Taking Risks

QUESTION:

Hey Mike! I have this project coming up. Massive for me. But the problem is I am terrified of the role. It requires really deep work from me; physical skills, emotional access & tonnes of research. Part of me wants to try, but the other part is completely terrified that I'll screw it up, not deliver the work I so desperately want to, and that I will waste the time of the wonderful cast and crew I'll be working with. So how can I trust myself to deliver when the time comes? How can I get over the fact that I feel I'm not good enough to deliver? It feels like more than self doubt, it feels like to me that I'm actually not capable of giving the work required for this role. AHHHH! Thanks so much Michael.

Yours truly,

JD

ANSWER:

Hey JD

Thank you for sending this question in

What a bloody beautiful problem to have!

The gig is already on the table

Congratulations!

Now

To dive in and commit?

Or

Let it go and pass the ball to someone else?

Let’s cut to the chase

It is very clear - based off your question - that you want to do this

You desperately want to deliver generous work

The problem?

It’s just bloody uncomfortable taking a risk when you might feel like an idiot

And how understandable!

We are social creatures

Always in relationship to each other

(No human exists outside of connection to others)

So feeling silly in front of others is an important emotion

It’s the bodies way of saying

“Hey! Stay safe! Don’t get kicked out of the tribe!”

And that signal has helped us get this far as a species

Which is a beautiful thing

Therefore

Let’s not waste any time wishing away those fears around caring what others think

They are totally normal

And likely to continue for the rest of your career

Yep

Sorry to say

But I can’t think of a great artist who doesn’t care what others think

Doesn’t get self conscious

Or doesn’t get scared when it comes to sharing their work with the tribe

The trick is

They have something they care about more

The work they are trying to contribute

It’s not that they don’t care what others think

It’s that they are clear about what’s worth caring about more.

So

Let’s notice the dissonance (your body protecting you from rejection)

And bring it back to what you want most (contributing generous, playful & honest work).

Now

When it coms to “screwing it up”

Mmm

Do me a favour

Pull out a note pad and pen

And for ten minutes

I want you to write down the achievements you are proudest of

Then

Trace those achievements back to where they began

Where was that first tiny action step that started the journey toward that achievement?

What do you notice?

Chances are

That achievement

Started by you taking some small & uncomfortable first step

Let’s use some logic here

If the things you’re most proud of, grateful for, fulfilled with in your career & life

All started with taking a risk

No matter how big or small

What’s that telling you?

Yep

Taking risks is a totally normal part of the process

So

To be clear

You want to give generous work!

You are guaranteed to have normal feelings of discomfort pop up!

But what if you take the risk and it fails?

And you just fall on your face

Hard

Well

I have never

Worked with an artist, actor, musician, athlete

Who has said

“You know mike, I wish I never took that risk”

But I certainly have heard the sentence

“I wish I took that risk”

Very, very often

So

The question becomes

What will you regret less several years from now…

Taking that risk you were yearning for even if it meant feeling silly for a moment?

Or

Staying in your comfort zone and passing the ball onto someone else?

Just remember

Taking risks

Means there’ll likely be an increase in fear

And an increase in fear

Requires an increase in two very important factors

Slowness & Kindness

When you feel the urge to go hard and fast

That’s a beautiful time to go slow & be kind to yourself

There is a reason why so many generous artists behave in slow & kind ways

They didn’t get to the point where they could sustainably give generous work

By behaving in unsustainable ways.

No one wins by you rushing

And certainly, no one wins by you beating yourself up

So

Permission to slow down

And permission to be kind to yourself

Now

I’m really drawn to a particular part of your question

The words:

“actually not capable”

Ah

Okay

Now this gets fun

We can talk about the mental side all we like

But it seems there’s something here which might not be just a story you’re telling yourself

There might be a very practical reality here

If you can sit there and honestly say that the skills required are skills you don’t yet possess?

Okay

Go possess them

What do I mean?

Confidence will come from skills

From your body knowing it can actually do the thing

And reality will make you very aware of whether you actually have the skills or not to do the thing

So

What are the exact skills you require in order to deliver work you can feel proud of?

And

Just as important

Who are the best people capable of helping you develop those skills?

I don’t care if it’s screen skills

Theatre skills

Comedy skills

Emotional access

Horse riding

Character research

Building backstories

Boxing

Ballet

Blacksmithing

Whatever

Find out what you actually need to be proficient at in order to deliver work you’ll feel proud of

Then go seek out the best coaches, colleagues, mentors, etc

Who can help you develop those skills

Remember

Skill development requires a big investment of your resources

But skill maintenance takes a significantly lesser hit on your time & energy

Meaning

Those skills you’re investing in

They will be there with you for the rest of your career

Once they are in the body

They are in the body

No one can take them away from you

And

(In case you need another reminder)

Skills are the most important investment you can make in your career

I don’t know a generous artist who regrets the time & effort they invested in developing their skills

Curious what choices you make, JD

Hope this helps

X

Jealous Actors

QUESTION:

Hey Sheasby, I have a question for you. I’m finding it rough lately when I hear good news from my actor friends (booking jobs, callbacks, this that). I feel like I’m in a good place creatively but at a stand-still professionally (i.e booking jobs & getting callbacks). I celebrate my wins/opportunities and focus on process, and I’m more content in my life than I have been in years. But. I find it hard to avoid (or probably more apt) deal with my feelings of jealousy for the quantifiable industry successes that others get. It’s like an ugly reminder that it doesn’t matter how good I feel about what I’m doing, the industry doesn’t want me right now. And this means I judge myself more for not only not being where I want to be in my career (I know, I know, impossible), but also for feeling jealous in the first place. I guess I’m asking if there are any mindset changes or practical things that would be valuable to get me back into a place where I can ‘Wait Free’, even when reminded of my lack of movement in the eyes of the industry?

Andrew The Giant x

ANSWER:

Mate

Thank you for this beautifully honest and open question

Yup

Jealousy

Man am I versed in that bad boy

Literally yesterday I saw a close friend pop up in a trailer for a new film and felt a sense of spite

A little moment of feeling left behind, like my work sucks, like I’m going nowhere, the industry doesn’t want me etc

And how damn understandable

When other people

Particularly close comrades

Get to do the thing we spend so long and hard working towards

Of course

Totally normal for the brain to kick into protective mode

We see people we love being rewarded for their years of dedication, commitment, hard work, patience etc

(Or… maybe we see what we believe to be a short cut or hand out happening for someone we believe doesn’t work as hard… Gulp!)

We see their efforts being valued

We see the tribe prop them up

And that causes reactions within ourselves

Reactions which carry with them a bunch of powerful shoulds (or should nots)

You should not be feeling those things towards your friends and colleagues

You should be a good actor and celebrate your friends’ wins

You should not feel negatively toward your colleagues

You should be positive and congratulate other people

You should should should

Bla bla bla

I want to make myself clear

Please don’t waste time pushing your beautiful bodies’ signals aside

Or judging them as something which needs to be swallowed and hidden

Feelings of jealousy are not good, bad, right or wrong

They are simply feelings

And the issue is never with what you’re feeling

The issue is judging what you’re feeling

Example

“I’m feeling jealous towards Doug… And that’s a bad thing”

I disagree

I don’t think feeling jealous is a bad thing

I think its a human thing

And that’s okay

Feeling jealous?

Great!

That tells me you’re a glorious human being

Messy, grey and complex

Every single actor on this earth

Has experienced jealousy toward another actor

We are in an industry with no clear linear pathway

We can go from walking on a red carpet today for a main role in a big feature film

To being on set saying one line of dialogue tomorrow

To not working for 18 months

To doing a fast food ad

To doing an indie theatre show where 8 people are in the audience

To being on an Aussie soap

To getting sixty thousand followers in a few weeks

To finishing that job

To losing all those followers in a few weeks

To getting no work for 6 months

To walking on a red carpet for your friends film (not yours)

Etc etc

It’s all higgildy piggly

And the more chaos & uncertainty

The more fear

And the more fear?

The more fighting to control things which are uncontrollable

God

When I type it out like that

I’m even more in favour of giving oneself permission to feel jealous

Of course an actor is going to feel jealous

To see a friend being celebrated for their efforts

That instantly brings up thoughts for me like

“They’re okay and I’m not

Their career is safe and mine is not

They’re going to get more work, pay rent, send a child to school… And im not”

Now

Let’s acknowledge a very important influence here

Media

Media does It’s absolute best to manipulate

Again, not good, bad, right or wrong

They tell stories to try make us care about what they would like us to care about (for whatever reason)

But one thing is for sure

There is a vast difference between the image of success

And what actual success is for the individual

Sometimes…

We can quickly be influenced into caring about things which are actually not that important to us

For example

Feeling jealoustoward another actor even though the path they are on doesn’t even align with yours

This of huge importance

Why?

The key to not giving a fuck

Is by being clear and honest

About what truly is worth giving a fuck about for you, and for now

The more clear & honest you are about what success looks like for you

The easier it will be for you to measure yourself by your own metrics

And not by the metrics of others

But let’s go back to your question

How to deal with jealousy when its actually present and plaguing the mind

I remember a time when my fears really started kicking up a notch

Previews for a show I was in at the Sydney Opera House began

And it was like my self doubt took steroids

The internal voices, the self doubt, the negative spiralling

It was running rampant

Actors I knew were coming every night

Actors who were working on shows that I desperately wanted to be on

I was jealous

Hook, line and sinker

And what’s worse

I was judging myself enormously for being jealous

“But I’m supposed to be kind and generous

Not spiteful, resentful, jealous!”

Nope

Humans feel those things

Messy, complex, humans feel all those things

However

It had gotten to the point where I felt truly exhausted

I was just tired of my brain going there

Moment after moment

I just wanted to focus on my work and enjoy my life

Not spend every 10 seconds on stage thinking about other people

I wanted change

And I wanted it fast

Opening night was coming soon and I was aware that if I didn’t take responsibility for my internal dialogue

It could take over

And before I knew it

The show would be over

So

I put my hand up

And after some wonderful guidance from my coach

I would sneak into the theatre 30 minutes for the doors open

I would sit on that stage

Stare out at those five hundred and fifty seats

Pick a random seat

And imagine an audience member sitting in it

An actor who’s opinion I cared about

An actor who I felt jealous of

An actor I felt resentful towards

In other words

I imagined a human being

And I would think of all the ways they were just like me

For example

Just like me

This person is seeking some happiness in their life

Just like me

This person is trying to avoid suffering in their life

Just like me

This person has known sadness, loneliness, dispair

Just like me

This person is seeking to fulfil their needs

Just like me

This person has no idea what they are doing in their life and is making it all up as they go along

Etc etc

Yup

That actor I’m jealous of

Resentful of

Jaded toward

They’re just a human being

And just like me

They’re trying to survive

They’re trying to avoid pain

They have hopes and dreams

They hide shame

Have regrets

Stew over the past

Worry about the future

They feel broken

They feel sad

And damn sure

They have moments

Where they feel jealous of other actors

…And that’s okay

Hope this helps

X

Career Management

At the age of 25

I learned something

Which made me furious

You see…

I was born in South Africa

And being a South African

One thing is guaranteed

You’re a Rugby Union fan

Rugby holds a special place in the heart of any South African

Especially those who experienced the 90’s

Ask any South African about what Mandela did for his nation using the sport of Rugby Union

And they will likely end up teary-eyed telling you that extraordinary story

Anyway

As a Springbok fan

There’s something we fear

The All Blacks

With the highest winning percentage of any sports team in the world

New Zealand’s rugby team has become a formidable force

Respected by all who stand opposite them on the pitch

So

When my friend messaged me a screen shot of a book which delved deep into the culture of the All Blacks

It was an easy decision to put aside two days and jump on the couch

“Let’s see what crazy secrets built the most successful team in the world”

I told myself

The book focussed on a very interesting period

One which most regard as the lowest point for the All Blacks

And how they went from being knocked out of the Rugby World Cup in the quarter finals

To winning the World Cup four years later

The book also focused heavily around the captain

How we was able to influence the culture of the team over that period of time

And what he did to turn a dire situation into one which bared many fruits

I can remember the moment when I turned the page

And read how the captain had no idea what to do next

They were at rock bottom

But saw no way forward

No way to create change

So…

He sought help.

