June 27, 2022

How long do actors get to memorize lines? In this video, we will answer that question and after this video, you will never ask that question again. So, how long do actors get to memorize lines? A.) never memorized lines and much less time than you would ever imagine. In film and tv, you may get rewritten pages in the makeup chair. Don't panic, just work on your technique as long as you know what you're fighting for and who you're talking to. Remember, the first two guideposts, relationship, to whom am I speaking? Number two, conflict, what am I fighting for and how am I meddling? Those inform everything. If you've got those two you're well on your way. Plan on a whole lot less time than you ever imagined but let go of the word memorization. In the theater, there's more time but we rehearse it slowly. Any good director in film which sometimes because of locations we can't shoot in sequence. But in the theater I'm going to rehearse slowly through the play. By the time I get toward the end of the play I don't have to say anything to the actors because they already have a relationship and they're very clear on what the play is about and the end directs itself and then people tell me what a great job I did and I go I didn't say anything to them. But I might say that I would probably say that other directors go, "Thank you, thank you very much. Yes, they were a wonderful one", that yes thank you I told them everything. Let go of the word memorize, right, learn... Guys, how we language our world is everything it's self-talk. So, memorization implies the left lobe of your brain. Learning is from your toes to the top of your head. Lines don't mean anything to you. So, please write down the word justify. Justify everything. Justify every sound you make, every syllable you utter, every word you speak, every move you make. When it's justified you will find you can learn things part of the joy of doing this stuff. I'll work with an actor and they'll do a monologue and I'll listen to it and then we'll begin to work on it and they'll do it again and they can't remember a line because they learned it as lines and I'll tell them what the line is and they're going, "Wow, you heard this once and you remember the line", I go, "I'm not thinking of it in terms of lines. I'm thinking of it as wants, desires, and actions". So, I'm hearing the writer's intent. Why is it whenever I try to help you you push me away? Oh, you do this with all women. Oh, okay, let's start with this. You asked a question but you didn't wait for the answer and the question felt a little premeditated. So, Ms. Grant what's guidepost 6?  Guide post 5 is discovery? Yes. Okay. But that's the one that was missing. You know I've been wanting to ask you this question for a while and it might upset you so maybe that's why I haven't asked it yet so So, folks, write down justify everything. You know the words for actors tend to come too easily because they're written here. But you've got to justify emotionally why am I asking this question? But whenever you're asking a question folks wait for the answer, right. That's why we ask questions. You know and sometimes the writer writes silence but most of the time they don't and it doesn't matter whether they do or whether they don't because you're the one flying the plane. So, we start with because your thesis like a good freshman high school English perm paper has got a thesis statement or in this case a thesis question and what's the question? Why is it whenever I try to help you you push me away? Okay, whenever what? -Whenever I try to help you you push me away. Now, that feels different, doesn't it? Just like that, right, that wow. Now, psychologically, you know a large part of why you're all here is to raise your tolerance for joy. A lot of people don't trust joy they, trust pain, because I've had it. But joy what if I get used to joy? Because to receive when you're saying what? Why is it that whenever you what? Try to help you. I want to help you. Well, you got to feel like you deserve help and when you allow someone to help you you're vulnerable. Yeah, that's a big deal. When I was a kid you know I was always pretty active in... That's that boy scout thing helping other people. It's one of the part of the scout mottos. The scout motto is to help other people at all times. But you know there's a certain codependence in that if you don't also allow yourself to receive. Because if you just give and you don't receive in the cosmic atm you're going to hit a zero balance. If you keep making withdrawals but you don't make deposits.

You know, your one is not fully in one's own humanity if you don't allow yourself to receive and when you receive your vulnerable. So, a word about what the whole process of acting is, right. Your job as an actor is a job of service. You're first and foremost serving the author's intention. So, when actors get nervous it's because you're thinking about you and it's not about you. How do we know? Well, when the writers are on strike what happens to the actors? No work, because there's no writing. When the actors are on strike what happens to the writers? Nothing, they keep on writing, okay. So, it's your job to be a text detective and then to take the trip of that text. But memorization has nothing to do with it. You know you really have to conquer this dragon because you got reinforcement we all did in school that we had a really good memory so maybe we should be an actor. When that memory has next to nothing to do with it. So, there we were really enthusiastic. We didn't really rehearse we just memorized the words and we said them with a lot of energy probably quite generally right and we got a lot of positive affirmation for that. So, somewhere deep inside was this connection that memorization has something to do with acting but it really doesn't. It's about learning it and learning it cellularly so the role can play you. That only happens if you've learned it very slowly and with each line be sure to not go forward until you have rehearsed this line so deeply and you've gone for a run with it and you've done bicycle crunches with it or leg lifts with it or push-ups with it and you know why you're saying what you're saying. It's so interesting to me seeing how people come home to themselves with this stuff because there's a real disconnect folks. You know, this thing you know if I write you and I write I heart you. That's not the same as me looking you in the eye and saying to you that I love you. I say that and I feel something. When I write I heart you with my thumbs I don't feel anything right and it didn't cost me anything. Good work, strong work, effective work, cost you something, right. You got to have skin in the game and you don't want to leave it in the locker room. So, again, memorization, you know how to memorize lines? You're never going to ask that question again because memorization had nothing to do with it. So, don't memorize anything. It's all about putting words to feelings in action. Don't you love it if you tell somebody that you love them and they go ditto?

