How can we use this time to play? How can we use this time to create? What is this little movie that we can create together? When auditioning is 98% of the job? How can we find enjoyment and empowerment in it? And that's how I kind of got into coaching, was because I would go hang out with friends and we'd play.
Welcome to Inside the Audition, the podcast that helps actors master the art and science of auditions so that you can stand out for all the right reasons and none of the wrong reasons, and ultimately book your next lead role. Role roll role. I'm your host, Joey Freddy Larsen. Make sure to connect with me on the old IG at Joey Freddy Larsen. That's at Joey Freddy Larsen. You can slip into the DMs.
You can ask me a question, you can suggest a topic for an upcoming episode, or you can apply to be our next guest. And remember here on Inside the Audition, in every episode, we're going to dive deep into audition experiences, advice, strategies, industry insights, and inspiring stories from top actors, directors, producers, casting directors and film and theatre industry pros.
So whether you're an emerging actor, maybe just getting starting it started out or you're a seasoned vet, you're a pro, you've been doing this for 30 years and you're looking to get to the next level. Inside the audition is your backstage pass to audition. Success. Inside the audition is sponsored, of course, by the monologue of the Month Club. I'm going to say it again.
We're sponsored by the monologue of the Month Club, which is your ultimate resource for professional and emerging actors who want to attract agents, attract casting directors, attract more of their audience, and ultimately book your next lead role. Now, how does it work? What the heck is the monologue of the Month Club? Every month you're going to choose a new made for you monologue from a curated list of monologues that we
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You can show it to your agent, show it to casting director, and ultimately use that new, brand new piece of powerful work to attract your next lead role. So the monologue of the Month Club is your golden ticket to your next lead role. To start that journey, you can go to monologue. Monologue club. And if you don't know how to spell monologue, I think there's a few different versions, but this is the full one. I'm going to spell it m o n o. That's mono m o n o l o u e.
Club monologue club. As I'm saying, this right now is like maybe I need a shorter website monologue club. We'll link it up. You guys will figure it out. But getting to this episode, we've got another installment on our special Coach's Corner episodes. Our guest today is a Nicaraguan slash Canadian classically trained actor, director and writer with nearly two decades of diverse training and collaboration in both theater and film.
Drawing from experience at hallowed institutions like the Stratford Festival, the Los Angeles Theater Academy, the Theatre Movement Bazaar in New York City, the Second City in Hollywood and Toronto, and my favourite, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She brings a dynamic and cross-cultural perspective to her craft, and our guests today fosters a supportive and challenging environment where actors feel empowered.
Give some inside the audition love to our guest, also one of our new coaches at Actor's Audition Club in the monologue of the month club. Alexandra Fios. Hi. Fios. Did I hit it right? You nailed it. You nailed. It. Yes. Welcome. Good to see you. Thank you for being here. Welcome to Actors Audition Club and welcome to Inside the Audition podcast. How are you? How are you? I'm doing great. How are you doing today, Joey? I'm fantastic. We're in podcast land. Uh, for those who are listening,
you can go back. I don't know when they're going to be released, but I just recorded an episode with Saul Zahavi. Now I get to have a chat with Alex. So let's go straight into it. I'm going to throw you straight to the wolves. I would love to hear one of your favorite. Uh, if you have an interesting a fun. It could be a nightmare.
Uh, one of those, uh, audition stories that has some lessons that you learned in it. Tell us about a memorable, memorable audition experience and what you learned from it. Um, I love I think one of my favorite audition stories is one that was an audition for me. I read for my sister to, like, just for, like a one liner, like she was having a stables commercial and it was just like, oh, I have to do these commercial auditions. Let's just go through it. And I was just reading for her.
Nothing else but just as her reader. Um, the director called me in for the callback, but this is like kind of post Covid time, so we weren't sure for like, oh my God, these casting directors are getting so cheap they don't want to hire their own readers. So I didn't realize I was like, actually auditioning in the callback until we got in the room. And I look at my sister and I go,
I think I'm auditioning with you. And we got in the room and the director called me and he goes, oh, yeah, you're the actress that I called back in because of her voice. Because my voice was so alive, he didn't even see what I looked like. Thank God I was also an actor. But he had like, he thought my voice was so alive that he called me in for a callback. And we ended up booking the staples commercial together, my sister and I, and we didn't
even have like an actual bit. The staples, like clients liked our chemistry so much that they created a little storyline for the two of us to have as well. And so I always loved telling that story because it was something that like, even though it was something for somebody else, even though it was a commercial, we still tried to treat it with everything we had, and even though it wasn't for me, I still gave it my all. And then I ended up booking a commercial with my sister on it,
which was really special. That's huge. That's amazing. That's one of the greatest experiences of your life, probably. Now your sister is also an actor. She was. Just. Yes. She's also she's actually at the Stratford Festival right now in their Birmingham Conservatory for the next two years. So she's in The Winter's Tale and The Trojan Women this season. Look, look. Soon to a new episode with Alex's sister. I'll check her out. We'll have. Her. Her name is Katerina Filos.
Katerina and Alexandra Fios. Okay. Have you guys ever performed otherwise together? Like, do you stage things? We haven't performed together, but I was in a play that she had written and directed called Morning After in the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2023, and that was an acclaimed experience we produced, worked together.
She was one of my producers for Start Swimming in the Hollywood Fringe in 2019. She was like a first year theater student and came all the way out to LA with me to help produce this fringe show, which was amazing. So we've done a little bit of writing together, but we've never gotten to like, actually act like on stage together. So that's something that probably we'll do when we're a little older. This is what we do. We manifest things into the world here at Inside the audition.
So it's out there. And so it is. It's already happened on some other quantum time. Exactly. Yeah. I want to address something that you said there. Like, obviously you were you were working with her. You were your job was to help her. You weren't thinking, oh, if I do a really good job, I'm going to get a call back. Yeah. That's a crazy thing to happen. But I want to address that. And it's something that I've always felt strongly about here at Actor's Audition Club.
In traditional audition scenarios where all the actors are going into a casting room. Usually there's one reader reading, and often their instruction is just to read as flat as they can, like, oh, barely. You'd barely even call it acting. It's just kind of a flat read. And I think part of the reason casting directors do that is so that everyone's just got an equal playing field. And the only variable in every in every tape is the actor who's on camera. Uh, and then you can see what they do.
Like even things like timing and, um, vocal variation. Like, often you'll hear the reader flat. Now, in the age of self tapes. I'm of the mindset that that is not the right way to go, because I feel that I do a better job on camera when the actor on the other side is alive, like a real human being in that scenario. Now, of course, the actor off camera is not going to be upstaging you. You don't want their voice to be louder than yours. But when I when I watch a self-tape and it's cooking,
it's fast, it's got some pace. They're ping pong ING back and forth. The person on the other side is actually saying their lines with feeling and intention, rather than the monotone read that brings the whole thing to life. So I can't imagine how when you're watching that, it's subconscious, you watch something and you're like, oh,
that was alive and back and forth. And I was hearing two strong voices and human beings rather than an actor, and then a monotone reader, and then an actor and a monotone reader. And you're trying to imagine how this is going to sound when we put two, two actual actors together. So all that to say, um, I think the key is to have a strong reader who's there with you acting, not just being a monotone person. How do you feel about that, Alex?
