NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
A podcast about acting, filmmaking, and the improv scene in New Orleans.
NOLA Film Scene with Tj & Plaideau
Dean West: Part 2 Truthful Acting
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Dean unpacks the turning point that changed his work: an acting class with Aaron Speiser that replaced “how should this look?” with “what does this human believe right now?” We dig into the “moment before,” the trap of starting scenes in a pre-selected emotion, and why memorizing like a song locks rhythm and kills spontaneity. Dean’s mantra is ruthless and liberating: lines matter for understanding, presence matters for meaning.
Sponsored by Jana McCaffery Attorney at Law. Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999 focusing on personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously and, if you are a fellow member of the Louisiana film industry and have been injured, she is happy to offer you a free consultation and a reduced fee to handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at Have you been injured? New Orleans based actor, Jana McCaffery, has been practicing law in Louisiana since 1999, specializing in personal injury since 2008. She takes helping others very seriously. If you have been injured, Jana is offering a free consultation AND a reduced fee for fellow members of the Lousiana film industry, and she will handle your case from start to finish. She can be reached at janamccaffery@gmail.com or 504-837-1234. Tell Her NOLA Film Scene sent you
Follow us on IG @nolafilmscene, @kodaksbykojack, and @tjsebastianofficial. Check out our 48 Hour Film Project short film Waiting for Gateaux: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5pFvn4cd1U . & check out our website: nolafilmscene.com
Hey, this is Dean and I'm still here. My butt hurts. But I guess this is part two, so let's go.
SPEAKER_01:I'm TJ.
SPEAKER_02:And as always, I'm Play-Doh.
SPEAKER_01:Back. What do you mean? Back?
unknown:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:You ready? You ready? You ready, ready? Ready, ready? Nice. What you thinking? What you think? You've got something pondering.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Well, like I said, I I want to ask my usual question, but we've already covered you getting into the biz.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I can keep going. I stumbled. I stumbled into Los Angeles. And then randomly enough, it was a where I first started working when I was a kid was at a skating rink, being like a DJ. And the family that owned the skating rink was just fantastic family. And it turned out the older brother had moved there or to like San Diego-ish area, somewhere in between. And so I I was I moved and went to Los Angeles, like everyone, enjoyed my car for a little while, did not tell my parents that. And then found Tim. And I was like, all right, cool. I'll go, I'll go stay with them. And then I was just driving back and forth for a bit. And then eventually a friend of a friend was like, Yeah, you can come crash on our couch. I was like, oh, nice. So I took that route. And, you know, like everyone, started off doing a little extra work, that kind of stuff. Uh met my first group of like BFFs in Los Angeles that are still like some of my best friends today. They were all from Texas. So then every time we'd go out, you know, the girls be like, Oh, hey, hey, buddy, are y'all all from Texas? Oh, yeah, we're all from Texas. Well, Dean's from a suburb of Texas. Louisiana. Still friends with them today because they're so lovingly hateful. And from a suburb of Texas. Yeah. Yeah. And then stumbled into a an acting class uh with a guy named Aaron Spiser. And then world changed. And that's when I was like, nope, not leaving this for a while.
SPEAKER_02:What was your favorite show or one of your favorite shows that you've worked on?
SPEAKER_00:Hmm. You know, we did a a silly shark movie in in Mississippi back in the day called us um called Mississippi River Shark at the time. And the the fun part about it was that when the the producer called me, he was like, hey, we're doing this film in Mississippi, and um I have one of the leads I'd love for you to look at. So I'm just gonna show you the script. Okay, great. Reading through the script, I'm like, alright, cool. Same roles I'm used to playing, no big deal. I can do that in my sleep. We're good. It's like, all right, great. You liked it? Yeah, yeah, cool. It's like I just thought that role would be like so much fun for you. Oh, okay. Cool, thanks, man. So we jump on a little uh Zoom just to kind of talk about stuff. And he's like, So did you like what what was like, you know, what's your favorite thing about the script so far? I'm like, oh, I mean it's cool. I like, you know, we've got a neat relationship with humanity. Oh, no, no, no, no. The other role. The Wyatt role? Really? Fuck yeah. Yes, let's do it. Cause it was like the weird, weird dude in the he's like the threesome that shows up between the relationship.