I had to stop

The leader of the worlds most successful team

Asked for help

For guidance

Huh?

This didn’t make sense to me

If he is a professional performer

And one of the best in the world to do it

Why the hell would he ask for help?

This felt wrong to me

Weak

But that little morsel of information

Caused a crack in my fearful armour

One which resulted in many restless nights over the following month

I started to look

At the performers who inspired me most

The artists, musicians, athletes, entrepreneurs

Who did things their way

I had also spent years collecting data on all my favourite actors

Yep

The same thing kept popping up

Over and over again

I was met with what I believed to be one the weakest things someone could do

Asking for help.

The performers I loved

They sought guidance

They had coaches, mentors & external accountability

No matter where I dug

The romantic idea I had

That a favourite actor was just raw talent

Rocked up and did whatever their impulses said

And didn’t need anyone

Yep

It started to gently crumble

In fact

There was not a sustainably working artist I researched

Who I couldn’t find some form of external accountability for

Joaquin, Shia, Hardy

Perfect examples of this

To the public

These actors are insane and magical artists

But all have and use external accountability

People in their corner guiding them

From specific acting coaches

To colleagues they trust to help them learn their lines in a way that helps them give their best

No matter where I looked

It was there

Blatantly in front of me

“But I should be able to figure it out on my own

I should be able to solve it myself

I should be like a self cleaning oven

Doing the work and maintaining myself all alone”

This was during a two year period of my life

Where I had recently played the lead at the Sydney Opera House

And been directed by Mel Gibson alongside Andrew Garfield in a Warner Bros film

And had fallen on my face

Both times.

So I was yearning for change.

But

I did not want to start asking for help

I had 25 years of a “shut up and get on with it” mentality

However

There was something else that I was damn sure of

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result

Seemed delusional

So…

Knowing that going alone was unsustainable

I decided to step out of my comfort zone

And began seeking guidance

I found coaches, mentors and external accountability

Those who were taking care of the performers who inspired  me most

Some terrible

Some life changing

Some who have since passed

Some who I still treasure seeking guidance from still to this day

And I went from resenting the industry

To less than two years later working on my dream role and leaving set feeling fulfilled

Which (very fortunately) even got me a nomination alongside the very actors I was inspired by to begin with

So I knew something was working

I started to play again

My way

And it began making sense

Why would I limit my knowledge and skillset to my own past and experience…

When I could stand on giants’ shoulders?

When I could rely instead on their decades of accumulated skill and experience?

Bingo.

Four years after making that decision to seek guidance from the best I could find

I was working back to back

Flying between California, New Zealand, and Australia

From Netflix, to BBC, to Sundance, to Venice

And then…

Covid struck

And, like many people

I had time to think

Time to sit still and question what I was doing and why I was doing it

And I became very clear about one thing

The lessons that those incredible mentors and coaches passed on to me

I wanted to pass them on to others

The things I hadn’t got from any acting book or drama school

Especially in regards to one aspect

I had never found a systematic approach to managing ones career

So

(And this has only taken me four years)

I finally have a little baby I’m wanting to share with others

A career course

The Actor’s Blueprint Career Course

A systematic approach to building your career… your way.

To be honest

I have made this for me

For the version of me who felt like there was no way to continue on this career path

This is everything that helped me go from sleeping on a wet mattress, miserable, hating acting and resentful of the industry

To being nominated alongside my heroes two years later after finally being able to leave set feeling fulfilled

In the most honest, clear and actionable way I can possibly pass it on.

I realised there was an infinitely better way to excel in acting

And now

That’s what I want to pass on to you

I truly, truly hope this helps…

Career Course: https://www.actorsblueprint.com/course

This is a one-of-a-kind online series providing a systematic approach to help build your career, your way.

• Introduction: Welcome to The Actor’s Blueprint Career Course. A systematic approach to help you build your career, your way.

• The System: A system for sustainably building your career, your way.

• The Principles: Four essential principles for a sustainable career. 

• Chapter 1 - Secret Sauce: What is the most important factor that will help you contribute generous, meaningful and unique work to this industry?

• Chapter 2 - Harbour: Get clear about what you honestly want to begin making progress towards.

• Chapter 3 - Behaviour: The majority of actors allow their behaviour to be dictated by the industry. Don’t. Go first. The whole industry is waiting for you to go first.

• Chapter 4 - Pressure: At some point, your value will be determined by how well you’re able to give your work under pressure. So find comfort in the chaos whilst giving your best when it counts most. 

• Chapter 5 - Waiting: The majority of an acting career is waiting. So, can you wait well in an uncertain industry?

• Chapter 6 - Skills: Everything in your career will become easier if you prioritise skill development. 

• Chapter 7 - Practice: Practice in a way which actually results in progress.

• Chapter 8 - Opportunities: Place your head on the pillow knowing you gave everything you wanted.

• Chapter 9 - Game Plan: Do what you need to do, to get where you need to get, so you can give what you need to give.

• Chapter 10 - Game Day: Play your best when it counts most. 

• Bonus - Agents: Musings on agents.

• Conclusion: Finding joy in the effort.

x

Go to: https://www.actorsblueprint.com/course

At What Cost?

QUESTION:

Hey Mike! Hope you’re doing well. Question for your newsletter. I am currently shooting a series and am immensely self-conscious between action and cut. Usually, I find freedom, a sense of play, and a willingness to fail in that magic space. My last job was utterly freeing, and the director championed putting it all out there; however, this current job has been different. The director wants EXACT choices I made in the wide up close, no improv, no dialogue changes, and every offer is restrained. Script supervisor is ruthless to the point of "You exhaled your cigarette on that word and touched your left eye on this one", and the dialect coach is in the ear, "nope watch the upward inflection". Basically, everything between action and cut has become technical, and I am leaving scenes noticing that I am now acting for myself to hit these markers and utterly absent from my scene partner. Although I am fine with the technicalities of this medium, e.g. you won't always be in the moment, camera awareness is crucial, and sometimes you gotta bullshit to catch the light, but this has gone far beyond general screen awareness. Any tips to get out of my head and work within the constraints? Much love, Simba (name changed from privacy sake) x

ANSWER:

Simba

Holy smokes

What a scenario!

Thank you for this beautifully detailed question.

This sounds…

Honestly?

This sounds freaking exhausting.

Firstly

Let’s zoom out

This is one acting job

In your long career

So the fact that you are feeling “Immensely self-conscious between action and cut”

Let’s tack onto the end of that sentence

“And that’s okay”

It sure as hell sounds like it feels bloody frustrating & uncomfortable

But…

(And apologies if this comes across as naff but I genuinely believe this)

To be dealing with this complex challenge early in your career

This sounds like a wonderful problem to be working on for now

One which I know will pay dividends in the future

Okay

“Usually, I find freedom, a sense of play, and a willingness to fail in that magic space”

Simba

I am whole-heartedly going to agree with you on this

I am lucky enough to know your work

And what’s more

I have been lucky enough to see your work behind the curtain

You sir, play freely with a bloody incredible willingness to fail.

So when you use the term “magic space”

I believe you.

Now

When it comes to doing exactly what is asked of you

Sure

With your training and skillset

I think you know, as well as I do, that you are more than capable of doing everything that is being “asked” of you

However

The pivotal question is…

At what cost?

People might look at you from the outside and think

“You’re just lucky to have a job when so many others don’t”

Or

“Stop being difficult and get on with it”

Or

“Who cares!? Just do exactly what’s asked of you for a couple more months and then go do whatever you want”

But

No one…

I really mean this

Not a single person on this earth

Will ever fully understand what it costs you to not give your work your way

For you to sacrifice that “magic space”.

Story time

A dear friend of mine

Landed the understudy role of the protagonist in a huge hit musical straight after graduating from drama school

Now

Musicals

(You can see where this is going)

We are talking about a style which involves hundreds of lighting positions, sound cues, and movements which require extreme precision

All of which are to be repeated

Night, after night, after night

Basically

There is not a huge amount of room for creative freedom in the moment

However

To make matters more difficult

The director was obsessed with making this actor do exactly what the lead of the show has been doing

“Johnny says that line like this…”

“Johnny smiles on this word, not that word”

“Johnny says that quieter”

This carried on for a few weeks

My dear friend was feeling controlled, used, manipulated, pushed & pulled.

From the outside

It looked like a dream opportunity

A fresh graduate

First job

Guaranteed at least 2 shows a week understudying one of the worlds leading musical actors in one of the greatest musical hits of the passed few decades

But people didn’t know what is was costing him

To not have any sense of creative input

No sense of autonomy

His art - his magic space - The thing he had just spent 3 years giving his blood, sweat and tears to

Became

“Hit your mark, hit the note and do it like Johnny did it”

Until, one day, it simply cost him too much

After yet another comment of

“Johnny wouldn’t do it like that”

My friend just snapped

“I’M NOT JOHHNY!!!”

The room went quiet

You see

For my friend

It wasn’t worth it

To be paid as an actor to work on a great professional job

The result was not worth the process

The result wasn’t worth sacrificing his magic space

In fact

Most generous artists I know

Gun to the head

Would prefer a miserable result which comes from an invigorating process

Over a stunning result which comes from a miserable process

Why?

The process is more valuable than the result

It’s the process which will continue to provide food on the table over the long run

It’s the process which will provide sustainable work over ones career

It’s the process which will help them put their head on the pillow feeling fulfilled night after night

Not a one single glorious result which the artist had no real creative input towards

Now

Obviously

I’m not suggesting you snap back and shout for your right to give your work your way

Not at all

My friend was young and new to the industry

But what I am floating the idea of here is

Permission to start the conversation with your colleagues

Healthy artistic change on the job starts with someone going first

It starts with someone putting their hand up and being honest

Simba

If I was directing you

And wanting you do do everything that myself and the team was asking

And I saw you take a slow, kind breath

Look me in the eyes and say

“Mike, can we chat? Just struggling a bit at the moment, mate”

I would lean in

I promise you

I would lean in

What’s more

Is that you dropping your guard

Would encourage me to drop mine

Why is this important?

Well

For a director to enforce such strong levels of control

Something tells me its probably coming from a fair bit of fear

Something tells me that person is feeling a lot of pressure to provide a pristine result within a short amount of time

And if a conversation begins

Then the understanding of each others position begins

And people can begin to move forward with a sense of compassion

And possibly even with a sense of wiggle room

For example

What happened to my friend?

Well

The following break

He was approached by the director

And they had a conversation

About where things were at

And how they could move things forward together

It was clear to the director that my friend was miserable

It was clearly costing him too much to just be a puppet and to not have any sense of autonomy

But what surprised my friend

Was that he began to understand the situation the director was in too

The immense pressure the director was under from the team in America

For the show to be exactly the same regardless of which actor was stepping into the understudy position

The two even laughed about the similarities of what they were both experiencing

And from that place of acknowledgement & acceptance

Oddly

They began to play

The play might not have been the size at which my friend was use to

Or as overtly as they might have liked

But within the structures that were required for that specific job to happen

They zoomed in to find the tiny crevices in which they could do it their way

The moment before they stepped onto stage as they warmed up behind the curtain

The wiggling of the toes hidden by their shoe

The choice to wave with their right hand rather than their left

The secret their character was hiding behind that specific line of dialogue

Whats my point?

Control of other creatives

Usually stems from a place of fear

And just like me

Creatives get real scared

Scared of losing their pay check

Scared of their work not being enough

Scared of where or when the next job might happen

But at the same time

No one knows ever fully knows what their fear & control is costing you

So permission to speak up

Permission to express when you’re struggling with the work

And permission to zoom in to find the smaller space for you to play

The moment before your take

The pause that’s half a second longer…

There is always something

No matter how small

That is within your control

My advice?

Have have fun finding it.

Hope this helps

X

Extreme Emotions

QUESTION:

Hey Mike,

For those rare moments where you do need to express extreme emotion, let's say grief for example, what are some practical tools we can use to get there?

