The Elemental Actor by special guest Mel Churcher.
This week, we are honouring previous special guest Mel Churcher. Voice and acting coach extraordinaire. This episode was recorded two years ago and contains a wealth of gold.
Mel is also offering The Elemental Actor intensive in person with Frank Stein studios in Barcelona. A 3 day intensive from 28th to 30th November 2025.
https://www.franksteinstudio.info
About the episode...
Mel kindly takes time from her very busy schedule to talk about her new book, The Elemental Actor.
Having worked for decades in the industry from The Royal Shakespeare Company to coaching on Blockbuster movies; Mel really needs no introduction. :).
Mel is an international acting, dialogue and voice coach who has worked with companies including the Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Young Vic, Royal Court Theatre and Graeae Theatre Company. She is one of the top acting and dialogue coaches in TV and movies, and has worked with some of the biggest stars of stage and screen.
Mel is sought after and in high demand for her wealth of knowledge, experience and wisdom with regards to all elements of acting and her style of coaching is second to none.
Mel talks to us about the magic circle; the power of imagination and working with the elemental forces within to truly bring a role to life. A truly, insightful, heartfelt and joyful conversation.
It was a huge honour and pleasure to speak with Mel and I know the book will help many actors; would be actors and non actors to release their hidden powers within to face any situation in life.
Mel is now offering The Elemental Actor intensive in person with Frank Stein studios in Barcelona. An incredible experience.
More about Mel and contact information:-
https://www.melchurcher.com/wp/
https://www.instagram.com/melchurcher/
To purchase The Elemental Actor; please find the links below:-
https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/the-elemental-actor
With huge love and gratitude
Aline xxxx
The image of Mel is thanks to the talents of Nina Grützmach.
Transcript
Foreign hello and a warm welcome to the Align with Eileen podcast series two the art of healing.
Speaker A:I am delighted to introduce you to the fabulous Mel Churcher.
Speaker A:Mel Churcher is an international voice and acting coach and works with clients on stage, screen, tv.
Speaker A:She also arranges courses, online courses in person and has recently published her third wonderful book the elemental how to release your hidden powers.
Speaker A:And she's actually found some time very generously to spend with us to inspire would be and current actors and to talk about her book.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker B:MALE It's a pleasure, real pleasure.
Speaker A:So I have a number of questions for you if that's okay.
Speaker A:First of all, I know obviously now you're involved with coaching, with voice and acting coaching, but originally you were an actor yourself.
Speaker A:Did you, did you know from a very young age when did you first realize your passion?
Speaker B:I knew from a very young age that I loved words.
Speaker B:I used to bore people with all the poems that I recited and all of that and took part in lots of.
Speaker B:I was brought up in middle of Africa so there was not much professional stuff there.
Speaker B:So I was in amdrams and everything else.
Speaker B:And then around the age of about 15, I went to a big meeting where some professor came from Drama center, which is sadly no longer with us, Drama center and did a bit on Malvolio and then had this group of people who passed a piece of paper around.
Speaker B:It was suddenly once somebody would make it a bird and then someone else would make it something else.
Speaker B:And so I thought, wow, you mean there are places you can go and do this?
Speaker B:I left school at 16 and said to my mother, I want to be an actor and I want to go to drama school.
Speaker B:And my mum was very easy to persuade, swayed.
Speaker B:And so in those days we came over by a big boat and so we came over and I didn't get in any.
Speaker B:And she said, oh, it's obvious you've got no, no talent, so come back again.
Speaker B:So I healed myself by the last one, which is again a drama school no longer with us, and got in.
Speaker B:And so then she went back to Africa and I was in bed sitting London, you know, swinging 60s.
Speaker B:So that the point that it became I must go to a drama school and do this for a living, that one.
Speaker B:But I'd always, I thought I was going to be, you know, that's how cocky you are as a kid.
Speaker B:I thought, well, I'll earn my living writing and I'll be an actor as well, which is ridiculously funny.
Speaker B:So I came along and I've always been stubborn and.
