I’m at SXSW for the Film and Interactive festivals, and the highlight so far, hands down, is the acting workshop I attended yesterday with Jeffrey Tambor. He coached two local actors through a scene (from a film they were working on?), and his technique was basically to break them down in order to build them up. He was incredibly intuitive – able to spot where they were holding back and provoke them into pushing those blocks aside in order to give more in-tune, authentic performances. It was amazing to watch. He emphasized the importance of having confidence as an artist, and said we need to let go of the fear of being “too much.” He’s a recovering alcoholic, and listening to him speak, it’s clear he’s been in therapy – and I’d bet money that he’s read The Artist’s Way. His parting words to us were: “Knock ‘em dead.” Now if I could only find a coach/mentor/class that could do for me what he did for those actors…

Tagged as: acting, artistic_process, inspiration, quotes, sxsw