Dustin Hoffman provides advice on acting, staying in the moment, taking direction, auditioning, and making a living as an actor. Some of his key points include: preparing your lines but staying spontaneous in delivery; focusing on reacting in the present without overthinking; letting go of preconceptions and trusting the director's vision; believing in your uniqueness as an actor regardless of roles; and continuing to hone your craft through work even if projects fail commercially. He emphasizes following your passion for acting rather than fame or money.
Dustin Hoffman provides advice on acting, staying in the moment, taking direction, auditioning, and making a living as an actor. Some of his key points include: preparing your lines but staying spontaneous in delivery; focusing on reacting in the present without overthinking; letting go of preconceptions and trusting the director's vision; believing in your uniqueness as an actor regardless of roles; and continuing to hone your craft through work even if projects fail commercially. He emphasizes following your passion for acting rather than fame or money.
Dustin Hoffman provides advice on acting, staying in the moment, taking direction, auditioning, and making a living as an actor. Some of his key points include: preparing your lines but staying spontaneous in delivery; focusing on reacting in the present without overthinking; letting go of preconceptions and trusting the director's vision; believing in your uniqueness as an actor regardless of roles; and continuing to hone your craft through work even if projects fail commercially. He emphasizes following your passion for acting rather than fame or money.
Dustin Hoffman provides advice on acting, staying in the moment, taking direction, auditioning, and making a living as an actor. Some of his key points include: preparing your lines but staying spontaneous in delivery; focusing on reacting in the present without overthinking; letting go of preconceptions and trusting the director's vision; believing in your uniqueness as an actor regardless of roles; and continuing to hone your craft through work even if projects fail commercially. He emphasizes following your passion for acting rather than fame or money.
“You do your best work, when you don’t know, or haven’t
decided how it should come out.” Practice speaking to an actual person… and rolling right from that INTO the lines. It helps short-circuit how you might have “decided” to say the word. “The great thing about acting is that you’re there with a stranger, and they are helping you get to your essence. Just as you are helping that person. Making love in the real sense.” “We bullshit ourselves. The hardest thing to do is not to bullshit. If we don’t bullshit ourselves on some level, it’s too painful to be alive. And that’s what your art is. Your art is telling the truth, in ways that you can’t in life.” So, memorize the lines, knows the words… in other words “PREPARE”, then toss it out so that when you speak it’s not pre-determined. Learn the lines by writing them. Never practice them aloud. Write it out, word by word. Memorize it that way. You get a rhythm that way. And it avoids you mentally deciding which way to say them ahead of time. (A note to writers - when handing your script to an actor, an actor that knows what they’re doing, take OUT the parenthetical stage-direction in your dialogue. It’s intimidating… “he wants me to be crying on THIS line - how the hell am I supposed to guarantee that?!”) When you rehearse you can use gibberish during blocking… IF you already know the lines. That way, when you first do a take, it feels even more exciting and fresh to say them. “Tell the truth” when saying the lines… don’t put in there what you don’t feel. Remember that you are not the last author; the audience is. They will fill it in. DUSTIN ON COMEDY: The only difference between realism, comedy, and farce, is getting there faster and faster and faster. As a character, you’re still acting the reality in each version… (you’re not aware you’re leaping across the bed, in farce). Our brain is always working to get ahead. You’re trying to guess it. A great joke surprises you. Great comics often develop a pattern, which they then violate in order to surprise you (like a boxer works as well, physically - surprising you with a punch when you thought you knew their fighting pattern). You know what’s funny… but don’t kill yourself to protect a line. You’ll be shocked by what gets a laugh. It can be as simple as a look. If you’re in the moment, and reacting as you really would, it’ll make a moment POP, and that can bring a laugh (Dustin silencing the hotel bell in THE GRADUATE, is an example - not a moment Dustin planned, but the director almost lost it off-camera he laughed so hard) All that comedy is, is taking reality, and giving it a slight tilt. DUSTIN ON STAYING IN THE MOMENT: Just as in sports, stay on the ball. Don’t worry about where it’s going. You’re hoping to see the result. Trust the director. People take drugs, and drink, in order to stay in the NOW. With training, you can learn how to do that without using substances. Always react - breaking is okay… the discipline comes in keeping the break INSIDE, while you continue acting in- character. You don’t learn from success, you learn from failure. Stay