I think, I mean, I think acting is not, um, meant to be a silo. Even like solo shows have a whole crew. And the audience is your, you know, support is your your partner, in a sense. I, I think coming from training where my teachers didn't, like, let us do the scene and then gave us notes, they had sometimes obviously, especially when we were almost
in performance mode. But I had like voice and movement coaches that would yell out corrections as we were going through it. And I also got that from my dance training. If anybody's in dance like, I had like half like a decade and a half of dance training, and you don't get to stop and think about the correction they're yelling at, you know, point your foot like, faster. Get it out, get out, get it out. And you don't have time to overthink
what they're saying to you. And so I know I do that with my coaching as well. And I think with having a reader that's as alive as you helps you not overthink it. You don't have time to go, oh, if I did this, you just are actually instinctively reacting and responding because every single scene there's
someone who's acting and reacting. And I think that's like, it's such a gift now because I've also been in the era of like you having to commute five hours from Ottawa to Toronto to do an audition in person. And yeah, you're there and you're like, I just lost ten hours of my day to do an audition with someone who could not say the lines properly, but it's okay. I did my best. You know, like having to to
almost overcompensate sometimes. And sometimes I know actors who felt like they lost the job because they had to overcompensate because the reader, um, couldn't support them, which is which was their job. But now we have this, like, we kind of lucked out in that sense, where we do get to play with in in a time where we're all like, boo, self tapes. This sucks. The least we can do is go, okay, what are the positives? How can we use this time to play?
How can we use this time to create? What is this little movie that we can create together when auditioning is 98% of the job? How can we find enjoyment and empowerment in it? And that's how I kind of got into coaching, was because I would go hang out with friends and we'd play. We'd go, how insane can we make this tape? How much further, how much deeper can we go? We have nothing to do all day. Let's, let's like really get into it. Let's do that with Shakespeare.
Do that with other monologues, do that with theater where the repetition is so present. Um, so I, I think that the reader being able to just support is so important. And I know I do that with my coaching. If the few clients of yours that I've been able to work with so far know that when I coach, I like I get it with you. I'm also an actor with In the Room With You.
I'm also reminding you of the circumstances, the severity of the situation, the lightness of the situation, the play, or, you know, like that helping you build the world as best I can. And so I think that's all part of the reader is like, the actor's got a lot of work to do now as tech, as director, as coach, as producer, as editor for these tapes. Now, if you, as the reader can just just like, hold them or just cradle them so they can give their everything that I think is such a gift.
And mic drop, that's the end of the episode. I think we nailed it on the first question. Yeah, I just want I really want to speak directly. This isn't to you. This is to listeners who may still be thinking, ah, they don't care about the reader. The reader doesn't matter. Yes. They don't care in the fact that they're not casting the reader, they are casting you. However, if you're thinking that the reader doesn't matter, you're not really understanding
performance dynamics. You're not understanding physics. You're not understanding subconscious first impressions. So imagine the difference. I don't care about the reader. I'm just going to use my grandma, my mom, my neighbor, my kid. Someone who's can barely read the lines, can't put them together with any life and pace like and no, no real shade to them. It's just they're not trained to be a professional actor like you are. So if you think you're going to get an equal submission now.
Yeah, the casting director should be looking at this from an eye of separation, but it's subconscious. If if I'm watching something and it's cooking and they're playing ping pong and they're acting at the speed of life, and the other person's not a monotone broken up where they're tripping on the lines and tripping on the words, and the words don't have any of the intention that is actually could be in the scene. There is a difference there.
So just if you're thinking, if you're thinking that you're saving money by being like, oh, I'm just going to use this random person. You might still book it, and you hope that the the casting director has the imagination to be like, okay, let me picture this person with another trained actor instead of that terrible uncle
that they used as their reader. But then you're you're you're leaving it up to the imagination versus a tape where someone just sees it and it's just like, oh my God, she's the girl like that. That was her. That's it. Right. So thank you for sharing that. Um, now I want. To also think that, um, I just also think that with readers, if you like you said, don't care who your reader is. I feel like when you're doing an audition, you are also reflecting what you're like in a production.
If you don't care about the crew, you don't care who you hire. If you don't care, that is also present, right? And I think that like, that's such a big because when you're in like a 50 to 100, 200 or 300 person crew or some of the sets that I've been on, every single person matters. Every single person is on their A-game.
Try to set yourself up for success, because if you were going to go, if you want to be on those sets where everyone's on their A-game, then also try to get those people on their A-game in the room with you before you're on set. Right. Yeah. What comes up to me when you say that is just the importance of team in general. You want. Exactly. You want your A-listers and your your A players around you supporting you no matter what part of like that could be.
You have a nutritionist, you have a trainer, a cook. You have your therapist, you have all of those people your your your agent, your manager, your your publicist. Like all of those people, the stronger your team is, including your reader or your audition team, the the better, the better you're going to end up doing. So can I want to know how you first got started into all this?
Because I love actors and I love all artists because to me, they're like real unicorns to take the road less traveled, to take what some people might perceive as a risk and have this weird artist life, rather than go to school, get a job, and stick to that job as long as you can. So how did you start? Tell me about your early beginnings. Yeah, so I grew up speaking French and Spanish at home. English was one of my third language and one of my most like.
One of my first memories I had was being like four years old and watching The Nutcracker at the National Art center when I was a kid, and I think there was something about I always didn't realize this at four years old, but now I as an adult, I can clock this. I think I was so mesmerized with the ability to see the story without language. It doesn't matter that I barely knew English at four years old, but like it wasn't great.
But I understood the story and I understood the pain and the joy and the music and that, um, imagery on stage, I understood that. So I got into dance really quickly. And when my dad is my is my Latin, he's my Nicaraguan parent. Um, he used to read me like, children's versions of classic literature, um, because he wanted me to learn English, like rich language. And so I grew up reading, like, Jules Verne and Shakespeare versions and stuff.
And so I and I think when English isn't your first language and you don't really, you don't really get to sensitive, like develop a sense of humor, or you don't know how to express yourself in a specific way. And at like at a young age. For me, Shakespeare was one of the only spaces where I could say the words and people would understand me exactly how I wanted to be understood. Wow. And it was one of those spaces for me where I was like, oh, I, I can understand,
like I can finally be understood. I can say something and it lands in somebody else the way I want it. Well, it's like I wasn't very funny in high school because I didn't know how to, like, land the jokes and do this. And my English only got to where it is now going to theater school, where I spent three years of my life dedicating to like the cadence of people speaking English of all eras. And, you know, as theater school is. So that's kind of how I got into it.
And it just became this place where, like, I have a lot of emotional intelligence that's like, I'm not wasn't very school smart and I'm very lucky. My parents saw that. And they go, okay, she's got this thing. And well, it's like and also my parents are not artists like my, my dad's an engineer. My mom's an accountant. Like, they were the furthest thing from going to see theater. And, like, they don't really. They watch movies, but they were, like, fun movies,
and I. I think there's that. Um, they they they like they nurtured my play in my imagination. And having a little sister who is also have that, like playing role play stories for hours on end, because that's where we found our joy was really, I think, kind of like nurtured all that stuff. And then now I just kind of I just got to a point where I did not see any other version of my life happening. It was just this or nothing. So it's been kind of something I've been wanting since I was a kid.
I think I found something from when I was like in grade two, and it was like Alex or six or Alexandra, six years old. And when she wants to be older, she wants to be movie star. Like that was something that was really early on was this awareness of like performing and being on stage and connecting with people.
That was um, so I was just kind of I've been doing it ever since, and I did theater school, and I've been coaching and writing and directing, and I just became obsessed with every I've done. I do stunt choreography as well. I do like I'm doing, um, choreography work for a dance piece right now because there's fighting in the dance. And so there's there's just like, I love the, like, never ending branches that can come
from this art of storytelling. First of all, shout out to your parents for being super cool parents and for not like, constraining you. Or, you know, we've all you all hear those stories of like what actor know you need to like from their own fear or whatever, or just genuine love for you. Like, I want you. I want you to succeed and have a nice home and do all that stuff. Um, but for them to let you explore your own freedom and figure out what what makes your own heart happy, that's that's huge.
