The Real Life Actor

Once again, Jeff offers up solid acting advice about some common acting problems.

Jeff discusses the importance of never focusing on the notes you plan to hit, but rather the path to those notes.

Jeff questions why actors are so quick to deny their instincts.

Jeff goes over the best way to care about the thing we’re supposed to care about in a scene by making it a personal issue, not an acting issue.

Jeff puts you in a scene and takes you through it, pointing out the things an actor should be concerned with and focused on.

Jeff explains why being generous to fellow artists with support and compliments will make you a more confident actor.

Actors need to loosen up on the reins a little and stop taking redirects and criticisms so personally. There is more power in being fluid. Learn to relax your grip on your one idea.

Jeff explains the importance of clearly understanding the story you’re trying to tell.

Actor’s seem to be forever struggling with staying in a scene. Jeff offers up some great advice as to how you can keep your mind exactly where it needs to be.

If you’re interested in having a healthy career, listen to this.

Jeff has covered this topic before but some lessons bear repeating. He hits it from a slightly different angle in order to drive his point home.

Here are some simple things you can do to make your self tapes look and sound better.

All the things you want to avoid from the moment you get your audition, all the way through to the ride home.

Jeff addresses the actor’s compulsion to make sure the audience gets every little thing and why it’s a huge mistake.

Acting is the definition of this word and it is the single most important ability the actor must have.

Jeff breaks down a scene from The Savages and gives a great demonstration on focusing on the info that will make it much easier for an actor to “own” the material.

Jeff speaks to the frustrations of 3 different actors and reminds them to always trust their instincts.

Jeff answers a listener’s question. What is the best way to handle direction, on the set, when it goes opposite to what you had prepared?

Here is some great advice for any director to become a proper, “actor whisperer."

Wrapping up a year that seemed to go by for too quickly and why that probably is. Getting more done in 2019 by slowing things down.

Jeff answers a listener's question. Here is the best way to keep your performance from getting stale or becoming robotic.

It’s a common mistake. Actors focus too much on the medium and not enough on the message.

We've all heard it. It's that sage advice casting directors love to offer, "make interesting choices, be unique, dare to be different." But how? what does it all mean?

Backstories are very important but the actor needs to know the difference between what is playable and what is not. Here is a good explanation.

How to remain healthy and sensitive in a generally insensitive business.

You've heard the phrase, but what exactly does it mean and what is your best course of action?

Some ideas bear repeating.

Don't waste your time trying to justify your commitment to an action in a scene. Just accept it. It's simply what you do and who you are.

Two weeks of teaching 2 classes a day in Toronto lead to these observations and to one of the most astonishing break throughs I've ever seen.

Known for her incredible, award winning performance as Katie Benedetto, in The Fall, Aisling talks about her, "lucky" career. It's the type of lucky that usually accompanies major talent and Aisling is a major talent. She's also delightfully humble.

Here is a very useful tool, to use when needed, in order to get a deeper, more visceral understanding of your scene.

The winning attitude, grace and on set manners that make a set run smoother and enhance creativity.

What are the benefits of continuing to train even if you're currently managing to work on a fairly regular basis? Are there any?

In his continuing effort to bring about change in the way acting is taught, Jeff offers up an acting experiment.

Once again, Jeff shows how he coaches an actor in an audition scene without ever discussing acting, just real life.

Jeff explains the difference between trying to get your scene "right," and honestly pursuing the truth.

Jeff talks about the importance of not complaining about how hard the industry is to break into. It's supposed to be hard. And if you do make it, stop talking about it. It's bad form.

Jeff offers up a challenge. If you really want to improve your skills and you're enjoying these podcasts, shouldn't you want to see the approach in practice, live?

Once again, Jeff uses a recent audition coaching to give a great example of how to better understand and fully comprehend a scene. He reads through the scene, taking you step by step through the thought process.

All the acting classes that make you blindly follow the leader through a myriad of nonsense acting exercises that cram you further down the rabbit hole of bullshit. BUYER BEWARE!

Constantly honing and refining your acting skills is the best way to get where you want to go. It'll also keep you centered and confident. Remember; we are students for life.

Jeff explains why substitution, like many old school methods, ends up disempowering the actor.

Jeff addresses the tricky business of delivering the written script as though it was what you were going to say anyway. It's a simple change in perspective and easier than you think.

Jeff continues to chip away at traditional training nonsense and presents a solid case for the freedom and power you achieve in using The Real Life Actor approach. Word, indeed.

The actor's quest to conjure the appropriate feelings when needed is far easier than you think. Ultimately, it's lightening fast and super easy. Just like in real life.

Jeff dispels the myth of that final moment when we, "get into character." It's just another bullshit belief that suckers actors into getting far too deep into their heads.

Once again, Jeff uses a recent training session with one of his students to offer a great example of the best way to approach and own your scene.

Here is a great example taken from a recent Skype lesson with a student. The things actors worry about and shouldn't and the things actors don't think about and should.

Those classes that challenge the actor's commitment by seeing who will make out the hardest and tell their deepest darkest secrets. It's a bullshit lure to keep you in the class. How is this getting you to improve as an actor?

Jeff offers up some great insight as to what we're really after when we share tragic stories. He also answers questions from Carla in Paris and Kieren in the UK.