Speaker B:Yeah, and I was an actor for well into my 40s.
Speaker B:Yeah, quite a few decades.
Speaker B:So having gone to drama school at 17, quite long time.
Speaker B:And then I moved across and started directing and just because I was only getting funny parts because I was getting middle aged and it's got better, but it's always been bad.
Speaker B:And radio.
Speaker B:And then I discovered I adored directing.
Speaker B:And then, you know, and then I started coaching in drama schools, teaching in drama schools.
Speaker B:Got so excited that if I hung someone over and shook them when they came up, they could act because they were then, you know, going from their solar plexus area and then became a voice coach for a long time until someone asked me to work on a movie.
Speaker B:And then that's been my life for the last three or so decades.
Speaker A:So there you go.
Speaker B:I was going to say summarize that.
Speaker A:30 years in a few.
Speaker A:In a few sentences.
Speaker B:More like 50.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:May I ask you, do you remember how you felt when you had your very first audition just to take you back?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Well, I was failing all of them because I was well a. I looked 12, I was 17, and I was wearing some strange red plastic raincoat that we'd bought and I mean I was just.
Speaker B:Looked so young and, and I just shook, you know, I didn't understand about breathing or any of that.
Speaker B:I can remember my Radar audition.
Speaker B:I didn't think I'd walk across the stage.
Speaker B:I was like absolutely so full of adrenaline.
Speaker B:So they, they didn't say, oh, you're terrible, thank goodness.
Speaker B:But they said, oh, come back in two or three years time.
Speaker B:But of course two or three years time to come back wasn't possible because I knew if I went back home, I'd never have the courage or the wherewithal ever to come back again.
Speaker B:So that was it.
Speaker B:But it all worked out well.
Speaker A:Save the best till last.
Speaker A:Because it was the last one, wasn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah, there was the last one.
Speaker B:And that's why I think one teaches what one has had problems with in many cases.
Speaker B:So that's why my teaching is trying to help people find security, confidence, things they can use that takes that terror away, whether that's, you know, really believing in the world or bouncing off the other person.
Speaker B:And definitely the breathing and the posture, you know, that that's been.
Speaker B:My mission has been to try to not allow people to go through what I went through.
Speaker A:Yes, well, yes, that, that's what I was actually going to ask you, if that's what inspired you.
Speaker A:And obviously it did hugely believe that we go through experiences so we can feel them and help others.
Speaker A:And you've done that about a million fold with.
Speaker A:I'm just going to take you through a few.
Speaker A:Excuse me, get my right teeth in.
Speaker A:I'm going to take you through a couple of things, if that's okay, and you can just say no.
Speaker A:So what I really felt, because the elemental actor is incredible, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm only 30% through and I'm completely engulfed.
Speaker A:And I adore the elements myself.
Speaker A:I'm really interested in shamanism, but it's obviously not about shamanism.
Speaker A:It's about just engaging and embracing those elements in our body and working with the metaphor of the text.
Speaker A:When you were Hermia.
Speaker A:So there is a reason to me saying this.
Speaker A:When you were Hermia and it was open air in Regent's park, did you feel that?
Speaker A:Did you feel the elements through you as you were performing?
Speaker A:Do you feel that that maybe started the inspiration or.
Speaker B:Ah, gosh, I don't know.
Speaker B:I mean, Shakespeare itself is so full of elements now.
Speaker B:I mean, Cleopatra says I am of air and fire.
Speaker B:So I mean, I probably didn't consciously accept that.
Speaker B:As soon as you work with Shakespeare, you are absolutely in an elemental world and working with elements.
Speaker B:We actually started with a tour of the Middle east on that.
Speaker B: We're going back to: Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So that was pretty elemental because we're playing in front of the Sphinx and, you know, in an ancient theater outside Istanbul and, you know, all over the place.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And then we came to Regents park.
Speaker B:And then there's the funny side of elemental, because it was before the 76, really heat wave, but it was still really hot.
Speaker B:And we reckoned we didn't do matinees in the Middle east, but when we came to the park, we did, and we reckoned it was hotter in the park.
Speaker B:It ended up being in the Middle east that summer.
Speaker B:And then sometimes it would really rain, and then Hermia and Helena are out in the forest asleep while an awful lot happens, and then we'd be lying there absolutely soaked with rain.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I mean, I think one interesting thing about Elements, if you think about movies or even theater or anything, or great playwrights work, is there's two things.
Speaker B:There's the elemental roles and then there's the elemental backdrop.
Speaker B:And, you know, you look at anything, whether you think Lawrence of Arabia or you think about gravity, or you think about, you know, the backdrops of raging seas or space or endless sand or.
Speaker B:And then you have to think, is your role with that element or pulling against that element?
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:There's a whole lot of stuff.
Speaker B:And of course, Shakespeare is so elemental.
Speaker B:And I don't use the humors so much, you know, because they tell you how to play it a little bit, you know, if you're.
Speaker B:If you're looking at being sanguine or you're looking.
Speaker B:But they.
Speaker B:But the actual elements are fantastic, as indeed they are all over the world.
Speaker B:And we're not talking about the modern elements, talking about the classic elements which arrive everywhere.
Speaker B:But of course, in the Daoist Chinese system, there are five, and they are to do with the seasons and wood and spring and so on and so on, and metal and harvesting and so on.
Speaker B:So they're all wonderful metaphors.
Speaker B:And we use metaphors like that all the time.
Speaker B:You know, digging for the truth, floating for happiness, feeling I was drowning.
Speaker B:I mean, you could go on and on.
Speaker B:And so, as you can see from the book, my suggestion is that using your body to act out the way your role would describe their situation, you instantly into some muscle memory and a feeling of a life that you're actually living or have lived.
Speaker B:So that's why I'm so keen on them.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker B:Yes, but Hermia in the park was wonderful.
Speaker B:And then, of course, I say of course.
Speaker B:Why would you.
Speaker B:I mean, of course.
Speaker B:But of course, from my point of view, then I was always working with the Dream for so long because.
Speaker B:Well, not until the 80s, or is it even the 90s?
Speaker B:It was a long time later.
Speaker B:It was 12 years.
Speaker B:I think it was the 90s.
Speaker B:Yes, mid-90s, quite.
Speaker B:But I became the voice and text game coach at Regis park over there.
Speaker B:So I was the voice, there wasn't anyone else.
Speaker B:And so every.
Speaker B:Even though I was doing movies and things by then, I spent every summer working in that wonderful space.
Speaker B:And we must have done the Dream or at least half a dozen times in that 12 years I was there, maybe more.
Speaker B:And I've directed it as well, a couple of times.
Speaker B:So my memories of Hermia are now melded with all the memories of the other incredible Hermias that I worked with and all the rest of it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So what I.
Speaker A:What I would like to.
Speaker A:Because I don't want to give too many spoilers about Elemental Actor because it's.
Speaker A:It's just been released and it's fabulous.
Speaker B:You can really.
Speaker B:I mean, though, there's a lovely blog on the Nick Hearn Books page.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Kind of Mentions it all, you know.
Speaker B:And by the way, actors, writers get like 40 pence a book, so there's no way I'm trying to make money out of anybody.
Speaker B:But it's a pretty cover.
Speaker B:Thank you, Nick Barrah.
Speaker B:And it has got some lovely Arthur rapping pictures in it.
Speaker A:It's very beautiful.
Speaker A:I will pop all the links down.
Speaker A:I've been immersed in the book and I'm trying not to talk too much about it, but what I would like to say is it's so beautiful how you discuss, know, really feeling into your role before you.
Speaker A:You're in screen environment.
Speaker B:Well, we've worked together, haven't we?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Done some elemental work on time together.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's one of the main reasons that when I saw the elemental actor, I remember in the workshop, which was fabulous, and I loved all of it.
Speaker A:This was my favorite part, was talking about the elements.
