Go Pluck Yourself: The Actor’s Pursuit
Go Pluck Yourself! Because the Hollywood cavalry is not on its way to pluck you from obscurity like the proverbial claws of a claw machine. Only you are responsible for your little dent in this industry. No one is coming to pluck you out of the crowd — You have to pluck yourself.
Join actor Chris Gun as he chats to his creative pals about life as an actor navigating this wonderful industry.
These are the conversations that actors and filmmakers have between takes, between shoot dates, whilst waiting for their next gig. An insight into what life is really like for a creative on their way “up”.
This is Go Pluck Yourself - The Actor’s Pursuit
Presented by Chris Gun
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Go Pluck Yourself: The Actor’s Pursuit
Ep 1: Mastering Self Tapes with Nick Launchbury
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Check out Nick’s IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm8705729/
Welcome to Go Pluck Yourself: The Actor’s Pursuit. Because no one’s coming to pluck you out of the crowd, you have to pluck… yourself.
In this first episode, I’m joined by my very good mate Nick Launchbury. He's an actor, teacher, and co-founder of Promptside Actors Collective.
We talk about what separates the actors who book from the ones who don’t. Things like turning up with a strong idea, getting comfortable in front of the camera, and learning how to self-direct without overthinking. Sometimes "doing nothing" is the most powerful choice you can make.
Nick shares a bit about his journey as a teacher and what he’s building with Promptside Actor's Collective, a space that supports actors without spoon-feeding them. It’s a grounded, honest chat between two actors trying to make sense of it all, and maybe help a few others do the same.
If you’re navigating auditions, trying to find your voice, or just looking for a bit of clarity in the chaos, I hope this one resonates.
Like. Share. Comment. Support.
Thanks for listening. Let me know what you think.
🎵 Theme music by Nick Gun: soundcloud.com/nickgun
Hi, I'm Nick and you should go pluck yourself.
Speaker 2:Hello, my name is Chris Gunn. Welcome to Go. Pluck Yourself. The Actor's Pursuit. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2:The voice that you heard at the top of this episode was my very good friend and fellow actor, nick Launchbury. Nick was actually one of the first people that I told about doing this podcast. About a year and a half ago. We were sitting in a pub drinking lemonades and I told him about this idea that I had to start this podcast. I think it was the same night he told me about this idea that he had to start an acting school and, look man, we've both started our things. I've started my podcast, finally, and he started his acting school, promptside Actors Collective, which we'll get into. I always said that he would be my first guest. So here we are.
Speaker 2:It's taken me a very long time to get this thing together and it had gotten to the point where the only thing stopping me from pressing record was myself. So the day we recorded this, I literally called him out of the blue and I said hey, man, if I don't start this thing right now, I don't think I ever will. Can you come over and just bite the bullet with me? And graciously, he arrived at my house 20 minutes later in. I wasn't even home when I caught him. He was waiting at the front of my house when I came home so I had to like set up the whole studio while he sat and watched me set this up. So I was very unprepared for this first episode, but it's a really good chat, I mean. I'm really happy with it.
Speaker 2:We talk about self-taping, we talk about getting comfortable in front of the camera. We talk about the importance of turning up to set or turning up to an audition with an idea. We also talk about his acting school, promptside Actors Collective, which I forgot the name of during the chat because I'm a great friend. Now, I'm not affiliated with Promptside at all. This isn't like some paid partnership or anything. We're not up to that. But I do wholeheartedly support what they do over there at Promptside.
Speaker 2:Nick and his business partner, brett Archer, who's also another very talented local actor. They've built something really solid over at Promptside Actors Collective. So you know, make sure you check them out, show some support and hit them up if you need a self-tape done or need some coaching done or anything. In fact, I had a fairly complicated audition which was due at the last minute just the other day and had a lot of like physical choreography in it. There's a bit of a fight scene and stuff, and nick saved the day at the last second and I was in there for half an hour and we recorded three scenes in half an hour and it blows my mind Like the way he can just pick up the crux of the scene and understand it and really take on your ideas and understand exactly what approach you're going for in the scene.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he knows what he's doing and, aside from that, he's a really good friend. He's a really nice guy like the best guy. He's just the best, you know. He's just really nice guy, like the best guy. He's just the best, you know. He's just an extremely giving scene partner and collaborator and he really cares about this industry and he cares about his fellow actors. So check him out. Check out Promptside. You can check his Instagram out at Nick Launchbury or Promptside at Promptside Actors. So check them out. Now. Please take anything that you hear on this podcast that sounds like advice lightly. Just because something works for one person doesn't necessarily mean it's the right fit for you.
Speaker 2:Although if there is one person that I trust to give really good advice, that would be Nick. There's also plenty of unsolicited advice from me in this episode, but hey, you know what, it's my podcast and I can do what I want and I got stuff to say. God damn it. But eventually I'll probably run out of advice and then I'll actually let my guests speak, because I realized that, listening back to this episode, I did speak over Nick quite a lot. So apologies for that, nick, I will have you back on and I'll let you finish your sentences.
Speaker 2:Lesson learned First time hosting. All right, give me a break. And hey, if you're enjoying the show, you can support it by hitting follow or subscribe on whatever platform you're listening or watching on and share it with a friend or share it to your story. You can also leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts. Emphasis on positive. If you don't like the show, just send me a DM. You can abuse me in private. I can take it, it's fine, but leave a positive review. That really helps get the podcast in front of the right people. Please follow us on Instagram or TikTok at gopluckyourselfpod. I'd really love to hear from you. I'd love to know what you guys think of the first episode and, hey, if you really like what I'm doing here and this podcast fires you up creatively or makes you feel a little less alone in your creative endeavors and you feel like buying me a beer well, I don't drink, but you can buy me a hypothetical beer by signing up to the Patreon, patreoncom slash, goplikeyourselfpod.
Speaker 2:But a quick heads up if you're on an iPhone, please don't sign up using the Patreon app. Use a browser, because Apple are greedy bastards and they will take 30% of your contribution like they need it. And when you do sign up, please press C membership options, don't press join for free. Joining for free does absolutely nothing for you or for me. It's just a way for Patreon to collect your data. So press see membership options if you want to join up to the Patreon and support the podcast for as little as $5 a month. And thank you so much in advance. Your support means the whole world Right.
Speaker 2:Nick Launchbury is one of the most committed and generous and hardworking actors that I know. He teaches because he loves to teach and he genuinely cares about this acting community that he's in. He's also an extremely talented working actor. So you know, put him in your films. Get this man some roles, and thank you so much for being here. I'm really honoured that you're listening. Now. Please enjoy my wonderful chat with the very talented and generous Nick Launchbury. I look very bald.
Speaker 1:Because, well, you do have no hair.
Speaker 2:I am bald, so that is the Well. Thanks for coming, man. Thanks for having me. I first met you only maybe two years ago, yep, and before, like, I'd seen your name around the place and I'd seen I think I followed you on Instagram and I knew like of you, but I was like really intimidated by you for some reason. Oh, really, yeah, I think it's because you're so handsome and so tall, you know.