Say I'm on set, I've got a huge scene coming up (either in the next hour or the next week, if there are different tools for each scenario), and I'm starting to feel terrified I'm going to completely shut down and become the woodiest block of dissociated wood ever seen on screen.

Any tips and tools you could share to get there would be amazing. Until then I'll be focusing on the fundamentals - breathing as myself in front of the lens.

Much Love xx

Regards,

J-Dawg

ANSWER:

J-Dawg!

What a question

Man

Yeah

UGH

I harp on so much about breathing and doing the absolute basics well before moving on

But at some point

If you have that one self tape

Or that scene being filmed next Tuesday

And the story simply requires you to go all the way with an emotional release

And the director or casting director walks up and says

“YO… I need you to go all the way”

Of course we can hide behind a sense of purity in the work

And say things like:

“My character wouldn’t do that”

Or

“Im giving myself permission to be where im at and I’m simply wooden today, and that means my character is wooden, numb, frozen and lets all accept that”

Yeah

HA

Lets get something straight

There are writers out there who have spent several years writing that one script

They have spent actual days deciding whether to use full stop or comma

And sometimes

We gotta do our damn job

Which is…

Bring what the writer has given us to life

Especially if the director has an editors’ eye and will be thinking about the music of the script whilst filming

They might simply need a very practical point so they can build the cut

Which leads us the the painfully honest admission…

Gulp

Can you?

Are you technically able to release on cue?

Many, many times…

I have told myself

“I will go all the way when I actually need to”

Or

“I’ll be able to do it when’s it’s really necessary”

And then

When received the opportunity to actually do so

Literally nothing has happened

Just sat in front of the lens

Like a wooden block

And felt the room whisper

“Oh no, is that it?”

I spent many opportunities deluding myself into believing that I would be able to release when the situation calls for it

And then getting smacked back into reality when I wasn’t able to

And on the flip side

I have also had opportunities in rehearsal room where I have been extremely happy with the work that flowed out

But then not able to do so consistently in the days or weeks after

Story time

I have a friend

And that friend was being directed by one of my absolute favourite actors of the past century

Regarded as one of the purest artists in the biz

An Oscar winner who consistently gave incredible performances both on stage and screen

Someone who all the greats looked up to

My friend was having a real difficult time getting to a place of release with a monologue in this theatre show

And finally

In one of the previews just before opening

He got there!

He released in a way where he felt like he finally served the writing

A magical moment to have on stage

And the next day

He proudly walked to the notes session

Where he was excited about receiving feedback from this director

“Brilliant”

“Just marvellous”

“You took my breath away”

He expected the director to say

You know what he got instead?

“Good work…

It’s never allowed to be less than that from now on”

Yikes

Another story

I was prepping to play one of Shakespeare’s protagonists for a show at the Sydney Opera House

And I had dinner with a director who helped build the careers of many of the UK giants from the RSC

I was hoping he would give me some magic pill advice

His advice?

“Michael… Remember… God doesn’t descend very often”

His meaning?

There is a practical reality to leading a theatre show with 113 performances

Or leading a film and having to rock up every day for 6 weeks straight

Technique becomes necessary

Want to to sustainably give generous work?

Show after show?

Day after day on set?

Craft

Yup

No magic here

Craft.

There is a very simple reality to skills here

As well as a culture of artists hiding that work behind the curtain

Which makes sense

It’s a profession which aims to help make an audience believe

“Suspend your disbelief”

As Shakespeare put it

And if every heartbreaking performance is combined with interviews from that actor giving specific details about how they were able to do that scene

It removes the sense of magic

It steals the work from the audience

Damn sure I do NOT want to watch There Will Be Blood knowing exactly what Daniel Day Lewis was technically doing

I’m damn fascinated by it, of course

But please don’t ruin my magical experience.

Saying that

As an actor

I want to know how to get better

And “oh, I just acted, hehe” doesn’t help me do that

So

Skills

The physical reality of skills

Let’s go back to the body here…

Honest question:

If your body doesn’t know what it’s like to drop it’s guard in practice

Then why would you expect it to do so when you’re on set and there’s fifty people staring at you?

Or when you’re in the casting room and there are three producers in suits a few metres from your face

And one of them gets up half way through your scene to go look at a painting on a wall (true story)

Yeah

To hope that that will be the day where you magically give glorious free flowing work

Despite having no real proof that you can go there

Doesn’t sound like a bet worth making does it?

And yet

So many of us do it

When the moment calls for it - I will magically rise to the occasion!

Nope

You will fall to the level of your training

Alright

You get my point

Develop skills to build confidence that you’ll be able to release on cue under pressure

Which leads us to the next question

How?

The brain won’t argue with the physical experience

Easier to have confidence in your skills when you have some actual proof

So let’s go get some proof, J-Dawg!

Let’s go teach the body its okay to go there :)

This is where the world is your oyster, mate

There are many different schools of thought when it comes to training the ability to release on cue

I’m literally tapping my foot against a box full of books as I type this

Some of them preaching there is only one way…And it’s their way!

(Picture me rolling my eyes right now)

I want to preface this with one principle

What works for you, for now

The goal is free flowing self expression

Not: there is a right way to do acting

Also

As we commence this discussion around techniques for emotional release

Please be careful

I have honestly been gutted at scenarios where someone is asked to drudge up childhood woes in their very first acting class

And then left to walk outside afterwards, physically shaking, with no sense of guidance or help after

The best coaches in the biz

Don’t have time for you to romanticise suffering

And if the work ain’t fun - Then that becomes the work (Making it fun again)

Okay

Back to general schools of thought

Just to name a few

(These are very broad brush strokes here)

As if - using your imagination to conjure up a fictional situation.

Emotional recall - Using past experiences and attaching them to specific dialogue or relationships in the script.

Physical - Using the body to encourage emotional flow via the use of different physical postures or movements (such as tremor therapy, or exercising to the point of exhaustion).

Breath - Breathing at different rates or from different areas in the body to induce different emotional states (such as the chest to encourage a state of panic or anxiety, or lower diaphragm to encourage a state of grief).

Dream work - The use of the subconscious to stretch oneself in the direction of their shadow & light.

Repetition - Simply taking that key piece of dialogue and repeating it hundreds, if not thousands of times.

The no acting approach - just saying that dialogue to that person you’re speaking to (highly dependant on the script, director, fellow actor & situation)

Obviously, as a 34 year old with a young daughter who now significantly influences my timezone

I have zero time for anything that’s unsustainable

Anything that messes with sleep, relationships, or tomorrows work is a no go for me right now

The best I know have deep handle over their craft

And if “god doesn’t descend very often”

Then I absolutely want to move in that direction

I want to be able to be on set and help my daughter with her homework

And then two minutes later step in front of the lens and give work I’m proud of

Not need three hours of solo time with headphones to give a take which is so out of alignment with the directors vision

Or not be able to take notes because I’m so in my own zone

And not need another 12 minutes to prep for a second take

Okay

Back to those schools of thought

What will be the ONE for you!?

Jokes

Go play!

Try stuff!

Fall on your face!

The more you experiment with

The more you can build your awareness

And the more awareness you develop

The more choice you will have in deciding what works for you & for now

I really cannot emphasise those last two words enough

For now

Permission to change as you grow.

The last film I did

There were a few scenes in particular where I believed that in order to serve the story best

I needed to hit particular moments

And what helped me most?

In one

It was late, I was exhausted, and I relied purely on physical movements to get me through

In another scene

I said a line of dialogue with zero acting. I said that exact line to that actor because I believed it was completely appropriate to the situation.

And in another

I spoke to a colleague as if they were a person I love deeply in my life and am terrified of losing

See?

Just a mish mash of shit

Messy

Grey

I think this is what I’m trying to say

There is no one way

You try things

You throw away what doesn’t work for you

You keep the stuff that does

And you keep building as you go

One thing is for sure

Do the thing

Get in the room

And do the thing

So you can walk on set

With your body knowing it is safe

Safe to release whatever work you’ve done

Safe to be a human being with other human beings

Safe to have moments of human connection

Hope this helps

X

Not Proud

QUESTION:

“Hey Michael. A bit controversial… How do you, as an actor go about promoting your work when you don’t like how the film or performance turned out? It’s a balance with being authentic, whilst also not being an absolute jerk. Sometimes my performance has changed because scenes have been re-ordered or edited (And of course, that happens). I dunno. I just can’t justify sending people to watch movies when I know they’re bad. Actor X”

ANSWER:

Hey Actor X

Thank you for sending this through

I might be the worst actor to ask this question

I have to confess

Pre 2016

I cannot recall inviting anyone to a single show

Or letting anyone know when I was appearing in some random episode of television

I just hardly ever felt proud of the work

I thought it was never good enough

So I made my best attempt to hide the stuff I didn’t like

Pretend it never happened

I wanted to bury my head

I wanted people to only see my best work

I wanted to control what they saw

I wanted to manage my reputation for them

Totally normal thing to do

Why?

Because I was afraid

I was scared of what they might think if they saw all my bits

My ugly bits

My mistakes, failings and messy work

I wanted them to only see my shiny best parts

So they could go

OOOOOOOO

AHHHHHHH

WOOOOAH

And how bloody normal

We are biologically wired to care what others think

Being ostracised by the group meant a higher likelihood of death for millions of years

And its still there deeply ingrained in us

Caring what others think is a bloody beautiful, and totally normal thing

And I certainly don’t want to waste any more time or energy on this earth

Trying to pretend I don’t care what loved ones, friends or even strangers think about me

To judge that as wrong or a bad thing

So

Permission to care what others think!

As for your question

Three points to make here

One

You cannot control your reputation

That is for others to decide

It is completely out of your control

What can you control?

Your skill development

Your behaviour

Your process

Two

It’s the teams work you are celebrating, not yours.

This has been a painful one for me

For so long I was an expert at making the work about me

I forgot about the entire group of inidivudals who actually make the damn thing

Who all put in hundreds, if not thousands of hours of their time

Who invest long nights, physical labour and deep focus into that one tiny shot that makes the cut

My wrinkly forehead might be the thing that is presented to the audience in that moment

But that wrinkly forehead is standing of the shoulders of giants.

The last job I had

We were filming the last shot of a very big day

It was about 2 am

And in the scene

I head butted a door and put a big hole in it

The next day

I walked passed in the early hours of the morning

And there were two crew members replacing that door

Which took several hours

My little action on set

Meant many hours of work for two other humans

They gave up their time they could be using to work on other things

To patch up my work

To cover my arse

Ugh

The team

We are standing on each others shoulders

And if I do media for that gig over the next 12-24 months

It’s their work I want to celebrate

The teams effort

Three

Kings who don’t accept the fool are doomed.

Resisting mistakes is a mistake

When my young daughter is playing with that weird musical instrument her granny gave her for Christmas

It is exactly that

PLAY

Which means there are no mistakes

And because she has zero fear of failure

Once and a while

A completely magical moment will occur

My point?

Find freedom in failure

Your most generous work is on the other side of it

And the only way

Is through

So

Embrace the shit

The mess, the ugly, the complex, the grey

Embrace the human bits

Your human bits

Want to give your most generous work?

Commence the slow, kind and gentle process of giving your worst work to the world

Hope this helps

X

Stuck

QUESTION:

Hey Sheasby

I’ve been faced with some hard decisions lately and have found myself feeling stuck in the limbo of indecision sometimes. It feels like I can't tell the difference between my fear and what's my gut instinct. Sometimes I feel like there isn't a wrong choice and I have to simply make one, but these prove to be even harder decisions. What sort of process can I rely on to decipher what my gut is saying?

Love, Martin Scorscissors

(name changed for privacy sake)

—————————

ANSWER:

Thank you for sending this one through Mr Scorcissors

“stuck in the limbo of indecision”

Ironically

I have been sitting in a cafe

Completely stuck as to which question to answer this week

There are so many fantastic ones that have come through

So many bloody options

And I genuinely feel stuck in limbo

Which one do I choose?

