a case for bi-​coast-​ality by Matthew Harrison

Not long ago, actors would talk of the gap between Toronto and Van­cou­ver. The Rocky Moun­tain divide sep­a­rat­ing two dif­fer­ent cities not just by geog­ra­phy, but in busi­ness and cul­ture as well. Both pro­duc­ing Cana­dian and Amer­i­can film and tele­vi­sion. Nei­ther con­nected to the other in any real way.

Recently, how­ever, there has been a very notice­able and mon­u­men­tal change in the prac­ti­cal way these two great act­ing cities work together. More and more, I have been see­ing actors that I teach and coach book­ing guest stars and leads in Toronto, often from tape. Often from tape shot at the Foundry Films stu­dio. From Flash­point to High­land Gar­dens, The Lis­tener to Nikita…Vancouver actors are book­ing in Toronto.

And more and more, I hear Van­cou­ver agents talk­ing about rep­re­sent­ing their actors in both cities, and look­ing out­side the GVRD for projects for their actors. The agents I’ve spo­ken to have all said that an imper­a­tive of late is solid­i­fy­ing their rela­tion­ships with Toronto casting.

Mean­time, I’m just back from Toronto where I was teach­ing an inten­sive work­shop, and where I took sev­eral meet­ings with Toronto agents and cast­ing. Agents there also speak of set­ting stronger rela­tion­ships with Van­cou­ver cast­ing, look­ing to the Pacific for their actors, and how many of their clients are book­ing Van­cou­ver projects. And Toronto cast­ing say it’s an imper­a­tive to meet and learn about Van­cou­ver actors, to increase their actor resources and range, to help them cast the best peo­ple for their projects.

Times have changed. The gap is clos­ing, The Rock­ies have fallen.

The rea­sons are obvious:

In the dig­i­tal age, “tap­ing” is an anachro­nism. VHS tapes by courier (fol­lowed by a fax memo) are dinosauric. Links are imme­di­ate to send and easy to use. With one click, a cast­ing direc­tor can see your work. Why wouldn’t they?

In a highly com­pet­i­tive age, actors need to broaden their hori­zons and get seen out­side a shrunken mar­ket. So agents are much more per­sis­tent and proac­tive about get­ting “tap­ings” across the internet.

And in an age where pro­duc­tion is spread out, no longer as cen­tral­ized in sep­a­rate urban cen­tres, the very notion of being a “Van­cou­ver actor” or “Toronto actor”, or for that mat­ter “Los Ange­les actor” or “New York actor” is no longer sen­si­ble. An “actor” is all you need to be to book.

Here’s how: abil­ity, speci­ficity, and — very importantly — relationships.

Implied in this chang­ing multi-​city envi­ron­ment is this: yes…you have more oppor­tu­nity to book by know­ing the cast­ing peo­ple in Toronto and send­ing them mate­r­ial in this easy dig­i­tal age. But then again, so does every­one else. Mean­ing: the com­pe­ti­tion is greater, the greater the mar­ket opens up.

But this shouldn’t faze you in the least…that is, if you are extremely able. In fact, all it should do is put a flame under you to work harder, build your skill set, raise your experience…to not rest on the lau­rels and suc­cesses you’ve had, and not suc­cumb to complacency…but dis­ci­pline your­self to the sharpest.

Next, it means you must learn to be spe­cific, have the self-​knowledge to know who you are and how you are cast. To know what makes you mar­ketable. To be a spe­cific brand and not a gen­eral com­mod­ity. Cast­ing will look over the Rock­ies and book Van­cou­ver actors because they can…they can look for that spe­cific and par­tic­u­lar kind of per­son they need for a part. So be sure to be spe­cific and clear in your acting.

The lat­est Actor’s Foundry suc­cesses – of lead book­ings of Van­cou­ver actors in Toronto projects – were actors with smaller resumes, but with chops and self-​knowledge.

And, in the end, it’s all about rela­tion­ships. There’s only so much a cast­ing direc­tor can do with­out actu­ally know­ing you and work­ing with you, hands on, in a room.

