While working on a scene actors will often say “I can’t relate to this”.

That’s when I start asking them questions. The first question I ask them/character is “What’s going on with you?” Right away they start talking to me about what they’re feeling, what’s happening in their life, what their frustrations are, what their desires are. Before you know it they transform into the character right before my eyes. They forget what it was they couldn’t't relate to. The acting becomes emotional, vivid and powerful. AMAZING! It blows my mind how much the human spirit can overcome. We just need as actors to really understand the depths of who we are and what we have to offer. Our doubts are not our truth, doubts are merely a step on the pathway to greater understanding, not a ditch to “camp out” in.

For us to grow, it often helps if we start from the premise that we don’t know. For example, “I don’t know if i can relate to this” is a perfect place to start. From their you can start asking questions, and expressing the answers in an out loud, in the moment, visceral fashion.

Vegetarian Lasagna: I want to make it but I’m not sure if I can, so I start asking questions like, what ingredients do I need to buy? What do I have to do? How long will it take? And through this process, I will soon be cooking up a scrumptious culinary feast for my wife and myself (I’m hungry now).

It comes down to this: Always be a beginner, always ask question. In this way acting and life become an adventure, a rite of passage.

Cultivate what is known as “Beginners Mind”. “In the beginners mind their are many possibilities; in the experts mind their are few” -Shunryu Suzuki, “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind”