Actor Muscle – Building An Acting Career|052 - Actors Talk - Come Inside The Acting Business

Beverly Leech - Building Actor Muscle
My guest for this episode is actress, teacher, writer, dancer and failed childhood clarinet player Beverly Leech.

Beverly is a busy Los Angeles based actress, who has written a most excellent book called Actor Muscle - A Professional Guide to the Business of Acting.

Beverly got her early training with the legendary Stella Adler. The material in Actor Muscle was taken from Beverly's 30 years' experience and was developed in part through classes she has taught at the Stella Adler Academy, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and South Coast Rep. as well as from many private coaching sessions.
Building an acting career is not an exact science. You won't find any hard and fast rules, but there are basic, established methods and protocol. I've shared those that I've found most useful, to show you a path toward a career worth having.
You'll find that quote among the information about Actor Muscle on Amazon.com where you can purchase the book and also the companion audio CD Actor Muscle: Nuts & Bolts of Audition Technique which I myself purchased and recommend highly.

Actors Talk is sponsored in part by your purchases on Amazon.com so if you like what you hear today and want to pick up a copy of Actor Muscle I would appreciate you doing so by clicking on the link above or the Amazon banner in the sidebar.

You won't pay any more for any purchase on Amazon and a small commission will flow back this direction and help keep all episodes of Actors Talk free for your steaming and downloading pleasure.
"It's not about failing, it's about getting up."
Actor Muscle - Why Beverly Wrote The Book

The book itself came out a class I'd been teaching at AADA and South Coast Rep for a number of years. It was a big success, and in demand. BUT it was clear to me that the information needed a broader base outside of the campus. Once upon a time, I'd been a starving actor, and for a long time, too, so I'm empathetic to the life of most young actors. Not many newbies pounding pavement in LA and New York can afford the $800-$1200 registration costs that the schools were charging, and the hundreds that couldn't afford to take such a class were getting bamboozled by scams and hit-and-run classes currently offered in LA. I felt it was my duty to pass on a modestly priced book that every actor could afford; that didn't just give broad strokes by talking "about" the business, but gave step-by-step, in-depth actions to take to build a legitimate path for an acting career. I'm still a working actor - I honestly feel that if you want to act like a pro, you need to train with a pro.
BEVERLY LEECH ACTING DEMOBelow are some notes on just a few points Beverly Leech and I discussed:

Actor Muscle - Audition Traps For Beginning Actors

I asked Beverly Leech if she was finding, in her classes and coaching, mistakes or traps common to young or not so young beginning actors. Here are her 'top three' traps:

1. Lack of Training
2. Lack of Self Discipline and craft. The real goal is craft.
3. Memorization

What does she mean by lack of craft? Here are a few elements:

Lack of awareness of the camera and mental toughness and preparation for the technical elements of the room.

They're still acting as if they're on stage.

They go profile, or their gestures are wild and large.

A lot of times they're so shut down and frightened of the camera itself that their talent can't be seen.

Memorization? Aren't you supposed to MEMORIZE your lines?
Too many memorize a scene like they'd memorize a multiplication table. They [the people who are going to hire you] don't want to see an actor who knows their lines. They want to see a person, a character who is having a human experience.
Work on story and character first and the lines will naturally come.
Actor Muscle - What If I Blow The Audition?