Yoda Tells Me All About Acting

I met director Frank Oz tonight and saw a very intimate screening (early version - not the final cut) of his new movie, Death At A Funeral. What an amazing talent. He's done The Dark Crystal, The Muppets Take Manhattan (which co-starred Liza Minnelli!), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob? (one of my personal faves) and In & Out just to name a few. A lot of movies on my Top 50 list that's for sure.

And, of course, he is also Yoda. Not to mention a million other muppets from Fozzy to Miss Piggy.

I can't tell you anything about the movie, but I will say it's fucking hysterical and a very dark comedy. You can see the trailer on their official site at: deathandafuneral-themovie.com. I think it comes out in a couple of months.

He had some very good advice for me on the auditioning process. As a director, he is incredibly empathetic with actors because he started as one and knows the horrors of casting. He said what he always does is ask an actor in an audition to do it again differently. Even if the actor hit the nail on the head the first time, he specifies a way he'd rather see it done. Not because he wants a variation on the character, but because he wants to see if the actor can take direction. He said I would be shocked at the number of actors who say, "Sure, I can do that!" and then read the line the exact same way they did before.

But he said the #1 thing to remember is to keep having fun. A lot of times, we actors get so amped up with the "work" before going into an audition that it comes off in the performance. And if it looks like work, we're not doing our job. Boy is that warped!

One of the movie's star, Alan Tudyk was there with him. I had only seen him previously as the gay German character in 28 Days, the movie where Sandra Bullock goes to rehab. But I guess he was also just in the new movie, Knocked Up. He steals the show -- makes the show, in fact! -- in Death At A Funeral even though his role is only supporting. (And he has some hot nude scenes too that I pray won't get cut!)

So more interesting advice and warnings! When Frank was talking about how hard actors have it, Tudyk added that the unfortunate thing is there's no longer a such thing as "the middle class actor." This was the kind of actor who didn't have a lot of box office draw but was incredibly talented and often seen in many supporting roles per year. Ever since the independent film scene became huge, the bigger studios have started taking advantage of the fact that there are so many young actors out there willing to do anything to break in.

For instance, if you're a New York actor and the movie is based in Los Angeles, they used to offer to pay for your transportation, put you up in a nice hotel, give you a car, etc. and now they say something along the lines of, "We really want you for the part, but we are on a budget and you will have to pay your own way out here and put yourself up." Major studios are doing this apparently! And the actors do it because they have to. They know someone else will be willing to do it to get a part in a major motion picture release if they don't.

My lord, do I have a long, hard road ahead of me. I'm glad I'm finally on it though and I know it's not about the destination so I've started to enoy the journey.