Speaker 3:But no, you're like this name that kept popping up.
Speaker 2:I'm like, who is this guy? Who's at all the auditions? He's obviously a really good actor. And then we did a play together, the Wonderful World of Dissocia, which was the most batshit crazy out there play, but it was so much fun because we played these two characters.
Speaker 2:We were the insecurity guards and it was like Tweedledum, tweedledee vibes, but it was so much fun because it was like so over the top and ridiculous and so slapstick and overplayed right, wasn't it so good, very fun yeah, it was like really dark as well and really intense, and we were like these kind of maniacal we're doing really horrible things to to nadia girl yeah, I got to grab the back of her hair and hold a drill to her eye, but talking so nicely.
Speaker 2:So you were at your studio today. What were you doing at the studio? Just doing some admin.
Speaker 1:You know what, when I started this acting school with Brett, I had no idea how much work it would be. It's not just teaching, it's 90% admin.
Speaker 2:And if you had known, you wouldn't have started it all right.
Speaker 1:It's not worth it?
Speaker 2:Probably not.
Speaker 1:It's not worth it at all I could just work for someone else and get paid, yeah and great, and have like do the teaching, which is what I love doing, but no admin and like the marketing and selling the course.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Ah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I just want to teach people, you just.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Tell us about the studio. What's it called? It's called Promptside Acting, promptside Actors Collective, and so you guys run a self-tape studio.
Speaker 1:No, we're an acting studio.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Why don't?
Speaker 2:you tell me about it and I'm going to stop guessing what it is.
Speaker 1:All right. No, I want you to guess one more time. No, I haven't done any research, Okay great, we teach the Howard Fine slash Uta Hagen method, yeah. And eventually we want to be very similar to the Howard Fine studio and do class in place. So you know we'll have a kitchen bench and we'll have a table and a fridge and cutlery and you know a bed, yeah. And you set the scene and then you just exist within your circumstances in place like you would on set.
Speaker 2:And what would be like the benefit for an actor if they had a setting where they had props around them and felt like they were in the real setting. Like what would be the benefit? Well, just less to imagine.
Speaker 1:You've already got enough to imagine. You have to imagine imaginary circumstances, right, but how much better is it Like?
Speaker 3:on set you don't do that.
Speaker 1:You're in place for the most part. You know, sometimes you're talking to a dot on the wall, but for the most part you're in. You're in place, yeah right, and then you can just exist within the circumstances in place. So it's it's just closer to the work that you're actually going to do, rather than an empty room and a chair yeah yeah, but we don't have the space for that right now.
Speaker 1:That's the pipe. You know, that's the future dream, so for now it's um very much focused on self-tapes, which is my thing anyway, you know, I'm the self-tape guy, I suppose. Um, so we've just got this, you know, essentially self-tape room, that's set up for that and we just teach the how I'd find technique um in regards to self-tapes, I suppose and you're getting like a fair bit of success with the self-tapes as well.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing a lot of bookings that that have gone through you. Yeah, um, what, what do you think it is that like sets you apart? Just in terms of like taking the pressure off an actor, knowing they have somewhere to go to, um, to take their self-tape. You know, invest in a, in a little bit of money just to make it easier for them. Have a reader, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, I think, like you said, it takes the pressure off of you. All you have to do when you come is be prepared, have an idea, but really I have a lot of ideas and I may have taped someone already so. I know the scene a little bit more perhaps, and then I can just set everything up. I don't have to worry about the lighting or the sound.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you the best read I can.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we're going to work it together. Nice and you know you're going to have someone else there that's going to give you an objective eye.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's really helpful. It's one of the big things you're missing since we started doing self-tapes is having somebody there just having an objective eye and giving you a bit of direction for each take. I mean, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing the way we're doing it now, with the fact that we have to sort of self-analyze and self-direct, which is important, by the way. Yeah, absolutely, we have to sort of self-analyze and self-direct.
Speaker 2:You know, watch your which is important, by the way, yeah absolutely yeah, but having a reader there to you know, having another actor there to brainstorm ideas and see what pops out for each actor, it's like really helpful, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I try not to treat it like a coaching session, totally. Yeah, it's like we are just two actors collaborating and trying to get the best take possible. Yeah, and really what I'm trying to do is like go, what would you do in these circumstances? Because that's what a casting director wants. They want to see you in these circumstances, that is it. And the only way to do that is to be comfortable within the setting, and I'm really just trying to bring them out. Bring them out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because when a casting director is casting, I feel like you wouldn't want to be giving too much to your client because really, what the casting director is looking for is an actor that has the agency to come up with their own ideas and their own interpretations of the script. If you're doing all that work for your client, then really it's your creative mind that they're getting there not the actor, and sometimes I might be wrong, Totally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, when an actor comes into the studio and this also this sets actors apart. And the second I see this I know, cool, we're going to be on for a good tape they come in with an idea and don't just go. What do I do now? Because, like, my idea might be wrong. It might be. I'm going to give you my idea, but you need to come in with your own, and then I'll give you my idea, and then we've got two different versions. I call it. You know, once we've nailed one down, I say great, let's do another version.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's no point doing that thought process again. Yeah, you've got it. You're not going to send two takes of the same thought process because the casting director is going to go. This is the same thing, but slightly different. Why am I wasting my time watching this? So you really want an actor to come in with an idea and nail that in and I'll just help you shape it, your idea, and then I'll go okay, cool, now I think I've got an idea, let's change it up yeah then you get to, then you can send two takes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because if you have an actor coming, in that's, that's going what.
Speaker 2:What should I do they? Haven't done the work. It's not going to work on a set because a director's not going to hold your hand through through day of shooting. They're going to go all right. As the director I don't exactly know, I don't know everything I'm hiring you for your creative ideas, yeah. So if you come in with nothing, then you're wasting a lot of my time because I need you to come prepared and we can tweak on the day as well as we go, just like you're doing in the studio.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I used to feel like that when I first started acting. I would like come into an audition and kind of have them have the mindset of like, oh what, what do you want me to do? What do you want from me? And I didn't book for years and years and years because I didn't really understand that what they wanted was my own, uh, my own nuances, my own ideas, my own like version of that person's reality. You know, when I started really putting my own myself into the, into the characters, then that's when I started booking roles because they saw something individual and interesting. Yeah, a lot of actors still have I would say like new actors still have that mentality that they're not really sure what they, what they should do before an audition. They just learn the lines and that's it. So what is it for you? What do you find works for an actor, an actor that books, compared to the actors that just keep getting rejections.
Speaker 1:I think what sets them apart is one is playing an idea of what they think a casting director wants. The other one is just existing within the circumstances that they were given.
Speaker 2:So tell me about playing an idea. What does that mean for you?