Which one do I invest the next few hours of my life into

They all require a lot of energy

They all require a lot of thought, intention and effort

And precious, valuable time

But no matter which one I think about picking

There’s a sense of

“oh god, what if I invest the next several hours or days of my life and then realise three quarters of the way that I made a mistake”?

I feel tight in the chest

My shoulders feel glued to my ears

And I just want to kind flop over and go do nothing.

In a moment like this

I want to bring it back to what I know best

One of the few things I can be absolutely certain of

(of which there are very few)

Death

I will be dead soon

35 years have already gone by in a blink

And with each year being proportionately smaller in the context of a lifetime

It’s only going to go faster

How bloody beautiful!

Imagine if there was no death?

Imagine if there was no finite time to live one’s life?

The answer to doing anything and everything could be:

“I’ll do it in a couple hundred years from now”

I say this not to emphasise a sense of haste

But the exact opposite

As a brilliant director once said

“We have so little time, we must slow down”

In a hundred years from now

No one will even remember my name

So if all I did in this moment was close my laptop

Sip my coffee slowly for 20 minutes with no phone

The world will keep turning

And that big decision I feel like I HAVE to make…

When I zoom out

Is almost never as big as it feels.

I see it over and over again

(In fact, I still often catch myself slipping into it)

Thinking that a decision needs to happen now!

Often, it comes with a forceful or pushing kind of feeling in my body

And interestingly, a judgement

What do I mean by judgement?

That the feeling of confusion or being unclear is somehow a bad thing

It is not.

To feel confused or unclear about a decision

Is a perfectly normal thing

I was in a museum with Kenzie Baby the other day

We were looking at skulls of apes

All the varies species (including us) from the passed 4 million years

You know what each of those species have done?

Made choices

Which direction will food be?

Where is best for safety tonight?

Which valley do we cross next?

Which direction to head for water?

Which berry is safe and which one poisonous?

Who is safe to be around and who is not?

These…

These were important decisions which meant life or death.

I really cannot emphasise the following point enough…

The industry will try convince you that every decision is both important and urgent

It’s not

I promise you

It is not

There are so few decisions in this industry which are both truly important and require immediate attention

I genuinely am finding it difficult to think of an example right now

Getting that new agent right now… no

Giving a clear yes or no so the production can fly you across the world to prep for that new series which starts in 6 days time… nope.

(You can still just have a nap and take care of it in an hour or two)

OOO

Okay

I have one!

It’s not acting related

But here goes

Once upon a time

Two twelve year old boys were washed off the rocks into the ocean outside my house

There was a secret track down the cliffs which no-one knew about but me

So I clambered down there in a jiffy and it ended up being just me and them

I stood on those rocks

About 10 metres away from these two screaming young boys

Thinking I was about to watch them drown in front of me within minutes

And I had to make decision

A decision which, in my opinion, was an important and urgent one to make

Do I jump in and risk drowning myself?

If I do jump in, which one do I go for first?

Do I run and find a floatation device (and risk them going under whilst I’m gone)?

When I realised the situation I was in

And the decision I had to make

I froze

I became paralysed with not knowing what to do next

But something I learned from an incredible human many years ago came to mind

A fascinating thing occurs when humans are under pressure when caught in a rip in the ocean

They think they have two choices

Sink

Or swim

Can they swim as hard as they can to get themselves out of it?

Or do they go under?

Of course, it’s fighting the current which sadly causes most to end up drowning

But there is a third choice in this moment

One which goes against many people’s instincts

To float

Huh?

Yup

Do nothing

Simply lean back and breathe

To give up on fighting nature

And simply go with her

Means one can float for a while to the end of the rip where they can then calmly swim back to shore

Back to the kids

I realised in that moment

There was a third choice

So I took a breath

Sat down

And started chatting

I told them help was on its way

And that all we needed to do was just hang out for a couple minutes

Float around

We spoke about the weather (It really was a beautiful day)

How their swim was going (they laughed at my lame dad joke)

How school was going (they were about to start high school!)

And a few minutes later

A jet-ski came around the headland and plucked the two kids up to go have some ice cream back on the shoreline

Why do I say all this?

There is a third choice

It’s not always a black or white, two option kind of deal

Sometimes

Floating is the best option

But remember

Floating is a biproduct

What’s the process that helps you float?

Leaning back and breathing

This requires a sense of giving up

A sense of surrender

Faith (No, religion doesn’t own the concept of faith)

You’re allowed to lean back, breathe, and take your time with making choices.

I have never regretted taking my time with an email, text or difficult conversation

But I sure as hell have regretted rushing these things

I sure as hell have regretted doing these things while my body is still in a place of push, force or should

Now

Back to your question:

What sort of process can I rely on to decipher what my gut is saying?

There’s many things here

You can do plenty of decision making courses or exercises

You can use tonnes of frameworks or systems

(I’m sure google will provide you with hundreds)

For me

Over the past decade of trying my best to consciously make decisions in regards to performance

I have only found one that I find sustainably reliable

Nature

Go back to nature

I don’t care where you live in this world

If you’re reading this

You have access

Somewhere

To nature

A park

A beach

A night sky

A boat

A forest

A valley

A horizon

A sunrise

A sunset

Create space for nature

Go to her

There is not a man-made structure on this earth which Mother Nature can’t destroy in a matter of seconds if she wishes to do so

Better to be on her side than against her

Better to listen to her than ignore her

And if you want a more logical reason as to why nature?

Being in nature will shift your physiology

Which in tern will influence your emotional state

Which influences your thoughts

And thus, shifts your choices.

Now

I’m three quarters through my article

Almost done with the choice I made hours ago

Did I mess up?

Do I regret the choice that I made?

Do I regret this article?

Was it the best choice I could have made?

I have no idea

I will never know

But it doesn’t matter

Death is coming

I tried something

And just the fact that I tried it my way

Is enough

Hope this helps

X

Acting & Identity

QUESTION:

Hi Sheasby :)

Just want to say how lucky we are to have your newsletter coming through, I still think about your analogy about acting and catching waves daily.

In this current period of my career, I feel like I'm reluctantly swimming back to shore and am trying to figure out how to get back into the water. I moved back to my home state in September, not intentionally, I needed a break to save some money and recalibrate.

But I'm still here, temping full time in the city, terrified that I made a horrible mistake, scared that I cannot make a career here. I miss my friends and the community I started to build in Sydney so I am planning to move back in July.  But in the meantime I'm starting classes down here at an acting school, I am hoping this will get me back into the groove and introduce me to actors down here. 

My questions for you are, how do we move through the world as actors while not doing the job of acting? How do I get up everyday and go to work knowing it's not what I love? How do I stay passionate about my craft when 'booking a job' is starting to feel like a ticket out? 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read, 

I really appreciate what you do.

L-Town (name changed for privacy)

ANSWER:

Great questions

And thank you for the kind words L-Town

Let’s get into it

“Feeling like I’m reluctantly swimming back to shore”

I want to add 3 words to that sentence…

And that’s okay.

Giving oneself permission to give up

For an hour, day, week, month, year

I think is one of the most important things we can do in our chosen field

To me that sounds kind

Like you’re taking care of yourself

And that, to me, sounds sustainable

Which makes you bloody dangerous in the long run.

Moving closer to loved ones

Having some form of security

Taking care of finances

Starting classes to stay in the craft

And creating more connections with humans you resonate with

When I read all these things you’re doing L-Town

I see a young artist who is making hard but important long term decisions

Permission to feel like you’ve made a mistake

Permission to miss your friends and community in Sydney

Permission to feel like a drowned rat as you clamber back onto the shore

Permission to feel what you’re feeling

But when it comes to the doing

L-Town

You are doing it!

Making hard choices makes an easy career in the long run

To me

I read that someone is slowing down now so they can move faster later

Taking care of craft, wealth, connections, community, etc

These are big pillars that will keep you steady within the chaos of our industry

I congratulate you on your journey toward becoming anti-fragile!

This is coming from someone who spent the majority of his first decade in the industry as an incredibly fragile and brittle actor

Everything was acting

And when the storms came

And I hadn’t taken care of my health, wealth, connections, craft etc

When my sole identify was based on me getting the job or not

Or having an audition to work on

When getting a role was seen as my ticket out of my shituation

Poop would severely hit the fan

It took me a very long time

To realise that I was a “when I / then I” kind of actor

“When I get that lead role at the Opera House, then I’ll be happy”

“When I get that big budget movie, then I’ll behave like a real pro”

Nope

Sorry to say

This was not the case

(For me anyway)

I got the opportunities

But I was still miserable

Still complaining

And still frustrated

And because of my habitual self dialogue

Speaking to myself in a “when I / then I” kind of way

Of course

When the opportunities came

My brain stayed the same

My self dialogue didn’t magically adjust

Why?

I was too afraid to go first

L-Town

The whole industry is waiting for you to go first

For you to live the way that’s most important to you

For you to give yourself permission to do things your way

Regardless of getting the job or a big pay check

The fact that you’re taking care of yourself now speaks volumes

I see the majority of actors allowing their behaviour to be dictated by the industry

And I see you as someone who is going first

You are taking care the most important parts (craft, people, wealth, health, etc)

Without getting that big role - which many actors believe will be the magic pill

This leads me to your question

“how do we move through the world as actors while not doing the job of acting?”

I adore this sentence

Because in it

I see myself

I see an actor

Standing at a mirror

Desperately needing that next job

Trying to convince myself or other people

That I’m an actor

Here’s a question back to you, L-Town

How long in-between acting classes or self tapes is too long for you to keep calling yourself an actor?

How long in-between acting jobs is too long for you to keep calling yourself a professional actor?

Weeks? Months? Years? Decades?

At what point does it stop?

At what point have you “failed”?

I want to challenge you on something

The idea

The belief

That you are an actor only when you’re working.

There is not a single actor that I look up to

Who acts every day

Bloody hell!

Now that I think about it

There is not a single actor that I look up to who has even worked professionally as an actor every single year since turning professional

L-Town

I don’t believe you’re only an actor when you’re working as an actor

Or even working regularly as an actor

Acting

Like life

Is grey

Very grey.

Right now

I have zero interest in taking on any acting work for the next few months

I gave everything to a film at the end of last year

And now I have other things igniting my curiosity and that I’m finding meaningful and are simply of priority

And ya know what?

I bet my bottom dollar that in 2 or 3 months after writing this

I will be at cafe, sitting with my little growing family

And I will wobble

Like a big plate of human jelly

I will go quiet

My partner will say

“Hey… where’d you go?”

And I’ll respond

“I feel like I’m no longer an actor”

How bloody normal and understandable that I’ll go there

What’s key to me in those moments

Is that A) I give myself permission to feel what I’m feeling

That if I’m feeling like a washed up actor that no-one knows about and that I will never work again because I haven’t auditioned in months

That that’s okay

And B) To bring it back to what’s most important for me & for now

That’s where it’s grey

That’s where your individual values & desires come into play

So being honest and clear about what’s most important to you for now

Give yourself permission to bring it back to those things.

Back to your question

“how do we move through the world as actors while not doing the job of acting?”

Live

You live

Your way.

You’re an actor

And as an actor

Your job is to provide moments of human connection

So go connect with the world

Go be a human

A messy, struggling grey human.

It boggles my mind how many actors stay in the bubble of this industry

When their job is to portray a human being

The last thing a casting director wants is for another person to walk into that room who’s identity as an actor is more important that being a living breathing soul

The lens sees through right through it.

So go live

Your way

Acting is not going anyway

It is a beautiful craft that will remain for you whenever you want

And the more you dive fully into the experience of life

The more your craft will benefit in those moments when you do choose to return to it.

Hope this helps

X

Silly Screen Skills

Almost a decade ago

I was doing a play

I was playing Valentine in Stoppard’s Arcadia for Sydney Theatre Company at the Sydney Opera House, directed by Richard Cottrell, with the most ridiculously wonderful & skilled cast.

Dream case scenario

But after sixty-ish shows

I had the opportunity to audition for another play which would mean going straight from one theatre show to the next

Something didn’t sit right in my gut

Despite feeling like I absolutely should go for it

I had an itch I desperately wanted to scratch

For years I had thought about screen

“what if I went all in with screen?”

“What if I really tried?”

When I thought about all the examples of acting and artists that I adored at that time in my life

The performances that kept me up at night

They seemed to all be in the style of screen acting

I knew different styles of acting required different skillsets

And so trying to get better at screen acting by continuing to only doing theatre

Was a bit like an athlete trying to get better at sprinting by training shot-put

Didn’t make much sense

So?

Time to follow some curiosity

The examples that came up for me when I slowed down and listened to what work I loved most?

(After applying 80/20 - this relates to last weeks article “Skills”)

I had two bloody clear examples of what I loved

The “I have abandoned my child” scene from There Will be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis, directed by PTA

And the “I like cools” blooper from Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master with Philip Seymour Hoffman & Joaquin Phoenix

Three Actors

All giving leading work

All in the style of naturalistic drama on film

So I began obsessively researching those three actors to understand which skills would help me most to make moving in that direction a reality

When I looked at their work, I tried to make it as simple as possible (For my small little brain)

All three had the technical ability to have an honest conversation in front of the lens

AH!

This was a big turning point

I wasn’t able to have an honest conversation in front of the lens

I was so busy trying to be interesting

That I skipped the most fundamental steps when it came to screen acting

Time to start again

Lets look at the fundamentals of screen acting

What does it require?

With the least amount of essentials as possible

Screen Acting

Screen

Acting

Two words

Lets break it up

What are the requirements of SCREEN (an environment with cameras, lighting, sound, set)

If I just vomit everything onto the whiteboard

I can get 50/60 things that I might think are requirements for working on screen

Everything from animal work to working with microphones, to Michael Checkohv’s psychological gesture, etc

But

In an ocean of technique

There will be a few key techniques that will apply to the majority of people in the majority of circumstances - these are the ones I’m trying to find.

These are the ones most worth investing in.

When pressing myself to distill everything down to what I believe is actually NEEDED for screen?

Three essentials keep coming up

One

Hitting a mark

Technology (lighting and camera) has still not evolved to the point where I don’t need to hit a mark

In a close up

If I am an inch off

It could mean the difference between pickups in 9 months time, or an easy process for editor.

Two

Eye access

I don’t mean looking at the other character the whole time like a psychopath

I mean allowing your eyes to accessed by the camera

Is the audience getting the opportunity (at some point) to see what you’re going through internally?

And three

Nothing

This is SO important

Slight detour

If we want to give leading work on screen

We need to be able to do 3 things bloody well

One

Ownership of darkness - the shadow, all the parts of ourself that we judge as bad, ugly or wrong

Two

Ownership of light - love, vulnerability, the willingness for our softness to be seen

Now

Those two things

Darkness and light

Only make up a tiny portion of what we will be required to give in leading role work on screen

And we will only get those opportunities to release the darkness and light in leading roles If we can spend the majority of time doing the third and most important skill…

(This skill is the most valuable and yet least practiced area in screen training)

That skill?

Nothing

Can you technically do nothing?

I’m being a smart arse

What do I mean by nothing?

Can you simply breathe as yourself in front of the lens

You are the most valuable currency in this industry

Not who you think or feel you should be

If you can breathe

You can become present

If you are present

You can be interesting

That makes you a bloody dangerous actor.

For example

Let’s look at an actor who is the most celebrated character actor in the western world

Daniel Day Lewis

If you watch all his films

You will see a glimpse of him smiling or laughing in the same way in all of them

He was asked about this similar mannerism all his characters possessed

His response?

“If there isn’t me in all my characters then they wouldn’t be my characters”

The greatest character actor of all time is stating the importance of giving a piece of yourself

That no matter how much you have to play with in terms of costumes, makeup, accents etc

All your work starts from the same place

Your breath

Even working with Mel Gibson on Hacksaw Ridge - I watched him give some of the most beautiful advice to wonderful human who was just starting out their acting career

“Acting is just breathing” he would whisper in his ear

It all starts with your breath

So

In summary

Requirements for screen?

1. Hit your mark

2. Give the camera access to your eyes

3. Breathe as yourself

Wanna be working on screen?

Become great at those 3 skills

Stick to those 3 skills and they will take you the majority of the way.

Sounds too simple?

Great!

Amateurs try do lots

pros do less, that’s why they do it better

Bloody smart idea to become a monster at those 3 skills before doing anything else.

Next

What was our second word again?

Screen ACTING

Acting!

Let’s breakdown the requirements for acting!

Again, trying to distill it down to its most basic parts

What does an actor do?

Reminder here

An actor helps share meaningful stories which helps humans connect which helps the tribe survive

Yes… But what does an actor do?

What do they provide to the story?

Well

An actor plays a character - a living breathing human being

Who has relationships - human beings don’t exist outside of relationships. We are always attached or connected to others in any given moment.

Within a specific context - a moment in time

Mmm

A human

Who has connections

In a moment of time

Therefore

An actor provides moments of human connection

Now…

Obviously

We can keep going here

Breaking down each one of those 3 requirements for screen

And those 3 requirements for acting

We can keep building entire systems for

Creating a living breathing human

For building attachments/relationships

And for honouring the context

Breaking each one down to most simple iteration that we can then sustainably practice 2-3 times per week

But I just wanted to give an example of how to scratch that itch of identifying skills for you to advance in whatever field you’re most curios about :)

The point is to get you thinking about the direction you actually want to make progress toward

(what’s the work that inspires you most / makes your body feel most energised?

& how you can identify the skills you need to actually do that.)

We really want to let go of the shoulds here

I have boxes of acting books in my garage telling me hundreds of ways I should prepare for a roll

Or what I should focus on when it comes to screen

Its exhausting and unsustainable

What’s most important here:

ONE

Run it through the inner child filter - is this actually enjoyable?

It might be way more enjoyable for you to simply put on a costume and go walk around in public rather than sitting with a script and writing down everything you should like you’re doing homework at school

And for other artists it might be the reverse

Listen to your body

what’s energising for you?

TWO

Do less, better

Boil it down to a few simple things.

Becoming great at those few things will take you so much further than spreading yourself thin.

No one walks into the gym on day one and tries to lift 500kg.

But suddenly when It comes to acting, many actors think that’s a great idea

“I’ll just read this book and do everything it says in the next 30 days”.

Nope

Keep it simple, stupid

If you can instil a culture of excellence by doing just a few things very well in the next 6 months

You will normalise those skills, which means in another 6 months you can advance yourself further by moving onto the next few things

And after letting the wonders of compound interest run its course

You can reinvent yourself as an artist in a few short years.

So

Slow down in order to go faster

Hope this helps

X

Skills

Aka: The most important investment you’ll make as an actor

Alright

As with any craft

To begin

We start at the end

Death

Why death?

Because death provides meaning

It gives us a finite amount of time to contribute value to this earth

To make this world a tiny bit better because you gave your work during your existence

*Chefs kiss*

When I coach other artists & performers

None of them are striving to contribute their average level of performance

They want to give everything they can

They want to provide as much value as possible

So they can place their head on the pillow feeling fulfilled

Feeling grateful that they allowed themselves to express themselves

Joyful that they got to play as freely as they did as a kid

Point being

We only have so much time

So why not make it meaningful

Why not make the craft and the career as meaningful & joyful as possible?

“Meaning”

For the vast majority of the homo sapien experience

The meaning of life has been very simple

Survive

why?

Because surviving has been so bloody hard

Every part of our biology is designed for one thing… survival

For hundreds of thousands of years

(Up until less than a hundred years ago!)

A mere scratch could mean death

A human being standing alone and naked in the wild is bloody vulnerable creature

And just to survive and raise the next generation was an incredible feat

It meant the continuation of the species

But change occurred

Something allowed us to go from the middle of the food chain

To the top

Connection (& technology - but let’s put that aside for now)

Let’s look at connection

Human relationships

Our attachments to each other

Allowed us to climb the food chain

Connections meant more resources & watchful eyes

Connections meant better protection and ability to provide

Thus

Connection equals Survival which equals meaning

Now

What influences connection?

Stories

Stories helped the group connect

Both literal (Doug got eaten by bear at water hole, so don’t go to there)

And symbolic (in doing our work together today we will be pulling the sun from one horizon to the other)

So

Stories = connection = survival = meaning

Now

How does one tell a story?

This is where individuals get to play their way

Some direct

Some edit

Some make tiktoks

Some sing

Some do poetry

Some dance

Some paint

Some do puppetry

Some tell jokes

Some act

ACTING

Acting helps tell stories

Stories help individuals connect

Connections help the group survive

Surviving another day

Another generation

Bloody meaningful

**another chef’s kiss**

Therefore

Acting can be bloody meaningful if you want it to be

Let’s talk acting

And as with any craft

It requires…

Drumroll

SKILLS

But hang on

Before we start identifying which skills we need to improve our craft

We have to identify what is the specific craft that we want to get better at

Let’s get more specific than just saying “acting"

Saying you want to get better at acting is like saying “I want to get better as an athlete”

It’s very generalised

A powerlifter is not going to train the same skills as a sprinter or long jumper or gymnast

Get. Specific.

What kind of acting are we talking about?

Different kinds of acting require different skills

For example

Theatre acting comes with a non-negotiable

The audience member at sitting in the back row has to hear you

Comedy comes with it’s own requirements

In particular when it comes to rhythm and pace

As does Brechtian theatre

Mime

Musical theatre

Commedia dell’arte

Etc

When I was 22

I was lucky enough to receive a grant which meant I got to go to The Globe in London for the International Shakespeare Festival

One month

Every one of Shakespeare’s plays

Performed by a different theatre company

From a different country

In their own language

I wahtced a slapstick Brazilian Portuguese Romeo and Juliet where every actor was over 60

Romeo did the balcony scene whilst on stilts, playing an accordion and holding an umbrella

When Juliet died she turned into a swan and flew around the stage as a ballerina

I saw an absurdest German interpretation of Timon of Athens

Where the actors started the play in tuxedos

And ended it naked in a pile of mud

I saw a naturalistic Armenien King John

Different style after different style

All demanding their own skillsets

Even within screen acting - different styles exist

I had a friend get an evening tv sitcom in America

Which meant filming on a live stage with 3 cameras - a style completely of its own!

Ya get the point

Different styles of acting

Means different skill sets to invest your precious resources into

Now

Time for the big question

How do you know which style of acting you want to get good at?

Simple

What do you love?

What keeps you up at night?

What energises you?

What do you think about?

Forget about what you should want to get good at

Go back to the body

You’re going to be dead soon

In a 100 years no one will even remember your name

So may as well have a crack at the one which your body is calling you towards

Listen to your body

Let it lead

Give yourself permission to go in the direction your gut is saying to go (for now)

(with full permission that in 6 months you might wake up and love a completely different style as the one you love today!)

Exercise: Inspiration

Step one

Write down the art that inspires you most

The scenes, films, plays, actors, artists etc that make you stay up late

That make you forget to eat or sleep

The work that makes your body go fuck yes

The work that springs forth if I put gut to your head and said:

“Be honest - what do you want to contribute most to this industry”

No judging, editing, justifying etc

Just write

Let it flow out

Mess and all

Step Two

Identify why you think you love their work

What is it that they do which makes you feel alive and meaningful inside

What is it about their work that inspires you?

Again no good, bad, right or wrong answers here

Guess away!

Step Three

80/20 (Pareto principle)

Pick 20% of the examples that inspire you most

And identify the skills required to deliver that kind of work

Drumroll

These are your skills

These are the skills most worth investing your precious resources into

Step Four

Ask yourself

Where can I go, or who can help me best with these specific skills?

Curious!

Time to go dive into the deep end of skill development

Then?

Just add some time

Why time?

Skill development + patience = Deliver the work you dreamed of giving

***Final Chefs kiss***

Hope this helps

X

Overwhelm On Set

The following is a recent text exchange with a professional actor (It has been edited for privacy reasons).

