I've been thinking about what gives certain artists that spark that draws us in and makes us want to see more, makes us want to understand, makes us want to go on a journey. I see so many films, so many actors, so many directors, just going through the motions, some of them even believing they are really doing something important, just to leave me cold and bored.........when I audition actors, so many come in prepared and professional and their auditions are good, but they leave me cold......but then that one comes in and touches some mysterious place and I realize why I do this.................what is that mysterious flame that burns inside those few who inspire me to create, to think, to watch, to want to explore? I've been seeing that quality in the last few years in actors who aren't American.........for some reason, the people who come from other countries seem to be connected to something that most American actors aren't.........I wonder what that is.....do we have it too easy here? Are we disconnected from our true emotions? I'm thinking that what we are disconnected from is the experience of each other. I think we have become too caught up in ourselves, that we no longer realize how to connected to the larger community to the struggles and pains of others.............I think that people who come to this country usually have experienced struggles and hardships that we only read about and this builds, their care, their spirits, their character, their compassion, their empathy.......................of course I'm not saying that all Americans are like this. I have met and worked with several very talented people who are true artists and who are open to the depth and complexity and beauty of what it is to be human........of course there are many people in this country who struggle and whose hardships and journeys are daunting.......it just seems that not too many of them are creating art.
I know for myself, that I needed to be honed, and shaped by life, before I was able to create anything I deemed good enough to be considered up to my own standards and judgements. I look back on some of the things I wrote back when I thought I knew it all and I want to vomit.....I'm so glad no one has ever seen them.
I see too many young film makers going to film school and coming out with no connection to anything except a very cerebral notion of movie making and story telling. The actors and directors of an earlier time, and actors and directors from other countries seem to have come into their careers more by an inner need, an almost urgent desire that they have no control over to create.....the art draws them in, instead of them pursuing an idea that maybe they should become film makers or musicians or artists or actors..........maybe we should change the idea of what a real film school or acting school should be......it should be a place where students explore the world, give service to human kind, study psychology, philosophy , human nature, travel and see the world, work with the sick, those in need, experience life and what it meanS to be alive, what it means to be a human being on this vast and diverse planet.....live, love, feel pain and joy, search for the deeper meaning of life and who we are, and come back with some battle scars and embrace the joy of humanity.........from this, I think we would train true actors, directors, artists and human beings........
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