Speaker 1:It means it's not from a place of truth, it's not fuelled by anything. And this is from your first question what do you do to prepare? The last thing I do to prepare is learn my lines. Yeah, because if all you do is try and learn the lines, then what do you do? All you're doing is saying lines.
Speaker 2:You're just saying lines yeah, it's like right, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that is playing the idea, because you're acting on the lines. Yeah, or it's an intelligent read, which is also boring yeah, or it's an intelligent read, which is also boring 80%. But if you do the work of like why? What does this mean? You know, investigate. What am I not saying here? What's not being said, you know, fuel with some memories from the past that mean something to you.
Speaker 2:That affect you and then come from that place. I mean, I think this is a really common thing. People are going into an audition with the objective that they have in their head is I want to win this role, or I want to do well in this audition or get it right, whatever that means, and so they're so far removed from the actual character's objectives or the character's reality. And they're not. They're not connected to them at all, because all they're thinking about is is that right? And like I'm I'm guilty of this too and like I did this for years and years until I sort of realized like, oh it's, I don't have any control over that. I just want to go in there and muck around, you know, and play and just be loose and take all the pressure off myself to try to get it right and try not to even overthink what I'm trying to achieve here. Just go in there and just live moment to moment.
Speaker 2:It's like when your reader doesn't know you've started yet right, yeah, yeah, like, oh, you've started, yeah, yeah, yeah, because it's just, I'm, just, I'm not trying to do anything it shouldn't look like acting. I'm not trying to do anything.
Speaker 1:I'm just saying, I'm just talking, I'm just getting what I want from the person in front of me. Yeah, yeah, they're like oh shit, we're acting now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's what we're doing.
Speaker 1:I think, like just on that more, like I think that one of the and I do this too, man, just overthink it, you know, I think actors have a tendency from intuition. Yeah, and if you do the work and load it in and understand who you are, what you want, and then just use your intuition, yeah, just make it human, just be.
Speaker 2:You, do all that work and then just like, forget it all and make it and really simplify it for yourself, like what do you want just in that moment? Like right now, I just want to have a drink of water. That's all my character cares about right in this moment.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're not drinking. Yeah, sometimes we want water. Yeah, but it's not the right time Until it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, yeah, I totally understand what you're saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes that makes sense yeah, but but keep it, keep it simple for yourself. You know, like it's even even all the backstory stuff like I find that totally clouds. Yeah, it helps in just understanding, like, who this person is, and that's all the sort of really preliminary stuff that you do right at the start of the process. I think, yeah, and you should just sit with that knowledge in your head. But a mistake that I often see, especially with, like, newer actors or students, is when they hear a bit of backstory and then they go and do the performance and they really try to show the camera this thing, this like heartbreak that they have from their past or something. Like you say to them like, oh, you're someone that who's a uncle died or something, and then they just like drop some exposition about their uncle dying when they're ordering a cup of coffee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you don't need to show any of that stuff, you just have to know it, it's, it's there, it's if, if it, if it comes up, it comes up, but it comes up. But it's just knowledge that you keep in the back of your mind about your character, but you don't need to explicitly relay that to the audience all the time.
Speaker 1:You know actors always want to show it, but humans always want to hide it. Yeah, yeah, actually this came up in class on Thursday because the scene was so internally driven and you have to have all of these feelings, all of these feelings have to exist inside of you, but you can't show it, and so you have to be not okay, but trying your best to be okay, and that's so much easier said than done from an acting perspective yeah it's really hard to do.
Speaker 1:It's really hard to teach that as well yeah but to have this internal turmoil like the simmering pot and you're just trying to keep the lid on yeah and and then just trust the audience will see it yeah, yeah in you yeah, and you see it in the eyes. You just see the cracks in the eyes. Yeah, nothing has to happen with your face.
Speaker 2:You don't have to do anything, yeah.
Speaker 1:You just have to have that.
Speaker 2:You don't have to worry about what your face is doing. You don't have any control over that at all. Yeah, it doesn't matter what it's doing. Because I also like to think about trusting the context of the moment. Like, you are just one shot in the scene, right, you are just one character. You know, if you're shooting this one little moment in a film, the audience already knows what's happened up to that point. They can put the pieces together. You don't have to show them the whole story in any given moment.
Speaker 2:This is why I sort of bang on about just doing nothing, which is not my idea. It's not an original idea. But doing nothing is okay, because if you have a shot of someone else screaming at you, the audience already knows what I'm feeling. They can empathize with that. They don't have to see you go. Yeah, yeah, I could be completely deadpan or, you know, crying or whatever. But like whatever I, what happens in that moment, the audience knows exactly what I'm feeling before the camera even goes on me. You know and I feel that takes a lot of the pressure off you know, I don't care what my face is doing, as long as I'm just listening to my scene partner and I trust that the audience is going to already know what I'm feeling, you know.
Speaker 1:I find that when you say that to a young actor or a newer actor, do nothing. They literally do nothing and have no thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you can just see that their eyes are dead. Yeah, and it's in your eyes and it's so apparent when there's nothing going on behind the eyes. Yeah, we can just pick it up. We're like you're dead, yeah, okay. You're an empty shell of a human.
Speaker 2:So it's a fine line. Well, that's why.
Speaker 1:I like it.
Speaker 2:It's like doing nothing is okay. It's okay to do nothing. Don't literally have nothing going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have to like have you have to be still within circumstance. Yeah, but don't show it, don't, don't do anything. Yeah, you don't have to show how you're feeling. Yeah, just feel, yeah, like a human being. Yeah, if, if feelings come up, they come, yeah, yeah, and don't force them out, yeah it's so complicated.
Speaker 2:Like every time I sometimes I feel real good about my acting and then I just like I realize this shit is so complicated Like I'll never really understand what it is and like even talking about it and trying to analyze it all, I always sort of end up coming back to this perspective, which is like there isn't really a way to do it. It's just none of it makes sense. Yeah, no shoe fits every foot, you know Totally.
Speaker 1:You create your own acting language? Yeah, and whatever works for you, you figure out what works for you yeah. You do that I think you've got something worked out with you.
Speaker 2:But I don't know what to I couldn't articulate it To me.
Speaker 1:It looks like you have a level of comfortability within yourself, like that's such honestly, it's such a big thing to just be comfortable.
Speaker 2:That was the big thing for me is, yeah, being really comfortable, and that comes with the experience of being really terrified.
Speaker 3:Do you?
Speaker 2:know what I mean. Like even right now, this is our first episode and I'm very aware of the cameras.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hello Right, yeah, yeah. But this is more terrifying to me than actually acting.
Speaker 2:In the back of my mind right now, all I'm thinking about is do people give a shit? Am I making sense? Is this actually the message I want to be relaying to the world, to our listener? But yeah, what was I talking about? Comfort, comfortability, right? Yeah, I'll tell you a big shift for me, like a big shift in my sort of attitude towards this thing was. I did this commercial 13 years ago, a campaign called Crazy K. Look it up, it's hell funny.
Speaker 3:It's really funny, I'm not even on the camera. Look it up.
Speaker 2:But I played this. Okay. Well, I won't go into it, but Crazy K, it was like huge. Huge for me because it was um one of the first roles that I booked and I'd been going for auditions. This is when I was well how long was it?
Speaker 2:13 years ago I was like 21. I've been going for gigs for for years, since I was a kid and like up until that point I just kind of done extras, work and stuff and like a few plays. But I was I would get really despondent about not getting auditions. And I got to this point where I had this audition coming up and I was playing this like try hard rapper that loses his license right. And because I'd been rejected so many times from auditions, I got to the point where I was like I don't, I don't even give a fuck anymore, I don't, I don't care if I get this or not, I'm just to walk in there and fuck around. And I put on my trackies. I put my hat backwards because I had long curly hair.
Speaker 1:That's back when you auditioned in the room too.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, in the room as well. But I walked in there and I wasn't completely in character. I wasn't going to be a dick to the heathens and be like, oh, what's going on. But it was the idea of not giving a fuck really set me free. And I got it because when I was doing the audition I was just mucking around and I was just having fun. But it was a huge revelation for me because I was like oh, and at the time I was like, oh, stop giving a fuck and you'll get auditions. But it's not as simple as that. It's very reductive, like don't give a fuck about certain things, right?
Speaker 1:But you know, just don't need it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but not so much that if you don't get it you'll die.
Speaker 2:Well, it was the freedom of not thinking that I'll get it. That's what set me free from that. Yeah, thinking like I'm not going to get this anyway. I might as well just and I'm not going to go in and be like, oh, whatever, like. I don't even want this, I was just like I'm just going to go in and play, yeah. And then I was like, oh, that's what I should do every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. See, I don't treat it like there's an outcome after anymore. Yeah, and then I just do my job and then I put it away. Yeah, that's done now. Yeah, there's no more to do. Yeah. And when you get a job, I treat it like a job, so it's like if I'm in the room, it's my time and. I'm going to play. Let's play together. Let's work the scenes I'm going to play. Let's play together. Let's you know let's work the scenes.
Speaker 1:This is my time in the room and the same with the self-tape. I'm going to play with the self-tape and I'm just going to give you my ideas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And once it's sent off, I'm like cool, my job is done.
Speaker 1:It's finished. Yeah, I may not have got paid to the next?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and there'll be more, there's always more, there's always more, and eventually you sort of do so many auditions you're like I wouldn't be able to do all these anyway. But the thing is like with rejection, like I think about that and people get real upset.
Speaker 1:Like they're like oh, I didn't get that gig.
Speaker 2:I'm get real upset, like they're like I didn't get that gig. I'm like, well, it was never yours, it wasn't yours in the first place. Can't believe you got that gig I went for. Yeah, I'm sorry, well, I yeah, that was mine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, fuck you man there's a bit of truth in that. Eh, we literally went for the same role and you got it sorry um that's fine. It wasn't my role wasn't your role, mate. Also, I tested like six other people for that role. Yeah, my studio that I'm also going for. But you know like I really tried to get them to do good work in the room, even though essentially they're my competitor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I don't view it like that.
Speaker 1:We're all just doing a job. The words just were all the same, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, it's a small town, small city. Yeah, and yeah, it's not a competition, it's just.
Speaker 1:I would have liked it better if someone that taped with me booked instead of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, For sure man.
Speaker 1:But I'm also very happy that you booked.
Speaker 2:It doesn't look good for you, mate, jesus.
Speaker 1:Christ. All those people and you, bloody booked Didn. Good for you mate Jesus Christ, all those people and you bloody booked, didn't you?
Speaker 2:do that out of the country. Yeah, yeah, see you know, what Do you?
Speaker 1:know what beats lighting and sound and flashy camera. Acting, fucking, acting. That's literally number one is the acting. Yeah, acting wins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, always. You know, having a nice camera with a nice lens and a nice light, with a good soft box and a nice microphone, they're all good, but they're only important for the actor. They only give me confidence. Yeah, the casting directors don't give a shit. They might go oh well, they obviously care enough to invest in that but it doesn't mean you're going to understand the character that you're portraying. And doing that audition was actually really refreshing for me, because I've been doing my auditions in here for so long now with my nice camera and my nice light and it still works because I feel good about how it looks. So I can stop thinking about that. That. That only helps me. Yeah, right, but I was in nepal and I'd been trekking and I didn't have reception for days and then when I got back from the mountain I was in the mountains, the mountains I was very burnt.
Speaker 1:Imagine getting burnt in a snowy mountain yeah yeah, don't think about that, do you?
Speaker 2:you don't, um. But I came back and my agent was like dude, do this audition already? Were you? I'm like, oh sorry, I didn't. I didn't know I was there. So I was. It was really last minute. But all that was so freeing for me because it took all the pressure off. I just slapped my phone up on the windowsill and I recorded the lines on my girlfriend's phone just to space it out, because I was like I've got to do this in like half an hour, we've got to go somewhere else now. But because it was so rushed, I was just like, whatever, I'm not going to get this one, and I could just again just play around and just be free and be like, ah, whatever, like if I get this, I get this.
Speaker 1:It's like you didn't have time to overthink.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, overthinking, it's just a quick interpretation of the character and luckily I seem to get it and yeah you don't always get it, you don't always understand, you don't always.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you just miss the mark. But in circumstance I was like oh yeah, I think I know this guy and I slapped the slap thing on the window and I did a few takes and I was like, yeah, that's pretty good, send it off. I'm like yeah, done. But removing myself from all the fancy shit really helped me because I went back to basics and just being like this is not about how it looks. I've got an iphone, it's got a good camera on it yeah, they can see me, they, they can hear me.
Speaker 2:I've got good lighting with the window. Like someone was asking me the other day, oh, should I invest in what camera should I invest in? What light should I get? Should I get a backdrop? And I was like, if you want, like, I can give you recommendations, but save your money. Do you ever? Do you have a phone?
Speaker 1:You know, I think, like I think it is important to remove distractions from a casting director's mind, like really harsh shadows and stuff if you can get away with it Definitely Like there are still parameters or criteria that you have to hit, you know, but it's not hard to not have that on an iPhone and a window.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, totally, or a ring light, a cheap, a $20 ring light. They're fine, they still work. They just need to see your face, they need to be able to hear you. All that's fine. And if you want to go hard and invest in some nice equipment, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but save your money. I say Not everyone has the room, you know no, not everyone has the room, you know no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just come to me or go to Nick.
Speaker 1:Sorry, yeah, I keep forgetting.
Speaker 2:This is not a sponsorship, but I do recommend. Well, again, it takes the pressure off and sometimes you get a casting brief or you get an audition, like right at the, it's due the next day, right, and you don't have. You don't like you've got guests over or something, or you don't have the time or the facilities to do it.