ACTOR: Okay. I am on set. Have filmed a bit. As time goes on and there are delays I catch myself doubting myself. The other actors on set have been leads in ******** and all these huge shows with huge American named actors. Can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking of me and my acting and how low do I rank on their list. How bad am I doing? Why am I acting like this? Curious. I feel like I’m an awful actor because I’m not getting praised for being good. I need to work harder. I need to study more. I need to go back to acting school. I missed a stage of learning because how I’m saying these lines is rushed. I need to breathe. Have I understood the nuance? Have I missed out on anything? How do I become what people consider a great actor? How do I begin to trust myself when I know what I’m doing isn’t worth being amazing. Anyways. Rant and thoughts. I know I need to just breathe and put myself in the room. But it’s tough haha.

MICHAEL: Incredible honesty. Love this - thank you for sending. Such beautiful awareness and bringing it back to what is within your control (your breath). Permission to be exactly where you are. It’s not good, bad, right or wrong.

ACTOR: How does one get better though?

MICHAEL: Let’s dive in. Specifically - are you referring to skillset or mindset?

ACTOR: I’m talking about talent.

MICHAEL: Okay. Next question. What is your definition of talent?

ACTOR: It’s just that thing that makes someone effortless and good. Like they almost don’t have to do any study or homework or prep. It’s like the kids in school who never studied but would get 100% in exams, and they’d be all nonchalant about it. It’s like what people say “they have that thing”. I feel like I’m constantly being the mechanic trying to build the magic machine that will eventually trick people into believing I have “it” but the machine is currently outdated.

MICHAEL: Curious. Let’s keep going. This is important. Please name me some artists you think are talented (“effortless and good")

ACTOR: You. Phoenix, Del Toro, Plaza, Pugh, Chamalet.

MICHAEL: Firstly, here is an article I wrote specifically on the idea of talent (https://www.actorsblueprint.com/articles/how-to-be-more-talented). My second point… research each one of those artists’ backgrounds that you mentioned. There will be clues everywhere. Practical things that remove the magic… there is no magic. There is no raw talent. I truly believe this and have seen no proof that disputes this.

ACTOR: I think if I was to take it a step further, it’s that overwhelming realisation that whatever I’m putting down is captured and people will watch it. And they’ll not see my progress they’ll just see me in this time capsule. And then I’ll never get work. And I’ll never make that place of effortlessness. Because I’m constantly having to prove myself, that I’m better than I was before. I know it’s so crazy but it’s that.

MICHAEL: Beautiful! Brilliant! Absolutely nothing to do with your definition of “talent”. Just 101 innate fear of failure. “I know it’s crazy” - this is where the problem starts. Don’t judge these thoughts. Why? They are perfectly normal! You giving yourself permission to be exactly where you are is the next step. “I’m afraid of looking like a fucking failure… and that’s okay”. Sit with that, breathe that in. If you keep judging and resisting it then it will keep bursting through under pressure. Quick story - I had to walk out of a scene during The Nightingale because I thought I was about to have a panic attack. I couldn’t stop the thoughts “this is shit, I’m fucking this up” etc. The trick was I had setup a system on set - I created a relationship with the vocal coach whereby she would pull out her watch, time me for 90 seconds, I’d say all my fears, then I’d walk away. No trying to fix or solve, no trying to be other than where I was. And no judgements… just permission. In short, my answer is… Setup a system for when you start to judge yourself. I’m right here - so feel free to send me that 90 seconds when you need, then you can get on with giving your work :) Love x

ACTOR: Mike. You’re the best. And I appreciate you. Thank you for listening to me. I really, really fucking appreciate it.

Dangerously Sustainable

Man I’m lethargic

The end of a year

And the start of new one

Brings with it an increase of questioning & thinking about results

Did I cross off enough goals?

Did I tick important boxes?

How can I smash this year ahead in my work & career?

Ugh

Feels draining in the body

And a bit hopeless to be honest

I remember a time

When I had a piece of paper stuck on my wall

I was twenty one

I had just graduated from drama school

I had all the tools under my belt

I had all the drive and energy to claw for results

And I was deeply afraid

Of not being able to land any work in my first year in the industry

Of being the first one of my year group to have to throw in the towel because it “just wasn’t working out”

The new year had just started

So I sat down

And thought about what I should do in order to be a good actor who gets results

Key words being “should”, “good” & “results”

Immediately

I had a flood of things come to mind

All the bits of advice from three years at a prestigious acting institute

I came up with a program for myself

A good actor’s checklist

And stuck that bad boy right in the centre of my wall

Where I could see it every day

Some of the boxes included

“30 minute voice warm up every day”

“60 minute movement warm up every day”

“Two hours practice every day”

“Read one play per week”

“Summarise one acting book per month”

“Two self tapes every week”

“Get one film, one TV show & one theatre show this year”

The list went on like this

I still giggle when I think about this piece of paper

At the start of every week

I would stand there

And see exactly what I “should do”

Feel completely exhausted by simply looking at it

And then try complete it

Week after week

Month after month

Push

Force

Should

After a while

It was pretty damn obvious that I wasn’t getting everything done each week

So just to hammer home how important this list was to my success

I added a quote on it which came from my main acting teacher at drama school

“Michael

You will never be good enough at acting

Because you are too afraid of failure”

HA!

“Let’s see who has the last laugh”

I told myself

“I will work so hard and fail so much that I’ll show him!”

So not only did I have this great big list of shoulds on my wall

But now

I also had a little extra fuel of shame each week if I hadn’t completed absolutely everything

And?

Did I get more done?

YES

I did!

For about three days in a row

Then the wheels would come off

Simply unsustainable

Like bashing my head against a wall and wondering why it kept hurting

Now

Let’s juxtapose this whole chapter with another that comes to mind

I remember a time

Many years (& failures) later

When I got a call from my agent

To tell me the news I had just gotten one of the most enjoyable and fulfilling jobs I ever had

I didn’t pick it up

Why?

Because I was practicing with a friend

And when I did eventually call her back in my break and receive the news

She was dumbfounded that I wasn’t desperately clambering for more information

Or screaming at the top of my lungs

Yes - I was absolutely grateful and happy to receive the role

But I simply wanted to get back to practice

This was at a time when I had zero goals

Zero shoulds to tick off each week

Certainly no list on my wall of results to achieve

And even zero expectation to practice

I just kept showing up to peoples homes to tape

Why?

Because I was having fun

I was practicing with 2 or 3 really energising people each week

We would meet up

Share snacks

And then just play around for 45 minutes each

No pressure on results

No pressure to push or succeed

Just one focus

Playing infant of the lens

And playing meant fun

And ontop of having fun

Playing meant the entire concept of failure vanished

There was suddenly no way I could fail

And this run of practice went on and on

Sustainably for over a year and a half straight

So

Two chapters

One

All about pushing for results and doing what a good actor should do

Which resulted in nothing getting done

And the other?

All about playing

Which resulted in fun

And that fun kept going sustainably

In fact

Now that I realise it

That run of fun practice only stopped because I got four jobs in a row which took me away form the action

Damn!

I’m sitting in my garage with a deer-in-headlights kind of look on my face

Of course

When I focused on getting results

I came up with a bunch of exhausting shoulds

And I never maintained the processes

Plus I felt tired, ashamed & guilt the majority of the time

But when I focussed on playing

I simply did things the way I wanted

With people I felt energised by

And the only reason I stopped

Was because I became busy working professionally

So

What’s my point?

Going into 2024

Thinking about your craft

Thinking about your career

I have one question…

“What would acting look like if it were actually fun for me?”

Hope this helps

X

Yearly Acting Review

At the end of each year

Instead of coming up with some new year acting resolutions

Which usually include a bunch of shoulds instead of wants

Examples include:

“I should get a main role in a great TV series or film”

“I should warm up my voice and body for one hour every day”

“I should go to class twice a week”

“I should practice a self tape every day”

And my personal favourite:

“I should read one play every week to be a good little actor”

Sidenote

If an actor doesn’t have goals to be working in the theatre

Why are they allocating time & energy trying to develop theatre skills by reading plays when they don’t actually enjoy reading plays?

An incredible old teacher of mine at drama school told me to

“Give a play ten pages

And if you don’t feel genuinely excited about turning to page eleven

Close it”

That’s some damn wonderful advice from a very smart old artist

We work too damn hard in this industry

And make too many damn sacrifices

We may as well create space to actually enjoy what we do!

ANYWAY

Instead of these kinds of New Years resolutions

To help me learn from the past year & guide me into the year ahead

I do a Yearly Acting Review which is based off my body

Why my body?

Because Mother Nature is in charge

There is not a manmade thing on this earth she can’t destroy whenever she wants

We all come from her

And we will all return to her

So better to be with her than against her

Millions of years of biology have gotten us to this point

So I’m pretty sure she knows what she’s doing

And damn sure the most exhausting moments in my life have been when I have tried my hardest to ignore the signals my body is sending me

Maybe better to let her lead

Okay

Here we go

Yearly Acting Review

Requirements?

Some private time & space

Paper & Pen

Maybe some music or a favourite beverage?

And If you keep a calendar or schedule this will be immensely helpful

Step One

Write down all the things your body found to be energising over the past year

The friends, colleagues, coaches, teachers, books, activities, environments, events, etc

That made your body feel light, excited, awake, exhilarated, free, love, growth, play, joy, bliss, alive, etc

Step Two

Out of all those energising things

Circle the (roughly) 20% that were the most energising

So if you wrote down twenty energising things

Circle roughly four that were the most energising

Curious

Step Three

Now write down all the things your body found to be de-energising over the past year

The people, colleagues, coaches, teachers, books, activities, environments, events, etc

That made your body feel heavy, tight, lethargic, stuck, anxious, locked, exhausted, etc

Step Four

Out of all those de-energising things

Circle the (roughly) 20% that were the most de-energising

So if you wrote down twenty five de-energising things

Circle roughly five that were the most de-energising

Curious

Now…

There might be some very interesting insights coming your way already

But let’s use this info to create change

Step Five

Time to replace the most de-energising things with the most energising

The key is to start now

Book it in

Send the text

Organise the time

Click send

Invite that person

Reach out to that friend

Ask that mentor

Schedule that event

Pay for it

Put that activity in the calendar

Just take action in some way shape or form

One little step at a time

Nothing will come from nothing

And every action has a reaction

Make it easy for yourself to show up to that which makes your work and life worth it

The goal here is to essentially let your body lead in a very practical way

To allow your bodies energy to flow in the direction it wants

If it wants more of those people, environments, activities etc

Give it to it

An incredible coach of mine once said to me

“Mike, the easiest energy is yours”

And I wholeheartedly agree

Acting has never flowed for me more than when I move in the direction my body wants me to go

Rather than trying exhaustively to push against it

I really hope this helps

X

No Actor Does It Alone

I believe

The most important resource you have as an actor

Is your curiosity

But second to that

Is the people who you choose to share your curiosity with

No actor moves through this industry alone

We are surrounded by people

Readers

Agents

Managers

Teachers

Coaches

Mentors

Colleagues

Class mates

Those we run lines with

Those we shoot self tapes with

Those we go to for guidance when we feel utterly stuck

Those we celebrate with when we get wonderful phone calls

Those we cry with when we get rejected for the 23rd time in a row

Point being

Relationships are a crucial part of our journey

They are highly influential over where we end up as artists

As well as being deeply wired into our nature

So I believe it’s really worth paying attention to who we surround ourselves with

The following is an exercise to help you build energising connections in 2024

You will need a paper and pen

And as always

Your honesty

One

Write down the most energising relationships you have in this industry

(those which make your body feel full, light, honest, open, expansive, love, excited, calm, home, etc)

Then out of these, circle the top 20% most energising

Two

Write down the most de-energising relationships you have in this industry

(those which make your body feel locked, tense, clenched, exhausted, anxious, small, etc)

Then out of these, circle the top 20% most de-energising

Three

Write down the 5 people you spend the most time with

Four

Now, write down the 5 people your body would like to spend the most time with

Question

Is there a difference between steps 3 and 4?