Pacific Artists agent Russ Mortensen says:

“I’ve seen many times, that after a luke­warm response to see­ing Actor X on tape 20 times for var­i­ous things, that the actor then will get flown out to test, or Toronto cast­ing will come out here and do the call­backs in per­son, and then the feed­back becomes “Wow, now I get why that guy (gal) works so much out here”….when they can finally soak up all the intan­gi­bles that can’t come across from a tape. There’s the huge value in bring­ing Toronto cast­ing out here.”

Meet the cast­ing peo­ple, show them your high level skill set, your per­son­al­ity, your intel­li­gence and pas­sion. Let them see you as an asset worth remem­ber­ing when the right role comes down the pipe.

To be fair…The Rocky Moun­tain divide still exists in one way: in the form of tax cred­its. Toronto pro­duc­tion saves money hir­ing local actors, and Van­cou­ver pro­duc­tion saves money hir­ing local as well. So for actor roles and smaller parts, coast to coast searches don’t hap­pen. Locally is where you will book the start­ing roles and day player parts to broaden your expe­ri­ence and lengthen your resume.

BUT, in this new dig­i­tal world, there is now built into pro­duc­tion bud­gets and the mind­sets of cast­ing an absolute new ethic: that for the big­ger roles, lead roles, and spe­cific casting…there is no divide.

Mean­ing now is the time to get the cast­ing putting a face to your name…before pilot sea­son and the new year, before you and your agent start mak­ing tapes to send across the con­ti­nent. Do the oppo­site of “Actor X”, and get them to under­stand that spe­cific intan­gi­ble qual­ity of yours before you send twenty audi­tion tapes.

Widen your range…think out­side the box. Push your­self into that top tier of actor by set­ting rela­tion­ships with Toronto cast­ing. Teach them who you are and what you bring to char­ac­ters. Get known…hurdle your­self over the gap…and book.

Here’s a quick ref­er­ence list of all of Matthew’s Essays. Enjoy!

The Taught Actor
The Edu­cated Actor
The Ego-​less Actor
The Per­fect Actor
The Hol­ly­wood Actor
The Superla­tive Actor (or The Famous “Ist List”…)
The Voice­less Actor
The Work­ing Actor (the ‘Sixty-​Five Things an Actor Can Do’ list)
The Incor­po­real Actor (or Words, Words, Words…)
The Gifted Actor
The Exposed Actor
The Art­ful Actor
The Con­tra­pun­tal Actor
The Liv­ing Actor

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

As a rule, my essays focus on the art of act­ing, and not the busi­ness. Well…rules are meant to be bro­ken. With pilot sea­son com­ing around the cor­ner, many actors in Canada have been ask­ing for advice on how to get an agent in Los Ange­les. So…I thought I’d bet­ter set it to print.

Here’s the bad news:

If you’re look­ing for LA reps…it needs to start now. Any rep­utable agency is done set­ting their next year’s pilot sea­son ros­ter by Nov 1^st. In fact, the very best time to get a new agent is either May or June when they’ve recov­ered from pilot sea­son, purged their ros­ters, and are about to go on vacation…or Sep­tem­ber, when they’re back from vaca­tion and gear­ing up for next year.

It is VERY, VERY dif­fi­cult get­ting a good agent right now. The mar­ket is lim­ited and the com­pe­ti­tion exces­sive. If you don’t have “heat” (i.e. a major US lead in a film or a recur­ring guest star on a series), or else if you’re not 16 and drop dead gor­geous, you will not get an “A” or “B” list agency (that said, a solid “C” list bou­tique agency would be ideal to have anyways…).

The good news:

They’re all look­ing for that next big thing. So you just need to get in there.

Read More…

In my last essay, “The PROFESSIONAL Actor” I set out a list of demands and define what it means to be a pro­fes­sional. To be a pro­fes­sional actor, you must have PHD:

Pas­sion. Humil­ity. Discipline.

