acted welltoday.
SPEAKER_02 (38:32):
Right.
But that was.
Speaking of walking away, yeah.
We're gonna have to call it.
SPEAKER_00 (38:38):
Call it, call it.
Yeah, I don't even know whattime it is.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna give youthe second version of the the
time that that thing came backaround to me.
I'm in Atlanta.
I was I think I had drove up forcallbacks for something, booked
something, drove back to NewOrleans to shoot, no sleep,
(38:58):
drove right back to Atlanta forcallbacks for Iron Man
something, maybe three orsomething.
And I'm in the room, and I youknow, I was running it on and
off on the way there.
My wife and I stopped tosomewhat take a nap in the
seediest motel.
(39:18):
Like I I put I I put a blanketon the floor so my dog didn't
walk on it.
And uh I go into the call intothese callbacks or the audition,
I think it's the first round,and uh I meet casting and I'm
just like somewhat wired oncaffeine, maybe some sleep.
My brain's not there whatsoever.
And I'm just I had told them I'dbe there, so I'm like, look, I'm
(39:41):
I'm a word guy.
If I gave you my word, I'm gonnabe there.
So I go in.
Like, all right, nice to meetyou, Dean.
Um, we're really excited.
We've been looking forward toseeing you.
Uh blah, blah, blah.
You have any questions?
No, no, let's let's go wheneveryou're ready.
Okay, let's do it.
So they start the scene, and Ijust acted like a motherfucker.
(40:01):
I'm acting, and I'm like, I'mprobably on like line five, and
all of a sudden I just went andthen did the rest of the scene
as a fing human being.
And I they probably thought Iwas so bipolar.
Because in my head, it justclicked to me.
I was like, you, what are youdoing?
And I just turned off, lockedback into her, heard her line,
(40:25):
and kept going.
But as a human, and I could onlyimagine, because it probably
went from like clown characterto like, this is a human.
This is a human that juststepped into my office.
And that brought me back aroundto the Aaron Spiser time where
he was like, Yeah, best actingever.
(40:46):
And that was not acting, like itwas it was way beyond the worst.
And I got back in the car and Itold Michelle and she was like,
Yeah, but it's probably one ofthose times where you know you
like you think you did reallybad.
I was like, No, no.
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
No, that was that was bad.
That's like a I don't know thatI want him coming back because
that creeped me out bad.
That's how bad that one was.
(41:07):
And she's like, Are you sure?
Like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:11):
Did you hear from him after that?
SPEAKER_00 (41:13):
Mm-mm.
Mm-mm.
Nope.
Nope.
Iron Man definitely got castwithout me.
But I am looking forward toworking with John with uh Robert
Downey Jr.
someday.
I want to do a Wing Chung moviewith him.
Oh, nice.
Yeah.
Martial artist, and we we're ina similar thing there.
So mostly I just wanted to hitme.
Insurance purposes.
SPEAKER_02 (41:34):
And on that note.
SPEAKER_01 (41:37):
Excellent.
Well, Dean, thank you forjoining us.
It's been a long time coming.
And I want to see you have ifyou have some socials that you
want to mention.
No, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (41:51):
I don't want people.
Don't find me.
Thanks for joining us.
No, because no, TJ's alreadygonna go try to find stuff
already.
Uh yeah, everything, everythingis at the Dean West.
Uh, pretty easy.
Even even the website is atthedeanwest.com and you can find
everything from there.
Facebook's the same, and I thinkthe only difference is LinkedIn,
but you know, actors don't dothat.
Yeah.
(42:11):
Actors don't do that.
Actors don't do that.
SPEAKER_01 (42:15):
And they can find the uh they can find Telqua
right down below.
That was articulate.
Brian and I talked about a word.
SPEAKER_00 (42:27):
What about everybody you take with our word that we
open this with?
SPEAKER_01 (42:33):
Yeah.
Yeah, that threw me offcompletely.
I'm still trying to scrabblethat one out in my brain.
But yeah, they can find the TiltActing School in the link down
below.
SPEAKER_00 (42:47):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Come join us.
We'll play for a bit.
I expect to see Brian in theresoon.
He's got to bring me this uhthis audition he told me you
can't share yet.
SPEAKER_02 (42:56):
Yeah.
Oh my god, the pressure.
The pressure.
SPEAKER_00 (43:00):
Hey, you brought you told me Cajun Wizard.
I'm like, yeah, I want to seethat.
Cajun Jedi.
Oh yeah, I want to s I want tosee the Cajun Jedi.
We'll we'll record the sessionsfor sure so that we can we can
share.
You can share it with everyonelater.
SPEAKER_02 (43:12):
Definitely.
Extra feedage, uh footage, uhfeedage?
Extra feetage on the DVD and theblue.
SPEAKER_01 (43:18):
See, we talk for a living.
SPEAKER_00 (43:19):
Man, it's a good thing.
Again, there's like a multiplepersonality situation I have
going on up here, and most ofthe time they're they're over
here in the closet, and I keepthem there safely.
But they've all got accents,like my kid deals with them, and
uh we didn't touch on any ofthose, so we made it through two
episodes and you didn't meet anyof them.
That's that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01 (43:40):
We might have to do part three coming up.
SPEAKER_00 (43:43):
Go go find the movie End Trip, E-N-D-T-R-I-P, and
there's there's um some of themthat show face in there.
I'll say it that way.
SPEAKER_02 (43:52):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (43:53):
Yeah.
Other than that, thank you guys.
This was a pleasure.
Had a good time.
Nice.
SPEAKER_02 (43:58):
You're welcome.
We had a blast.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (44:01):
We need to we also need to plug your podcast, Dean.
SPEAKER_00 (44:04):
Yeah, sure.
Uh come find me everywhere, uh,the Dean West Perspective.
And uh it's it's all kind ofpsycho babble from the industry
stuff all the way to my myspiritual weirdness that my
woo-woo comes together in oneplace, so feel free to check me
out.
SPEAKER_01 (44:19):
Yeah, you've had a pretty eclectic gathering of
guests on your show.
SPEAKER_00 (44:24):
Yeah, it started off where I was like, yeah, I want
to do something for industrystuff, but then you know, my
again, you've heard now what mymind goes to when it talks about
acting.
To me, acting in life andeverything is just a a combined
thing.
So I I couldn't just go therebecause if you're taking in your
your regular life and yourhealth and the stuff that's
(44:47):
going on in our world and us asactors, all of that to me is
combined because we're affectedby everything and we're working
on the truthfully creating life.
So why would I why would I wantto put that in a box?
SPEAKER_02 (44:58):
Yeah.
Go online and find his woo-woo.
Woo-woo.
SPEAKER_00 (45:04):
You want a real weird, a weird one?
Oh man.
Um yeah, I'm gonna say it.
So when I was a kid, when I wasa kid, uh when I was a kid, uh I
didn't want to wipe my own butt.
Do you think we're going there?
SPEAKER_02 (45:19):
Here we go.
SPEAKER_00 (45:21):
So I would uh instead of like I was
embarrassed to be like, hey,somebody can wipe my butt unlike
a unlike my five-year-old.
And so from the bathroom, mygrandma would always just hear,
woo-hoo.
SPEAKER_03 (45:34):
Woo woo.
SPEAKER_00 (45:36):
I can only expect when I'm gonna get walking in
public now.
SPEAKER_02 (45:39):
But yeah, that's what I told people to go find
online, and we're out of here.
Goodbye.
Good night, folks.
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