SPEAKER_03:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00:And I was like, oh, absolutely. Because, you know, a good portion of that period of time, I was usually clean-shaven. And like, it's funny when cash directors get to know you in their their their way, because uh, you know, out of like the four or five I dealt with throughout the Southeast, they all had their mind made up of what I was. So one never called me in unless I had a beard. One never caught me in unless I was clean shaven and in a suit, you know. And it everybody kind of had me where they wanted me when I got something like that. There was, you know, just a straight producer call. It was like, yeah, I want you to do blah, blah, blah. And it's the weird dude. I'm like, this is like a dream. Thank you. It's like I thought you'd enjoy it. I was like, I felt like this was very much a personality. I'm like, oh yeah, he's so annoying. But the interesting part is if you have me on like a 22-minute comedy style show, or I'm playing the comedic relief that is like, for lack of better words, the person that's always on versus dramatic role or something very serious or their serious tone. You know, I'm always in the the way of thinking that depending on my my human that I am at the m at the moment, I'm probably gonna stay close to, you know, I'm not like I'm not playing the serial killer and then jumping straight to jokes. Lunchtime, I'm sorry. But during majority, if we're like, you know, back-to-back shooting, there's kind of cuts in between, but mostly we're just you know going forward, it's gonna be that human being you're dealing with. I'm not like psychotic to the point that you're like, hey, how's your daughter? I don't have a daughter. If there's an accent, the accent doesn't leave. If there's a you know a way of of behavior that goes with it, that thing's staying. So when you have me on a 22-minute comedy and I'm the one that's always on, I'm a lot. To the point that there was a scene, and uh, I remember because uh lady named Misty Tally was directing it, and she came over and um she was like, hey, because originally it was the sci-fi movie was supposed to be kind of serious, right? And like it's just not that that script. It's a it's a sci-fi shark movie. If you're squirting blood that's coming from a shark that's in the water, clearly we're past the point of this being completely serious. We're not we're not there. And they had the realization before we started shooting that, okay, yeah, this is this is totally comedy. Let's let's use it. So they gave me more freedom, and that just automatically speeds things up, right? So we get to a scene and uh Misty was like, hey, so there's supposed to be this like you know, a couple seconds of this scene where you're grabbing the guns, you're packing them up, and we're you know, you're heading off to go meet everybody. Like, okay. But because the way we're shooting, everything's going so much faster, I need to feel like like a good four to five minutes at least. Okay. What are you gonna do four to five minutes? Like, if you said I can, you're good. Are you are you okay with that? Okay, let's see. And literally they had to cut because I was I I will play. If you let me play, I'm a fucking kid in the candy store. Let me go. I'll make stuff up. I had myself wrapped in the bag. It made sense to that human being. But if you were not that human being, you're like, what is going on with you? So, you know, benefits benefits don't guess.
SPEAKER_01:What was it about that class that you referenced that changed things for you? What what stands out in your mind about that class that all of a sudden it was different?
SPEAKER_00:Truth. So so many classes for acting is about acting. And it was truth. You know, Aaron's like the only coach Will Smith's ever had. He's he's just one of those guys that has always coached like humongous people, but always did his own his own little studio and kept his classes going and doing that. So you were able to like, you know, you'd be doing your scene, and hey, Will Smith's sitting in the fucking audience. That's cool. Okay. I'm not don't tell me that again. You know, because then you're in your head. But what was so great with Aaron is the talk was never necessarily about, hey, let's talk about your technique. It was let's talk about the life that's going on, right? This is all human behavior. It's it's why my my brain has evolved to looking at the acting the way that I do, and I'll I'll get to there later. It's a weird perspective, but different. And understanding that this is human behavior, that we're not creating character, we're just allowing other human traits and and belief systems to be our own. Like I say, I probably teach more from an Eckhart Tolle book and a Tony Robbins book than I do from Uda Hagen, even though I use Uda Hagen as some of my basic technique methods. But when you understand that you're not, you know, you let go of that performance idea. Like I'm not even a big fan of the word performance, because performance might be useful if we're talking about how to make sure the audition's worthy. But when you're talking about being present in the moment of being this human, living from A to B, C to D, there is no performance, right? You once you've once you've owned the belief system, there is no more character, if you want to call it. It's you. And then you can't do anything wrong. Because it's you. You're you're you're living truthfully in the moment. You might have adopted belief systems, which by adopting those shifts you. But that's what we go back to when we were talking about, you know, human beings and actors always thinking, oh, I get to be a character, I get to be someone else. It's like, no, you don't get to escape. You can you can act like someone else, but you never get to leave you. So can you adopt or allow things that make you live differently, not act differently. For you know, for instance, someone that grows up having an abusive father, if someone raised their hand to them, they might flinch just out of out of life habit, right? They might hit back just not knowing. That's a different, a different perspective of being the human being in scenes than let me see how they would act and then try to act the way I think the scene would look. To me, that's acting. What we're doing, especially when it comes to more like films, film and TV versus like a stage, because the stage, I get