Speaker A:Absolutely love that.
Speaker A:And Nana's book.
Speaker B:Yay.
Speaker B:Well, they're just so much part of our culture and they're so pivotal to us.
Speaker B:You know, we.
Speaker B:We know how it feels to be happy or float or have a faith or give up to the wind or be high or whatever it is.
Speaker B:We know that bit of air and of course, our breathing, our breath of life and all the elements are both life giving and life destroying.
Speaker B:You know, breath of life is totally life giving, but have none and it's destroyed.
Speaker B:You know, and whether that's real literal or whether it's metaphorically because you've forgotten to stop and breathe as your role, two different things.
Speaker B:You know, we have such connections with being grounded and centers.
Speaker B:Every ancient culture that you look at, you know, is about settling and getting yourself grounded and solar plexus and then all the idea of modern movies, particularly drawing tremendously on ancient myth and magic and so what lies beneath the surface, you could call it subtext.
Speaker B:But all of us, what are we digging to find down there?
Speaker B:You know, it could be the gold, it might be the dragon, but there's the stuff underneath.
Speaker B:And also, in this day and age, look at our planet.
Speaker B:If we are not looking after Earth, we have nothing to live on.
Speaker B:Dust, dust to dust and all that.
Speaker B:We will add it.
Speaker B:And then fire, which has so many different energies, you know, it can be the fire of ambition and power, it can be the fire of anger, it can be the fire of love or the spark of excitement, but it can also be.
Speaker B:Which, you know, you are definitely part of, and in some way, so am I, to help actors in my field or whatever that there's the warm heart of healing, where you take the life giving part of fire.
Speaker B:You know, fire can be destructive.
Speaker B:Fire is also life giving in every way.
Speaker B:Cauterizing, healing, warming, killing off the germs of what we eat, we dive, hypothermia, all of that.
Speaker B:And so we have an.
Speaker B:I always say, what fires you are, what is your fire?
Speaker B:And many it's a, it's an underrated.
Speaker B:But in immensely important fire is the fire, which is the warmth that you want to bring people in to heal, to feed, to share, to love.
Speaker B:That is probably the most important fire of all.
Speaker B:And then we have water, which again is a lovely idea of a shimmering surface with things underneath that you may not have discovered.
Speaker B:But it's also sorrow and pain.
Speaker B:And, you know, when people can't cope, they feel like they're drowning and they need to be rescued and brought back to air.
Speaker B:So without really dwelling on it, I think our lives are always elemental in a way that we don't really realize.
Speaker B:My problem as a lactic coach is we're dealing with learned text.
Speaker B:So I have to help people, what I call jump in the magic circle, that they and the role are fused and therefore those elemental needs, just temporarily why they play that wonderful game, become their needs, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, a lot of the work can be used for oneself, you know, finding, jumping in the circle into your confident self, refinding what drives you, what gives you passion, what gives you joy, you know, all of these elementals, that's one.
Speaker A:Thing I really felt as I've been reading, is it you can apply it to every moment of life.
Speaker A:You know, if you're, I mean, if you're going out shopping, for example, I don't know, you, you, you know, you could apply it to that in terms of, oh, feeling a bit tired.
Speaker A:But I'm going to muster, I'm going to ground myself, I'm going to go into that environment where there's lots of people, stay grounded and do my shopping.
Speaker A:It sounds very basic.
Speaker B:Then I'm going to breathe the air and hug a tree and go for a walk.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:A very good friend of mine imagines flowers all around her before she goes shopping.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I have to confess, terrible confession, that since the pandemic I have stayed with the delivery farms for the supermarkets because I used to find something so bleak and cold and dehumanizing about supermarket shopping.
Speaker B:So I still use more shops, the little shops, the lovely vegetable shops and the, you know, But I get my deliveries delivered now so I can just be with the real Flowers and the garden water and not have to cook the supermarkets.
