The Acting Business Boot Camp Podcast
Episode 216: Interview with Working Actor Lev Gorn (The Americans, For All Man Kind)
About Lev:
Lev is a celebrated actor, photographer, fine artist, and award-winning filmmaker.
He is currently recurring on Apple TV's FOR ALL MANKIND, and Starz' RAISING KANAN. Lev's acting career covers over 50 films and TV series.
He is widely recognized for his role as Arkady Ivonovich on FX's EMMY WINNING THE AMERICANS, and as the character of Eton on the HBO series THE WIRE.
In film, he has worked with WOODY ALLEN, SUSAN SARANDON, ROBERT DENIRO, and many others. He is set to direct his first feature film in the Fall of 2023.
What really influenced my acting as I got older is when I began to realize that good acting is really bad acting.
So for me, what became really important is behavior. Truthful behavior in imaginary circumstances.
If you approach roles, if you approach parts, if you approach scenes as behavior. Then you're not taking a page and trying to justify what the writer wrote.
I'm not going to pretend t...
Episode 215: Setting Our Own Course in Life & Career
"Setting our own course. We are powerless over other people's expectations of us. We cannot control what they want, what they expect, or what they want us to do or be."
Keep the focus on yourself.
What other people think of me is none of my business.
Taking care of myself pays enormous dividends.
Take care of yourself first, and the rest will follow.
Put on your bubble suit. When you go into difficult situations with people who push your buttons, probably because they install them, it's really helpful to know that you have a little space around you that nobody can penetrate.
"We can, however, control how we respond to other people's expectations."
We are not responsible for our first thought, but we are responsible for our second.
I encourage you to stop taking a step back and ask yourself, "is this healthy for me or unhealthy for me?" And then responding.
A response is a reaction with a pause and a thought behind it.
"During the course of any day, p...
Episode 214: Self Care During Stressful Times
Do the next right thing.
The Language of Letting Go
"Rest when you're tired. Take a drink of cold water when you're thirsty. Call a friend when you're lonely. Ask the universe to help when you feel overwhelmed."
Yeah, I was in a very challenging, difficult place, along with millions of other people. But I'm here. I survived. I handled it. And out of that came self-esteem, more self-esteem that I'm capable of and will never, ever be given more than I can handle.
I will never be given more than I can handle, but I will be given more than I can control.
"Many of us have learned how to deprive and neglect ourselves. Many of us have learned to push ourselves hard when the problem is that we've already pushed too hard. Many of us are afraid the work won't get done if we rest when we're tired. The work will get done. It will be done better than work that emerges from tiredness of soul and spirit."
Refuel. With self-love, with good food, with tea.
Because no...
Episode 212: New Years Goals
I always find December to be actually the hardest time of the year. I feel like there are more demands put on me in all areas of my life.
I will allow myself just to be where I'm at.
So if you feel like you're starting the new year exhausted. I just wanted to say I hear you. I'm kind of there myself, but it's all right.
Find the pockets of time when you can take care of yourself.
The Language of Letting Go:
"Make New Year's goals. Dig within and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part."
If you want to change your own life, you need to take responsibility for it.
"It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living in the year to come."
Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.
What would you like to have happen in your life this year?
"What would you like to do? W...
Episode 211: A Message to Send You Into 2023
I’m really grateful for this year.
I want you to think of a few things that you are grateful for.
- What's number one? Fill in the blank.
- What's the number two? Fill in the blank.
- And what's the third thing you're grateful for this year, in 2022? Fill in the blank.
Also, start to look forward to 2023.
- Are you looking to this year coming up with anticipation and excitement? Dread? Worry? Fill in the blank.
- What are the three emotions you are looking at 2023 with?
Feelings aren't facts.
Take your emotions out of your to do list.
When we are worried or anxious, the real question is, “what are we not taking responsibility for?”
So if you have some sort of negative feeling toward 2023, ask yourself, “what are you not taking responsibility for?”
Ask yourself, How can I baby step and take responsibility?
Once taking responsibility, especially when you're frightened, especially when you're scared. When you're able to do that, you build so much self-esteem.
Take contrar...
Episode 210: Interview with Bull Series Regular Geneva Carr
About Geneva:
GENEVA CARR is best known for her portrayal of Marissa Morgan on 6 seasons of the CBS television series BULL.
Additional TV credits include Law & Order: SVU and Criminal Intent, Rescue Me, Younger, The Mysteries of Laura, Royal Pains, Elementary, The Good Wife, and Sex and the City.
Film credits include Wonder Wheel, Love and Other Drugs, Ava’s possessions, It’s Complicated, College Road Trip, and the upcoming Asian Persuasion.
Geneva earned a 2015 Tony Nomination for Lead Actress in a Play for her performance as ‘Margery’ in Broadway’s Hand To God.
Additional NY theatre credits include Trevor, Just Sex, I Wanna Destroy You, Finding Claire, Rose’s Dilemma, Clash by Night, Betty’s Summer Vacation, and Boise.
You have to create a space where you can find work for yourself.
Bull was my eighth pilot, which I like telling actors about because it doesn't happen overnight. This was my eighth.
Hand to God led to Bull on CBS. I did that...
Episode 209: What to get Industry Folks for the Holidays
What to get Casting Directors, Managers, and Agents over the holidays.
This year I’m suggesting one of two things: a thoughtful gift card or a charity donation.
So a thoughtful gift card would be that you contact someone else in the casting office or agency and ask what their fellow employees like.
“Hey, are they a Starbucks person, or are they a Costco person? Are they a McDonald's person or a Dunkin Donuts person?”
And then, you can send them an electronic gift card.
If you're booking a lot. Yes. You want to be thinking more $50, $75, $100.
But if you're a new client or you haven't been booking that year, or there's a casting office that has maybe thought of you a few times throughout the year. A simple $20 gift card. A $25 gift card is fine.
Defaults:
- Amazon, you can buy anything there.
- Starbucks, you can get food, you can get coffee, you can get tea
Or, the charity donation, which, again, you could ask someone ...
Episode 208: Interview with Andi Matheny
About Andi:
Andi Matheny is a 25-year veteran of Hollywood who started the Andi Matheny Acting
Studios in 2010 and has coached hundreds of actors to book their first roles in TV and
film.
Andi has had a recurring role on The Resident as Dr. Kelly Whitley, starred
opposite Sara Rue in The Hallmark Channel Movie True Love Blooms, opposite Kelsey
Grammer in the film High Expectations, opposite Phylicia Rashad in the Oprah Winfrey
production David Makes Man and opposite Ryan Phillippe and Patrick Duffy in the
comedy Lady of the Manor, written and directed by Justin Long. Other notable credits
include Devious Maids, The Mentalist, Ugly Betty, Zoey 101, The Suite Life of Zack and
Cody, and The Shadow Effect.
Andi hosted the talk shows Friends or Lovers, Essentials, Fit Resort and Spa, and Kwik
Witz. She appeared in dozens of commercials, including a worldwide campaign for
Olay.
Andi won the Jury Prize for Best Florida Film for her directorial debut The Newest
Member at the ...
Episode 207: The Power of Serving as an Actor
Marianne Williamson
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
My manifesto for my life is to inspire.
It is the one word that I feel describes what my purpose on this planet is to do. I wake up, and I show up for duty.
What’s your one word...
