I am an aspiring actor and singer and am also the host and creator of Dramatic Impact: Acting and Theatre in Alberta.

Dramatic Impact is a podcast that through video and audio recordings of interviews, forums, and performances, reveals how rich and vibrant the theatre scene is in Alberta, Canada.

Although the podcast is of special interest to Albertans, I also believe that each episode contains insights and ideas that are of interest to theatre and acting enthusiasts everywhere. This is confirmed by the fact that the podcast has a small but loyal audience that includes listeners from 20 different countries.

As an actor and host of a theatre podcast, I am fascinated by how my development as a person is influenced by my development as an actor and also by the role that actors play in society.

These are themes that fit in very well with the focus of The Inner Actor. So when I discovered Douglas’ site, I wrote to him about my “Secrets of the Actor” episodes.

“Secrets of the Actor” Parts 1 and 2 contain a series of interviews with six different actors. During the interviews, I asked each actor what insights they had gained about other aspects of their life through their acting, and I got some fascinating answers.

You can download or listen to these episodes on the Dramatic Impact web site:
Episode 7: Secrets of the Actor, Part 1 and Episode 8: Secrets of the Actor, Part 2.

And now, you can listen to Secrets of the Actor, Part 3, which is being released for the first time here on The Inner Actor. You can listen right here on the site or download the .mp3 file.

In Part 3, I talk about some of my own ideas. Specifically, I focus on two ways that the pursuit of acting can give us insight into our own lives and can influence our personal development.

I also briefly discuss how this relates to an actor`s ability to touch the minds and hearts of an audience.

I hope you enjoy these three audio episodes of Dramatic Impact.

Please use the comments to let me know how you think the pursuit of acting has affected your development as a person and enriched your life.

[Text and audio copyright Elaine Elrod. Published here by permission.]

[Interviewer:] People do end up isolated on set.

It is a very isolative environment. It forces a sense of autonomy, and I suppose, I think, I may thrive on that kind of loneliness!

That’s the creature I am.

Do you have any hobbies?

I do spend quite a bit of time thinking. I do have hobbies! I’ve never really referred to them as hobbies. I have absolutely not a moment through the day where I allow the word “bored” to be even muttered under one’s breath in the household.

So I find that if I’m not interacting with one or all of the children or arguing.. with an ex-husband, then I’m painting, writing, riding, tending to a garden, trying to figure out what’s wrong with my composter, building a new fence.

I have a tool kit that is enviable to most men, and I just very seldomly sit still.

So I do enjoy keep my mind lubed. Well lubed!

From Sunday Conversation: Gabrielle Anwar, By Choire Sicha, LATimes.com June 28, 2009

Related posts:

Nurturing creativity in solitude

Pumping our teeming brain

Here is the short profile :

Evan Rachel Wood is a natural rebel, says Rachel Syme in TheDailybeast.com. In 2006, when she was 19, the actress set tongues wagging by dating the goth rocker Marilyn Manson, who was twice her age. Soon, she was emulating his flamboyant appearance.

Dying her hair flame-red, she began wearing dark makeup and revealing dresses, with Victorian accessories. Rumors swirled that Manson was remaking her in his own image.

Nonsense, says Wood.

“If you knew me, it didn’t come as a shock. I had dressed like that on my own. I would want to do something really dark or vintage or over-the-top for an award show, but my people would be like, ‘It makes you look old, let’s keep you young and fresh and light and fluffy.’

“And I hadn’t gotten my voice yet so I was just like, ‘Okay, you’re right, I suck, I’ll wear what you say.’”

But Manson liberated her. “I found somebody who appreciated all those things about me that I thought were wrong. He liked the music I liked, the way I dressed, the people I hung out with.”

Though the two are no longer together, Wood is grateful for the experience. “People didn’t understand my relationship, so they didn’t like it. But who’s to tell you how to live? I lived so long the way people wanted me to, that when I broke out of that, I broke out with a vengeance.”