Speaker A:We're really lucky here because we've got an incredible lady who grows organic vegetables so we get a delivery every day so scraping off the soil.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:Yeah well we have a local veg box delivery once a fortnight but we also grow our own where right in the countryside and we just got a lovely person to help us with the garden and she's putting in loads of sort of compost don't dig and all that to redo it but we've got a polytunnel and a fruit cage and we just don't have the energy just turn to some more help.
Speaker A:Well speaking of organic seamless link so the.
Speaker A:I didn't want to mention the magic circle because I didn't know if that was a spoiler so I'm all into spoilers.
Speaker A:I stopped saying that word.
Speaker A:So the.
Speaker A:What I really like as well is how you describe how the performance is the relaxation.
Speaker A:So when I.
Speaker B:That's the Joan Littlewood quote actually she's a wonderful theater director.
Speaker B: ct you've heard of her in the: Speaker B:Incredible woman.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:She said the preparation is the work and the performances the relaxation.
Speaker B:That's lovely.
Speaker B:I wish someone had told me that at 17.
Speaker A:One of my questions actually that I don't need to ask what do you wish somebody had told you at the very beginning?
Speaker B:How to breathe properly and the fact that forget you just try and bounce off but then you know in those days of monologues you're bit like self tape now the person you're bouncing off isn't really there so you've got imagine it.
Speaker B:So somebody should have said to me just.
Speaker B:Just think of it like those games you play when you were seven and then you'd be.
Speaker A:They're just feeling the childlike curiosity.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Learnt lines are really difficult.
Speaker B:That's why non actors always put them in their top list of hates.
Speaker B:When they say I hate speaking in public what they're really saying is I hate having to say something, I pout or that's what we do for a living.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Actors highly affected when taking on a character that's nothing like them.
Speaker B:Well that's where all your metaphors and living another life and acting out the stories they tell and all that comes in but what's really interesting maybe is how do you deal with playing a role who's too close to you that's gone through some horrendous experience.
Speaker B:But you would like to play the role.
Speaker B:But you went through that too.
Speaker B:That I have come across a lot in my time, yes.
Speaker B:And that's really interesting.
Speaker B:And I'm very happy to say that those people in the end were glad they'd taken the role.
Speaker B:On founded cathartic.
Speaker B:Because I never work from saying, remember the things that happen to you or do the things that you haven't dealt with, because I think you know that anyway, it's already in there.
Speaker B:So instead you need to go, I know that I don't need to go and remember it and find it.
Speaker B:It's there, there.
Speaker B:Now I need to look for the other life that's actually different to mine.
Speaker B:Different parents, different place, different situation, maybe different period, different place, and concentrate on that.
Speaker B:And then the other thing I offer, because I think there's two main ways you can become fused in that magic circle.
Speaker B:One is by accepting everything you are and then kind of melting the top with your new metaphors or improvisations or thoughts or whatever it is or visualizations.
Speaker B:Every way helps you.
Speaker B:The other is to actually take a metaphor, you know, and clear yourself right down.
Speaker B:You, you, you write down and seal yourself off safely.
Speaker B:And then a bit like Lady M in Shakespeare's Scottish play, I'm very superstitious.
Speaker B:You can then go, inhabit me and you can become the role that terrifies you.
Speaker B:Murders or things that you'd never do.
Speaker B:Always had terrible things happen to them.
Speaker B:And then at the end, you jump out the magic circle and you go, that was just a game.
Speaker B:Bye.
Speaker B:Bye.
Speaker B:Even every night when you leave the set, then bring yourself back in and.
Speaker B:Sounds crazy, but it's really helpful.
Speaker B:And over the pandemic, I've always done a bit of tai chi and qigong and so on.
Speaker B:And during the pandemic, I've been.
Speaker B:And shiatsu I've not taught, but experienced, et cetera.
Speaker B:So I've been doing wonderful class, which is a mixture of shiatsu and qigong over this time.
Speaker B:Very, very healing.
Speaker B:A lot of these things that you do in that are things that I.