Speaker 1:And I see. Yeah, like we said earlier, but I see it. As you know, you come to me to get a decent reader.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And don't have to think about setup. Yep.
Speaker 2:Also.
Speaker 1:I edit it. Yeah, I make it ready for casting. It's at the right. I mean, I file, I shoot in 4K, but the file size ends up to be like under 100 meg. Yeah, depending on the size of the scene, it's always under 100 meg.
Speaker 2:And then I label it accordingly correctly, and then Dropbox it and you can just download it and just submit it straight away. That's pretty huge, man. I feel like there's so much admin with self-tapes now and it makes it really hard because really all we want to be doing is thinking about the character and the scene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Working in a room. Yeah, I was going to say I miss that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not good at that anymore I had to do a call back and I was like holy shit, dude.
Speaker 2:I like I've forgotten how to do callbacks. I was. I was back to like being nervous as hell. Yeah, people in the room are still now. Yeah, of course I got the gig, brother yeah, it's a fucking awesome man, honestly yeah. I was still really nervous Like I was, you know, I'm going straight back to those old thoughts of like I'm on round two now, you know, Now I want it.
Speaker 1:The stakes are higher Now.
Speaker 2:I really want it. And then I go home and I'm like, fuck, I really want that gig now and I'm breaking all my rules, you know? Yeah, oh, that's right, I don't care. But yeah, try not to care, try not to care Checking your phone, checking your junk mail. It's about being like mindful and calm and comfortable, you know, even during the audition or between the takes of the audition, just bringing yourself back to your body and just being you know grounding yourself again.
Speaker 1:I feel like in the room you can sell yourself and that can get you the job. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:You can't do that in a self-tape. Well, they want to know if they can work with you. They want to know if you're going to be good to work with on the day. Are you going to be pleasant to be around for a day of shooting? And?
Speaker 1:are you malleable? Yeah, do you take direction, yeah, yeah exactly?
Speaker 2:Are you stuck on your one idea that you brought into the room? Or, if me, the director has little tweaks or ideas that come up, are we going to be able to have a creative and collaborative conversation about that and see if you can actually apply that to the moment? You know that's what they're testing out for right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're stuck with self-tapes. Yeah, but I do like self-tapes too, because.
Speaker 2:I think self-tapes have become something for me. They've become a moment To me. That is the rehearsal for me. That is me doing my creative ideation for the role, like I'll do. I'll do so many takes, but my first take is literally me, like reading it for the first time. Do you know what I mean? Like I'm because I might as well I might as well be like I'll come in there and I'll turn the camera on. I'll be like all right, what is this thing?
Speaker 2:you work it out in front of and, like I've got all this footage that I won't use, I just delete it. But eventually I'm like I start to figure out where who this guy is and when what the situation is.
Speaker 2:The more I play, it's just like rehearsing, you know yeah and I think self tapes give you the opportunity to do that and in, you know, in the old days, that would be the stuff you do before the audition, the in-person audition, all that work, you know, all the rehearsal that you do on your own, just reading it, reading it, reading it, I just might, I just feel I might as well record it, you know and and be in the space.
Speaker 1:You know I'm the same. The second I get it if I'm free, straight to the studio. Yeah, and just work it. I might not hit record. Yeah, to like the read. But I like to hit record early because usually my first ideas are the right ones. Yeah, like my instincts usually win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I usually use like the first or second take. I do that to 20 takes.
Speaker 1:I only do like three or four takes yeah.
Speaker 2:I would not recommend doing 20 takes. But this is, and sifting through like. That's because, I've got the time you know Fuck.
Speaker 1:Which one am I going to do? I don't look at them all.
Speaker 2:You just know, I just filmed them and I'm like that was shit. No, I'm not there yet, I don't know what I'm doing yet. Yeah, but I might as well record them. But again to me, they're not takes, they're rehearsals.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm just recording them.
Speaker 3:Well, so it's reps in front of the camera, exactly.
Speaker 1:And it's different when you know it's recording to when it's not recording.
Speaker 2:Yeah, environment as well, and you're building the world around you in that, in that moment, you know, then I know like, okay, my coffee table is over here and, um, the kitchen's, there's sinks over here, or whatever, and I'm and I'm understanding the environment that I'm imagining around me just by being in the space and and even if the, whether the camera's recording or not, you know yeah, I love your self-tape.
Speaker 1:So because you you're not afraid to break, to break the rules yeah, you know you'll go down to the beach and you'll have tennis balls thrown at you. Yeah, again, again in the lounge room. And yeah, dude, there's no rules.
Speaker 2:And there was another thing is I gotta really be careful with advice in terms of like break the rules, because I don't think you should just break the rules for the sake of breaking the rules, totally I think if it works for the scene and it's not going to distract you, if you're not going to be, if it's not arrogant, you know, yeah, it's a bit of a balance.
Speaker 2:There's a fine line between like, oh, look at me, I'm going to take this huge risk for the sake of taking a risk, and if it's something that actually One line a roll and it's set in a farmhouse like and it's set in a farmhouse.
Speaker 1:Like don't go driving to a farmhouse to film it in there. That's not getting you the role.
Speaker 2:But if it builds character like your Noel Gallagher, well yeah, and with Noel like the script said, he walks through his labyrinth of a living room and I was like there's a moment in the script where I'm like, okay, this is where I'm walking in this scene and of course it was going for Liam at the time and, like Liam has this iconic walk, I'm like, well, they're going to want to see that and they're not going to see that if I'm in this little mid shot.
Speaker 2:I might as well use this moment to do the walk, and I'll do it at the time where the script says he walks through his labyrinth of a living room and that's done, and that's breaking a bit of a rule. But again, self-taping is so new. What are the rules?
Speaker 1:You know, I love that they put their rules in there. Yeah, you know what I hate? I hate when they say they want a long shot slate. I hate that too, because then they find out how tall I'm not, but who can do that? So I just do a pan down. A pan down, pan up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I put the camera in this corner and I stand right in that corner and you do it like hi there, I'm Chris Gunn.
Speaker 1:Look at me down here. Come down here, I'll fight you. I never do, and I've got room. I've got room to do a full body slate. Yeah, no, it's unreasonable, Stop it.
Speaker 2:Please stop it. There's one rule I want to break, but.
Speaker 1:I'll pan down, but if I'm on my own and I need to do a long slant, how the fuck am I going to pan down? Yeah, so I just don't.
Speaker 3:Is that going to knock me in the role? I've kind of stopped doing that. Oh no, he didn't do a long slant, he's out.
Speaker 2:If they ask for like a still full shot, oh, totally feet, look like you know.
Speaker 1:And also sometimes I'm wearing the top half of the costume but not the bottom half.
Speaker 2:I'm never wearing pants. I'm not wearing pants now.
Speaker 1:So then they pan down. It's like this business shirt and my jocks yeah, do you?