From Evan Rachel Wood’s inner rebel, The Week mag., July 10, 2009

Photo from Whatever Works (2009)

Related post: Evan Rachel Wood on “bad” girls, inner demons, and good relationships.

Related page: Identity.

“Sometimes I feel I’m living a meaningless life,” he says, “and I get frightened.”

Creativity coach and therapist Eric Maisel, PhD warns in his article Meaningful Life, Meaningful Work, Meaningful Days, “In order for you to live an authentic, meaningful life, which is the principal remedy for the depression creative people experience, you must feel that 1) the plan of your life is meaningful, 2) the work you do is meaningful, and 3) the way your spend your time is meaningful.”

The article says “LaBeouf could very well lose everything, as other young stars have, his career wrecked by self-indulgence and arrogance.

“LaBeouf comes from an unconventional family with a history of addiction.

“He is aware, he says, of how disproportionate movie success is to actual achievement and how easy it is to be overwhelmed by a skyrocketing career.

“I don’t handle fame well,” LaBeouf says. “Most actors on most days don’t think they’re worthy. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew, I’d fill it, and I’d be on my way.”

When LaBeouf is feeling insecure, he sometimes stops his bike on the side of a busy road to see if people passing by recognize him. He is scared that they won’t.

“Actors live dependent on being validated by other people’s opinions,” he explains. “I don’t understand what it is I do that people want. I don’t know what an actor does. I have no credentials. I don’t know what I’m doing.

“To my mind, talent doesn’t really exist. Talent is like a card player’s luck. It is motivation, ambition, and luck. It’s just a drive to be the best. I think acting is a con game.”

From The Mixed-Up Life of Shia LaBeouf, by Dotson Rader, Parade 06/14/2009

>NOTE by Douglas Eby: This title, and some of the comments in the article seem to me very negative, even insulting – with a tone of “Look at how crazy actors are.” Artists with high sensitivity, high intensity, strong emotional lives are not “crazy” but may be seen as “weird” by conservative reporters.

Related articles

Gain a Stronger Acting Performance Without Fraud Feelings

Actors and Self Esteem – Boosting Self Confidence

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She created The Lyndon Technique: The 15 Guideline Map To Booking, which has helped 1000’s of students learn how to book jobs and consistently earn their living as actors.

[See a review of the book at DailyActor.com]

Her students include Adam Brody (The OC), Christel Khalil (Young and the Restless), Masi Oka (Heroes), Hosea Chanchez (The Game), Maiara Walsh (Cory In The House), Cory Hardrict (Gran Tarino) and Raini Rodriquez (Paul Blart: Mall Cop).

Lyndon says, “First off, don’t come to Hollywood without a huge nest egg. Watch a lot of Television and Film so you have points of reference and be prepared to work your butt off and carry with you a tremendous amount of discipline.

“Lastly, make sure it’s absolutely the only thing you want to do in your life.”

From interview article Renaissance Woman and Acting Pioneer Amy Lyndon, by Michelle Tomlinson.

In the article Ask An Acting Teacher: Are Great Actors Born or Made? (by Simi Horwitz, Back Stage), Amy Lyndon comments, “I’m sure not too many people share my views on this, but I do believe that anyone with a great emotional facility, imagination, and fortitude can become a great actor.

“The actor is made by his or her own willingness to be great. There are actors that were born to be actors; however, if they don’t understand the work that it takes to be great, then it’s just another person out there who never capitalized on their God-given gift.

“Just because an actor has a television series or stars in major motion pictures does not make them great. They most certainly can fall into the category of ‘made’ — that is, in the sense that they had the right look and were placed into a project at the right time.

“There are many brilliant actors out there that work hard and are ready but were never made — that is, made in the sense of the business making them a household name.

“There are others like Philip Seymour Hoffman that are brilliant because they worked on anything and everything to be seen, heard, and exercised, to the extent where they built their career whereby the public came to them. Cream really does rise to the top.”

Related posts on Hoffman:

Acting for film – Philip Seymour Hoffman: “It’s an uncomfortable medium for an actor.”