Speaker B:That I've done in my work as a coach that other coaches do, that maybe this is just instinctive, you know, that you want to shake out at the end of the day or you want to, you know, I think it's an instinctive way of both embracing and playing the game and then shaking it off.
Speaker B:Like you did when you were seven and going home for a cup of tea.
Speaker B:You know, it wouldn't have been tea, it would have been Orange juice.
Speaker B:I mean, absolutely.
Speaker A:And also with the animals, you know, taking on that Persona of the animal.
Speaker B:Animals as well.
Speaker B:It makes you safe.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, if you.
Speaker B:If you.
Speaker B:If you have to use some sensuality to get power over somebody, which, I mean, one of these roles that are a little bit tricky, then burying a big cat or something which has claws and teeth, but also can relax and feel the sun and then jump into action, gives you everything that director's asking for.
Speaker B:But you say, because deep inside you, you're nervicative.
Speaker B:You're a panther or a leopard or, you know, so things like that can be really helpful.
Speaker B:Anything, anything that makes us feel safe, spurs our imagination and gives ourselves permission to go where we don't normally dare to go or where we stop judging ourselves or deciding how to do things.
Speaker B:And so I guess that's true in our own warlocks as well.
Speaker B:You know, frees you to try that thing that you're afraid of.
Speaker B:I mean, if you're afraid of it for a very logical reason and it's dangerous, then avoid it.
Speaker B:But if you're afraid of it because you're afraid to fail, maybe you need to find a fire.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Maybe you want to go jump off the cliff.
Speaker B:Jump off a cliff.
Speaker B:Metaphorically.
Speaker A:Metaphorically.
Speaker B:Then you've got to make sure the mattress underneath is really fly.
Speaker B:Marine Icarus and all that.
Speaker B:Flying.
Speaker B:Metaphorically.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:Flying Literally makes sure the aircraft's safe.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:But metaphorically, you see, we can do all these things in our dreams, in our games, in our inner selves, because with the imagination.
Speaker A:So as you've already mentioned, there's lots of work at the moment that is very solitary.
Speaker A:So when there's self tapes or when there's engulfing in the role before arriving on set, it's just creating, as you said, that childlike sense of fun around and really going in.
Speaker A:And one of the exercises that you have, and I can edit it out if it is too much, is about going into the subtext.
Speaker A:And I thought that was beautiful about.
Speaker A:So when learning the thoughts, because you call them thoughts rather than lines, is.
Speaker A:Is going into the subtext.
Speaker A:And know what.
Speaker A:What am I as that person?
Speaker A:Because that is me and that's who I am.
Speaker A:This is.
Speaker A:It's in my body.
Speaker A:That's who I am feeling in this very moment.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Wonderful.
Speaker B:Just with the text, riffing on the lines and letting things come out.
Speaker B:I mean, we have to somehow make that text come alive.
Speaker B:I know that not everybody that watches your podcast.
Speaker B:Is that what you'd Call it your podcast is an actor.
Speaker B:But there are many times that ordinary people have to do things they're afraid of.
Speaker B:And so that magic circle, you know, I literally sometimes get people to jump in the imagined circle, be the role.
Speaker B:But equally you can see yourself at your most confident moment and you can jump in and be that confident.
Speaker B:You can press a wall and find that strength and then make sure that you decide to leave it, take the strength with you and go to the difficult situation.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:If you've got to do a speech at a wedding or something, you've written it all down.
Speaker B:Maybe don't completely learn it, just find the bullet points and then riff on it.
Speaker B:You know, just so you feel like you.
Speaker B:The important thing is for actors and non actors, you are many, many, many, many people.
Speaker B:You are capable of being anywhere and anything and every move that includes the role, but it includes you yourself.
Speaker B:So it's just not feeling, oh, this thing makes me very scared.
Speaker B:And now I'll be scared.
Speaker B:You know, I wish, I wish I'd known that when I did my.
Speaker A:Because as you said, it's, I mean your book is very much as you were said, it's not just actors, but it's for.
Speaker A:This whole series is about the art of healing.
