Not So Secret Superpowers

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

Today is January 20th, 2017….so I could feel like this:

by focusing on this:

and the sadness of how that equals this:

and how I see that happening to so many people already and that feels sad and scary.

Or I can focus on the fact that like so many artists, I am a superhero. My art is my Superpower.

My superpower is understanding, compassion, exploration, communication. My superpower is my voice and where I choose to use it.

The beauty of the arts, the beauty of those who devote their lives to storytelling, is that the entire point is the exploration of humanity. The search for compassion, and understanding of every journey, every struggle. Artists are generally more liberal because we work each day side by side, hand in hand with people of every different background, exploring stories covering a wide swath of humanity. We are constantly searching for understanding, common ground and connection – and that naturally (and beautifully) crosses over into our real lives. We understand the value and responsibility that comes with this privilege. We have lost the fear that so many have of ‘the unknown’ or ‘the different’. We champion underdogs and have the courage to stand up and shout when we see what is wrong, and unfair and causing pain. I applaud anyone from any background who has the courage to stand up and fight for fairness, compassion, reason…..

Performers are not above you, looking down at your life… performers ARE you – exploring your life -everyones life, on screen, on the page, on the canvas, in the lyric, on the stage…. and asking you to look beyond your own experience into the lives of others and find connection. We study human nature. Human condition. All the beautiful, terrible, inspiring and ugly sides of it. A film set is dozens or even hundreds of people from every background working together as a finely tuned machine – and it doesn’t work without ALL of them finding a way to respect and support each other. When it works well, it is magic – and you not only see it on screen, you feel it in the room- a community of people who got it right. Thank God for anyone and any project who has the courage to ask us all to be our best selves. Who when given a platform, use it to champion others, to lift those around them and to shine a light where it is needed. To support the weakest among us, to demand honesty and transparency in policy and to not be bullied into silence for fear of retribution.

People communicate with their wounds – and they eat lies when their hearts are hungry. It’s why fear can win. It is endorsing the narrative so many believe about their life and the world – that they have no power, that others are taking what is theirs, that no one is safe. But the artist has the power to remind you of who you are, the ability to get you to see through the eyes of the other person, the other idea.

This ‘us vs them’ narrative is faulty. ‘Them’ becomes ‘us’ on the turn of a dime. This is what so much art explores… the “there but for the Grace of God, go I” of having the human experience. It is also the very reason we-the-people deserve inclusive, progressive leaders and policies that respect and protect the weakest among us, build from a place of knowledge and understanding and collectively honor our people, resources and future. The very point of a structure (government) that protects the weakest citizens, is that at any moment, that could be any one of us. Poverty, natural disaster, health crisis, mental illness, accidents, unemployment etc etc etc…. the messenger of misery visits everyone in their lifetime – including those with seemingly the most power and privilege. Having a culture of inclusion that believes in a structure that protects its citizens and respects their value as people regardless of their finances, education, disabilities, race, religion, gender, age, sexuality etc – means we are all more protected.  By protecting and valuing even the weakest (whoever that is, or is perceived to be, at any given moment), we protect and value everyone. A culture of compassion is one that looks for solutions instead of blame. It is the opposite of us-versus-them.

I am heartbroken by who is now leading our country – because the disrespect he has shown a long list of citizens puts all of us in danger. Terrible people bring out the terrible in everyone… and you see it happening already. The undermining of policy and programs that protect the weakest among us, the immediate rise in hate crime, the sudden implicit permission that continues behaviors that no longer serve our communities. Yes, I feel wounded… but when a wound is tired of crying, it starts to sing…. and I’m ready for all of us to lift our voices. I am incredibly excited to see the art created, the movements championed and clarity found in remembering who we are and who we are striving to be.

The Holy War

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

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Mourning is a non-linear experience. I keep thinking I’ve let go of something, only to discover it is so deeply embedded in me, that it has never left. That I am still in mourning, still waiting for the world to right itself again. I keep expecting my patience to pay off – because it has to…. because my heart, mind, and body says it is undeniable. Sigh.

