I ask all my actors to do two things: I ask them to fail for me, and I ask them to surprise me.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
As an actor, you know there are things you get asked to do that you do quite well, with less effort.
You have actors you've worked with previously, and you have actors you haven't worked with that you've seen in things where you know they can work in these parts. And then there are actors who blow you away, who surprise you.
I should be one of those actors who has a list. A lot of people do - 'I wanna do this and this and this' - but I don't. I enjoy being surprised - indeed, often ambushed - by a role.
Being an actor sometimes requires that you ask yourself questions you'd rather not know the answers to.
I'm not asking actors to act. I'm asking them to behave. I want to see their being, not how they can fake it.
The idea that you must treat actors a certain way in order to get a performance out of them kind of disturbs me, and it's disregarding what we do. Our job is to do our job.
Actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely.
What I try to do as an actor is constantly find that, find ways to risk, find opportunities to fall on my face if it's going to be worth it, and then maybe I'll surprise myself.
There's a lot of pressure being an actor and taking on challenges that people don't expect of you.
Actors want to act. I think a lot of times what happens is that they're expected to bring it all. Probably because I'm a writer, I'm not telling them what to do. I just provide them with as much as I can.