In my classes, I make a demand of all the actors to be pro­fes­sional. I expect a high order of dis­ci­pline. I do not accept at The Actor’s Foundry peo­ple who slack in their rehearsals. Who are not pre­pared in their scenes. Who are not treat­ing their part­ners with respect and dig­nity. I also demand that all play­ers have the humil­ity to bring them­selves to their work…and make it about their work. About their part­ner. And not about them­selves. Egos are checked at the door. And, of course, I’ve been defib­ril­lat­ing people’s pas­sion, open­ing up their full instru­ments, and demand­ing that peo­ple com­mit. Invest them­selves. Fully.

I am demand­ing them all to raise their bars and live up to their per­sonal poten­tials. That line – where the poten­tial in artistry, skill, and human­ity lies – that poten­tial is way up there. I want them to strive for and hon­our that per­sonal poten­tial, what­ever that is specif­i­cally for them. And then, when they do reach it – God help them – then I kick the poten­tial even higher and I force the actor to reach even further.

I am demand­ing that of them.

How­ever… life is point and counter-​point. Give and take. Bal­ance. So, the oppo­site of: “I am demand­ing of you…” is: “You are demand­ing of me…”. And so actors must. My stu­dents must hold me to my high­est poten­tial as a teacher. They must demand of me: to be the most pro­fes­sional teacher I can be…passionate, hum­ble, and dis­ci­plined. Hold me to it. And hold all my teach­ers of The Actor’s Foundry to it. To be…great.

So, what makes a great teacher? What must the actor demand of the teacher?

Here’s what I think the TAUGHT Actor should demand: a teacher’s man­i­festo…
Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

Read. Read a lot. Read often.

You must ingest as much about every­thing as you can. Your job as an actor is to cre­ate real human­ity and tell story that reflects back to audi­ences the human expe­ri­ence so that they can learn about them­selves. It’s a mas­sive man­date. You should be hum­bled by it. You should be scared by it. And your humil­ity and fear should drive you to edu­cate your­self so that you become a life-​specialist…

When work­ing with suc­cess­ful actors, three things always strike me: they work hard; they are smart; and they are extremely well-​read.

So, actors are always ask­ing me “what should I read…?”

For starters, our job as the fourth estate (the artists: to demon­strate to soci­ety the state of soci­ety) means you’d bet­ter be on the ball about soci­ety, about pol­i­tics, about soci­etal trends. We live in a corporate-​powered con­sump­tive soci­ety at log­ger­heads with ris­ing envi­ron­men­tal­ism in a world of sec­u­lar ver­sus fun­da­men­tal­ist reli­gious con­flict all who have voices in a dig­i­tized democracy.

So. You’d bet­ter know about. Find out. If you don’t already read the news daily on-​line or the daily paper, you must at the very least read:
Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

There is immers­ing your­self into the work and there is mak­ing the work about you. The dif­fer­ence between the two is the major gulf between art and ego­ism, between pro­fes­sion­al­ism and ama­teurism, and between get­ting the job and not get­ting the job.

In the past few act­ing work­shops, “ego-​less act­ing” has popped up as a theme. The idea being love the work…don’t love your­self in the work. In the work­shops and in sev­eral of my recent coach­ing, I’ve been work­ing with accom­plished, well-​resumed actors who have fallen into a self-​proclaimed “rut”…who feel they’ve become des­per­ate and have brought a “stink of des­per­a­tion” into the audi­tion room. The “ego” has reared its potent and ugly head. It has become clear to me that ego-​driven work is pan­demic among us actors and a direct cause for pain, frus­tra­tion, and failure.

By “ego” I don’t mean arro­gance or self-​centeredness. We’re not talk­ing about an actor who is fun­da­men­tally ego­tis­ti­cal. No one likes to work with that kind of actor, no one has the right to be such an actor, and such an actor will get noth­ing from this essay or this kind of teach­ing. (On the other hand, we know that pow­er­fully ego­tis­ti­cal peo­ple are plainly mas­querad­ing as such and are in fact com­pen­sat­ing for some equally pow­er­ful inse­cu­rity that lies deep inside. Per­haps if the ego­tis­ti­cal actor can find the courage to acknowl­edge their self-​importance/​self-​hatred dual­ity, then they can read on…) Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

I just fin­ished the lat­est inten­sive work­shop and I’m buzzing with thoughts.

The theme that hung over this past week­end was: “Get­ting it right“.