We want to be seen. We want to be chosen. We want to be loved. We want to be fought for. We want to be ‘the one’.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking truth is that you CAN be ‘the one’, you can be exactly right …and still not be chosen. You may have been utterly perfect for that role, that project, that experience…exactly what was wanted, better than even dreamed…you could be right about all of it…. but if “they” aren’t able to see and embrace all that you are, then it is also true that it wasn’t the experience for you. It’s a hard lesson for me to learn. It feels unfathomable that you can be the acknowledged-best in the room and instead of being fought for, decisions are made based on entirely different (and seemingly ridiculous) details outside of you. Again, sigh.

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Heartbreaking, but you step away with grace and shake your head at their loss and keep moving forward. You aren’t meant to be ignored. You aren’t meant to settle. You aren’t meant to have to convince the world to be brave. The best things in life take courage… and not everyone has it at the moment it is needed. You are meant to shine like the sun and those who want to share in your light will rise up beside you. You need those who see your magic and will fight for it like it is a Holy War, because it is. Nothing is more sacred than what sets your soul on fire. Honor those who choose you. Those who make the effort. They are your tribe. Those who stick their neck out and fight for you. People are what they do…not what they say they will do. Ignore the lip-service….celebrate the people who are DOING. Protect them fiercely. Cherish their loyalty. And build together.

Trust that what you love, what lights up for you, what ignites your soul – the people, the projects, the moments, are where you should be spending your sacred time. That feeling – is a gift that tells us who we are and the life we are meant to be living. Honor the messages from the deepest part of your being about what you can do and which direction you should choose. And honor those who will fight along side you. This life, this industry, can feel like we are made of paper mache and everyone around us is playing with matches….we MUST find our warriors, our protectors, defenders, our creative cohorts, and build our tribe.

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You (or your work, your performance, your _____) are not for everyone. Have sympathy for those who are unable to see what is before them….and have even more sympathy for those who are stunned into silence when what they have always wanted, appears before them. Some are in terrific awe over the possibility of happiness, of dreams fulfilled. Some look at the option of having everything they want, and after years of denial, they see it as the Hilary-step… unclimbable and become immobile, glued in place by their fears and habits or through what others might think or are telling them to do or what they feel they deserve, think is ‘right’ or expected or big-box-office or…or…or. “They” have to be ready to experience you. Sometimes they simply aren’t. Sometimes they are too caught up in their own chaos to understand your magic, sometimes they won’t see any magic at all….and sometimes the power of your magic scares them.

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When others aren’t seeing your magic – when your work isn’t catching on fire…that doesn’t mean it is anything less than spectacular. It means that was not a member of your tribe. Keep hunting.

And have endless gratitude to your warriors who recognize and fight for you.

Female Troubles

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

An incredibly condescending meme comparing Michelle Obama and Jackie O has been going around, lamenting the days of the demure, beautiful first lady and presenting Michelle as somehow being crass. Worse, I saw it passed around by women. You have got to be kidding me.

It nearly made me burst into tears that women can be so pointlessly cruel to one another. I was offended to the core of my being by the overt racism, the blatant disrespect and unfair set up (Classic Jackie posed in pearls next to Michelle in a tank top cheering at a sporting event…I mean, come on!), but I also immediately laughed out loud at the misguided absurdity of this meme that also entirely miscalculates what it means to be a woman.

A woman is not something quiet and pretty that sits in the corner smiling…nope, you’re thinking of a doll. A woman is a fierce, dynamic magician who spends her day solving problems, supporting loved-ones and ruffling feathers when she needs to, to fight for those she loves, protects and provides for. A woman wears 10+ hats a day – executive, chef, teacher, chauffeur, goddess, mother, accountant, wife, athlete, lover, doctor, therapist, friend, hero, on and on ….. and yes, enthusiastic, cheering fan at a sporting event.

Jackie, regardless of how intense and multilayered her inner life may have been, was generally expected to be pretty and quiet in public. She was for all intents and purposes, window dressing for her husband. Sure, she was educated and skilled in her own right, yet her main job was to be a soothing, non-threatening, perfect accessory. How many of us can actually relate to that? Does that sound anything like your life or the life of any woman you know?? No. Luckily we’ve reached a time where we all deserve better than a first lady who is asked to be quiet and pretty in the corner. You can be guaranteed that every woman has more to offer than a sweet smile and a little black dress. Thank God we have miraculously been given this fierce #FLOTUS in our new millennium who is using every second of her time to better the world around her, to show the power of a woman with a mission. A woman who has chosen to use her time to fight for girls education worldwide, to work on behalf of children, fight obesity, and, and, and….

