Exploring The Human Soul
ACTING
Tamlyn Tomita on Learning From Mistakes
What’s been the worst audition you’ve ever been on? Where you’re like, “Oh man, what just happened in there?”
Tamlyn Tomita: I think that’s what usually happens. As an actor, what I try to do is I try to completely transform myself internally. This is an old school lesson I learned from my mentors way back when: try to walk into the room as the character. Because a lot of these writers, directors, and producers don’t have a lot of time to get to know you as the actor, as the person, and then see you turn on the character. They’d just rather see you turn on the character and walk in. It’s a little bit more efficient for me.
But sometimes I made such a bad mistake, I totally dressed up glamorously when they wanted a housewifey-looking girl. I came in with high heels and full on make-up. I go, “Oh my god, what did I do?” Because I didn’t think it out. But my mother happened to be very well kept together, so that was in my mind, what a housewife would be or a stay-at-home mom or a homemaker would be. It’s not delineated out sometimes in scripts, you know, “She’s a housewife”. But then what housewives look like a well together put person? And I go, “But that’s what my mom’s like”. It really changes the picture for some of them.
But then I go in as committed as possible and then when I leave the room after I see the reaction that’s when I go, “Oh, I think they wanted a really stereotypical person”.
I’ve made some harsh mistakes, but it’s all learning, and they’re funny stories to tell after I come home and crash into the couch with my little pint of ice cream and say, “Oh, I should’ve done this”. But then it’s a lesson learned, it’s a lesson learned.
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Trust The Director
Daveed Diggs on the Advice He Would Give His Younger Self
“The advice I would give my younger self is to stop stressing so much about the timeline. Whatever this thing is that’s happened to me in the last few years—if that happened any time before that, I don’t think I would’ve been ready for it. It’s been very challenging in a lot of ways.
I think I’m getting to be selective about the things I’m working on because I’m pretty confident in who I am. I don’t get nervous about people telling me I should do things because I’m not afraid to be broke. The money is not the thing; it’s about having the life and getting to do what you love for a living. I think success is a thing you need to define carefully for yourself.
I felt relatively successful pre-Hamilton in that at least I was still making art all the time. I was on tour with my band, I was working on projects, writing scripts and teaching. I had very little money, but I felt pretty successful.”
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To Know Is To Feel
Alicia Silverstone on ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer`
Silverstone reveals that the casting process was very rapid. She says, “My agent called and said, ‘You need to go on this thing. It’s worth it. You should start preparing immediately.’ I think the audition was 24 hours later, it happened very quick. Francine Maisler’s people were casting, and luckily Francine had seen me in a play two summers ago so I’ve been in her graces lately. And then I got a call saying that Yorgos would like to speak with me over Skype. One thing he said was, ‘I really liked what you did on your first instinct with the role’ — before we started getting direction — ‘so just trust your gut. You’ll be great.’”
The instinct that Silverstone felt is that the character was missing something at her core. She explains, “I think that she was very lonely, very needing, very desperate and wanting. She had a big, big need to be filled, and that’s what I played.”
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How To” Self-Tape Guide