True Acting Is Never Acting

This morning, I had a healthy conversation with a professional actress on IG. She asked for my advice on one of her roles. I told her I couldn’t tell her what to do, but as a writer‑director, I shared my own thoughts through my experiences after seeing her reels.

She reminded me of myself years ago. Her question pulled me back into my own path, the mistakes I made, and the lessons I had to learn the hard way.

Before I ever stepped on my first set, I had spent months watching and learning from great projects.

From an old post - https://www.facebook.com/share/1C92ydh3cN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Then, on set, I spent years stealing from the greatest —

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankin_(photographer)

Yet still found myself nowhere near what I imagined.

Something was missing, even when every shot looked perfect.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/098bea_e24f987e8b5544edb8a227acb48a6d04/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Then I realized: I was copying too hard, caring too much about execution. I wasn’t telling a story. And slowly it hit me — whether you’re a writer, a director, an actor, an actress, or a cinematographer, the foundation of our work is storytelling. And storytelling is all about the character.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/098bea_4dcbcfc20546451598ab5976b20b35e2/720p/mp4/file.mp4

You can’t just read books or mimic someone else’s performance; you have to train, you have to practice. That’s why I hired a certified acting coach - Warren Chu, a great coach.

Now, I’ve come to this: Unless it’s theatre, DON'T ACT. Let the character live through us. To do that, we have to learn not just the lines but the character itself — spend time with the character, so we don’t act but react.

Trust the character; they will lead us through their journey.

Anyway, what a great conversation I had. Lucky me.