it. There's a there's a I have to be a vocal to a certain extent. It's a different muscle, right? I always say like a lion and a house cat. I'm not gonna get in the ring with a lion because it's big, and I know it's big, but we're aware of that. I'll fuck with Awsky, but that cat might fuck me up because those little things are ferocious and you just never know when it's gonna happen. And that's to me, film and television. All that stuff's in there. We're not trying to show anybody, but the camera's getting everything because the intention and the reality that's going on for you. Whether that, and you know, I always say like with adults, I want it to be real. For kids, I'll just say, hey, let's let's play for real. Because kids don't need that. They can they can they can play for real. There's no gap there. So with a kid, you say let's play for real, and you say, Oh my god, that's the biggest spaceship ever. It is immediately, right? But the adult, is it what? Is it like a circle? Fuck, I don't what do you see? Oh, I don't see anything, but I'm trying to like what would we, what should we, what should we make it? Whatever you see, where are you at? Look up there. What do you see? Sky. Okay? See a spaceship. Right, but that's what I'm asking. Like, what kind of spaceship? No, no, you stop it. You know, we want our our brains have gotten to a point, and it's to me, it's always like a um it's a safety mechanism. People tend to get quiet when the conversations start if they're afraid they might say something silly. The same as like your your friends and family will always be like, Oh, you're acting. What's your backup plan? But it's not they don't mean it in that way. For them, their perspective is love, and they're like, Well, you know, I just I care for you and I want to make sure that you have something. Our perspective we see from only our POV, which is, why the fuck would you ask me that? You don't believe me? You know, because our self-deprecating mind, of course, goes in that route. So it's always for me, like, how can I get here, live here, and look out? Once I can find that POV, that's it. I'm I'm here. I don't have a um what would the character do moments anymore. There's only this is how I do it, or this is what I want. How I do it will happen in the moment. And I don't know. And Aaron to me was that. It became about the behavior and the truth of of owning these other things. How you acted in the scene, I could give a shit as long as it was truthful. And if it's truthful, it's probably great. But if it's not real, if I'm judging your acting, well, it's probably bad acting. Yeah. Yeah. And that was him. That was that was my uh my introduction to my Jewish whisperer.
SPEAKER_02:And what you describe with the UFO is when we become adults, which one day I hope to be one. Someday. Don't strive too hard. We lose the permission to play. Yeah. You know? So it's like the kid was like, Oh, look at that spaceship. It's it looks like a cigar, even though the kid wouldn't know what a cigar is. And the adult's like, I don't want to say the wrong thing and get a bad grade in the class, and I have to achieve and be great. And once you can push that away and just go back to being a kid and just saying, there it is, I'm not gonna say that's all of acting, but a good portion.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, like you get you get a script, and per the adult, that script is the rule book. And all of a sudden, he lifts his left eyebrow. What are you doing? It said to do that. But why are you doing it? It's said to do that. What what made you do that? The script? No. And I've it's funny, I've had I've had almost that exact same conversation, not about the eyebrow. What was it? I was on a set, I was doing onset coaching for a film in Alabama, I think. Or no, maybe it's Georgia. Maybe it's Georgia. It was uh it was a newer actor, and I'm not gonna say nepotism, but maybe. And and I remember the director going, hey, would you spend some just spend some time? It's you know, it's a little scene, and uh, want to make sure you know it's comfortable with what's going on. I'm like, all right, cool. So we sat down for a second and I was like, hey, what exactly is kind of the moment before here? Like what's what's going on for you? What do you mean? Well, what's what's going on, what's going on before this scene for you? I don't know, I think we're shooting after lunch. Okay. What in the script? What happens before you for you, the human being that this let's say, the character, before the character steps into this scene and says this dialogue, what is happening? Uh he's not in the script anymore than just that. I know that. I've read it. But what do you what do you think this human might be doing right before this happens? And then we work through that and it's like, oh, okay, all right, all right, so you rush into this, you're running late, and you just blurt out whatever this this line is because clearly you you're running late from something, right? Yeah. Okay, but you don't know what. Why don't we figure it out? I don't know. Let's say you were taking a shit. Okay. Let's say you're taking a shit, and then you realize time went off. You gotta go. I I would love to see you running here finishing, getting the buckle done. And then whatever happens there happens. Okay, and now all of a sudden you see this light bulb that's like, this is gonna be fun. And as soon as the fun part kicks back in, this thing becomes a whole new world. Now acting has this enjoyment versus you know, it starts as fun, but then people start getting in their head about what they have to make this scene into. And now it's not only is it stressful, but now you have expectations of what the scene's supposed to be, because in the scene it says they angrily blah blah blah. And TJ's probably heard me say this before, but that's what I call the button. There's an on button and an off button. To me, if you're trying to live up the expectations that the scene is supposed to be, because it's a an angry scene, then you've press the button at the beginning and and you start your scene ready. Right? You're in you're in angry mode. You have no clue why. Nothing's happened to make you angry. There was no moment before that brought you from anger. You just started off faking anger. But if you start off faking anger, then guess what has to happen for the rest of the scene?
SPEAKER_01:You gotta fake it.
