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The Breathing Technique Actors Never Talk About · Lydia Nicole's Acting Smarter Now Podcast

• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: It is important to be able to uh and I love I love what you said uh because it sounds so simple yet we forget to do it, which is breathe, breathe, let it go.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I always like to um the exercise I use for myself is you say I'm no good, I am fabulous.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: So as the the the thought, the negative thought that's coming in, I I say it and then I go, I'm letting you go.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Get the hell out of here.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And but but it's how do you you know as an actor that that is such a powerful tool to be able to hear that comment, say it, and send it away.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I I banish you, I banish you.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be here, however, whatever words you need in order to regain uh control, regain your your focus, get centered and and expel the lie.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because they're lies, they're lies.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know what you're capable of until you do it.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so to to hang out in the I don't know if this is gonna work, I don't, I don't think I can do it.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's like stretching, you know, even if all you did was stretch uh one inch, that's more than you did before.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: And to give yourself to give yourself that pat on the back, hey, I did, I did one more than I could before.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: I did a lap more than I did before.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: I did a vocal exercise, uh, one more than I could do before.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's giving yourself uh the praise, the love.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about nurturing yourself.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Those are ways to nurture yourself, to love on yourself.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: So, oh my God, I did that.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I actually took a class with Ingrid.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and I didn't die.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: I did not die.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: There was no accident in the room.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I actually completed it.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a what an excellent thing.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that also um helps us in our in our craft is is the vocals, the body, the mind.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's all connected.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: You can't act.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, um, I I had an acting teacher who was very big on not being a uh talking head.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: He would always say, you know, TV and film uh sometimes can be very detrimental to the actor because they get stuck in the talking head of it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's uh acting is never about your talking head, it is about movement, it is about you know, in life, we're moving, we're doing things, you know, but when we act, we go, I just want you to know that this is and we forget we we disassociate our head from our body, yeah.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so it is um it is uh the reminder of the exercises that that to do to bring everything together, the instrument to bring it together.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when someone is in performance anxiety and they're speaking it out, what can they do body-wise to also help that word, that that breath?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: What can they do in their body to uh shake them up a little bit?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Anything physically, anything.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I said before, use your shoulders, add your head, check the back of your knees, you know, depending on what the situation is, you know, if you can walk around unless you're blocked a certain way, you know.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, and and by the way, too, you can do there.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're familiar, but there was this um jazz dance teacher in New York, Luigi, um, and he was uh he had his mantra was never stop moving, never stop moving.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you would have all these movements for the warm-up, but then when you're still, you still feel your body moving.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, right before you go on stage or before you start to shoot something, you know, that that uh uh suggestion of running in place, you know, do something, do crazy dance, you know, run around, do your head, do touch your toes, whatever you can to energize the body and release the body before you go on.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Jumping up and down.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I did stand-up for many, many years.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And every time before I would go on, there were two things that I would do.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing was when I would feel all the energy in my body, I would, I would instead of going, I'm anxious, I would go, I'm excited because the body doesn't know the difference, right?
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: The body can tell the difference between anxiety and excitement.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I can I can uh give it a push.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like instead of actors saying, I have to do this audition, I get to do this audition.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: How fantastic is that?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: I get to do this audition.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: They call me to audition.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Woo! Not oh god, I gotta do an audition again.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're an actor.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: That is what you do, so do it and do it to the best of your ability.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that I used to do in my stand-up before I would get in front of the audience, especially when it was an audience that was not feeling any of the comedians, because that's when you start to panic, like, oh my god, yeah, that the so-and-so, who's a great comic, just died on stage, and I've got to follow that.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I would just start jumping up and down and going, oh, this is so exciting.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited, I'm so excited.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then go on stage and just go with my energy and remind myself, I am the thermostat, not the thermometer.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: My job here is not to take your temperature, but to set the temperature.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I am the conductor and we are going where I want to go.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Psychologically, it changes the room because you're not.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the things I learned, and and I learned this through stand-up, not acting, but through stand-up, I learned that when you got in front of an audience, it was like if you were scared, the audience smelted.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was like being in the water with sharks.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And when they smelt, you were afraid they would heckle you, they would just stare at you.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: You, you know, it was never good to get on stage and go, I want the laughs, because they could smell that a mile away.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: But if you came on stage full of yourself and just uh coming on stage to have fun, whether they listened, whether they liked you, whether they went with you, it turned the room.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: The energy just turned.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: No matter how bad uh of a night it was before, where all the other comics went down in flames.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: If you came and you brought your energy, yeah, your center, it changed the room.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because everyone wants to be directed, you know, even in auditions.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we don't have as many today because of the pandemic, but but even in self-tapes, if you bring yourself and you do your work, you will you will stand out as an actor.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, in auditions, it's all about um uh actors get in trouble when they are fearful.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: They come in the room taking the temperature of the casting director or whoever's in the room, and and then you you leave, I didn't do well.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: But if you come in the room going, I'm coming in to be of service, hmm, let me try this, let me see how this works.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then you leave, you have accomplished what you wanted.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't about you, it was how could I serve the peace?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the same with self-tape.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's so important.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: How you won over a room, how you did that within yourself.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's really great.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, one thing that I teach people, especially when someone's feeling insecure or shy, I have them be a character so that they're not themselves, you know, they're a superhero, they're whatever it is that the queen, the king, you know, that they come in and they're going to command the room.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're saying, you make that temperature.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: So then they make that temperature by being that that person who is in charge, you know.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I have that too when I'm especially if I'm doing a workshop, you know, with a large group of people or something, or whatever, you know, if I'm coming in front of a group of people, I I love that you say be of service.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I'm here to be of service, and I'm the boss.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I'm talking about here, you know.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I and so, and I can help people, and that's what we're here to do and to share and connect.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that all the things that we said about, you know, running in place, breathing, uh, the mindset.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another thing I wanted to say about winning over a room, which you don't need to know because you know how to do it, but um uh I always give this tip.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, if someone comes out and there's say, like one person, you know, sometimes there's like, you know, someone's like looking at you, like, oh yeah, show me what you can do, or or they're texting, or you know, don't make that mean anything and do not try to win that person over.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: You go, there'll be at least one person who's totally in your corner, and you start doing whatever your performance is or your talk to that person, and that creates an energy between the two of you, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then, oh, that person over there, oh, they're they're with us.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, cool.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, now that person.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And the next thing you know, people feel that energy and they want to be a part of it.