What a hor­ri­ble phrase. What a deadly idea. “Get­ting it right.” The com­pul­sion to suc­ceed, to get an “A” from the teacher, a sticker on the board, have all your col­leagues con­grat­u­late you on succeeding…it’s a pow­er­ful enemy…
Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

Okay. Fine. Due to pop­u­lar demand…here it is. Dusted off and ready to go…

…the famous “ist list”…

Scenes and screen­plays are always built around height­ened cir­cum­stances, that is to say, big­ger than every-​day-​life sto­ries. They are superla­tive – mean­ing of the high­est order. (Please read my essay “The Incor­po­real Actor” in which I out­line the three most impor­tant types of words for actors – the sec­ond being the superla­tive adjective/​adverb).

At the Neigh­bor­hood Play­house in New York, Richard Pin­ter use to call superla­tive moments shock of exis­tence moments: the kind of cir­cum­stances that remind you that you are alive – the kind that shock you back into existence:

• propos­ing to your wife at sun­set on the beach
• dis­cov­er­ing your husband’s let­ter from his girlfriend
• meet­ing the daugh­ter you never knew you had

As actors, we act these kind of extra–ordi­nary moments. There­fore, as actors, we must “shock our exis­tence” every time we hear “action”, or “places”, or “rolling”. But as actors, we do so within the character’s cir­cum­stances, within the character’s experience.

And so, we must live our actual lives con­stantly and con­sis­tently shock­ing our­selves in a way that keeps us res­onat­ing and pre­pared to act out what­ever imag­i­nary cir­cum­stance is handed to us within the story. Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

I’m lis­ten­ing to the con­ver­sa­tion, judge and jury in my head, it’s col­or­ing every­thing, all we did and said. I want you close, I want you near, I can’t help but lis­ten, but I don’t want to hear…Hear That Voice Again…

Voices in your head.

Sounds like the stuff of psychosis.

But that voice that is inside your head exists, speaks loudly, and is always talk­ing to you. It’s nor­mal. It’s nat­ural. It’s a part of you and a part of life.

The ques­tion is…are you lis­ten­ing? Read More…

A Matthew Har­ri­son Essay

I saw a lec­ture once by a psy­chi­a­trist who spe­cial­ized in work­place depres­sion. When asked about actors, he had an inter­est­ing per­spec­tive. He had stud­ied actors and had come to this con­clu­sion: actors are worka­holics. They are dri­ven, ambi­tious, and con­stantly think­ing about, talk­ing about, and obsess­ing about their careers. If given the chance, they would work eighty hour weeks and rarely take a break. They are addicted to their jobs and place that pri­or­ity above all else. But, con­tin­ued this psy­chi­a­trist, your typ­i­cal actor is a “non-​working actor”. She is either between gigs, or between agents, or with an inef­fec­tual agent. She audi­tions once or twice a week if lucky, and like most actors, faces rejec­tion the major­ity of the time. So…the con­clu­sion of this psy­chi­a­trist was: actors are prone to depres­sion because they are worka­holics with­out work. Addicts with­out a fix. The only two reme­dies are: quit the addiction…or…find a fix.

“Be proac­tive! Cre­ate your own work! Make your own suc­cess! Get working!”

Sure. We hear this all the time. Well, eas­ier said than done. We all know that: “Going to the gym, leav­ing a mes­sage for my agent, and re-​watching Star Wars: Episode 2 before going to an indus­try party…” isn’t how we should be fill­ing our days. But what exactly should the actor be doing? How, exactly, does one cre­ate one’s own suc­cess? If it’s a full time job, what should the actor fill their time with? In my work­shops, the stu­dents and I have spent time col­lect­ing and orga­niz­ing ideas and tasks so that the actor can set up a spe­cific work sched­ule and self-​arranged program…one that suits his or her spe­cific end goal.

The “Sixty-​Five Things An Actor Can Do List” is a great way to get active, do cre­ative work, be an artist every day, and be an actor on your own terms…not defined based on any other person’s whim or opin­ion. With goals, self-​ascribed objec­tives, and hard work…auditions and other “busi­ness” takes on a less impor­tant role, bal­anc­ing out your career. Read More…