Film Class this week was an amazing learning in that sometimes I become too reliant on my natural talent, and this overconfidence keeps me from being prepared at the level I need to be to become the best. A great actor never takes a day off and the last few weeks, I had mastered my “Greed is Good” monologue, but wasn’t concentrating enough on a second one. I wanted to have one in my back pocket that was more 3 dimensional than the one I wrote that I used in the last class (“For Me”), so I decided to use one from Great Expectations that was similar. I didn’t start memorizing it until yesterday, and it showed in class because I wasn’t as sharp or polished as I usually am, and it needed some coaching.

In acting, the words are the boat, but once you own the boat, you have to understand how to sail it. I excel in buying and getting the boat ready, but I wasn’t ready to sail it until Mike Lemon really broke me down and took me to “show” level. This week was ultra tough, because he made us recite both monologues at the same time to 2 people, and in order to kill this exercise, you have to have both down pat. In the beginning, I came off robotic because I was worrying too much about the words and not screwing up, but by the end of the exercise, Mike gave me “two thumbs up”, and 2 of my classmates told me I was at A+ level, but I hate not wow-ing people from the start. One of my classmates said, “You were tremendous at the end”, and Mike called the last rendition “Effortless”. I feel like with my ability to break down mistakes (I was great at breaking down film in basketball), I could be an amazing acting coach because I see all the little nuances that others don’t.

This initial disappointment made me come home and practice for another 2 hours, and by the end of the night I felt like my performance was better than the one in the movie. I needed a night like tonight to remind that me that I am human, and that even great superstars like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant have bad shooting nights. It’s the effort that you put in behind the scenes that will make you the best, and no one works harder than Arthur Kade at his craft.

Here is a video from class, and the finished version after 2 more hours of work at home: