DUSTIN’S ACTING STYLE:

“You do your best work, when you don’t know, or haven’t

decided how it should come out.”
Practice speaking to an actual person… and rolling right
from that INTO the lines. It helps short-circuit how you
might have “decided” to say the word.
“The great thing about acting is that you’re there with a
stranger, and they are helping you get to your essence.
Just as you are helping that person. Making love in the
real sense.”
“We bullshit ourselves. The hardest thing to do is not to
bullshit. If we don’t bullshit ourselves on some level, it’s
too painful to be alive. And that’s what your art is. Your art
is telling the truth, in ways that you can’t in life.”
So, memorize the lines, knows the words… in other words
“PREPARE”, then toss it out so that when you speak it’s
not pre-determined.
Learn the lines by writing them. Never practice them
aloud. Write it out, word by word. Memorize it that way. You
get a rhythm that way. And it avoids you mentally deciding
which way to say them ahead of time.
(A note to writers - when handing your script to an actor,
an actor that knows what they’re doing, take OUT the
parenthetical stage-direction in your dialogue. It’s
intimidating… “he wants me to be crying on THIS line -
how the hell am I supposed to guarantee that?!”)
When you rehearse you can use gibberish during
blocking… IF you already know the lines. That way, when
you first do a take, it feels even more exciting and fresh to
say them.
“Tell the truth” when saying the lines… don’t put in there
what you don’t feel. Remember that you are not the last
author; the audience is. They will fill it in.
DUSTIN ON COMEDY:
The only difference between realism, comedy, and farce, is
getting there faster and faster and faster. As a character,
you’re still acting the reality in each version… (you’re not
aware you’re leaping across the bed, in farce).
Our brain is always working to get ahead. You’re trying to
guess it. A great joke surprises you. Great comics often
develop a pattern, which they then violate in order to
surprise you (like a boxer works as well, physically -
surprising you with a punch when you thought you knew
their fighting pattern).
You know what’s funny… but don’t kill yourself to protect a
line. You’ll be shocked by what gets a laugh. It can be as
simple as a look.
If you’re in the moment, and reacting as you really would,
it’ll make a moment POP, and that can bring a laugh
(Dustin silencing the hotel bell in THE GRADUATE, is an
example - not a moment Dustin planned, but the director
almost lost it off-camera he laughed so hard)
All that comedy is, is taking reality, and giving it a slight
tilt.
DUSTIN ON STAYING IN THE MOMENT:
Just as in sports, stay on the ball. Don’t worry about
where it’s going. You’re hoping to see the result. Trust the
director. People take drugs, and drink, in order to stay in
the NOW. With training, you can learn how to do that
without using substances.
Always react - breaking is okay… the discipline comes in
keeping the break INSIDE, while you continue acting in-
character.
You don’t learn from success, you learn from failure. Stay
in the now, so that there’s always the CHANCE of failure.
The essence of acting should be EFFORTLESS. Which is
why you PREPARE.
DUSTIN’S ADVICE ON THE JOB OF ACTING:
A take is just a rehearsal. Most of what you “do” doesn’t
work. Just let yourself miss… it’s another way to let
yourself relax. One way to not play it safe is by saying (to
yourself and the world during a take/audition) “Here I am.
Take it or leave it. I am not good, unless I get lucky.”
What makes someone an actor? That voice inside that
says “look at me look at me look at me”
Why be an actor? Because there will NEVER be another
you. Sounds cliche, but it’s the reason people will watch
you perform.
“In a field, I am the absence of field. This is always the
case. Wherever I am… I am what is missing.”
DUSTIN, ON TAKING DIRECTION:
There is no set way to make things work. A director who
has an idea of how the scene must look will kill an actor’s
work. Don’t feel you have to make the text resonate in any
particular way.
Dustin does this thing with the actors he directs, where he
gets them talking naturally about “whatever” and then has
them roll into the dialogue. And he asks them to CLING to
what was in their heads when they were just chatting to
each other.