She also manages to do all of it with class, joy and humor while also being a wonderful mother, a successful lawyer and writer, a supportive and equal partner to her extraordinary husband, and yes – she can rock a set of pearls and pick out the china patterns if you insist it’s necessary….after she gets back from the ball game.

Women….we are better than this. Let’s hold each other up instead of being part of the problem. The value of every woman is more than her perceived beauty at any given moment. I hope to one day to manage to be a fraction of the courageous, accomplished, graceful lioness that Michelle is. Regardless of your political leanings, she is unquestionably a role model, a beautiful example of using your power to fight for those weaker than you, and a lightening rod for positive change. Three cheers.

Dear Fear,

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

FADE IN.

INT. BRAIN – DUSK. Cue: Long, deep sigh followed by shiver of terror.

EXT. RIVER OF TRANSITION – NIGHT.

It’s the middle of the night. You are alone in the middle of a swirling black river. The current is strong. The waves are lapping. Your mind is racing. You’re fighting to keep your head above water. You can’t touch the bottom or see what is below. You are blindly trying to make it across to the other side. Trying to move far enough ahead that your toes finally touch solid ground and you can start trusting that you are again on the upward incline, even if just an inch at a time. That is the year it has been. A year of surprising challenges, unanticipated changes, devastating heartbreak on a number of levels, confusion, unexpected losses… a multitude of strifes. A year of transitions. We’ve all been there. A year of doing your best to let go of what was, but what is coming next hasn’t yet arrived, so you are sort-of-lost, sort-of-drifting, sort-of-desperate…to find meaning, understanding, solid ground. Don’t panic. Think of it like jet lag. Your body has arrived but your heart and mind are still catching up to this new reality. Whether you are putting in endless work, or feel unable to do anything at all, the effects are often the same – because right now you are in the middle of the black river of transition….and it simply takes time, to get through it all and find your feet again.

I pride myself on being ‘aggressively optimistic’ and always fighting for and believing that the perfect thing is just about to arrive… but in a year full of tragedy and set backs, fear has been nipping at my heels, and finding its way into my heart. It is certainly not all bad, and I trust I’ll reach the other side soon…but I am owning the reality that it has been a year full of painful change and loss and I don’t feel like I’m quite on solid ground at the moment…which inevitably brings vulnerability, stress and fear roaring to life.

Fuck that. Who needs it? And yet…

Is there anything more seductive? How easily we fall into that trap.

INT. HEART – LATER THAT NIGHT. Enter DOUBT stage left.

Fear is familiar, addictive and paralyzing. For whatever reason, words that wound us, fears that plague us, and beliefs that bind us are the ‘stickiest’. They convince you they are important. Assure you they are right. Fear brings its evil twin: doubt. Why does doubt get to be the thing we are certain of? Doubt is not the one who has earned victory here. Doubt is not the one who deserves the power. You must doubt your doubt.

Yet I’m fascinated watching how our minds work…how others handle this black river. It has been a year of deep conversations with family, friends and coworkers on their own triumphs and failures. Their desire to leave a valuable mark, and reach their own goals and milestones in the way and on the timeline they expected – and how they cope when things go sideways. How my heart bursts with love for those who curl towards you in times of strife instead of adding distance, or placing blame. Those who never take it personally when you have to pull back and focus on yourself. So much gratitude to those who know they don’t have to supply an answer just an ear to listen.

I’m disheartened by those who have been thrown a rope, yet still refuse to grab hold – fearing letting go of what they’ve grown used to. Staying in situations out of the familiarity of what they know, what they can predict, even when it is predictably so far from what they want most.

I’m bemused by those still struggling to trust they have made it through the river and are back on solid ground – even as their new plateaus are publicly undeniable. A dear friend is in the middle of a whirlwind second-life in her career, and her life. A banner year of so many projects getting wonderful attention that have brought her the success and notice she so deserves. I sent her a note saying how inspired I had been by her this year, and was shocked at the sincerity of her thank you as she admitted to her own insecurity over ‘whether her work mattered and was worthwhile’ and her fear of ‘whether it would last’. This entire conversation was a glimpse into the heart of all of us, for her level of success, the beauty of her work, the power of her spirit, are all things that I aim for, and feel she embodies implicitly…and yet her doubt is as strong as the person who has never experienced success. We humans are such silly creatures. Doubt your doubt!

