Acting

It Takes Most Actors 20 Years To Learn This Lesson – Michael Laskin

Filmcourage

Published

January 16, 2023

Film Courage: ‘To show yourself, you have to know yourself.’ What does this mean?

Michael Laskin, Actor, Acting Coach, Author: Let me circle back on something to answer that. I was trained in the theater and it was serious theater and I’m not making fun of that. I mean we thought we were going to change the world doing theater. It was a real passion for me and still is. I love it and I still do it occasionally but you don’t have to show yourself in the theater, you show the character, you show your version of that character. In film and television you can’t escape showing yourself and the minute you try to escape it, you look terrible. As I said my first few TV things that I watched were, I thought at least to my standards, were really bad. I thought Oh, I have a lot to learn. You can’t teach someone about their identity. I’m not talking about sexual identity, I’m talking about personal identity. You can’t teach that but you can curate it a little bit. I always say lead an examined life, do something that’s outside of this acting stuff, plant a garden, refinish a piece of furniture, do something tangible, do something. Read and create heroes for yourself (artistic heroes). They don’t have to be actors or they can be musicians, they can be visual artists. To know yourself I think when you get older (and I am older, I’m really old) I think it’s a natural process, you get to know yourself better if you’re open to that. Some people just aren’t, some people never know themselves. I’m not talking about those people but the more enlightened, self-examined person and you naturally get to the truth about you later in life, and as an actor that it kind of becomes easier because you don’t have to push it forward, you don’t have to push it out, it’s just there, it just lives with you. When you’re younger you don’t have any of that. You’re trying to impress, you’re trying to be something bigger, greater, grander. You’re just constantly trying to figure out who you are. Some people never know who they are. Some people know who they are the minute they’re born, there’s a wide spectrum of that. I do think particularly if we’re talking about acting and film acting in particular, I think you do have to know who you are. It’s again hard to point to a finger to it but there are certain people who have qualities like we were just the other moment talking about Tom Cruise and Will Smith people like that Tom Cruise who I happen to think is a really good actor…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

BUY THE BOOK – THE AUTHENTIC ACTOR: The Art and Business of Being Yourself

https://amzn.to/3ECXbjk

BIO:

Michael Laskin has been a working professional actor for over 40 years in film, television, and the theatre – from SEINFELD to BIG LITTLE LIES and a great deal in between. He has worked extensively off-Broadway, and at some of America’s leading regional theatres, including The Guthrie Theatre, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Geffen Playhouse, The Seattle Repertory Theatre, and The Mixed Blood Theatre Company.

Additionally, he was awarded a Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival for playing “Richard Nixon” in TEA WITH DICK AND GERRY, which went on to a successful run at London’s Roundhouse Theatre. Michael also starred in the Canadian premier of the Pulitzer Prize winning drama “Talley’s Folly” and his most recent stage work was the American premiere of the one-person play, ALTMAN’S LAST STAND in Los Angeles. A recipient of a Bush Fellowship with The Guthrie Theatre, he was also awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award from The University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts.

A graduate of Northwestern University’s theatre department where he received his bachelor’s degree, Michael also has a masters degree in theatre management from The University of Minnesota. Additionally he’s taught acting at USC, UCLA, Queen’s College-Cambridge (UK), The Actors Centre (London), Art Center College of Design, Kennesaw University, the University of Minnesota, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and South Coast Repertory Co. He’s had the privilege of working with some of the great artists in film and theatre, including Barry Levinson, Stephen Frears, Walter Matthau, John Sayles, Paul Mazursky, Bob Rafelson, Michael Langham, Robert Duvall, Roy Dotrice, and many others.