And there's a lot of parents who don't have that courage just to be like, let's let her fly. And if she flops, we're we're here for her. So shout out to them. Um, I love what you said about Shakespeare, too. How that and that's the beauty of Shakespeare is Even though it's heightened language, there is a universal ness to it where once you figure out the story, it's like these are hundreds of years old, but it's it's human.
So you hear those words and you feel things and people are like, it's a, it's a, it is a language that you can communicate with. Do you have any favorite Shakespeare you want to drop? You want to drop a little? Um, it was Shakespeare yesterday. Was it? I think I saw a post. It was on the 23rd. My hope was my homie Shakespeare. It was his birthday. Well, technically his baptismal day, because back then they didn't like track birthdays, but they tracked when they were baptized. But, um.
Fun fact I got my one and only tattoo on his birthday two years ago because I wanted to get my tattoo Shakespeare's birthday. Is it a Shakespeare tattoo? It's got pieces of it. Um. Romeo and Juliet was the first Shakespearean play that I read. Um, and so I have, uh, a dagger and two roses in red. And so the dagger is like, kind of the rose and the dagger Romeo Juliet in that imagery. Um, I keep thinking about.
I was thinking about Romeo Juliet again because I've been watching Lady Jane Grey. It's like this Amazon show that got cancelled, and I like watching shows that got cancelled, and I like watching them after they get cancelled to go. Why? Why did this get cancelled? I want to understand that a bit more even. And if it's good, why did it get cancelled if it was so good? And the romance I keep thinking about. Um. When Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time in the masquerade and they're talking.
And if you see the text on paper because Shakespeare's got a pentameter, it's dum dum dum dum dum. They have every line is ten syllables. But with Romeo and Juliet, when they meet each other for the first time. Shakespeare's way of telling us. Because there's no stage, stage directions. Because obviously they didn't have printing press back then. Um, Shakespeare's way of telling us that these two people were soulmates was that they finished each other's, um, phrasing, if you will.
Not that they finish the sentences, but Juliet would have five syllables or eight syllables, and then Romeo would give two, and so they would each finish the ten syllables to make each other whole. And I always like I keep thinking about that. Just that's genius.
And it's that idea of that imagery that they have at first with the concept of like wanting to kiss each other and religion, and if each other of their religious, like they worship each other and that give me my sin again, like that always. That kind of keeps, I think about that. Those that like interaction like once a day, maybe. It's the highest love is the highest steak love story of all time.
And and so many, so many times it's been retold not under the name Romeo and Juliet. Just you watch it and you're like, oh, this is Romeo and Juliet. Yeah. Especially the the, uh, like the, the rival family aspect of it, you know. Yeah. This, that concept of, um, status and that idea of like, I think now especially with us as a society, like not having money and we're like,
all of us are like, we have no money. And I see people like, wanting to get married because they're, oh, this person has an apartment, so I'll have an apartment if we get together. And it's we're almost going back to this, like Regency era. like getting together for what people have and status and looks on social media and stuff like that. So I find that all it all comes around. Yeah. You know, I just got back from a vacation to Dubai and let me tell you
about princesses everywhere I was. Yeah. That was my ticket. Yeah. Yeah. I'll be the son in law of a of a wealthy chic. Over. Um, what was your very first role? Oh, I mean, other than playing the color blue when I was in grade two and the rainbow play. Um. Solid color. Yeah. So I think it's like this first memory I have. I think blue sad is a sad color in that. Uh, no, I think it wasn't. I think it was the color of peace.
Gotcha. I think that's I think so, um, because I, um, but I think the first role I ever did was I played Harry the Horse and Guys and Dolls in grade seven. That was that was it. I remember I never, ever did not sing. Hence why I got that role of that musical. And I remember seeing the cast list and I didn't know the musical at all. I think I just auditioned to, like, be in a show, because I was just so hungry to be in an actual production. And I remember looking at my drama
teacher going, am I a horse? Like, I fully thought that I was going to have a horse mask and had to be a horse. I have now learned that Harry the horse is just a gangster nickname, but that was, I think, my very first like theater role, if you. Will, in the same year. Yeah, I was kind of like, is this clown? Like I was like the world of musicals. It was so and is still so foreign to me because I'm so like classical theater and physical theater
based and film and television. So sometimes people say things for musicals and I go, I don't know what you mean. I have no idea what's going on. So that's, uh. Yeah. I think Harry the Horse is my first official cast role. I love it, that's a great one. Um, so one of my favorite questions and always yields great answers. Do you remember a line. From Harry the horse? No, no. Maybe. Maybe, like the crap shooters are here. I don't know, I can't remember. I do remember. When.
The Stratford Festival did it a couple of years ago. I was pumped to see it. I was like, where's my boy Harry? I was like, let's go. I, I it was, um, yeah, I think my first role like that, I felt really, um, excited to play was, um, I had this history in my acting career for some reason where I get cast really quickly in main roles because, like, not even understudy situation, but someone goes, oh, we need someone to fill in really quickly.
And the first time that happened was when I played Desdemona in Othello, um, in grade 11 and like in high school. And it was the. Original, you know. We'll just easy in there with a little. Yeah. I was like, I think at that in that show, I wasn't even like actually in the play acting, I was just a fight, like I was working on the fight choreography, end of it. So I wasn't really involved.
And I remember my drama teacher coming in going, hey, so so-and-so can't play Desdemona for the for the rest of the run. You have like a week and a half to get it. And I was like, okay, so that was that was, I think the first time where I was like, oh, I'm an actor now. Like, I'm, I have a role and I have like to hold stakes and have a relationship on stage. And that was a that's a very memorable, um, production for me. It was like a steampunk themed Othello. Um, it was really, really fun.
Have you ever reprised Desdemona, or was that the one and only? That's been the one and only so far. The only roles that I've reprised more than once are the first witch from the Scottish play or from Macbeth. When not in theater, we can say it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can't. Which doesn't count. No. It's an audition video, not a theater. Macbeth. Ghosts? Yeah, it's a real thing. It's very real. Well, we did when we did the Scottish play in high school.
Um, we were saying it obviously all the time, and we were like, oh, Macbeth, Macbeth. And we're like, oh, what a silly superstition. Nothing went wrong. The next show we did was grease, and everything that went wrong could have gone wrong. The big grease sign fell on the car. People were getting losing their voices. Like. Just like people were breaking. Like twisting ankles on stage. Like everything. We're like, oh, now it's caught up to us. Like it's a very real thing.
Speaking of Greece, my first role ever was grade eight Greece, and I got lucky to be cast my first thing ever as Kenickie. And. I got to do. I was the lead. The lead singer, obviously it's an ensemble thing, but I was the lead singer. Singer with the good. Good, good. Go, grease lightning, you're burning up the quarter mile green light. Ain't no greased lightning. Yeah, it was one. It was. Amazing. We had the sunglasses. We were all. Yeah. Jean jackets were all looking cool.
Like there's. No it's just like. Great. It's so tiny and cute and precious. You know what I mean? Like, it's just so rocking. Like, were these fully fleshed human beings, and, uh, I don't even know. I'm trying to think now where we where we, like fake smoking or was this like, this was.
We had the fake smoke. Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things I think this is a core memory, I might still be fucked up by it a little bit, so maybe I need to go therapy about it, but, um, and one of the nights I think we did three shows, I think the first two went awesome. And then in the third night, I just got distracted and kind of went up on the lines of the of that song, and that's my big moment, and I did. There was a guy, one of my best friends was in the front row,
and he was kind of on cue cards. And I think what I, what I did is I for some reason, just my brain went into second verse instead of first verse, and then I realized it and my head's going, oh no, I'm doing the second verse. So and then I was like, in my head, I was like, okay, no problem, I'll just fix it. I'll do the first verse second, and everything would be good.