SPEAKER_00:You have to fake it. Well, I'm not I'm not really angry. Great. Don't come in angry. But what is what if it's supposed to be angry? What happens right before the anger starts? Um she says, I can't believe you told your mother that. What did you say to what did she tell your mother? I don't know. Let's make it up. Let's make it something that fucking pissed you off. Oh, and then the light again goes off. It's like, okay. It's like great. Now, moment before, something simple. You're in you're watching, you know, Transformers with your wife, everything's going great. And then you step into this, and then that triggers those things that connected. Synapse fires, and now something actually makes you angry, and you don't have to fake it because all you had to do was just be here watching Transformers. So we start real and then let the scene or the other person, because again, for me, this this has to be us allowing everything to be real. I have to allow you to affect me. If you call me whatever name that's supposed to affect me, I have to allow that to be truthful to me. And on the regular human, most of my work is let's remove all that bullshit. I don't care what anybody calls me. You're not a child, you're not in high school. Who cares what they think of you? Just be here. That's all we could do, right? The rest of it, meh. But when we turn back to the work, and that's the only on and off button I really play with, is my actor takes everything personal because I have to allow all these things to be mine, right? We're not playing enlightened human beings. We're playing some kooky regular humans that have no idea outside of the box. They're truly just stuck in their box and they see life from their perspective. Us as humans, we can actually evolve further than that, most of us, some of us, and we can allow ourselves to see from both perspectives. While yes, you can throw me in anything and I can just truly be, and I'm good to go. If it's something specific that you give me time to then go put some time into and find that world for me, it's just a whole nother level. Because that's to me, that's when you get to see, that's when you finish the scene and someone goes, Why the hell did you do that? Felt real. That's fantastic. Let's do it again. Versus that looked well thought out. Thanks. That's not a compliment to me. Right. Right. It's just not, you know, no one like we were talking the other day, TJ. It's like no one ever says, Man, you really got all your lines right. That's where we're that's our bottom line. We're starting low.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Very cool. So let's talk to your acting community. Sure.
SPEAKER_00:You want to give me how I got to that thing?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So with Aaron, you know, I grew up Catholic. Um and like choose to teach catechism Catholic. And then moved to Los Angeles. And I've always I've always just been interested in in God and spirituality and just, you know, whatever, whatever that meant to everybody else. And I remember like I was the how this is how Catholic I was. I was rollerblading with my bishop. That came out of my mouth. And I remember saying, What do you what do you think about Buddhism? You know, I've been reading some stuff about it, and it's like, oh, it's a very it's an interesting spirituality. But you know, if you're Catholic, you don't mean you don't have to worry about it too much. But I'm but I'm human. Like there's like millions of people that believe in that. Wouldn't that shouldn't, wouldn't, you know, how would that not give me some more information? Well, I mean you can if you want to. And to me, that one little thing was like, this is what the box is like. This is what it's like living in a box. So when I started taking character with Aaron, every character I'd go to, because to me spirituality was interesting, I would always find what spirituality or what their belief system was. Because you know, most of us live we live our day-to-day life based on these belief systems that we've had since we were probably a child. We've never questioned before. And then that and people's opinions helped us become the character we are now. And we're all character, we're just not all aware of it. So when I would do those, every time I got to me, every time I got to play with another character, I was like, cool. I get to understand what the perspective is from their shoes in a deeper way than just like, oh yeah, no, I've played that character before. No, I I want to understand it from their POV to the point that if like it was something that I believed opposite of, I wanted to get to the point that I could I could argue with me to prove it wrong. And I feel like I kind of got there. So out of digging throughout the spiritualities of everything, and then that drove me to kind of the science and metaphysics, kind of wrapped in all of that. And all throughout this time, I'm still continuing my my training as an actor. I started coaching people for Erin and doing that kind of stuff for auditions and things like that. And I'd started coaching my on my own before I left Los Angeles, and then kind of started diving into some of the different spirituality, like spiritual groups out there as well. That's a lot when some of the manifestation kind of stuff was popping up. And uh, I don't know if you know of anything about Abraham Hicks, that kind of world. So I'm reading some of these other books that funny enough, when you when you go into and I look back at like stuff Aaron used to give us back in the day, gives you like this big book of pamphlets and different papers and stuff. And I went back to like the reading list years later, and a few of these books that I eventually stumbled on myself, and I was like, oh, I figured life out. He had in there, and I'm like, ah, that fucker still has me. But from reading and going through these things, I it started affecting the way I coach. So when I'm coaching actors, it always came back to a level of that belief system versus just like this is character