I'm not feeling that right or I love you and they go, "Me too", I'm not feeling that, right. I have a friend in college dear college friend Colleen and I would always end each phone call with her saying, "I love you, Colleen", it's funny. I'm the guy in the scenario right and she'd say... She'd make noises and I go, "Oh, I know that those noises mean you love me too, right?", and she'd go like hmm yeah. Wow, you want to make somebody crazy tell them you love them and then there was the day a few years after the last session like that and right before I signed off she said, "I love you, Tom", and I went, "Whoa, what happened?", and she said, "Having a baby changes everything", I went like, "Oh wow, felt that", okay. So, guys, beware, memorization propels you deeper into your head right and in your head you're dead nothing happens in your head. Actors love, I'll meet actors like, "Oh yeah, I'm in my head a lot ago", don't laugh about that. That's like laughing about a terminal diagnosis get out of your head and get into the now. Because your head is always dragging the dead past to the now and infiltrating it or it's awfulizing about the future except life happens now the point of power is now and remember, why do people do what they do? An actor, it's not about narcissism. Write down my ego will ruin every blessing in my life and my ego is not my amigo. Out of your head and into your heart because this stuff is all about making your life a work of your own heart right and act to seek your own good opinion. You're not doing this for anybody else. This is really for you and when it feels good to you you'll be surprised how quickly it affects other people the exact same way. But walking around seeking approval the price of nice is astronomical beware...and that's all born of stuff in the head. Remember, acting is visceral it's not grammatical. Don't act punctuation. If you pause for periods, I know you learned lines not actions. So, if you're enjoying this video at least as half as much as I am please subscribe and click on the link below. Another great way to learn text not memorize lines is to write it out on a legal pet. When you're writing on it, when you're writing it out yourself, I refer to this as peeing on it. You're making it your own. You're marking your territory and when you write it double-space it and you can write notes in between there so you're making it your own. You've got to take it off the bookshelf. Remember folks, scripts aren't anything it's ink and pulp it's paper and it's ink, that's all it is. You bring it to life but it's not a reading and that's why we don't memorize it. It's all about bodily fluids. It's all about especially those that secrete those are the ones you need to bring to it, right. But guess what? If the writer could act they'd do that too, right? It's a second paycheck. You are a vital element in the production process. So, embrace that but make a contribution. It's never about seeking approval. We in production do not want to be responsible for your self-esteem. Once again, make your life a work of art. Make your life a work of your own heart. So, practice cold reading every day to get used to linking words to feeling every single day and cross off all stage directions. When you're auditioning cross out she sits on the couch he crosses to the room because you will read that in the audition and that will take you out. All scenes are competitive. All healthy relationships are competitive. So, when you take the time you know when you play a comma or a semicolon or a period it takes all of the competition out because you're now not acting at the speed of life. You're giving a reading that was based on something that was memorized. So, you've got to fight with your hips your heart and your head and remember you're always being a psychologist a sociologist an anthropologist an archaeologist never a narcissist. For my folks in the west particularly, what's larger the windshield or the rear view mirror? It's not about where you've been it's about where you're going. You can't be in reverse and drive at the same time. All good acting is about driving towards something with everything you've got and the last-minute audition is a gift. That means we need to see you today because this might shoot tonight. Somebody got sick. Somebody's wife has gone into labor and this is an opportunity for you. never say, "you know I just got the sides like three hours ago", don't make excuses, no excuses. You either make excuses or you make it happen. We know you got the sides three hours ago. We sent the breakdown out five hours ago. So, don't play the words play the life. Play what you're fighting for and commit to it and move around in your rehearsal. Don't sit at a desk. Get it into your body. Into your body and into your heart. For more info on acting technique click on the video below.