But the guy on the cue cards didn't know, I mean, I should, I was off book, but I think I was on. But he didn't know that I had made the mistake so he didn't. Go. Back. And so it was probably all of this was probably like a glitch. barely noticed by the audience. Like, maybe there's a little hesitation and something. Yeah, and I remember I like I was, like, in my head, devastated. I stormed off into the the dressing room, which was just the the
little boys locker room next. To. The stadium. It was a gymnasium. Stadium? Yeah. Theater. And I went back there and I was all like, I, I like, had like a total meltdown. I was like pissed. I felt like I've ruined the show. I've let everyone down. I can't believe I forgot my lines. And it's probably one of those things where barely anyone noticed because it's the grade eight play,
so who cares? But it's it's it has been a memory where it's a reason why I will overprepare and overprepare because I'm like, I never want to go up on my lines like I did a grade eight race that one night, and it was because it was the final performance too. And that just. In your head, yeah. More. You want to crush the last one, the other. Everyone was amazing. But that's my that's my fun little story of my my grease fuck up. Yours was great. Eight, two. I think I was in grade seven.
Grade seven? Yeah, I was. In grade seven. Also, when I was in Greece, I played Cha-Cha DiGregorio and I was in grade ten. Yeah, braces and all. It was really good. Great. Say the. Name again. It's such a funny name. Uh, Cha Cha DiGregorio, I think, is how. They said it. Yeah. Great. Uh, so I want to shift to talking about, um, auditions a little bit. Uh, tell me, Alex gets an audition.
The email comes in from your agent. What is your standard operating procedure when you hit that audition checklist? From the time you get it to the time you press submit on actor's access. Tell me. Okay. Um, I'll see the scripts first before I even read the breakdown. To be honest, I immediately go to the scripts. I want to see what I get before they tell me anything. Um, because if I'm reading it, I kind of want to glean things off of it before I kind of have
this predisposed idea. Um, so I'll read the script a couple times over. Probably read it out loud to get it in my body if I can. And then I'll go back and look at what she's coming from, what the backstory is. If I have access to the full script, I will read that as well. I will always read the full script if I can, and then I print it out.
I print out every single one of my scripts, or if I'm on like a vacation or I can't do it, I have my iPad with like where I write everything down and I go through a couple of things I go through, like the English steps, if you will. Like, I treat it like a Shakespeare scene, to be honest. Yeah. I go through punctuation, adjectives, verbs, monosyllabic lines, all those things that I go through just so
that, you know, like you say, like. And people always ask me how I learned to memorize things really quickly. And I think it's that it's just having a relationship with the words you're saying before you even saying them, right? So just having a textual, you know, technical relationship with them so that you. Okay. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah.
Just that you can if you do because you know the techniques so well, you can let it go and really get into the emotions of it and the circumstances of it. And I'll do that. And then start building the world and then the emotional journey. And it depends on how long the script is and what's going on. And then just having. But that's always my go to immediately. Like I treat it like a Shakespeare
scene every single time. I love that that's one of the values of working on Shakespeare. I found I did the Shakespeare thing in high school and kind of like you. I didn't connect to it and I was just, I don't know, why are we learning about these old books and all these old plays? And I was busy doing other stuff, sports and girls and all that kind of stuff. It just was not my focus in grade ten.
Um, but later in life and going through a conservatory program, I really fell in love with it or fell in love with it for the first time.
Um, just from our teachers. And it was that meticulousness of going word by word, phrase by phrase, thought by thought and being explained, the method behind the madness to like, like monosyllabic, uh, and the iambic iambic pentameter and the difference between if there was nine syllables or 10 or 11 and those little things, or when there was from iambic to prose and why, like opposites and and simile and
metaphor and all these things. And I think actors these days, especially if they're just thinking, oh, I'm a TV film or I create content online, don't appreciate how going through these longer thought, more elevated, uh, text will help them with everything else they ever do. Because, yeah. There's you're never going to get a monologue that is more challenging than breaking down a massive one two, three, four page Shakespeare monologue.
So it's like it just informs your training so much to work on it. So that's why we we work on them. I work on them regularly in class. And the monologue of the Month Club, we have a few months dedicated to Shakespeare because like, for example, me, one of my favorites is, um, Henry five speech. Um, Saint Crispin's Day speech, where he's really rallying. He's rallying the troops. And to the breach, dear friends, once more. Yeah, that's earlier during the battle. This is.
Oh, yeah, this is this. But that. Yeah, that's that's one of them. Uh, I have a comedic version of that one that I've adapted. Um, that is. It. Is it's, um, I've changed it a little bit. It's one s'more. As in chocolate, uh, marshmallow and graham cracker. Once more. Into the breach, my dear friends. Once more. And it's Henry talking to all his buddies about how he loves s'mores around the campfire. Uh, so. We'll save that for another time, but, um. Yes.
Uh, but, um, but that both of those speeches there, like, every locker room halftime speech. Yeah. Re lawyer addressing the court to win everybody on his side of the argument. And they go through thought by thought. And you got to connect the dots so that for me, being able to to spend the time working on a Shakespeare monologue then makes
everything else just easier. And the other thing I wanted to say about what you mentioned is you don't just memorize lines like, memorize should be a swear word, because that's just an actual thing. What you said is, if you're going word by word, phrase by phrase, thought by thought, syllable by syllable, you're actually figuring out, what are you saying and why am I saying it? You're not memorizing words. Then regurgitate them with no connection and no meaning. Yeah, I think the, um.
Because obviously we're getting thrown so many auditions all the time, and sometimes you're getting six page auditions, or I had a 12 page audition recently, which is wild. Um, I think it's technically it's illegal by the union, I think. Yeah, well, if it's an indie theater thing, it's. One of those things. I was like. Okay. Classic. That's great. Because then you be the actor who steps up and you crunch through where everyone else is, like 12 pages. I can't do 12 pages.
I don't have time to do 12 pages. But then you deliver it like you're off book on a on a opening night performance. And they're like, Holy shit, this. Is. The commitment. And the I think also with a lot of Shakespeare's monologues was, like I said earlier, because they didn't have the printing press back then, there was no stage direction. There was no space for like character
descriptions. There was no space. So like you, you had to know and glean what you could off the actual dialogue first before anything else. And I think especially when you're doing a text or an audition and sometimes like literally some of these auditions that are coming in, the writing is not good. And you're like, how do I find the passion? There's no excitement to it. Yeah. You know, how do I add subtext to this?
How do I, you know, I and I think also having especially like soliloquies have so much inner conflict and they're so rich with that like conflict that like, shall I speak ill of him that is my husband, or like, even like the brother in Edmund and King Lear. Like now nature up my goddess. But like, fuck, why am I a bastard? Like why, why bastard why bass? And it's that, um, uh, to take that ability to create so much with no direction, right?
Right. Especially when you're not. Especially when we are in this new silo of self tapes in auditions. How do you, as an actor, take this tape? Sometimes you don't have access to readers. Sometimes if you do get an in-person audition, how do you prep to do it with another human? Um, I love doing those soliloquies or keeping that muscle live through that, because then you also these then these like modern texts feel like so easy because it the language is more similar to how you speak
in a day to day basis. Yeah. Um, and there's a bit more because you played on such a grand scale with these life or death situations in these monologues. Hamlet, you know, Juliet, uh, in impossible of a measure of measure. Oh, I think. I can handle the hot dog vendor after that. Yeah, exactly. Right. Like it just you just kind of, um, I think there's that expression of, like, if you're as an actor, your range or all the notes on a piano right at your emotional range. How can I play every note?
