Michael Beckett > Quotes

“Watch the actors who are on a very high frequency, very alert to everything and very much in touch with their feelings -- simple. Acting should be economical and simple. It’s not complicated. So many actors make it complicated, fill it with screaming, yelling, crying, a lot of emotion but no real inner action, no real focus. Actors who have good technique are pursuing a very simple objective. They know what they’re listening for, they know what they’re looking for. They know what the obstacles are that stand in the way and what they’re doing to get what they want. They allow themselves to respond right off their partner, spontaneously.

Acting is not difficult. It’s simply a matter of defining the action.”
― Michael Beckett

“Seriousness is a subtle form of violence, it becomes a living hell. It’s dressed up to look like commitment or caring, but it has a sense of “get” in it. It creates ego. Really there’s no place to go—where are we going, we’ve already arrived! That’s the joke. We’ve already arrived, we’re here—it’s beautiful. This is paradise. Our psychological hell is just our wrong way of thinking. “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
― Michael Beckett, Acting: Walking the Tightrope of an Illusion - Zen Lessons for Actors in Life and Onstage

“Why do I act? Because if you’re interested in money, don’t become an actor. If you’re interested in power, don’t become an actor. Get a seat on the Stock Exchange, become a CEO. Become respectable! If you want power, you become respectable. You’ll have lots of money. But if you’re not interested in that, then you can become an actor.”
― Michael Beckett, Acting: Walking the Tightrope of an Illusion - Zen Lessons for Actors in Life and Onstage