I’m devastated witnessing some walk away from what could be the best thing in their life, out of cowardice, weakness, fear of change. I can say with utter certainty, I would rather be in middle of the black river – unsure of what comes next, but trusting it is coming, than to be resigned to a life that is slowly suffocating me. Change is hard, but change is good.

I’m enchanted by those using both hands to claim the latest successes of their lives with bonafied glee and unabashed revelry. I’m bursting with joy as I witness ‘the ship come in’ for someone who had been stranded on shore for far too long personally and professionally. An extraordinary friend who has landed smack in the middle of success after some terrifyingly difficult years.

And I remain inspired..by so many things, including my little dog, who I affectionately call Chicken Little, as she is convinced at every second that the sky is falling. Yet I watch her tackle her fear each day and become this brave little bolt of lightening, as the power of her desire for what she loves, and what she wants, will overcome her fear: Every. Single. Time. That is the courage I want. The kind that weighs the odds, is unconvinced of the outcome and jumps anyway. Optimism winning, hope succeeding, love triumphing. I can’t stop fear from visiting, but I refuse to ‘live’ in fear. I just refuse.

So what’s a girl to do? Find her inner wolf and give fear the finger.

And surrender. Life is beauty and pain. Life will break your heart again and again, and heal it over and over. Let it. This is its job. This is how we grow, and move on, and transition. Change is hard…but change is good, as long as fear and doubt are not in the drivers seat. Find your courage, embrace your optimism and ride the current. Now is the time to lean forward instead of back, to give more instead of less, to be bold. Sure, the waves are choppy, the water is cold, and the circumstances feel impossible. Tip your head back and laugh. Smile even in the middle of the black river. Doubt your doubt.

INT. HEART – PRESENT DAY Pulse jumpy, blood pressure shaky, confidence wavering.

EXT. FACE – SAME TIME Close Up: delighted smile, laughing at the circumstance.

INT. MIND – MOMENTS LATER Cue: long, deep sigh…of amusement, followed by a shiver of delight over this thing we call life.

FADE TO BLACK

Boom!

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

Love this image…such a great illustration of forming your ‘collective’ and surrounding yourself with likeminded artists to coordinate, explore and experiment with. With ‘the business’ becoming ever more a mystery and the road to success getting steeper – you can’t underestimate the importance of establishing your very own team of misfits. Together you provide each other with support, enthusiasm and honesty…and remind each other to be brave, creative and to enjoy the journey.

The New Frontier

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

Love this essay from Adi Shankar. Fresh POV, undeniable truths, real motivation and inspired perspective.

An excerpt:

Understand and Believe that Art is Important
Art gives our lives context. It helps us understand the culture that makes us who we are. And, if you are lucky, one day you may be able to shape the culture that influenced you. If you claim to be an artist, but you’re motivated by money… You’re a douche.

Do What You Love. Period.
Friends, parents, educational institutions, and marketing companies all seem to really enjoy telling people what they should want out of life. Fuck them. Figure out what you want and do that. Don’t sacrifice your integrity early on for a paycheck. It’s your life, and you are beholden to no one. Living your life according to what’s cool at the moment is the ultimate form of servitude.

Hint: If treading water doesn’t feel like drowning, you’re not doing what you love.

Don’t Be Discouraged by People Who Don’t Believe
A fatal flaw in the human condition is that even if there is a great likelihood that something is true, we don’t want to believe it. A potentially fatal flaw for many creative people is to be brought down by the doubts of others. People without vision will likely never believe that things can change. But once it happens, no matter how great the tectonic shift, they are quick to accept this new reality as the one true reality. Anyone who has ever set out to do something even slightly outside the norm has been mocked, questioned, and ridiculed. Realize that people’s doubts aren’t a reflection on you, your abilities, or your ultimate outcome. They are just upset at their own lack of imagination and inability to step out of their comfort zone, and you become a walking reminder of those insecurities. Ignore the haters.

read the whole thing here:

Gary Oldman is the bomb

Aside

Loved this interview with Gary Oldman. A excerpt:

Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. An acting teacher told me that.

You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.

“Fuck ’em.” Shortest prayer in the world.

A lazy man works twice as hard. My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you’re writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don’t have to do it over.

I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: “I’ve crossed oceans of time to find you.” It was worth playing the role just to say that line.

…..

Crybaby

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

The only time I feel kinship with male porn stars is when I have to cry on camera. It is the actor-version of a porn star having to ‘get it up’. You can’t fake it….and there is no fluffer for tears.

In real life, I love a good cry….and seem to cry at the drop of a hat. Tears help me through the loss, hurt, and the slings and arrows that each of us have to wade through in life. But I can also find myself crying over news stories, commercials, books, weddings, births, beautiful songs, breathtaking choreography, particularly anything that is unexpected compassion…stories involving animals or children… people overcoming adversity or rising to a challenge, people being their very best selves… Let’s just say there are a lot of things that resonate with me and can bring me to tears. I’ve learned there are topics and conversations I have to avoid, because they immediately pull me down to a level of emotion I can have a hard time crawling out of.

The beauty and the horror of the world can overwhelm, and yes, it can feel so good to let go. To dive into big emotions and let those waves wash over you. But having to cry ‘on cue’ is another animal entirely….it gives me massive compassion for guys with erectile dysfunction. Your “tool” works on any normal day – but under pressure you can experience performance anxiety. You can find yourself sobbing during rehearsal, then with cameras rolling, with the sun going down and needing to get this shot RIGHT NOW, and with dozens of eyes on you silently screaming ‘cry!’, you may find your self dry as a (…yes, I had to do it …pun somewhat intended) bone, and you suddenly wish there was a form of Viagra to produce tears. That is where the training kicks in.

Acting is hard to describe to ‘civilians’. It is manufacturing truth. But it is TRUTH. At the dawn of movie history acting was dismissively described as ‘shaming’ or ‘posturing’. But acting that connects with the audience is committing so fully to what is happening in the scene that you are blurring the line between you and your character – really living that experience, being fully in the NOW.

Your goal is to be so ‘in the moment’ that all emotion floods naturally, and you can’t make a wrong move. It’s not about TRYING (that never works, and just looks like you are TRYING- which is painful)… it’s about BEING. In the midst of the chaos on set, that can be more of a challenge than you can imagine. The pressure to deliver results and to deliver them this second can be terrifying. If only there was a little blue pill.

Apparently this is a fear I was meant to face, as almost every job I’ve had for the last two years has asked/required me to cry. I’ve had my daughter kidnapped, my lover murdered, was kidnapped myself, forced to kill someone to save my children, I’ve been beaten up, had loved ones killed before my eyes, been emotionally unstable, raped and tortured. Whew.…it’s been a brutal couple years. (Btw, universe, let’s try some lighter fare for a while!)

Not long ago, I had a writer friend excitedly call me to discuss an idea for my character in a project we were working on together. His idea was that in every episode of the season, my character would burst into tears which he commented “will be easy for you because you cry on cue”. Though the idea was actually hilarious for the character, I thought about punching him in the balls. I have no idea how to cry on cue…though I wish I could. It is instead often a stressful and misery-making task, that leaves you emotionally drained and often in a funk all day. Yes, there are those rare, mysterious birds who are able to drop tears at a moment’s notice…some special ‘muscle’ they have control over, like the random people who can wiggle their ears or arch either eyebrow….but they are few and far between. I’ve only known one actress who could truly cry on cue and she booked a lot of jobs because of it. I was surprised when she admitted she always believed she was a fairly bad actor because she never felt the emotion, she just had the ability to control her tear ducts.

There are behavioral psychologists who study emotion and how our bodies function, and it is fascinating to hear them talk about studying actors during performance. That the best actors truly transform themselves and their most intimate body functions follow obediently along… they sweat, pulse races, pupils will dilate, faces will flush and tiny muscles that are impossible to manipulate on cue…will nevertheless be stimulated when one is truly crossing the line between their life and the life of the character.