Speaker 2:remember that Heeson workshop where I was doing. What was it, roy from?
Speaker 1:I did a workshop with the Heesons, the cop, the police officer.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it was from Succession.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was it.
Speaker 2:yeah, I had my suit jacket in my bag, but I was wearing like baggy jeans, yeah. And Lou was like, are you going to wear your like casual t-shirt? I'm like, no, no, I got this out and I put like a suit top on, yeah, but like if you had panned down, it was just like these like Baggy jeans 2001.
Speaker 1:Baggy jeans, you fantastic Another.
Speaker 2:I'm fishing for that one as well. You're right, it was Thank you. Fantastic Thanks for that.
Speaker 1:That's very nice. What a shame. Like the footage quality wasn't quite good enough. You know that's one of the reasons why Nicky Boy here shoots 4K. You know, anything you do with me and my studio will be, it's top quality.
Speaker 2:The best quality. It looks awesome and I think you're right. I think if it's going to distract the casting directors, the bad quality is going to be a distraction and you don't have the facilities to do it. Go to someone like you or hit up a friend that does have the facilities.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not Go to you. No, I'm not trying to plug this. No, I know, I know, but it's like, I mean just like in class. Yeah, you know, if you do really good work in class, that's the self-tape you could use for your real yeah, yeah yeah, but again, like with workshops, like they're not about getting it right, they're not about getting right, they're not about the footage. They're about growing as an actor.
Speaker 2:But if you happen to get some footage that works really well like I still wouldn't go into a workshop with the intention of getting footage for a reel If you happen to, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Or if you feel it's good enough to put online for socials, do that you have to go into a workshop like that with the intent to grow and not get footage Totally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, workshops for me were. The first workshop I'd done for a long time was the Teresa Palmer workshop. Did you do that? Yeah, you did that, weren't you? And Lou was there. Lou'd been away for a while. I hadn't seen Lou for ages, right, and Teresa's amazing. She gives you so much. She's so present in a scene. She's an amazing reader, right, and it was such a privilege to work with her. And Lou came in and Kicked our asses. She kicked our asses, but in the best way. I needed that so much, man, because at that point I felt really, I guess, complacent in my abilities. I wasn't in a place where I was growing as an actor. I was becoming a little bit arrogant about my skills, right. I was like, yeah, I got this, I know what I'm doing. And I think as soon as you get to that point where you're like I know exactly what I'm doing, I know how to do this, like, no one can tell me how to do this anymore, I've got it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're fucked because you stop growing Totally. You're not available to take in new information or learn from anyone. There was so much that I still had to learn at that point and I feel like I've grown so much since this day because I was like, oh, I don't know, fucking anything. She came in and I was really reaching for a certain outcome in this scene and planning in my head like I'm going to yell on this line and do all that rubbish right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pre-shaping the fuck out of it.
Speaker 2:Totally pre-shaping. And she came in and she knew, and I didn't really understand even what that was at that point I just thought I was like doing a really good job and I was like what's wrong with it. I don't understand what's wrong with this scene. Yeah, she came in and she's just like come on, chris, like I know you can do better than this, and I'm like what's better? I thought it was already good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it was such a good learning curve for me, you know. And then I came out of that and I was like, yeah, I totally needed someone to be like, no, you'd never stop learning. You've never reached that point of like you've made it, you know exactly what you're doing. That never happens. Like you've made it, you, you know exactly what you're doing. That never happens. Yeah, and it turns out I had so much to learn still, and I, I don't ever really want to look back on a on a job and go. I knew exactly what I was doing at that point.
Speaker 2:Every time I look back on a on a job that I've done, I go I had no idea what I was doing. Totally me too, you know. And I, I want that because I want to. I want to look back on all my jobs and go I've learned so much since that day. I'm only going to be as good as I am at that point, but I don't want to look back and be like I'm the same guy. I want to be like, wow, I've learned a lot since then. Even if it was a good job, it doesn't mean I'm going to do a shitty job on a set, but I want to make sure that I'm growing all the time, you know. I want to look back and be like I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker 1:I hope I never stop learning, you know, and that's what's so good about this acting thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that humans are so fucking difficult to work out. Yeah so there's always something to learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we change as people all the time, you know, yeah, our values change and our experiences change. Our values change and our experiences change, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I still feel like I'm at the very beginning of my acting journey.
Speaker 2:Definitely as an actor. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:Teaching aside. You know, as an actor, I feel like I'm just beginning.
Speaker 2:But when I teach like I'm not, I don't have the authority or the experience to teach, like all that craft, like there are certain things I can sort of put out there as ideas and be like you could think about this, you could try this. But a lot of like and I know that if I teach someone I'm not, there's a point where I'm like I can't teach you anymore now because this is all I really know. I can teach beginners, but all I'm teaching is how an adult can go back to that childlike mentality to be able to play and let go of all the inhibitions that we develop as adults throughout our life. That's all I teach is trying to shake off all the fear that is instilled on us throughout life, reasons why you should be self-conscious. That's really all I can do. And teaching like breaking down all the misconceptions about what acting is, which is, like you know, pre-shaping and copying or mimicking.
Speaker 1:Trying to be like someone who's already done the scene. Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:I basically just teach people to stop doing anything.
Speaker 1:Just stop doing things, stop trying.
Speaker 2:Stop trying to stop acting on a how you know.
Speaker 1:It is hard to be an actor and a teacher, I think sometimes because that's why I only teach one class a week. Just because I'm articulating what acting is and how to do it doesn't mean I can nail it.
Speaker 2:No, you know, but not every role. You're not right for every role. I'm not right for every role. You know Some people, and it's not even about whether you have it or not. Someone might be really perfect for a role because just their situation and their life and their values, all the things that have turned them into the person they are, just happens to make them suitable for this particular role.
Speaker 1:Well, there's a difference between good casting and bad casting, right? Yeah, I mean you can be miscast and that's not your fault, and you just weren't right because you don't fit those circumstances. Yeah, it doesn't fit and you could be a great actor yeah you just, you're just not right for that role. You know, a lot of times I get auditions and I go I am not this person. Yeah, yeah, I cannot. I like if they cast me. They fucked up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, yeah, um, and then I've got an audition coming up now and I'm like I don't know, I don't know if this is me, yeah, but I'll do it because it's because there's no yeah, there's no wasted opportunity, like, even if it's if I'm not right, I'll do my version of it, and you know it's getting in front of a new producer or casting director or whatever, and that's all important.
Speaker 2:But I'm not going to take it to heart if I don't get it, because I don't think I'm right for this role, right, but that's what I was sort of going to talk about before with rejection. It's like, as we said, like it's never your, it wasn't ever your role. If you don't get it, it wasn't your role. And like okay, role, if you don't get it, it wasn't your role. And like, okay, sometimes you might. It might just be like you two are both perfect, but like we want a blonde guy, not a bald guy, right? So they always pick the bald guy because there's wigs, man, they've never put a wig on you ever put a wig on they have put a wig on your head.
Speaker 2:No, they didn't. They did it for the for the hair and makeup call.
Speaker 3:Oh right, yeah, but I had to grow my hair out for noel. Did noel?
Speaker 2:yeah, but my, I wasn't as bald then, but it was going. They put little tufts of hair here. That's a fucking wig, man. That's not a wig, that is they glued hair under my hair.
Speaker 1:That's two little mini wigs.
Speaker 2:Yes, I wanted to keep them oh shit, can I keep um my two? You can just leave those there, just staple them on, keep them.
Speaker 1:You'd be like, just do it we forgot the glue Just do it, just leave it there.
Speaker 2:Super glue Actors man, but with rejection. I think you also have to trust the casting directors. And trust the directors that they know more than you do about this project. They know more than you do about this project. They know more than you do about this role. And if you're not right for it, don't take it to heart, it's just they know. I mean, I just try, even if they see that, oh, this person is not ready. Yeah, that's so important to listen to because, yeah, there are certain projects that I'm like I couldn't do this thing yet, I can't do that yet. Yeah, you know, and that's why I feel like I'm.
Speaker 2:I just want to embrace the steps that the slow ascent that happens in this career. It's a grind, you know. Start off as an extra fine, get on a set, observe the other actors, see what they do, see how the set runs, start early, start low, that's fine. And then keep doing the workshops, keep building up your confidence, keep building up your skills and your understanding of what this is. And then, you know, get to the point where you're like a line, or even just like a, a featured extra, or like just no lines but a character you know, and then a line, and but just don't to, there's no point in rushing your head to like Don't try and skip the steps, yeah, don't go straight to like a lead.
Speaker 3:I see that all the time yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you know they want to. People want to skip the steps and go straight to the lead on a feature film. Yeah, you, just you wouldn't be able to do the job.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. I don't think. Yeah, you'd be kind of shooting yourself in the foot. You know, and casting directors know that that's why they look at your credits and they go. You know what's on his resume or what's on their. You know what experience do they have? Are they able to lead a cast?
Speaker 2:you know, because it's a big responsibility being number one on the call sheet is a big is a big job yeah, yeah it is a big job, yeah I, I think, just put trust in the casting directors and put trust in the producers that they're not going to put you in a situation that you're not prepared for. I think that's really important. So don't take it as a as a rejection. Understand that where you are in the industry, in your trajectory, and keep doing the work outside of the jobs. Keep going to the workshops, keep listening to the podcast, whatever. Keep reading the books, keep listening to this podcast, keep listening to this podcast in particular, and go to what's it called Promptside.
Speaker 2:Promptside Actors Collective Collective yeah, I did have that written down somewhere. I feel like what's your thing called?
Speaker 1:It's the worst paid gig I've ever done. Oh yeah, it's just paid right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, send me an invoice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Talk to my people.
Speaker 1:My people will talk to your people. Yeah, yeah, and we'll just, we'll work it out in the mud. He even charged me for the water.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, that's, that's high-class water, aqua, yeah, aqua, aqua, ph8.
Speaker 1:From the mountains, from the mountains, yeah.
Speaker 2:I collected it in my pockets.
Speaker 1:This is a tough game, man, you know, like the reps and the training and the small gigs, the big gigs. It's just a part of the job of being an actor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've talked about this before.
Speaker 3:You just enjoy each step you say I'm an actor.
Speaker 1:And I say what have you been in?
Speaker 3:It's like I don't know, man Not much.
Speaker 1:It's not just about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Although it is.
Speaker 2:I do a lot of workshops. I have a podcast. It's a lot of workshops. I have a podcast, it's my entire life. Yeah, yeah that's it.
Speaker 1:That's it like being a full-time actor is just and my hour work and my only thought process like, yeah, it's the thing that consumes my, my, every thought.
Speaker 2:That's what makes me an actor but what have you been in? I don't have to do it to actually tell me what you've been in I just have to call myself an actor. It's like check my imdb. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right, like it's. I don't say that now, I don't want to see what you've been in. I just have to call myself an actor. It's like check my IMDB. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3:Like it's. I don't like listing my resumes.
Speaker 2:It's boring, it's very boring for both parties. Yeah, not much.
Speaker 3:What have you done? Not much.
Speaker 1:You just say oh, I was in that ad. But, like oh my God, you're amazing yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know. It's like we hate ads.
Speaker 3:I have to prove myself. You just pay money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a paycheck. Yeah, Ah, some ads are fun.
Speaker 1:You had a good ad recently, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really fun.
Speaker 1:The one in the house and the roller door. Yeah, yeah man.
Speaker 3:It was sick.
Speaker 1:Have you been in an ad?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I've been in an ad.
Speaker 1:I'm an actor. That's so cool. Are you an actor?
Speaker 2:Sometimes, yeah, I also clean toilets. Nice Shit job, I heard, but that's all right, that's nice. Oh, no, not that button, I don't have it, I want to hear it. I've got a drum kit just there yeah.
Speaker 1:Look, we've got to support ourselves with jobs and, you know, to pay the old bills.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why I think it's awesome what you're doing with Promptside, because you can't be a full-time actor, not in this city, no, I'm trying to make my job that pays for my acting an acting job. Yeah, okay, makes sense. Yeah, I know what you mean. It keeps you in the industry. It keeps you connected to other actors.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It shows people that you're dedicated to this craft, even when you're not doing the job. Yeah, but again, we're always doing the job because the job is waiting and just the research and the workshops and study and whatever you do Watching movies.
Speaker 1:Watching movies yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a tough job, man.
Speaker 1:It's really hard.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'm watching a movie. I'm like I just want to relax.
Speaker 1:I watched last night. We Live in Time.
Speaker 2:Have I seen that? I watched it.
Speaker 1:Florence Pugh, florence Pugh, yeah, and Andrew Garfield. There's this scene in there that I wanted to use for class, yeah, and I thought if I use this for class, I will need to know the context of the film so that I know the circumstances. It helps. It was a gut-wrenching scene, really close to my heart, because of the circumstances about the film Right. So it jerked me a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But the film was really weird. It jumped in time. It showed snapshots of their life outside, um, at different times. Right, she's pregnant, they haven't met yet. Um, the kid's born, you know, oh nice, she's going through treatment. She's, you know, being a chef. Like it's everywhere. Yeah, because of that, the the emotional scenes didn't take you and like I felt like if it was linear, the audience would invest more in the situation.
Speaker 3:But that scene on its own is like ooh yeah.
Speaker 2:You have to check it out. Just check that scene out. I'm so just the scene out of context.
Speaker 1:But their chemistry was amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great, I've heard good things about it. I'm so behind though. I'm so behind on films.
Speaker 1:Yeah, honestly, I don't watch many. I watch films now to get scenes for class. Yeah, it is an endless, endless pursuit.