If so

Curious

Time to open your hand and reach out

Send that message

Make that call

Book that coffee

Ask to help out with that next self tape

Write that email to express gratitude

Share some love

Remember

You are going to be dead soon

So no need to spend time with people you think you should spend time with

Simply hang out with people your body loves hanging out with

I truly believe

In this industry

One wonderful & energising relationship

Is worth far more than a hundred de-energising ones

What’s my point?

Make a conscious decision to share your curiosity

With people your body says “fuck yes” to

Hope this helps

X

How to Reinvent your Career

We see it over and over again

In only a few short years

Someone going from a dead end in their career

To suddenly delivering exactly the kind work they dreamed of

In other words

Reinvention

And acting is no exception

For the vast majority of actors

There is a common feeling of

“This just isn’t going anywhere”

And that’s okay

In fact

If you’re noticing that thought

Celebrate it

Because it means you’re aware of it

And awareness equals choice

And choice means change

I repeat

You have a choice to change

Trust me

I’m a complete idiot

How much of an idiot you ask?

Earlier this year I ruined a take by trying to pick up a prop whilst facing away from camera and I split my pants

($30 million dollars and what do you get? Michael Sheasby’s undies)

Ahhhh what’s sad is I have so many more stories like that

ANYWAY

I’m an idiot

But even I went from feeling utterly stuck & resenting acting with all my being in 2015

To being nominated alongside my heroes for work I was genuinely proud of fourteen months later

So if I can do it

You absolutely can make progress toward whatever meaningful goals you have over the next year

So

The following is a slow, kind & simple (I said simple, not easy) process

For reinventing your career in 2024

This process will require the most basic & important ingredients of honesty, clarity, and action

Here we go

One

Inspiration

Identify the work that inspires you most

The work that makes your body feel energised, alive, playful, exhilarated, meaningful, light, love… home

The work where you know, deep down, you belong

The work that makes you think “If I could just give that to this world, it would all be worth it”

The work that brings an easy breath to your body

Let’s avoid the de-energising shoulds here

The artists, films, plays, styles, that you should like in order to please others

Listen to what your body is yearning for

Let it lead

The body is the best guidance system we have

Better to trust millions of years of evolution

Over exhausting, erratic & fashionable noise

It’s simple really

Gun to your head, what kind of work makes you feel “fuck yes”?

Two

Skills & Behaviour

Once you are clear and honest about the kind of work that inspires you most

Identify the skills & behaviour required to give that kind of work to this world

The skills will be influenced by the style of work you love

If you love American 3-camera sitcoms

This will require very different skills to that of arthouse films

The skills of pantomime on stage will be very different to that of modern day musicals

etc

Then

Look at the kind of person you have to be to gain and deliver these skills

The kind of person who is honest when it’s hard to be?

The kind of person who focuses on what they can control?

The kind of person who surrounds themselves with energising people?

The kind of person who asks for help?

The kind of person who spends more money on practice each month then on drugs?

The kind of person you trusts their instincts?

Etc, etc

Three

Prioritisation

Use Pareto’s principle (AKA 80/20 Rule) to prioritise the skills & behaviour most important for your reinvention.

Roughly speaking

In an ocean of technique

There will be a few

Which will work well for the majority people the majority of time

These are to be prioritised

So if you wrote down ten skills which are required for you to deliver the kind of work you love

Clarify the two most important ones

Then focus your time & energy on only those two skills

Forget about the other eight for now

Remember

Amateurs try do lots

Pros do less

That’s why they do it better

Four

Action

Distill those specific skills & behaviour down to their simplest & most repeatable iterations.

Boil the skill or behaviour down until you find the smallest gem you can

Then take that gem

And make it non-negotiable

That’s the tiny little thing you do

Every day or week

Rain, hail or shine

Small gems don’t add up

They compound

(Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world for a reason)

And finally

Five

Patience

The ability to slow down when your fear urges you to speed up

In an industry where it can feel like you are falling behind if you haven’t had an audition in a week

It takes a hell of lot to build the muscle of patience

To say no when you really feel like you should say yes out of fear

I am sitting in my garage right now

Sweating

I received some news a few hours ago

And my fear is yelling at me to push, force and try claw at things which are outside of my control

So I have decided instead to interrupt the system

Go back to my breathing

Try my best to let my body know its safe

& that it’s more then okay to stay in my timezone

Rather then rushing into everyone else’s

Sometimes

The hardest thing to do

Can simply be nothing

Hope this helps

X

Desperate Times

I have a recurring dream

Or more specifically

A recurring dream sequence

I find myself standing in the wings of a theatre

With old cast mates

I find them looking at me

With somewhat concerned eyes

I try convince them

That I know what I’m doing

But I have no idea what I’m doing

Then at some point

I realise everyone is waiting for me to actually step onto the stage

“But I don’t know my lines”

I tell myself

Then I realise

That I have been asked to just quickly step in

For a revival of an old show I have done at some point in the past

Sometimes it’s Romeo & Juliet

Sometimes it’s Henry V

Last night it was Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia

I played the mathematician called Valentine

Yes - Stoppard named his Mathematician “Valentine”

In love with the world of numbers and the meaning they can convey

Deeply romantic about the unemotional laws of thermodynamics

I have pages and pages of dialogue

Monologues about the desperate attempts to predict the weather

And what will happen to this earth as it eventually cools like a cup of tea

Valentine’s brain explodes with glee

“It’s the best possible time to be alive

When almost everything you thought you knew

Is wrong”

I know my lines

Then

As I step onto the stage

To see what happens when I wholeheartedly surrender to the chaos of live performance

I wake up.

God I miss acting

I miss being in theatre rehearsals

I miss the playing

The experimentation

The slow, kind & intricate building

The smashing of what’s good & right to try find something real

From nothing

To something

Back to nothing

I miss the people

I miss the beautiful language & ideas

The glorious mess of experts having no idea what they’re doing

But yet still trusting each other with everything they have

I take a breath

Time to rise and shine

Kenzie Baby is now sleeping through the night

So we are up before she is

Which means we get to be the first thing she sees when she wakes

She does a little head shake

Opens her dark brown eyes

Stares up at her gleefully smiling parents starring down at her like an identical pair of Mr Beans

And then all happiness breaks loose

Arms go flinging

Legs go kicking

Smiles are uncontrollable

She simply hasn’t learnt to dull her emotions state yet

There is no other choice for her but to feel what she’s feeling

Happy

Angry

Sad

Calm

Frustrated

It ain’t good, bad, right or wrong

She just goes there

No hiding

No numbing

It’s beautiful to watch

A reminder of what’s flowing behind each humans’ eyes

When they simply breathe as themselves

Whilst fighting to present a facade of stability to society.

We meander to a local cafe

Kenzie Baby playing with Maurice

Her green dinosaur teddy

I sit in silence

Thinking about my dream

Feeling like an anxious cucumber

I notice the internal voices

The stories I’m telling myself in this moment

“I should be auditioning”

“I should be working”

“I should be out there doing it”

I feel heavy

Like there’s a knot inside my chest

Hang on…

Stop

I love this thing

I love what I do

Then why so many shoulds right now?

It was only the other day I finished leading a feature film

And was feeling a deep sense of contentment

Of patience

Like I knew it was okay to go slow

And take my time

Let things settle

I felt so clear about what I wanted to be doing right now

Being there for my family

Helping other artists give their most generous work

And getting some time in nature

Clear

So why the change?

Why the recent shift into insecurity?

Why the sudden angsty desperation crawling under my skin?

Oh

I immediately feel embarrassed

Ashamed

Gross

You see

A day or two ago

I went onto social media

(Yes - The Actor’s Blueprint is now on Insta)

And I stalked an old colleague

I saw what they were doing

They looked so busy

So smiley

So involved in the biz

And immediately

I began to question my decisions

Gotcha

I celebrate

“I caught the thought!”

Mmm

I’m just afraid

I’m afraid I’ll get left behind in the industry

I’m afraid all my efforts or achievements will become unimportant

I’m afraid I won’t matter

Well

Guess what

That’s guaranteed

I don’t even know the names my great grandparents

In less than one hundred years from now

It will all be forgotten

All my efforts, work, accomplishments and failures

Gone

Erased from memory

And that’s okay

And furthermore

I’m allowed to love something even if I’m not doing it

I still love being in nature when I’m writing in my dark garage

I still love my daughter when I’m away on set

I still love being in theatre rehearsal rooms even though I haven’t stepped in one in two years

Just because I have a deep love for it doesn’t mean I have to be doing it in this very moment

Or, more importantly

That I should be doing it in this very moment

Acting will always be there

For me to enjoy in my own time

And how beautiful to let others enjoy it in theirs

Permission to listen to my own rhythms

Permission to stay in my own timezone

Permission to breathe at my own pace.

I take a sip of my coffee

Kenzie Baby wants a cuddle

I slowly reach down and pick her up.

Hope this helps

X

Turtles Win Races

Hello

It’s been a while

I’ve been pretending to be a guy called Jack

In a film called Two Ugly People

Yes - I’m one of the ugly people

It was a massive few weeks

Filming in rural motels

Chinese karaoke bars

And country back streets at 4am.

If I put an imaginary whiteboard in front of me

And pretend the whole film experience is up there in front of me

A few key ideas pop up

One

I simply have no idea what acting is

Two

Human connection is everything

& Three

Turtles win races

Here we go

One

I say the following not to gloat but to prove what an idiot I am

I started acting at fourteen

I got into NIDA at eighteen

I was leading onstage at the Sydney Opera House by twenty five

I have worked with multiple Oscar winners & nominees

I have been nominated alongside Australia’s best

I help other artists around the world to give their work in their respective fields

As well as leading the screen acting lecturing at Australia’s most prestigious acting institute

So believe me when I say…

I really

REALLY

Feel like I should know what acting is by this point

But in all honesty

I don’t have a clue

I’m fucking stumped

Right now, I feel like I’m wrestling with a cloud

Mmm

Maybe there’s a hint

“Wrestling”

Like I’m trying to fight with it

Control it

Maybe that’s the point

That it’s not something to be fought with

Controlled

I can hear the great Eleonora Duse calmly saying

“There is no one way. Every actor must find their own way.”

Maybe I’m in a place where I need to unclench my fists

Let myself get lost in the grey mist of a craft which is never supposed to be leashed

Two

I have just had the privilege of working with a wonderful actress

Yes - she is the other ugly person

This actress has zero background with training or acting technique

And I was blown away

There is simply nothing more wonderful than working with someone who doesn’t know what they should be doing

Who doesn’t know how to please generic acting teachers or books on “how to get the part!”

Because their energy is focussed on only what is most important

Human connection

I have just had the greatest privilege of working with someone who only focussed on the most real of things

After twenty years of experience

I cannot tell you how refreshing it was to know

That at any point

No matter how scared, stupid, or lost in the scene I felt

I could look up

And there was a human standing opposite me

With open eyes

Who was brave and generous enough to be willing to connect as a living, breathing human

That shit builds trust like no other

And it has absolutely given a nudge to the direction ill head in with the 2024 NIDA students

Courageous human connection

To be clear

There is not a casting director I know

Who would prefer an actor to get the scene right

Rather than connect honestly with the person standing opposite them.

