Film Courage: Let’s suppose you are encountering arrogance from someone and really what you said before was that it was fear (also too, their ego). Their pride could be hurt because they are thinking “Why do you think I don’t know what I am doing?” Which is not really what you are saying, you’re just wanting to explore more possibilities and let them know that you have a class and coaching available. But how can you turn it around and have it so that they don’t feel hurt (that it’s about their abilities)?
Mark W. Travis: Okay, that’s a great question. First of all we go back to resistance and the obstacle thing we talked about before because if I attack them or approach them, that whole thing about their arrogance and they’re putting up a wall against other possibilities, the wall will get stronger. So I can’t do that.
But if I say “I know how to work with actors. I know all of that.” Usually I will say “Great…great. Let’s see how this goes.” And then, usually what happens and I’ve seen this and Elsha’s seen this many times, start working with a director and start working with the interrogation process, two things happen very quickly. First of all, they realize that the interrogation process is difficult and that’s a little intimidating. But they hang in. But the other thing that they see is what starts to come out of the characters and they start to see that they are now experiencing something way beyond what they imagined and it probably includes what they thought they wanted. It includes aspects of the character that they want. But they start to see more. They see such a rich terrain in front of them that suddenly the arrogance drops away. So I rely on the power of what I am teaching, the techniques of what I am teaching if I can take them through these skills and allow them to experience it, it will change.
There’s another similar situation, when we get into staging which we talked about before and when I’m doing a workshop on staging and then a director is like “Oh…I know how to stage this thing.” I said “Great.” And they’ll stage it and I’ll look at it and I’ll think “No, there’s much more you can explore.” But rather than tell them “No, you haven’t explored enough. You don’t get it.” I very gently say “Okay, that’s great.” And I’ll say to the actor how do you feel standing there (in the scene). And they’ll go “I feel fine, fine…”…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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