Reminds you of the elusiveness and the purity of good acting. It is also the reminder of the respect you must have for the character between action and cut. You can’t be flooded with your own life, your own junk (unless it is helpful). You have to be so engaged with the life of the character that you experience it all and it feeds your performance. I remember an acting coach talking about watching an audition for the role of a woman who had just lost her husband. The audition had a distracted quality. When asked, the actress admitted she was unfocused, that she had car trouble on the way to the audition, that she had missed an important call and had other things on her mind. The director stopped her…. while all of that was undoubtedly true, he made a point that I’ve never forgotten. During that 5 minutes, none of her sundry issues should have mattered… everything was about having enough respect for the character to be fully in that moment living and breathing her life. And a woman who has just lost her husband, doesn’t care about the car trouble, or the missed phone call, or the rent that is due…. so in those 5 minutes, neither should you.

Don’t tell me I have to cry. Don’t write in the script that the character is uncontrollably sobbing and expect that to be gospel. Maybe it’s ego – but demand something of me and I’ll instantly want to refuse. Just tell me to be in the moment…trust that as the actor you’ve hired, I’ve done my work and I know my character and whatever should happen WILL happen. Acting should be like real life – which isn’t always predictable – sometimes you keep it together when your world is falling apart other days the tiniest thing makes you fall to pieces. I find it far more interesting to watch someone fight to not cry. Just like playing drunk is about fighting to look sober.

So…it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to…at least I hope I will…I plan to. I’m really gonna try. But if an actor-version of Viagra does come along, sign me up for a sample.

Grrrrrrr.

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

Just read this article: Where have all the women gone in movies? By Rebecca Keegan

Not great news. Some excerpts:

Despite the success of recent female-driven movies such as“Bridesmaids” and the “Hunger Games” and “Twilight” series, female representation in popular movies is at its lowest level in five years, according to a study being released Monday by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Among the 100 highest-grossing movies at the U.S. box office in 2012, the study reported, 28.4% of speaking characters were female. That’s a drop from 32.8% three years ago, and a number that has stayed relatively stagnant despite increased research attention to the topic and several high-profile box-office successes starring women.

When they are on-screen, 31.6% of women are shown wearing sexually revealing clothing, the highest percentage in the five years the USC researchers have been studying the issue.

For teen girls, the number who are provocatively dressed is even higher: 56.6% of teen girl characters in 2012 movies wore sexy clothes, an increase of 20% since 2009.

Full LA Times article here.

Bits & Bobs

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Frankly, My Dear Starlet

Some bits of wisdom I felt like sharing:

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary the word “amateur” comes to us from the Latin word “amator”meaning “lover” or “amare”which means “to love.” “To love,” when you are young and relatively innocent is, of course, quite easy. You are filled with nothing but great expectations and very little real experience to temper those dreams. Grown-up love (the kind that lasts, anyway) involves loving not just the dream, but also the reality. I try to instill in my students that most careers are a wonderful mash-up of the good, the bad and the ugly. Glorious victories. Shitty disappointments. Rapturous praise. Rotten tomatoes. Enduring friendships. Freaks and Fiends. Lavish attention. Followed by periods of complete and utter invisibility. During my first “professional” gig, I stupidly asked an elderly character actor why we had to do eight shows a week. To me, it seemed like a lot to ask. He smiled thinly and replied, “We do eight shows a week, my boy, on the off-chance that we might get one of them right.” Turns out he was correct about that. More often than not, that “one” – that happy attempt that goes well – does seem to make up for everything that proceeded it. Whenever we did a performance that went better than expected, I remember the old character actor used to clap his hands together and exclaim, “All is forgiven!” Being young, I had no clue what he meant by that, but it now strikes me the most elegant and concise definition of love I have ever heard.
– From the hilarious and brilliant David Dean Bottrell http://partsandlabor.blogspot.com/2009/03/amateur-night.html

“An actor knows that this thing we call life is nothing more than a series of moments strung together in a mystical chain…. The actor therefore trains himself to pay attention to ALL moments… to live mindfully, beholden only to his sense of truth, without anticipation, without fear. The moments bind together, forming an endless wave which the actor rides like a tiger, never knowing where the tiger will turn next– never caring, if the truth be told. For the actor knows that there is never an outcome and never an ending. There is only the ride.” -William Esper

Frankly, My Dear Starlet…

Frankly told stories of the ups and downs of fame.

Not So Secret Superpowers

The Holy War

Female Troubles

Dear Fear,

Boom!

The New Frontier

Gary Oldman is the bomb

Aside

Crybaby

Grrrrrrr.

Bits & Bobs

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