Acting careers – Limiting yourself with drugs

acting for film, acting performance, actor training, personal development for actors, acting books

“She is weirdly strong, gracious, intuitive and bold and fabulously stubborn at times.”

[From Jane Campion's 'Bright Star' poetry, by Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, May 18, 2009. Photo: Ben Whishaw as poet John Keats, Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne.]

Many talented and accomplished actors consider intuition an important part of developing creativity and power as an artist.

Commenting about the book Practical Intuition, Demi Moore said the author Laura Day “is a remarkable woman with remarkable abilities, but for me, what is most remarkable about her is how she has taught me to believe in myself and my own intuition. By creating a practical format like the one in this book, she teaches everyone to see how intuition works on all levels of our lives, and how we can take back our personal power.”

Kim Basinger says, “I feel there are two people inside me – me and my intuition. If I go against her, she’ll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.”

And Rachel Weisz thinks, “You have to stop thinking too much and just use your heart and your gut and your instincts [when acting]. Any intellect just gets in the way. You just have to go with the feeling and not over-analyze.”

That perspective is also emphasized by Jennifer Lehman, a film acting teacher, consultant, and scriptwriter. In our interview On Awareness and Creative Expression, she says, “You need to move away from your ego to stay in a creative state.

“Anytime you’re shifting the focus back to yourself, you’re shutting down creative potential. It’s difficult to achieve a consistent openness, letting things flow through you, without your own judgments, your own personal history, or how you think it should be, interfering with that.

“Our thinking mind is different than our feeling mind, and if we start thinking, we shut down creative expression – for actors, anyway.”

More quotes: Intuition / instinct

Related article: Whatever Works Best, by Christopher Grove, Variety. ‘With no one way to hone their craft, actors often go with their instincts.’

acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, developing intuition, intuition, intuition books, being intuitive

“I think the main idea behind my teaching is the issue of fear and how we use that to our advantage,” he writes.

“We are all fear-based creatures. And fear can be the great killer. It kills your original impulses, your creativity, and it kills desire.

“Rather than deny fear, we have to find new ways of dealing with it. We actually have to dance with it, so to speak.

“You can never be great if you are afraid of being bad.

“We find ourselves second-guessing what people want, based on fear. Rather than trying to guess what ‘they’ want, I teach, Why not bring your original fingerprint into the room and present yourself as the solution to their problems?

“The ever-present ‘they’ are fear-based too. They are looking to have their problems solved by an actor who comes into the room, declares his talent boldly, and brings his personal point of view to his work.

“It’s as simple as that — although getting to that place is the trick, and a teacher should show you how to get there.”

It goes beyond acting

“By the way, and at the risk of sounding too important, I think this approach begins to inform your life as well. Life and art. They are obviously interwoven.

“People get a little skittish when we talk about art. I feel that creative ventures are hardly worth doing unless they are shooting high. What’s the point of aiming for the middle?

“In fact, we should stop aiming altogether. Get lost in the work. Break it apart. Make it messy. Then, and only then, can you begin to reconstruct it with meaning and a point of view. You have to declare yourself to be an artist. And know that it takes a lot of hard work to get there.”

From The Integrity of Teaching, by Jeffrey Tambor, Backstage.com.

[Photo: Dragons' Den audition in Calgary, by k-ideas]

Coach and author Lisa Jimenez warns that “fear (and all of its cousins like worry, anxiety, depression and self-doubt) will turn your dreams into a chilling nightmare.”

But, she adds, “It doesn’t have to be this way. Fear was never intended to put you in a state of paralysis. The reality of fear is that fear is human. In all the research I did for my book, “Conquer Fear!” I heard story after story of successful people who experienced fear. What I noticed was the successful person was willing to face and expose their fear.”

From her article The Reality of Fear. Also see her Conquer Fear programs.

For many actors and others, fear may be more extreme – reaching the level of anxiety – which can interfere with creative expression, or even the courage to audition in the first place.

For help, see the section on Relieving Stage Fright, and other Anxiety Relief Solutions.

acting self esteem, embracing your fear, acting performance, entertainment psychology, personal development for actors