And so I love doing Shakespeare stuff because I can go like Edmund's monologue from King Lear is one of my favorite monologues. I will maybe, maybe I will get cast at Edmund one day. But that's not my traditional typecast, obviously, because I'm not a man with a brother. But that anguish and the feelings he has, and the jealousy and the rage and the conniving, like that role has helped me get cast in other roles. And having that, like the space,
you can have to exist in that. But then also going from someone like Juliet, who's wondering how she's going to live without this person she met a week ago, and no one else will understand that, you know, having that range. Then when you get the hallmark movie, you can make it believable. You can really bring it to life. Even though it's hallmark movie, you can give it that Juliet level affection, because you've already reached that that note on the piano.
Now, you can go a couple octaves down, you know. And I think that has been it's been like life changing for me is when I was able to mesh the, the Shakespearean technique and language and, uh, modern text. It's been really, really helpful. Yeah. I'm really happy we had you on the podcast. Obviously, I wanted to make sure that all the coaches were were featured. I want to feature you as an actor, too, but I really like everything you're saying right now.
For our listeners, this is a masterclass in acting and how to prepare and how to be committed to the to the craft itself. Um, the, um, uh, I lost my train of thought I was I was praising you. I lost my train of thought. Um, what was I going to say? Well, I guess that's the. End of the show. Thanks, sir. Um, yeah. Different coach to the podcast. Shakespeare. Say it again. Uh, you're talking about featuring all the coaches for the podcast, because you're saying I wanted to
get you on the podcast for A, B, and C. As. An actor. As a coach. Um. And it's gone. It's okay. Masterclass in acting, I don't know. Yeah. I forget what I was going to say, but, um. Yeah, getting back to the Shakespearean stuff, that's something that I think everyone should work on. It'll just heighten everything that you do. Um, and. Yeah, that's really funny. That was just like a straight out, like, erasure from my brain. Oh, well. Oh, well. Happens. Yeah, yeah. Um, let's shift into coaching.
When did you first start helping other actors? Um, I think when I was directing productions, I kind of felt, uh, I really enjoyed doing it. And it's one of those things where I think, um, I think there's a difference between talent and skill. I think skill is something you work really hard for, and talent's something you're born with. And I think I'm a very skilled actor,
but I'm a very talented director. It's something that's very innate to me. I don't really have any formal director training, but it's something that kind of. It's. It's like how I see the world. Um, and I really enjoyed teaching because my one of my first directing pieces was the Complete Works of Shakespeare abridged version. And if you've ever seen it's online, I'll send you because it's very the humor is very up your alley, Joey.
Um, but it was it's about these three guys who go, let's try to do all of Shakespeare's canon in under an hour. And they do all these. I love those kind of Shakespeare shows. Where they. Tilt it and put it on its side. Yeah, I love those. And so they so they essentially do all these like versions of skits, like they did Othello in as a rap, and then they did all the histories as a football game, you know, like, so they do all these different ways.
And I kind of updated the text because it was written in the 90s. Some of the jokes were a little outdated, but I think nobody else in the program I was in at the time, and that I was in the show had ever done Shakespeare before. And so I had to go in at like 18 years old, teach everybody in my class about Shakespeare and all those things and, yeah, Shakespeare 101 and like directing them in that way. And I really fell in love with it there. And then when I got into theater school.
And I was being asked to direct stuff and I was being invited to coach. And it just becomes a thing when you were also in such a collaborative space with actors that, you know, when I think I really felt that when I'd watch something and go, I wish I had more of that, and I wish, you know, and I also had really amazing teachers that, um, you know, they I went to like a little city college in LA, and everybody who knows in the States knows the city colleges
aren't funded at all. There's no money in a city college. They're not really fancy schools. And I think that, um, hustle of like, okay, we have no money. What do we do? How do we build something from nothing? And every teacher that I had were like, Moscow art theater graduates, NYU Tisch graduates. So Cal graduates, like, um, uh, there's tons of beautiful schools in the States that they were the top
schools for their masters and stuff. And I remember asking them in my audition, actually, for my theater school at Lake, and I said, you guys could teach literally anywhere. Why come to City College like here? And they said they love the diverse, um, collective of people.
I was one of the youngest people in my class, but there were other actors who were 20 or 30. There was a woman in my class who was a mom of three, and she finally got to theater school because her youngest went into school full time so she could actually finally pursue it. We had one gentleman who was a paramedic part time. And so I think having that collaboration and having that openness of like, I love this, let's build on that. And that kind of came into it.
And then with Self-tape and with, you know, scenes. And we also used to like work together with writing scenes and creating stuff together. So I think just like the building and then when the pandemic hit and you're like, ooh, this sucks for every facet of it. Um, that I really liked the idea of, okay, the phone's not going to ring, and I'm not going to wait for
the phone to ring. So I'm going to learn how to build a phone, and I'm going to build my own phone And coaching just became a thing at first, is like a way to connect with my friends and, you know, like spend time with them. I think your friends are just as important as your agent and your support system. Because this job is so inconsistent and unstable,
your community has to be solid. And that just kind of coaching just became something where, like, my sister would ask me to read for her and she'd go, you're really good at this. You should like, keep doing this. And I'd be like, boo, no, I don't wanna. It's fine. I don't need to. I'm an actor. Like having that.
And then it just became a thing where I really just got addicted to it, almost where I liked also reading scripts that I would never get cast as, like the grouchy old guy at, you know, behind a hot dog stand. But I like that I can get into the headspace of it and it stretches my muscles. An actor and as a director and a writer in a way that like very quickly, in a way that I wouldn't really get to any otherwise. And then I also get to connect with other artists and hear their perspectives.
And so there's lots of sponge stuff for me, just getting to absorb everybody. It's a whole new level to like coaching and working with something like one of my least favorite stupid sayings that is out there that is just absolute garbage is those who do do and those who can't teach, which. Is just. Absolute, utter nonsense.
Um, I mean, there might be some instances of that, but yeah, um, there's a certain breed of person who is incredible at doing and is also blessed with some skills to teach and coach and or just the motivation to even want. To reach. Out and help someone else, because it can be a lone wolf career where you're like, I don't know, fucking time to help somebody else. I'm just, yeah. Figuring out how to grab my own on the way.
But a couple things is helping and teaching you always like the more you say something to someone else, the more it's sinking into yourself. It helps you be a role model like I always want to. I mean, I'm helping coach other actors and I'm helping other coaches here, so it's like that helps me keep a certain level of standards. I don't totally drop the ball and just not prep or just do
some amateur. Um, so for all of those reasons, but also just, um, all it is to be a coach is you're helping people see blind spots they didn't see. And it's that one plus one equals three. It's a shift in perspective, letting them see. Like sometimes we don't even know what we're even doing because we don't get to especially we get less ability to see what others are doing now than ever before. Because yeah.
We're often all at home. We're not together in as many rooms as we used to be. So, um, Saul was talking about he was in a casting room just to kind of hang out and get to get to see the whole casting process from that side and how valuable that is, because then you see 50 actors come in. And. You see good, the bad and the ugly, the lack of prep, the full prep. The stupid yeah. The mouth moments that people shoot themselves in the foot in a live
audition and all those things. And getting to coach and help people allows us to do that too. So it's. Like. It's it's helpful to them. But I love doing it because I feel I get better and I grow every time I'm helping someone. And the thing is getting this, this is, um, makes me feel old. Now, I don't have I don't have kids aside from my ten year old pug here. But getting the news from an actor that booked a role makes me feel like a proud dad, you know?