and this is outside of you. I would stop going, hey, how would you do this if? And I would start saying, let's quiet down and go inside and see what this feels like. Because when you start getting tapped in, you know, to me, we're all we're all a portion, we're all a part of this, this God source, whatever you want to call it. So if I can start tweaking these things, you start widening your perspective. And for acting, when you're trying to play any character, I don't care if it's Hitler, you have to be able to find a place that you are doing something from the standpoint that you believe it is good. And that is the hardest part for everyone to get to. But if you can get to that, then it also immediately drops all of your judgment. And then when that's gone, you start looking at the whole world with a whole new set of eyeballs because you don't have the judgment of going, oh, they're doing it because they're evil, they're doing it because they're bad, they're doing it because they want. All of a sudden, you're like, they're doing it because they think that's good somehow. And you start being able to look at that from a whole new way, and then your own life drops this huge portion of judgment that you grew up with because it's habit. You you can't not find judgment in some way, shape, or form being around other humans. It just is what it is, right? So the more I kept kind of figuring those things out, I started adjusting how I was coaching, and my the actors were getting tons out of it for their work. But I have I have like psychiatrists and therapists that were coming back and be like, you know, I use some of these things in my work now. Like, really? Yeah. Because it it it would help people find a deeper part of themselves that they weren't comfortable finding before. Or if you think about the performance psychology, if I can play the person that I think I hate and I can truly try to see something in that perspective, all of a sudden that hate's gone, and all of that weight that made you feel like shit all the time is also gone. You can start forgiving people for stuff that you might have thought was the worst thing you've ever thought they could do. And now you see it from a different point of view, and you're like, they didn't know any better. The example we used earlier about the the abusive dad, the abusive dad wasn't hitting his kid because he thought that was the best thing to do. He was doing it because he thought that was the best way to help him learn, or it was his shortcomings at the time. So while that doesn't give justification for hitting a kid, sure, it gives you a perspective to understand where that person was that allows you to forgive them, that also allows you to go, huh, that was weighing on me more than them. And it's just the the the mentality and the mindset that would get changed through some of these things that made me start going, I want to, I want to offer this to humans more than necessarily just actors. Because you know, when it's in that the actor box, people just automatically go, Oh, yeah, I don't really want to be an actor. And like coaching CEOs and things, as soon as they heard the word, they're like, I don't need an acting coach. Oh, well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm I'm really just trying to help you stop doing that acting bullshit that you're doing on camera that I see all over your social media.
SPEAKER_01:What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean you're you're kind of acting professional when you get on your social media, because I didn't see that guy in this meeting at all. Well, yeah, because you have to be professional when you do you? Because if I if I were gonna hire you, I'd want to know that the person that shows up that I'm finding, I feel like I know, not all of a sudden is a completely different human being. All right, we can we can try this. And then all of a sudden there's a little bit of like, a little scratch of the surface. But yeah, so going through all that, I wanted to, after pandemic and all that cray cray that went through, my wife went through some health stuff and I took a huge break try just taking care of you know home and family and kiddo. And then as I started coming back to this, I was like, yeah, I'd love to just open the studio again and start doing that. Because my most fun was having a full-on studio here in New Orleans from audition, audition technique to a beginning technique going through like actual scene study and going up from an intermediate and advanced and then an actual masterclass. That's the most fun for me. I I enjoy being in the thick of it, and you have a full set that you get to play with to be a human because that's when you get to see all of the actual things that happen. When you have to actually get up and walk over to do something, all of a sudden you're like, Since when do you walk like that? What do you mean? Why are you walking so funny? I've always walked like that. No, no, no, no. Maybe it's character. Mm-mm. No, that was a good try, but that's definitely not character. You know, it's like you get to see the full body do stuff. Whereas an audition, we have a little bit of a a box we can only play in. So there's a limit. Now, you have a room, so hopefully your camera can and can view you enough that we can do a little bit of a scene study from from being on camera now, too, which works to an extent. And uh I was trying to figure out how to do that again, but you know, then you gotta pay for a studio, you gotta have this, and it's overhead. And I'm like, I don't, I don't really want to, I don't want actors to be the industry's not going crazy. The last thing I want is anyone having to go, you know, pay for expensive classes. So I'm like, how can we, how can I find a happy medium? So I started Tilt originally was here's a god-awful amount of hours from all the workshops I've done over the years. They'll be in there. Here's courses on full-on technique that also kind of combines that manifestation actor-tractor method that I've kind of figured out over the years. It's in there. And then there's a fast-tracked acting, and I kind of set it to where it's like, you know, when you first start acting and you start auditioning because you think that's what you're supposed to do first, but you have no clue what you're doing, and you don't want to go take a class and actually learn a full-on technique that takes way too long. I want to act now. So the fast-tracked is like here, here's like the kindergarten version of how to understand what you're doing so you don't make a complete fool of yourself. And you can get some headshots and resumes, and it looks like a professional setup while you're going through an actual technique class and learning how to actually act until you get to an audition class and a master class and all that stuff. I had all that and I was like, yeah, I can just offer this 47 bucks a month, and we'll do like, you know, once a week, we'll jump on for live session. And that way I can kind of help people where they're at and whatever. And then I got antsy, like four days in. I want to teach. I want to, I want to be in the class, I want to do something. So when she was like, well, why don't you just add a couple, you know, some live sessions where you guys can still do, you know, audition technique and that kind of stuff in the group. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I'll just do that. So like two days passed by and then I I put it to 99 bucks a month because I had adjusted stuff. I'm like, all right, if we're gonna be doing classes, they're gonna be here a lot and it's it's worth it, so I'll switch it to this. Plus, you know, when you have something too cheap, the mind's just like that's it's just whatever. I'll show up when I want to. And then Michelle's like, so do you adjust thing? I was like, yeah, yeah, I made there's like eight live sessions now. Eight? I thought you were just gonna add like a couple. I would there's a couple. There's a couple more. So now it's eight live sessions a week. But like, you know, two of them are you know, like 30 to 45 minute sessions. We're doing some kind of mindset stuff and structuring out your week, make sure you got your your goals and kind of some accountability stuff, because that's some of what I do when I'm consulting for coaches and stuff. And then, you know, midweek was like a hump day Wednesday, so we just meet up in the mornings again. How's those three things going? Let's finish up the week strong. What are we working on? And then the way I'm off at the beginning as well. So it's just kind of two of them are more us chatting, going through that, and then we've got some actual kind of let's bring your work and work on something, and then kind of an improv version of it. Because to me, being truthfully living in the moment and doing something with someone that is, you know, given circumstances not necessarily yours, that's acting. We still have to work on the same muscle. So if we can get you feeling the muscle and you don't have to worry about dialogue or getting things right, because you know. The brain and the actor when it comes to getting your dialogue right, all of a sudden's like the most important thing. And I'm like, that's literally the last, the last thing I worry about. I use the dialogue because I have to understand the scene, character, the terms, who these people are, what's going on, who am I, all that stuff. But I'm not trying to memorize any of that because then it becomes that like you just memorized a song, and now you can only say it back if the tune's the same. And that's when you get those actors that are just giving you the same one over and over. And I used to love those actors in class because I would fuck some stuff up. I'd step on your feet or just do something to just totally ruin the scene. Some people love working with me, other people is like, I'm not, I'm not, mm-mm, not tonight. But yeah, so I built that out, and uh it's still got all the courses and all the other stuff, and then there's some sessions where you'll be you'll have me kind of live. You can post as many like auditions that you've done in the section, and we can kind of talk about it by there. Say you've you know you've got an audition due Thursday, but you want to get something on tape Monday and get some feedback, cool, get it on there, throw it under that section, I'll give you some feedback, and then you can do a retake if there's some stuff to work on.
SPEAKER_01:The way I've been describing it is it's more than just acting classes and and one-on-one. It's a it's a community uh of like-minded people because there's a chat section in there, and I mean, just the other day I was in there looking around and you you messaged me, and we ended up jumping on a call and and had a a virtual session right then. Yeah. And there's other people posting comments, and I you know, I already made another friend. It's it is, it's a community, and it's it's really cool.
SPEAKER_00:I'm enjoying it. Yeah, and let's be real, it's 2025. The political spectrum has people at their each other's necks for the most ridiculous shenanigans. So I wanted somewhere that we could all have some positive conversation. And I wanted the ability to kick someone out if I have to. Because it's, you know, look, we we've it's a it's a tough world out there. Um, this industry, the way it's set up, is can be beastly if you don't have the right perspective or the right setup or the right mentor telling you, you know, the right way to look at some of this stuff. I mean, you we're we literally signed up to go hope people approve us for our art every day, sometimes five to six times a day. That can be grueling if you don't have the right mindset around it. And I think to me, the mindset is probably 80% of what we do. Because if I can get your mind straight, then you can be present, you can be in the moment because your fear level of trying to get it right like the scene should be or the casting director would like is mm gone. Nobody's on a pedestal. Because if you put casting directors or directors or anybody else on a pedestal, you have to look up and they have to look down. I don't want nobody looking down at me. I will pass on an audition if it's just not for me. I don't want to waste my time, I don't want to waste their time. I don't, I got other stuff I'd rather do. I don't, I'm not gonna go, it's practice, you should do it anyway. No, that's good. I'm good. I'll practice if I want to practice, but I'm not gonna go through the like you've got two hours to get it done and get it on and sent off. And nah, that anxiety stays with me for the rest of the week. That takes away from my kid, that takes away from my wife. I'm good. And it you you guys weren't there, but like even when we had person, like in live, in-person classes, I never hesitated. Like, if it was, you know, we had scene study that night, if if we were, if I had a good three to four hours ahead of time, and if something was going on for me energetically, and I was like, look, I'm not in the place that I would want to be to bring to my students, then I'm gonna let you know ahead of time. Hey, this class will not count against you, but we're gonna we're gonna move class next week and uh we'll see you then. Because I don't want to, I mostly from understanding metaphysics and the spirituality and that connection that we have. When I get into a scene with you, we are exchanging energy. If you're both really good actors, I feel what you feel and you feel what I feel. My first example is when you come into class, I will line people up along the wall, not the wall, because then they're backed up, but just in front of the class, right? And we'll get into a line. And I usually do this when we're starting like a brand new workshop because people don't have the context of what acting is versus being truthful. And I say, I want, I want you guys to understand this. I want you to energetically feel what the difference is. I'm gonna tell you all that I hate you right now. So just pre-warning. And I'll walk down the room, walk walk down each person, take a second. I hate you. I hate you, I hurt you, right? I'm hating them. And then I finish, I'm like, all right, anybody take that personal? No? Cool. That's acting. Ready? Now we're gonna do the other one. And I'll walk through with the intention. I hate you. I fucking hate you. I really hate you. And I would just walk down and I'd step back. Cool. Anybody take that personal? I hate you. That was gross. People were just like, that was that was horrible. That felt so nasty. Yeah. That's what it should feel like when you're in the present moment of a scene. You should feel if someone is a horrible human, you should feel the horrible human, not the guy you had lunch with.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And it's gonna feel funky because that you don't have to talk. I can walk down that same row and not say a damn thing, and you can feel what I feel. And if you can do that, now we can worry about dialogue. Because you have an intention, you know what you're after, and you're gonna affect people. When we when I would coach kids, like if we had to get something fast and on on tape quick, I would kind of I I I call a character into them, like if it's a scene where they're dealing with a monster or whatever, I would let myself take a little monstery out and I say, look, all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna take as much as this, so it's probably gonna scare you a little bit so that we can be in it for the moment. I'm gonna stay back here behind camera, so you know it's not gonna feel I'm not gonna close to you, but I want you to know that I'm gonna try to give you as much as I can so you're a little bit scared.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And they you know, it was fun for them. And every once in a while they'd be like, that one was scary. That's probably our take, though. Because they knew they were like, that was oh yeah, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, I'll be right back. But they got to feel that enough that they didn't have to act. And once you can feel that little moment of like, oh man, that was truthful, and then you're hooked. Because once you can feel that truthful stuff, and that's I I remember being in Aaron's class, and it was back to back. I had gone from his like beginner technique class to his advanced scene study class in two or three months or something like that. And uh, I had finished a scene, my scene partner, and we both sit down. He's very much like Billy Crystal. So he he sits at his spine and goes, Dang. You're one of the best actors I have. Thanks, Aaron. What um what do you mean by that? Like, I'm not joking. You're one of the best actors I have. Go on. It's like you have made it this fast to my advanced scene study class, and I just realized you're still acting. I didn't I I I didn't know. I just realized it. That's how good of an actor you are. You faked it that far that you were in my advanced scene study class, and I didn't know you were still faking it. And I'm like, okay. Thanks for the compliment. Let's do the scene again. He's like, okay. So we did the scene again. And for whatever reason, that clicked so clear to me that I stepped out, got back, completely ran through my moment before my head, and whatever felt was felt. And then we started the scene. And we finished, and he goes, How was that? I don't remember shit. Good. Welcome to the class. I was like, but that was it. Like as soon as you felt that and you realized you weren't, you weren't, you weren't doing anything because you were in it. Like you don't, you don't finish having a conversation before you meet your wife and you're like, all right, I'm gonna go to the bathroom, you get down to sit in the toilet, and you're like, yeah, it was a good scene. You're not, you know. You're just not. Now there's sometimes I like Brian, I you we probably shoot for the good scene. But most of the time, you don't walk away from a conversation thinking, yeah, I acted well today.
SPEAKER_02:Right. But that was. Speaking of walking away, yeah. We're gonna have to call it.
SPEAKER_00:Call it, call it. Yeah, I don't even know what time it is. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the second version of the the time that that thing came back around to me. I'm in Atlanta. I was I think I had drove up for callbacks for something, booked something, drove back to New Orleans to shoot, no sleep, drove right back to Atlanta for callbacks for Iron Man something, maybe three or something. And I'm in the room, and I you know, I was running it on and off on the way there. My wife and I stopped to somewhat take a nap in the seediest motel. Like I I put I I put a blanket on the floor so my dog didn't walk on it. And uh I go into the call into these callbacks or the audition, I think it's the first round, and uh I meet casting and I'm just like somewhat wired on caffeine, maybe some sleep. My brain's not there whatsoever. And I'm just I had told them I'd be there, so I'm like, look, I'm I'm a word guy. If I gave you my word, I'm gonna be there. So I go in. Like, all right, nice to meet you, Dean. Um, we're really excited. We've been looking forward to seeing you. Uh blah, blah, blah. You have any questions? No, no, let's let's go whenever you're ready. Okay, let's do it. So they start the scene, and I just acted like a motherfucker. I'm acting, and I'm like, I'm probably on like line five, and all of a sudden I just went and then did the rest of the scene as a fing human being. And I they probably thought I was so bipolar. Because in my head, it just clicked to me. I was like, you, what are you doing? And I just turned off, locked back into her, heard her line, and kept going. But as a human, and I could only imagine, because it probably went from like clown character to like, this is a human. This is a human that just stepped into my office. And that brought me back around to the Aaron Spiser time where he was like, Yeah, best acting ever. And that was not acting, like it was it was way beyond the worst. And I got back in the car and I told Michelle and she was like, Yeah, but it's probably one of those times where you know you like you think you did really bad. I was like, No, no. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. No, that was that was bad. That's like a I don't know that I want him coming back because that creeped me out bad. That's how bad that one was. And she's like, Are you sure? Like, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Did you hear from him after that?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Nope. Nope. Iron Man definitely got cast without me. But I am looking forward to working with John with uh Robert Downey Jr. someday. I want to do a Wing Chung movie with him. Oh, nice. Yeah. Martial artist, and we we're in a similar thing there. So mostly I just wanted to hit me. Insurance purposes.
SPEAKER_02:And on that note.
SPEAKER_01:Excellent. Well, Dean, thank you for joining us. It's been a long time coming. And I want to see you have if you have some socials that you want to mention. No, all right.
SPEAKER_00:I don't want people. Don't find me. Thanks for joining us. No, because no, TJ's already gonna go try to find stuff already. Uh yeah, everything, everything is at the Dean West. Uh, pretty easy. Even even the website is at thedeanwest.com and you can find everything from there. Facebook's the same, and I think the only difference is LinkedIn, but you know, actors don't do that. Yeah. Actors don't do that. Actors don't do that.
SPEAKER_01:And they can find the uh they can find Telqua right down below. That was articulate. Brian and I talked about a word.
SPEAKER_00:What about everybody you take with our word that we open this with?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, that threw me off completely. I'm still trying to scrabble that one out in my brain. But yeah, they can find the Tilt Acting School in the link down below.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Come join us. We'll play for a bit. I expect to see Brian in there soon. He's got to bring me this uh this audition he told me you can't share yet.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh my god, the pressure. The pressure.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, you brought you told me Cajun Wizard. I'm like, yeah, I want to see that. Cajun Jedi. Oh yeah, I want to s I want to see the Cajun Jedi. We'll we'll record the sessions for sure so that we can we can share. You can share it with everyone later.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely. Extra feedage, uh footage, uh feedage? Extra feetage on the DVD and the blue.
SPEAKER_01:See, we talk for a living.
SPEAKER_00:Man, it's a good thing. Again, there's like a multiple personality situation I have going on up here, and most of the time they're they're over here in the closet, and I keep them there safely. But they've all got accents, like my kid deals with them, and uh we didn't touch on any of those, so we made it through two episodes and you didn't meet any of them. That's that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01:We might have to do part three coming up.
SPEAKER_00:Go go find the movie End Trip, E-N-D-T-R-I-P, and there's there's um some of them that show face in there. I'll say it that way.
SPEAKER_02:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Other than that, thank you guys. This was a pleasure. Had a good time. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:You're welcome. We had a blast. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:We need to we also need to plug your podcast, Dean.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sure. Uh come find me everywhere, uh, the Dean West Perspective. And uh it's it's all kind of psycho babble from the industry stuff all the way to my my spiritual weirdness that my woo-woo comes together in one place, so feel free to check me out.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you've had a pretty eclectic gathering of guests on your show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it started off where I was like, yeah, I want to do something for industry stuff, but then you know, my again, you've heard now what my mind goes to when it talks about acting. To me, acting in life and everything is just a a combined thing. So I I couldn't just go there because if you're taking in your your regular life and your health and the stuff that's going on in our world and us as actors, all of that to me is combined because we're affected by everything and we're working on the truthfully creating life. So why would I why would I want to put that in a box?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Go online and find his woo-woo. Woo-woo.
SPEAKER_00:You want a real weird, a weird one? Oh man. Um yeah, I'm gonna say it. So when I was a kid, when I was a kid, uh when I was a kid, uh I didn't want to wipe my own butt. Do you think we're going there?
SPEAKER_02:Here we go.
SPEAKER_00:So I would uh instead of like I was embarrassed to be like, hey, somebody can wipe my butt unlike a unlike my five-year-old. And so from the bathroom, my grandma would always just hear, woo-hoo.
SPEAKER_03:Woo woo.
SPEAKER_00:I can only expect when I'm gonna get walking in public now.
SPEAKER_02:But yeah, that's what I told people to go find online, and we're out of here. Goodbye. Good night, folks.