Speaker 2:I was on set the other day and one of the lead actors is in some really big projects and one of the other actors was talking to him and I was kind of standing there trying to be part of the conversation. Yeah, and they were talking about this project that he did, and then they turned to me and they're like oh, have you seen it? And I'm like nah sorry, oh, does it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, yeah, what was your?
Speaker 2:favourite bit, chris, great bit, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:You know the bit where you were.
Speaker 1:Where the man spoke to the girl yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good stuff, yeah, really powerful.
Speaker 3:What's that?
Speaker 1:Oh, I think I've got to go. Yeah, I think I'm being called. The director's calling me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I haven't seen anything. I always get called out when you bullshit. No, I never lie about the fact that I haven't seen enough films. I do, I'd have done it before, and then they'll like test you on it.
Speaker 1:They'll say a line and they'll be like you know that film. I'm like, oh, what's that? And then they say it and you're like, ah, yes, man that film, man that film. Anyway, what's for lunch.
Speaker 2:I don't know where people get the time to do it, but there's so many films out there, there's so many series and stuff. I just don't have the time I do. But I don't, I'm not caught up, okay.
Speaker 1:That's okay.
Speaker 2:Do you have any?
Speaker 1:good scenes you can send me.
Speaker 2:What do you mean? To act yeah? Mate you would know I don't know what have you got.
Speaker 1:I've got thousands of scripts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, send me some shit.
Speaker 1:I have thousands of scripts.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like a Rolodex. It's like male, female, female, female, male, male, male.
Speaker 2:I'm too busy doing auditions. Mate, Female, male.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, shit, yeah, dog, yeah, dog. You know I keep the auditions too, and then, when it comes, out.
Speaker 2:that's a scene I can use. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got a backlog of things I can't wait to share.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And also, I haven't updated my show rule in years. Yeah, maybe two years, I reckon. I use self-tape reel yeah, because I've got all these things that haven't come out yet and I'm so annoying I haven't really done anything interesting to update, you know the show rule.
Speaker 1:yet it doesn't seem to matter because you're booking yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know about showreels are people watching those or what? I think, if you're not known, yeah to them. Yeah, I'm not gonna send a blanket rule out, there being like don't worry about your show I think they do it definitely need a show like they'll watch your tape, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh, we like him. Let's watch his reel. Let's look into him. Yeah, let's look at his IMDb. Yeah, okay, great, if you're submitting on Showcast or Casting Networks, they're going to it's on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we'll look there.
Speaker 1:We'll look here Like okay, cool, so he's done some work. We know he's worked professionally.
Speaker 2:He can do the job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, confidence.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. If you don't have a show reel, if you can't even tick that bit of criteria, you know there's two reels you need.
Speaker 1:I think One reel is like the actor's reel where it shows your acting, and the other one, the demo reel, is like proof of you working professionally. And if you can have the proof of working professionally and it has good acting scenes, then you just need the one.
Speaker 2:Wait. So what's an acting reel? It's like your best work and the difference between that and a demo reel.
Speaker 1:Sometimes your best work isn't from a professional shoot. Okay, so that's like the professional shoot stuff is. They watch that and go oh, he's been in that show and that show and that show I see Great, he's worked professionally, that's great. It's not necessarily your best acting work.
Speaker 2:And it's not essential, like if you don't have that professional work yet.
Speaker 1:don't let that you know, deter you from going for it. A couple of decent self-tapes will show your acting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's great, but even still like, no matter how much work you've done and no matter how good your show reel is, you still have to go through the same process as everyone else every time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at Teresa Palmer saying you know, still auditioning for everything. It's gruelling. I mean, I hear stories. You know I watch a lot of famous people talking about acting. My Instagram, that's all it is you know acting content. Yeah, and you know some of the biggest actors you know are saying I feel that audition process is gruelling and I still have to do it. Yeah, you go. Wow, like it's only that real small percent that don't have to audition anymore.
Speaker 2:I mean, auditioning is really important. It's not like oh, I want to get to a point where I don't have to audition anymore, because the audition is you would have to be Tom Cruise, yeah, yeah, and at that point you just have to be a good runner, right, I think so Just running jumping yeah, yeah, I mean I can run Jumping on couches and stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, auditioning is really important because it's an opportunity to show the director your interpretation and what you bring to that character. It's not about like, can I get this right?
Speaker 1:and look how good I am. Do I fit in your movie?
Speaker 2:or not. Yeah, yeah, it's not about like I need to prove how good of an actor I am. It's about can I relate to this character as this person? At that point, you don't have to.
Speaker 1:They're not proving they're good actors anymore.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They're just proving that they fit for your movie.
Speaker 2:This character is right for them? Yeah, because we're not right for everyone, totally yeah, and that's why, again, like with the rejection, I don't even like calling it rejection, it's just yeah, it wasn't your gig, you know. So you can't beat yourself up if you don't get a gig because, well, at a certain point, like if you're on hold for like three months and then you know you lose because your hair's the wrong colour or whatever what colour is your hair again? Oh, it used to be Skin colour.
Speaker 2:It's skin colour. Yeah, Mate, I think we worked it all out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, I think so. Dude this is really good.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being on my first episode ever, yeah thank you.
Speaker 1:And last, I don't think I'll do it again.
Speaker 2:I fucking hated it. This wasn't fun for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm embarrassed.
Speaker 1:You can't see the gun pointed at my head. That's just here.
Speaker 2:No, I think it's just out of the shot. Oh you look great man, look at you.
Speaker 1:Man, look at you, man, my head's so white I didn't dress sort of accordingly to a podcast.
Speaker 2:But I can, I can live with this nah you're good man keep it cash. I didn't do my hair thanks, man.
Speaker 1:It's just, it was on the wrong, it was going the wrong way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you, that's so. I was like that the whole time yeah, but it's so embarrassing man. Yeah, I think you'll be all right. All right, where can we find you?
Speaker 1:Why don't you plug yourself on socials? Yeah, you can find me on socials. My Instagram handle is nicklaunchbury. Or you can find me on Promptside Actors Collective on Instagram or Facebook.
Speaker 2:Facebook. Oh see, that wasn't that nice. I told you Love that guy, so insightful. Hey, next week I have Connor Pullinger on the show. He's a really fantastic actor. He's very prolific, he's working so hard, he's in everything, he's winning some awards, he's the best, and we have a really nice chat. So please don't miss out on that one. Subscribe or follow wherever you're listening or watching, so you don't miss out on that episode with Connor Pullinger. The music that you're listening to right now was written and produced by my cousin, nick Gunn. It also features a little cameo by my sister-in-law, muskan Shrestha. She's the best, but you can find Nick's stuff on SoundCloud. I think he's got an album on Spotify too. You know how I feel about Spotify, but make sure that you check out Nick Gunn's music. He's awesome. Hey, thank you so much for watching or listening. I'll see you next week. My name is Chris Gunn and, hey, go pluck yourself.