Or my my, my someone I helped. They're not my kid, obviously, but. Yeah. That they book something that's going to change their life often. These are a lot of the our clients are also my friends. I've known them long enough that I care about them. I know that I know their spouse, I know they have kids. I'm figuring out how to play for groceries and to how to deal with inflation and. How to.
Economic downturns. So, like, I know that the stakes are high and then I'm like, I get to celebrate with them. I got when I was on vacation, I was down in Phoenix and I got a text from one of our actors here at the studio. I'll check her out. Tara O'Brien. Tara O'Brien. Uh, it's been coming here. She's an OG member, and she booked a lead role in an upcoming feature film. And the text I got was. I booked a lead. In in all caps and then crying emojis. Crying emojis. Crying.
So I'm texting her back saying like, so. Oh my God, it's so proud of you. Like and the interesting thing is the the audition before that was an audition for basically a one liner that she was, we had a conversation about like, she's like, I want to be going out for lead roles, not one liner roles, which of course is where everyone wants to be. But it was like, well, how do how do you put all yourself into this one liner and still aspire to the bigger roles?
And the next one she got was the lead role for her feature and she booked it, and then she sent me Bali emojis. And I get to celebrate and I'm in Phoenix and I'm tearing up as I'm texting her and she's. Yeah. Send me all these screenshots. And that's like, one of the greatest feelings in the world is to get to do what we love, but also get to help someone else do what they love. It's magic. And it's it's a little it's a little selfish because I get to help someone
and then I feel good too. So I like. It's just, I feel like this industry can be so ruthless and it can be so like you're trying and trying and trying and especially with everything that's happened, like I graduated theater school into a pandemic. I graduated. Into this like. I graduated into a moving to a new country, like all these things that, um, like, have really pushed my, my career back. And anybody in my, my generation's career back quite a bit.
And to like when other people have wins, even if I didn't help them with it, I tear up because some like it comes so rarely sometimes or feels like they do that. You're like, I can't help but just like lose it every time. And I think that's something that, you know, this is such a community based thing. Theater Theatre used to be storytelling around a fire. Telling. Learning and educating and like theater specifically, or just like
used to be a place of education. You didn't have to have a lot of money to see theater. You could, you know, like there's the penny loafers and the, you know, you could go see it at any point. And so to see this, like accessibility or everybody getting access to such a gift that now because of all these different things, economic down to it, like I work for jobs, it's exhausting. And so it's like you to to see somebody work really hard all the time. And then they get that is such a
gift. It also gives me hope every time. Yeah, it always makes you know what it's like. If you can do it, then like I can do it and like we can figure this out in this weird time right now or none of us know what's happening and nobody, not even the studios, knows what's really going on. Like, there's a lot of uncertainty with the direction of this industry.
And I think having these moments of connection, I think I've always been I think, you know, when you when you're on stage with someone or you're in a scene on, on set and you're so locked in. Your whole body is on fire. It's on like every molecule is somewhere else. You. I find I always continue to try chasing that. And it's hard when you're doing a self-tape to find that again. But then when I did an audition, it was just a general audition for a theatre company.
And the captain, my shout out, Richard Lamb was one of the, um, adjudicators on this, uh, you know, audition panel. And he saw me do my Shakespeare, and he didn't know me. He knew my sister, though, because he had done a play with her earlier that year, and I did the monologue, and it was Viola's monologue of I left a ring with her, and he was like, okay, can you just do it to me now? Because, you know, auditions, you're always like, look above the act, you know?
And I actually just got to do it to him. And I remember walking out of that audition and feeling like I was on cloud nine, because there was this connection of, like, being this other person locked in and doing the story and having it. And I think that that's something about coaching that I find special is I get to also like, watch somebody else do it. And sometimes I get lucky enough if I'm. If I'm in the eyeline, if I get to have that with them.
And that's really special. Even if it's like if they don't book it, I still want them to walk away feeling like I want I can circle. This day I had a breakthrough. I feel more empowered. And that's always my hope is that everybody can walk away like a little
bit more empowered out of a session. Yeah, there's a big mistake that a lot of actors make, and people do it in all areas of life that when they see someone else's success, their, their, um, scarcity mindset, that makes them think that someone else getting something means they've taken away something from you, or there's not a there's not as much of the pie left for you rather. Than. Yeah, the abundant creator mentality is there's an infinite amount of wealth and resources out there.
You're not competing with one other person. So when you see someone succeed, instead of seeing that as, oh, what am I going to get mine? They're taking, I should have got that. I deserve money. Instead, think, oh, I was just the universe just gave me proof. How close to me. Like adjacent to me. I'm in an ecosphere where I'm doing the same stuff they're doing, and they just book the role of a lifetime. Man, I'm so close. Good for them. I'm going to be there right with
them one of these days, too. So it's a it's a huge mind shift. I did remember what I was going to mention. Yeah. Okay. What was. That? So you mentioned 88 keys. That's something one of my coaches often talks about. Uh, where in an audition, people often get caught up with what do they want? Which. Who the hell is that? How are you going to answer that question? You. Even if you knew who they was, you don't know what they want. So why would you even play an impossible game that is
impossible to win? Um, but the other thing is, there's no right or wrong. It's just show them as much of you and as much of your choices and talent as possible. So how do you do that? You play all 88 keys. So is that physically? Is that vocally? Is that emotion? Is that camera dynamics like pack as much into it and really see Auditions, not just as I hope I'm doing it the right way. They they want it for. This. Role right now.
But here's here's a short film or a mini movie or my art presentation of everything I bring to the table as a human being, as an artist, rather than, is this right and is this wrong? So, um, and it's it's just so important to me, even if you're like, like, I'll weave in stuff where it's just to showcase that, like, it's of course I want to just say I'm not doing it randomly. Like it's got to fit the story. It's got to fit the script.
It makes sense for what's going on. I'm not just going to be like, I, I want to really. I want to yell a line here, and then I want to talk soft and cry here. Like, yeah. I'm not going to do it randomly, but how can you show casting and really show the world as much of you as possible? Uh, as an artist, I think that's that's what we do. Well, I think there's something about, um, my good friend Liam Lynch, who you should have on this podcast. He's very smart and very funny.
Um, but he we were talking about the frustrations with what scripts are getting greenlit right now. We watch a movie because we love seeing movies together and we'd watch great going that got millions and millions in funding. We were like, what? And I and he made a really good point to me that as forever shifted it for me, is that right now, I think studios, the way they're producing films, they're trying to force us to care about characters.
But I think we're television is doing really well is because they have the elongated, um, time frame of TV episodes. They give us the opportunity to just let us be curious about characters and not, I think is where you can nail it is if I, if a casting director is just becomes more curious about me as an actor or like not that I would necessarily do what they want, but they're like, I'm curious to what else she can do. Call me.
Do the callback. What? Like that? Even if I don't get it for that role, they'll call me back for something else. Because there's a curiosity. As long as I've made them more curious about what I can offer. I'm a happy camper because I think this like. Like you said, this, like, right way of doing it. It's like, I hate nothing more than walking out of a theater with a movie or a, you know, an actual theater and going, oh my God, they were just telling me how to think, right?
They were telling me what I thought they thought I wanted to hear. And I have no interest in that. I love walking out to something and having more questions than answers and letting it sit with me for days. And I think I try to do the same thing with with my auditions. It's like, how can I not give them what I think they want? But how can I just give them something, just like a peek into what I want to be able to offer them if I'm given the chance?