“It’s a bitch to be alive, and it’s a bitch to be in this game
[of acting] that you’re in.”
(Dustin does this thing again and again when directing
Actors during the class, where he speak to them, about
something which he thinks will get them to the right
emotional place - in one instance he interrogates them
about “how are they still attempting to be actors?” to give
them the feeling of ‘desperation’ and ‘missing out’ the he
knows the scene requires.
Oftentimes in conversation, we’re looking at each other in
order to read the subtext.
DUSTIN’S ADVICE:
“We’re all the same - inside, we all fall short. And that
thing which will fulfill us… we get, FROM ART.”
“You don’t have to be angry, to act Anger. Sometimes the
doing of it gets you there.”
You’re trapped within the scene.
Dustin adjusts the “emotional temperature” in the room.
Often says “you’re there, you’re right there” meaning
you’ve gotten to the right emotion energy and color… “now
play the scene”.
Don’t let the profession “Cast” you. You are truly unique,
and THAT is what your value is.
Something actors don’t recognize when they’re working
together - they have EACH OTHER. Dustin once told
Lawrence Olivier “you’re over-acting” and was terrified,
but did it. And Lawrence thanked him.
On a set, you need a sense of relaxation - “you’re just
fucking around”.
Many times, you are modulating for each other.
DUSTIN ON AUDITIONING:
“I feel like I’m wrong for the part” but maybe the character
is more like you than you think, on their INSIDE.
Everyone has doubts. How do you stop the candle of hope
inside you from going out? Took Dustin/Hackman/Duvall 10
years to anywhere.
Everyone has fears of being found out… because it takes
so long to get noticed.
DUSTIN ON MAKING ACTING A LIVING:
Don’t do what I did - don’t be passive, become ACTIVE -
make your movie, cast yourself in it, write it yourself (even
if it’s to be improvised). If you have talent, it’s another way
to get noticed.
“Would you rather be on screen doing bad work? Or not be
on the screen at all?” That’s an individual decision. But
you will have to make it - and risk getting fired, if someone
asks you to do something you know is bad.
If you’re in this to get rich and famous, stop it. If you’re an
actor, doing this thing because it is where your passion is,
it’s not a job… A job is by definition, something which
during it, you cannot wait for it to stop so you can go
relax.
Most of my films have been failures - I’ve done 50 movies,
so many are flops. But look at baseball: if you’re batting
500, it’s insanely impressive work.
The path is never clear - whatever you’re into at the
moment, you need to follow your gut. Don’t analyze it.
You’ll never end up where you expect. There’s something
in you, for whatever mysterious reasons, you can do that
no one else can. If you’re lucky, you find it, and are able to
say “ah, there I am.”
MISTAKES:
“Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” was a mistake - not planned in the
scene. But it became iconic.
If you have nerves, if there’s fear in a moment, you can use
it in the scene. Godfather, non-actors that were ACTUAL
mafia members, had huge nerves about their lines, and
Coppola used it - as fear about talking to the Don (Brando).
“Don’t try to be perfect. The world sure isn’t.”
DUSTIN’S FINAL ADVICE:
Be working your craft. In a class, writing something,
walking around your city with a notebook and jotting down
what you hear people say.
Find a way to work. Get people together. Have a salon.
Read poetry.
Read, read, read, read.
Go to plays. Go see opera. See movies. Watch silent films.
Allow yourself to be elevated. See brilliant work. Allow
yourself to be surprised at liking something you don’t think
you’ll like.
And MAKE. Make movies. Not in order to get a job out of it.
It’s your life.
You’ve studied, you’ve learned, and then it’s time to step
up the plate. And you get ready to swing. The ball comes.
You SWING. You were in control right up until the moment
of the swing. In the swing, you’re in that moment. You’re
not here to hit the ball. You’re here to swing, and keep
swinging.