Three

A few nights into filming

We were doing a very long shot

A walk and talk

The night was getting on and as more lighting was being set up

I snuck aside to have a look at playback on the monitor

I saw two people

Walking along a beautifully lit corridor

Under the night sky

At a Mexican-themed rural motel in the Australian bush

The shot reminded me of something

And I immediately began to well up

You see

Eight years ago

I was sitting with the writer/director of Two Ugly People

In a dingy Newtown apartment

During a particularly cold and wet winter

I remember the obsessive conversations

The clarity and drive in his eyes

About what he wanted to contribute to the industry

The stories he wanted to give to the art of cinema

The on-screen relationships he wanted to build

The shots he wanted to paint with lighting and lenses

And all these years later

To watch someone I love realise a decade long dream

It clarifies for me one idea

How damn possible it is for people to build their dreams

When they do it slowly

To sail steadily toward a clear harbour on the other side of the world

Damn that’s dangerous

And bloody generous too

I think most actors vastly overestimate what they can accomplish in a year

But drastically underestimate what they can achieve in a decade

Remember

Steady turtles outlive frantic hares

Hope this helps

X

Please Care What Others Think

In 2016

I was about to open a play at the Sydney Opera House

I was playing one of my favourite characters (Valentine Coverly)

In one of my favourite plays (Arcadia)

By one of my favourite writers (Stoppard)

I hadn’t been on stage in almost eighteen months

And I was scared

The last experience I had in that theatre had been a painful one

And I didn’t quite know how I was going to handle being in front of an audience again

After working with an incredible coach

I had experienced one of the most enjoyable rehearsal periods of my life

I was playing freely in the room

And was finally feeling like I was giving work I wanted to

But the time came for previews

(That first taste of giving the work to the public)

Yup

Same old stuff

The same self doubt

The same negative self talk

The same beating the shit out of myself

It all came out of the wood work once more

I remember clenching the handlebars and swearing the entire ride home on my motorbike

Just when I thought I was turning pro

Just when I thought I could give work I was actually proud of

Just when I thought I was finally free from caring about what others think

Nope

Felt like quick sand was sucking me down again

And I spent the whole show standing on stage like a deer in the headlights

I remember thinking

“It’s like my doubts and fears took steroids as soon as I stood in front of the audience”

I was beating the crap out of myself

Why?

Because I believed it was bad to care what others thought about me

I’m gonna say that again

I believed it was bad for me to care what others thought about me

But let’s look at this from an evolutionary perspective

All of my biology is designed to help keep me alive

And in order to keep me alive

It has to keep me caring about what the group thinks

Why?

Well, who dies first?

The group who can work together to fend off predators?

Or the person rejected by the group standing alone against the bear?

We need the group

My body needs the group in order to survive

It needs to be surrounded by people I care about and who care about me

More people means more resources, more productivity, more security

Group equals life

Alone equals death

So damn sure my biology is going to do everything possible

To keep me caring about what others are thinking

That sounds pretty reasonable

If I care what others think, there’s a better chance I’m going to have a longer life

And therefore, be able to help the species survive another day

What’s my point?

I could not think of a bigger waste of time & energy

Than trying to not care about what others think

Our bodies are literally designed to do it

It’s what helped us get here

So please don’t disrespect the last two hundred thousand years of evolution

It is more than okay to care what others think

In fact

Its bloody wonderful to care what others think!

It says you’re a human!

And we need more human actors

Not more cool cats who hide their humanity by trying to pretend they don’t care

But… What about the solution you ask?

How does one allow themselves to care what others think but still move forward?

By being clear and honest about what is worth caring about most

Awareness equals choice

If you’re aware of what’s truly worth caring about

Then the next time you become paralysed by caring what others think

You’ll be able to choose where to place your attention

You’ll be able to bring your focus back to what is clearly and honestly most important to you

Like…

The work

Contributing meaningful work

Sharing meaningful stories

To the group

So the group can all care about something together

And thus survive another day on this Earth

Aren’t humans great?

Hope this helps

X

Finding Your Own Way

Who broke the world of acting?

Who really changed the game?

Advanced the craft by leaps and bounds within a lifetime?

Who did something no one else was even dreaming of?

Who’s shoulders are we standing on?

And why would the hell would I care?

Mmm

(For the love of god, this is not a boring history lesson - Just trust me with this one)

I grew up loving artists like Philip Seymour Hoffman & Daniel Day-Lewis

Those actor’s grew up watching Streep, De Niro, Pacino & Cazale

They in turn were inspired by the magic of Brando, Monroe & Dean (the first man to actually cry on screen)

And those incredible artists were trained durig the great shift in American acting

Stella Adler and Lee Strasburg were beginning their ground breaking teaching careers (as well as their famous rivalry) in NYC

And of course, Adler & Strasberg (and many other great teachers) were influenced by the godfather

Russian director, Konstantin Stanislavsky.

In drama schools across the world

Stanislavsky’s “system” is still used as the basic building block of acting today

(For now, I won’t get into Stanislavsky’s drastic & crucial reversal of his opinions on acting in his later years which everyone seems to conveniently forget about)

So

There we have it

We have a bunch of teachers who changed the game.

But…

Who were they influenced by?

In 1873

During a time of bombastic shmacting

Where physical poses and facial gestures were the extent of the craft

A fourteen year old Italian girl said “hold my beer”

Eleonora Duse

Began doing something no one had ever considered

She dug beneath the lines of her character to portray what she called “the invisible side of life” (ref. Sheehy).

She gave herself permission to feel things on stage

She even famously blushed

Like, actually blushed in a scene - which audiences went freaking bananas at - as this was unheard of.

Now, to do something different during this day and age

Of course

Brought its challenges

And to quote the film Moneyball

“The first person through the wall always gets bloody”

And damn sure Duse got her fair share of trolls

An actor-manager, infuriated by her refusal to take line readings, shouted

“What makes you think you’re an artist?”

On top of this

She never wore makeup and failed to strike the expected poses

One reviewer simply wrote

“She doesn’t look beautiful, but she does look real”

Anyway

You get the point

This actress changed the game

Strasberg even went so far as telling his students at the prestigious NYC Actors Studio

“The theatre will require the next hundred years to deal with what Duse represented,”

And Stanislavsky’s famous “system” was, in fact, inspired by Duse’s artistry.

Now…

Why does this all matter?

When I had just finished drama school

I was desperately wanting someone to tell me what to do

To tell me how to act

How to dress

How to behave

Just tell me what to do so I could have the career I dreamed of

Then

Someone handed me a book called “Duse’s Blush”

And one single quote from that book smacked me across the face

“There can be no generalisations as far as the art of acting is concerned.

There can be no overall “method”.

Above all, no short cuts.

Each actor must find his own way for himself.”

Hold up

The godmother of modern day acting

The giant whose shoulders we all stand on

Is telling me I have to find my own way for myself!?

This was the moment I realised

Nobody was coming to save me

No-one was going to tell me exactly what to do

I had to go the long way

The slow way

The honest way

I had to start on my own path

I had to build my own way

In a way which works for me

It’s why I started going back to class

It’s why I started reaching out to great coaches for guidance

Great coaches who didn’t tell me what to do, but instead, helped me figure it out for myself

And it’s why I started The Actor’s Blueprint

To help actor’s build it their own unique way

Why the word “blueprint”?

I believe each individual artist has an inherent guidance system

A set of unique values, boundaries and curiosities

Which, when listened to and led by

Allows for the building of a craft and career which works for them, and only them

A blueprint for their unique way of contributing great work to this great craft

So

Thank you

To Eleonora Duse

The woman who broke acting

For encouraging us to go our own way

And to go first

Hope this helps

x

California Dreams

I spent a fair amount of time in LA before the spicy cough arrived

Nine trips over ten years to be exact

Anywhere from three months to ten days at a time

(For some reason they kept getting shorter & shorter - funny that)

But when I think about all of my time spent in California

There is one night which stands out in particular

It involves the most famous actress in the western world

Here we go…

Once upon time

It was 2013

And I had recently been selected as runner-up for the Heath Ledger Scholarship

I was living the LA life

Renting an apartment under the Hollywood sign (Beachwood Canyon represent)

My manager had two clients (John Travolta & myself)

Canyon runs in the mornings

Many hours driving bumper to bumper every day

Constantly prepping for auditions and meetings

Yoga and green smoothies in Los Feliz

Horse riding or surfing in Malibu or San Diego on the weekends

And of course

Partying long into the night

Rinse and repeat

Yeah

Living them sweet Cali dreams

Something which was just part of the routine at that time

Was the Australian actor Saturday night parties

Same people

Same places

Same naughtiness

Every

Single

Week

This one Saturday night

It was theme night

Everyone was to wear white

(Probably something about us being pure in the city of sin)

I remember standing in a white jacket

On the rooftop of a very old famous hotel

Looking up at the big Hollywood sign

Everyone arm in arm

And clicking glasses of champagne

With the usual shouting of

“Wooo!”

“We’re in LA!”

And “We’ve made it!”

A pretty standard Saturday night for this group of Aussies in LA

But something was off about tonight

I had been there for about two months at this point

And it felt strange to be, once again, making the same celebratory noises at a glowing sign

Maybe I was tired

Maybe I was just having an off day

But something interrupted the pattern

And I remember thinking

“Hang on - what are we actually celebrating?”

I was suddenly distracted by my friend who shouted across the rooftop

“Sheasby! Come meet my friend!”

An actress had just walked in

I had heard rumours of this actress

She had just finished filming with Scorsese and DiCaprio

And was well on her way to becoming the the next big thing

For privacy sake let’s call her Margaret Bobbie

Margaret walked in

Was courteous and kind

And left after about 5 minutes

Huh

Yep

She walked in

Said hello

Took a look around

Then left

Now, there is absolutely the probability I’m simply projecting here

But for me that was a little yellow light

The dissonance in my body was pounding

Time to slow down

What was going on?

Why is someone who’s doing great work with great people and getting weekly coaching on her craft

Not interested in hanging with a bunch of actors who spend more time doing substances on the weekend than working on their script for their next audition?

I remember walking to a quiet corner and looking at that grey LA night sky which hardly ever has any stars due to the light pollution

I remember turning around

And I remember seeing everyone smiling and holding their glasses up hollering into the air

And it was the first time on that trip

Where I saw the room differently

Yes, I saw a bunch of actors

But…

Not a single actor was working

Not a single actor was going to class

They enjoyed the lifestyle of being an actor, yes

But I didn’t see the joy of the actual work

I felt really strange

I think, deep down, I knew

There was some teeny tiny part of me that was quite possibly being reflected in who I was surrounding myself with

Kind of like a strange, real life mirror

And sometimes

I don’t always like what I see in the mirror

I remember playing back my time spent in the city up to that point

Mmm

Maybe there was a reason I hadn’t actually landed a single roll yet

I sat down in a beach chair which was conveniently next to me

It had taken two months but I was finally reflecting on what the hell I was doing in LA

Why was I there?

What was I wanting out of the experience?

What did I want to do with the time I had left there?

My thoughts were interrupted

This time a different actor

Alicia

Came and sat down next to me

She asked how I was going

I explained I was feeling pretty strange

About what I had just seen

She responded

“Mike

What the hell

I just saw the same thing”

And a huge sense of relief washed over me

“You saw that too!”

I explained

“Yeah - I feel really weird about it”

Alicia and I sat on those beach chairs

On a roof top

In LA

And discussed what we wanted

We wanted to go to work

We wanted to work with great people

On great material

And contribute the best work we could

To be clear

We were very happy to have a celebration

But there were things higher on the values ladder that we realised were not being taken care of

The conversation ended with Alicia saying

“I think I’m going to go home”

I remember smiling and saying

“Me too”

And with that

Alicia stood up, went home and went to work on an audition she was preparing that week

Which catapulted her into the lead role of a massively successful AMC show which lasted many years

(I actually saw her yesterday plastered on the side of a bus in Sydney for a new show coming out soon - Go Leesh!!!)

As for me

That night in LA

All dressed up in white

I put down the cheap champagne

I walked up to my friend who was in the bathroom

He said “you’re up”

I placed my hands on his shoulders

Told him I loved him

And that it was time for me to go home

I will never forget the look in his eyes

It was like he knew exactly what I actually meant

“I get it”

He responded

We didn't say anything else

We hugged

I walked home

And we never spoke again

That night

I had a long walk in the streets of LA

Listening to the eerie calls of coyotes hunting down their next vulnerable meal

I went back to my couch

Pulled out a Shakespeare audition I had for an upcoming show at the Sydney Opera House

Henry V

And I went back to work

What’s my point?

Sometimes

All I need to do to understand what I’m valuing most

Is to look at my actions

What am I spending my time and energy actually doing?

Drinking champagne in Sin Cty?

Or finding joy in the slow process of contributing meaningful work?

No good, bad, right or wrong

But there is choice

I do have a choice

Hope this helps

X