And I think leading with curiosity has been life changing for me as an artist. It should really be like, this is the this is my big, bold take on casting this, and this is what I would love to do with this role. Rather. Yeah. Is this what you want me to do it? Do you want me to pick it up with my left hand? Should I? When do I shrug and raise my
eyebrows. Um, yeah. Just the idea of, like, treating your auditions like you've already been cast and this is your opportunity to show them what you would do. And then as long as you're prepped and put everything into it, then you can wash your hands of it, and you're not so attached that you're devastated and that you've been rejected. It's like, hey, that was my best.
That's what I would do with it. And if they don't want that, that makes sense that they would cast someone else because I don't want to do it. Not that way. You know. I. Think this is like having something to offer to inspire the director, inspire the production team, the design team, the costuming team. Like, yeah. Just I think offering. Creative offerings. Yeah. Instead, instead of being like, look at me, this is what I'm the best for the part just going,
so what I'm going to offer you. Yeah, you could take it if you like. And I, especially as someone who's been in the director's chair now a couple of times, it's sometimes not like somebody is not a great actress, she said. There's another actor that sparks something in me as a director. They're going, oh my God, I want to,
I want to do this now with this. And sometimes that's all it is, is just like, it's it's the ideas and it's the inspiration and the muse element of it that is really fascinating. And often it's it's someone who found some story beat that someone else didn't. Uh, yeah. Or they maybe did something the opposite of how it was played on paper or how it was written. And you do the opposite stands out, but it actually works. And they're like, oh, I wasn't seeing this character as that.
But that was interesting. And next thing you know, the callback room when someone works with you. So we've got um, yeah, I mentioned, uh, we're lucky enough to have you on our team here of coaches at Actors Audition Club and in the monologue of the Month Club, so that you're able to work with people in some group settings in our upcoming monologue jams, but also as a private one on one, uh, coach via zoom internationally or in our Toronto studio.
When an actor books with you, just what's your like? What's your approach? Or how do you go about unlocking the the best in an actor. So that. Listening actors who are listening, who might be booking with you. What can they expect in a session with Alex? Yeah, I. I'm very big on, like, checking in with each other. I want to hear how you're doing, what you're walking in with. Um, because then I can best lead you and support you depending on where you're coming in with.
Um, I also, very quickly will go. Okay. What excites you about the scene? And then sometimes I have all these ideas. I'm great. Let's tackle the ideas. And sometimes they go, oh, I don't know. This is a one liner. I need you, okay. Then I will step up and, you know, like. And that's okay. Like, that's also. What I. Have no idea is I just worked a 12 hour shift. And then yeah. My kids and I haven't even looked at the script yet. And that's fine.
That's I'm also I've been there, done that, you know, but it helps me kind of get a better understanding of what they need as an actor, whether they need me to, like, take the lead or they go, okay, we're going to collaborate and bounce ideas. Um, I will definitely read it over a couple times. I am very big on the moment before, very big on having a strong moment
before and a strong finishing button. I had a friend of mine, Julia Jones, an actress from Lock and Key and stuff, and she, um, always when she heard I would work on things together, she'd be like, hold your face at the end. Because, like, if you're in a casting room and they're all watching it together, that's the face that they're going to see, whatever face that is when they put it on pause and talk about you, that's what they're seeing. And I always I always think about that now at the end.
So whether it be like a good button and like holding whatever feeling I've got at the end or my slate at the end, slate, if they, if they watch my slate, I'm holding whatever face I want up there for however long they're talking about me in the room. So having those that I'll start kind of from like a sandwich, I'll start there. And then we kind of build in because there's if there's a climax in the middle of a scene. Right.
So I would usually start, you know, kind of play with both ends and then just keep building and building and building. Once I see that the actor is very comfortable with the language, like the text, they're like memorized or off book. Um, then we'll start playing with circumstances. Let's push this note a little bit further. Let's pull this back a bit more. Can you know, and I just I also
ask a lot of questions. I'll ask like and not that I necessarily want answers, but just I'll ask questions to reflect. You know, do you think your character is upset about this. And just to, just to see if I can spark something in the actor. Um, just because maybe that'll change how they'll stand or how they're going to approach a certain line. Um, yeah, I usually do that.
And then sometimes it'll be just sometimes I'm in it with them in the scene and I'm like, if they really are having a tough time with it, I will coach them, remind them that, like, they just watched a whole city get burned to the ground and they're now orphans everywhere. Like, I will kind of walk them through building that landscape.
So then and actors are so receptive and listen so well that I had that with a client the other day where I was just, like, guiding her that way and building the moment before what she's actually walking into, like the real horrors of it. Right. And then she was listening so well that I went go. And she just went in with that. And it was and it was the tape that we used and it was amazing.
It was an incredible take. So I think that's what I tried to do is because we're alone, like in the silo of of creating, I try to be the actor with you. I try to play with you, I try to push you. I'm also very big on not speaking ill of yourself. I'm very big on not apologizing in the room. I'm very big on. Oh, that was a bad take. No, you can, like I understand there'll be some takes that are not as strong or like. Oh, let's take you can say that take.
Not helpful. It's just not. You can argue. For as much. Of your energy putting yourself down. That should be to like putting into the character. So that's another big one. I've I've like definitely been very strict and like, no apologies. You didn't hurt me, right? You don't you I you don't owe me an apology. You did. Not physically. Nobody wants it on set or on stage either. That's the other thing. It's like I don't want to, like, I don't want to. I'm not going to say cut to
myself or or that one sucked. Because what if they thought it was fucking incredible? What if that was the one? Take that. The that the DOP actually nailed and got the. Right. Focus in, and they're thinking, this is what if the other actor had the best performance of their life, but it's just ultimately not helpful to be bashing ourselves. And the other thing it does, is it in a weird way, forces the other person to be like,
oh no, no, you're good. You forces. It just it's yeah, I don't know what it is about it, but it's just it's ultimately it's not. So I think, I think I've thought about it a lot because it happens often even like not in non acting scenarios, like when I'm at work at the bar or something, when I'm, you know, other worlds, it happens often. I had I wanted to know why why do we as humans do that. And I think what is offputting about it is the obviously insecurity lives in all of us.
There's no doubt about it. It reminds everyone. Yeah, part of it, like you can't exist without insecurity. You can't exist ego, like it's part of the, you know, the the complete package. But I think when you are so insecure that you don't believe in yourself and you're hiding. If I'm wanting to hire you, I said, well, if you don't believe in yourself, why should I believe in you? Right. And I think that's something that subconsciously happens.
And as a Canadian who lived in America for a long time, I lived in L.A. for five years. They do not want to hear. Sorry. They do. They make fun of you for it. They put you like they will immediately pin you. They respect. You. With a with a Canadian accent. No, that's like the Canadian accent is so real. And I didn't click until I'd been living there for two years when I was working with a dialect coach, because everybody I remember like
saying something like I said, bag. And I was like, I think I said, oh, well, the character had this in the bag, and even my teacher even laughed like. The whole egg. Bag because Canadians say it with a smile. You say bag, but it was bag. Americans lower. They don't smile through the words the way Canadians do. And that was when I when I saw my, like, esteemed Moscow art theater teacher laughing. And I was like, well, what is the what is the deal? I can't hear it. And now since I've done the
dialect training, I can't unhear it. So now I'm. And even when I work as I work at a bar part time and half the time I have guests asked me where I'm from because I don't have a Canadian accent. They're like, oh, I don't. I can't pinpoint like, you have an accent. I was like, no, I just kind of standard dialect or whatever, whatever it is, a little bit of everything, you know. But, um, I think that, um, constant apologizing for yourself also does, like, a learning shame.