in the now, so that there’s always the CHANCE of failure. The essence of acting should be EFFORTLESS. Which is why you PREPARE. DUSTIN’S ADVICE ON THE JOB OF ACTING: A take is just a rehearsal. Most of what you “do” doesn’t work. Just let yourself miss… it’s another way to let yourself relax. One way to not play it safe is by saying (to yourself and the world during a take/audition) “Here I am. Take it or leave it. I am not good, unless I get lucky.” What makes someone an actor? That voice inside that says “look at me look at me look at me” Why be an actor? Because there will NEVER be another you. Sounds cliche, but it’s the reason people will watch you perform. “In a field, I am the absence of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am… I am what is missing.” DUSTIN, ON TAKING DIRECTION: There is no set way to make things work. A director who has an idea of how the scene must look will kill an actor’s work. Don’t feel you have to make the text resonate in any particular way. Dustin does this thing with the actors he directs, where he gets them talking naturally about “whatever” and then has them roll into the dialogue. And he asks them to CLING to what was in their heads when they were just chatting to each other. “It’s a bitch to be alive, and it’s a bitch to be in this game [of acting] that you’re in.” (Dustin does this thing again and again when directing Actors during the class, where he speak to them, about something which he thinks will get them to the right emotional place - in one instance he interrogates them about “how are they still attempting to be actors?” to give them the feeling of ‘desperation’ and ‘missing out’ the he knows the scene requires. Oftentimes in conversation, we’re looking at each other in order to read the subtext. DUSTIN’S ADVICE: “We’re all the same - inside, we all fall short. And that thing which will fulfill us… we get, FROM ART.” “You don’t have to be angry, to act Anger. Sometimes the doing of it gets you there.” You’re trapped within the scene. Dustin adjusts the “emotional temperature” in the room. Often says “you’re there, you’re right there” meaning you’ve gotten to the right emotion energy and color… “now play the scene”. Don’t let the profession “Cast” you. You are truly unique, and THAT is what your value is. Something actors don’t recognize when they’re working together - they have EACH OTHER. Dustin once told Lawrence Olivier “you’re over-acting” and was terrified, but did it. And Lawrence thanked him. On a set, you need a sense of relaxation - “you’re just fucking around”. Many times, you are modulating for each other. DUSTIN ON AUDITIONING: “I feel like I’m wrong for the part” but maybe the character is more like you than you think, on their INSIDE. Everyone has doubts. How do you stop the candle of hope inside you from going out? Took Dustin/Hackman/Duvall 10 years to anywhere. Everyone has fears of being found out… because it takes so long to get noticed. DUSTIN ON MAKING ACTING A LIVING: Don’t do what I did - don’t be passive, become ACTIVE - make your movie, cast yourself in it, write it yourself (even if it’s to be improvised). If you have talent, it’s another way to get noticed. “Would you rather be on screen doing bad work? Or not be on the screen at all?” That’s an individual decision. But you will have to make it - and risk getting fired, if someone asks you to do something you know is bad. If you’re in this to get rich and famous, stop it. If you’re an actor, doing this thing because it is where your passion is, it’s not a job… A job is by definition, something which during it, you cannot wait for it to stop so you can go relax. Most of my films have been failures - I’ve done 50 movies, so many are flops. But look at baseball: if you’re batting 500, it’s insanely impressive work. The path is never clear - whatever you’re into at the moment, you need to follow your gut. Don’t analyze it. You’ll never end up where you expect. There’s something in you, for whatever mysterious reasons, you can do that no one else can. If you’re lucky, you find it, and are able to say “ah, there I am.” MISTAKES: “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” was a mistake - not planned in the scene. But it became iconic. If you have nerves, if there’s fear in a moment, you can use it in the scene. Godfather, non-actors that were ACTUAL mafia members, had huge nerves about their lines, and Coppola used it - as fear about talking to the Don (Brando). “Don’t try to be perfect. The world sure isn’t.” DUSTIN’S FINAL ADVICE: Be working your craft. In a class, writing something, walking around your city with a notebook and jotting down what you hear people say. Find a way to work. Get people together. Have a salon. Read poetry. Read, read, read, read. Go to plays. Go see opera. See movies. Watch silent films. Allow yourself to be elevated. See brilliant work. Allow yourself to be surprised at liking something you don’t think you’ll like. And MAKE. Make movies. Not in order to get a job out of it. It’s your life. You’ve studied, you’ve learned, and then it’s time to step up the plate. And you get ready to swing. The ball comes. You SWING. You were in control right up until the moment of the swing. In the swing, you’re in that moment. You’re not here to hit the ball. You’re here to swing, and keep swinging.