Acting

Bad Habits That Actors Have And They May Not Realize It – Jean-Louis Rodrigue

Filmcourage

Published

September 30, 2024

[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]

Film Courage: What are some bad habits that actors have and they may not realize them at first?

Acting Coach and Specialist in the application of the Alexander Technique Jean-Louis Rodrigue: You’re so good at asking the most important questions. The worst habits that actors have is a disconnection where they’re breathing, they’re not breathing and they don’t even know it, they don’t even know it. It’s a delicate thing because the way that you breathe is related to who you think you are in this world.

So you can imagine, Who do you think you are? So sometimes I do not want to be intrusive and tell them this is wrong but what I need to show them is that there is a freedom that you can have that you’re not experiencing right now and it’s getting in the way of the character.

Through [The Alexander Technique] and through there’s a lot of breath work that I do I help them use their breath more expansively. We say something of Going to the end of the breath. Most people just take bits of breath and they kind of gasp. They do you know [gasps] that’s how they breathe.

The thing is if you’re the Queen of England or if you’re playing an orator or a politician and you need that power in the voice, you need to be able to do it and that is why it’s a terrible habit.

That’s one habit. The other habit that I think is what I was telling you before that most people collapse or constrict themselves by pulling in down and in and if you do this all the time you begin to think that this is life, this is life and I can’t turn my head very much but you know as an actor you just have to find a lot of fluidity in you and a lot of potential and it’s so exciting. Good questions.

Film Courage: You talked about Barack Obama earlier and when he speaks he pauses also it’s not just rapid fire, there’s a rhythm to it but it’s slow at times and faster at others…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).

About:

Jean-Louis Rodrigue is an internationally recognized acting coach, movement director, and specialist in the application of the Alexander Technique to film, theater and television. In film, he coached actors and collaborated with directors in Passion Fish, Vice, J. Edgar, Life of Pi, W., I, Tonya, and many more. In theater, he collaborated with director Larry Moss and former NFL player Bo Eason in his play Runt of the Litter and playwright Pamela Gien in her Obie– and Drama Desk– award-winning one-person play, The Syringa Tree, both in New York and internationally. Jean-Louis has worked on- and off-Broadway and at major performing arts institutions such as Berlin International Film Festival, Cirque du Soleil, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, Getty Villa, Geffen Playhouse, Royal National Theatre, Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Verbier Festival, Royal Shakespeare Company. For the past 34 years, Jean-Louis has taught at the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. Jean-Louis lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Kristof Konrad.