Like, you don't have to make yourself smaller. There are enough people in this world that are going to put you down and make you feel tiny and like, you don't need to do that. You don't need to do that for yourself. Like, I think it's so, so valuable to go, okay, that wasn't that good of a take. Let's continue. Like don't linger in the like, oh, I missed it. I messed it up. Oh like, oh it's you. You spent so much time and energy and it almost is a selfish act,
especially if you're on set or in. A rehearsal. Or not. Almost. It is a. Selfish. It is because what you're doing is you're making it all about you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. And you touched on it, but you mentioned the insecurities. The other thing that it does is it makes us cringe for you because we're being reminded of all our insecurities when we were crumbling. Like, it's it's also part of the reason, the allure of, like, the open mic, amateur night stand up comic.
See someone rise to the occasion and blow everyone away in their first time. Or you see someone just absolutely, uh, like, just crumble as a human being in front of you. And it's like watching a car accident, but it's not. It's not productive. Um, that so the lesson, folks, listeners, is believe in yourself and treat yourself kindly and your your inner monologue should be the things like if you actually were to transcribe your inner monologue and read it.
A lot of the times if it's negative, you'd be like, fuck this. Like if a stranger told you that, you'd. Be like, yeah. Who the fuck do you think you are? Why are you talking. To me like that? But sometimes not so kind to ourselves. And that's a it's a bit of a learned thing, I think, but a great lesson. I am when I started directing, I read a lot of leadership books before I, even before I read directing books, I read leadership books. And I read a really good one called Mindful Leadership.
And the one, one of the sentences that really stuck out to me was, if you were afraid of everybody else judging you, it's probably because you're judging everyone else. Exactly. And so that I was like, oh yeah, if I'm afraid of people thinking of how I look, it's because they're subconsciously that it's because I'm doing it. But really, nobody is thinking about anybody else. Like, I bet you anything, the majority of the time everyone's worrying about themselves.
Like there's nobody. Yeah, there's really nobody. Nobody even noticed till you said it. You know, it's like people who say they make mistakes and you're like, oh, I didn't even notice. If you had to have even pointed that out, I wouldn't notice. Or people when they come late. And then for 15 minutes after they're late, they're apologizing to everyone. It's like, not only are you late and you kind of disrupted things, but now you're making it all about how you are late and forcing. Everyone.
To talk about your bus situation, like just. Yeah. Okay. Uh, thank you for your patience. And then let's get to work. Don't spend ten minutes. On your fault on. A miss. Yeah, yeah. Uh, that was great. So, uh, I want to ask, um, any other final questions? Anything else you want to share to actors out there? What are you looking forward to? Uh, in your own career? Uh, what are you looking for? Manifest. And also inside Actor's Audition club in the monologue of the Month club. Ooh.
Um, I'm really looking forward to. I've been writing a lot, so I have a couple scripts that are coming up, and I've got some exciting things that I'm enjoying because I really love people watching. I have been working on a solo show, and I am absolutely taking experiences from bartending that I'm being shared. So I think, you know, when you have crazy. I think that's my my advice to actors who are apt to work multiple jobs, I think is to we don't love doing this. I don't love being up till four
in the morning to bartend. I don't, you know, but you have to pay your bills somehow. But to, um, take what you got and see how you can spin it in a positive light and go, this is just for the stories, for the scripts that I'm going to write. These are for my award winning scripts. Like, I just have to kind of and like, keep track of it and write and invest in yourself as much as you would invest in somebody else.
I think is really important. Um, things that I'm looking forward to. Um, I would say I touched upon it earlier. I'm doing stage combat choreography for a dance piece. It's called Olalla, and it's a 30 minute dance piece at the native Art center on the East End. Um, and it's beautiful. It's all Latin artists, and it's this incredible, um, uh, 30, like 20 or 30 minute piece of these, like, six dancers that are dancing nonstop, by the way.
Like that is some stamina to have that and about relationships and and inner conflict and exterior conflict. And it's I'm very excited to kind of just be a little bit part of that and adding some of the stage combat safety in, in dance and stuff, but, um, otherwise I'm just excited to kind of get my own ideas off the ground. I've got some stuff in the works right now that I'm excited to be able to go. It's been in my brain for so long, and now I get to have it outside of my noggin for a bit.
So that's. Sort of what ideas. And brains and on ideas and brains and hard drives are no good. You got. To. Know. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's the saddest thing ever to have. Oh, that is a great idea. Or I did this thing, but I haven't released it yet. It's in my hard drive. It's like, yeah. Get it out there, get the get some feedback from it, and then and then put it the next thing. Um, I love that. How can people, uh, connect with you? What's the best way? Um, where?
Instagram. Um, Instagram is probably great. You can also reach out. I have a website which is my first and last name.com. Um, I've got my email in there as well because I respond to emails quite well. Instagram can kind of get messy with like people are weird in DMs and as long as I don't look at them because the request. DMs are a scary place. Oh well, sometimes. Sometimes the best way is just to reach me by email because. I know link it in. The chat.
It is. Uh. Alex dot dot fire, which is fire os. Uh, we'll link it all up in the show notes here. Yeah. Um, but this has been great. Thank you so much for hopping on. Excited to have you at Actor's Audition Club. I actually worked with you. Uh. Yeah. Two days ago, you helped me in a self-tape, uh, and gave great coaching and insight and advice. You're a great reader. And you snipped it together and you edited it, um, together for me and got great,
great feedback from my agent. Still hearing, waiting to hear from production, but a great experience. And I think anyone who just listened to you talk about your love for acting and love for coaching and love for the industry, um, surely is excited to have the opportunity to work with you more so I'm sure they will. Uh, so, uh, we're going to bring this podcast ship back into harbor.
We're going to wrap it up. We want to thank Alex for being here today for joining us, sharing their unique audition journey with us. Uh, and you can, um, if you are. I want to let you know if you are either a professional or an emerging actor, uh, in theater, film, or maybe you're a director. Maybe you're a casting director producer. If you're someone who's making bold moves in the industry. I would love to have a chat with you.
Uh, we interview industry professionals at every stage of their journey so that you can share your practical tips, your insights, your wisdom, your inspiration. And I'm a big believer in other people's stories really inspire other people. So you're even as people downplay their own stories and be like, I ain't nothing. Um, but you might have the one story that unlocks something and a level of inspiration that allows
someone else to pursue their dreams. So if you are a person who's looking to get on the, uh, the podcast you can go to. Inside the audition, there's a little button that says apply to be a guest. And one more time I want to reiterate to everyone that mastering powerful monologues is the most effective way to showcase your unique talent, so that you can put yourself out to the world to attract your own audience or agents or casting directors, and ultimately land your next lead role.
And to get started with us, you can join the monologue of the Month Club at Monologue Club. That's w w w. We use three W's in our websites. I don't know what you guys use, but we use three W's. The three W's, WW monologue club.com. Uh, and remember that every audition is an opportunity to showcase your unique talent, to tell a story, to create art. And it also might be the opportunity that changes your life. Uh, so that next life changing role might be coming in your inbox tomorrow.
You want to balance the lifelong commitment to this art with the magic of. Anything can change in an instant, and when you're ready for those opportunities, your life could be changing tomorrow. And if you want a little help with that, you can get some professional coaching and some professional readers editing a file transfer with Actors Audition Club, myself,
Alex, and the rest of our team. We're here seven days a week to help you via zoom, and we've got our studio in Toronto, but we connect with international actors all over the world. You can go to Actor's Audition club.com. You can click the button that says Book Private Audition Coaching, and then you can go through our team of coaches, find the one that you think you're going to work the best with, or just have a session with all of us and you'll learn some things from all of us.
Uh, we'll help you shoot a standout audition in less time so that you can book your next lead role. So thank you for tuning in today. We'll see you next time on Inside the Audition.