Speaker A:And I believe there's a really fine line between creative arts and healing arts.
Speaker B:Well, creative is healing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so for example, when there's.
Speaker B:When.
Speaker A:There'S an intuitive empath, let's say, who's very heart based, very, very up here with her or their or his chakras, but have problems with grounding.
Speaker A:This is wonderful to delve into.
Speaker A:Absolutely wonderful.
Speaker A:And also I would, I, I, as I was reading it because I enjoy writing as well as I was reading, I was really feeling how beautiful.
Speaker A:And this is something to ask you as well.
Speaker A:Would you imagine writers going into this as well, being the role?
Speaker B:I actually have run workshops for writers, did the London Screenwriting one and so on and worked a lot with writers in different universities and so on.
Speaker B:And I think getting them to think like the actor, but I think writers do, to a certain extent anyway, become the good writers, the person they're talking about as they write it.
Speaker B:But it's also some writers, when they begin wanting to give us lots of ideas and things, which is great.
Speaker B:But within that the roles have to be specific.
Speaker B:You know, I can remember one incident with a young chap who's written and done really well since.
Speaker B:But he had this lovely idea about.
Speaker B:Okay, so this, this, in this short film, Adam and Eve come Back to Earth and then they change things and then they go back together.
Speaker B:So I started asking, okay, now when they come back to Earth, do they wear clothes?
Speaker B:And they wear.
Speaker B:How do they find the clothes?
Speaker B:Now you can tell me they do a magic thing and they're the clothes.
Speaker B:But you have to decide that or is it not that do they have to go and then see what they're wearing and you know, etc.
Speaker B:Just stupid things.
Speaker B:But just on and on and on.
Speaker B:I went until it became a logical world that an actor could play because otherwise you know what it's like and you go, that's a really interesting film.
Speaker B:But how would that alien have got to there if they do, you know what I mean?
Speaker B:Has to be logical, be a magic world.
Speaker B:But it must be a obey its own rules, not break them.
Speaker B:Because then we go, I understand that.
Speaker B:And actors can't play ideas.
Speaker B:They have to find a real human elemental being.
Speaker B:And also I think every role and every person has all the main animals.
Speaker B:And then the magic circle, I call quintessence that the whole that it's the Aristotle and Eris, Aristotle's fifth element, the ether, the circle, et cetera, in the end.
Speaker B:And so if you are playing a role, you need all four.
Speaker B:But you may find that your role has, just like us as humans, has more air in them than others, or more water in them, or more practicality than the other elements.
Speaker B:Or it might be a temporary thing falling in love.
Speaker B:So see, we can use that all the time.
Speaker B:And my she acts with Tai Chi thing does all the time.
Speaker B:Are you feeling really floaty today?
Speaker B:Then we must ground you, like you said, or are you feeling very grounded, in which case do some floating.
Speaker B:You know, we need a balance.
Speaker B:We need everything to be balanced.
Speaker B:But our roles, often for a short time or as a personality, like air, like the dude in the Big Lebowski or the Westerners are non rooted people until a situation makes them have to find that fire.
Speaker B:So that's really interesting.
Speaker B:But if you leave some out, then you've got a cartoon character.
Speaker B:You can't not have at least some of all of them, otherwise you're not fully human.
Speaker A:Two dimensional.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's why it's really important for every human being to explore if you want the metaphorical idea of elements orients, the compassion, the empathy.
Speaker B:I also mentioned the chakras.
Speaker B:I know that it's not.
Speaker B:I mean, I do say this is an acting box.
Speaker B:You can just call them centers.
Speaker B:But yeah, I mean, most of us are too much in Here.
Speaker B:And we need to get solar plexus area, which is where we live and where we laugh and where we feel and what jumps us out of the way of a car and everything else.
Speaker B:And if that gets locked off, you know, I've got some little audios that go with it, and I've got one about thawing.
Speaker B:You know, when we have emotional pain or problems or rejection as actors or whatever it is, we actually freeze bits of ourselves.
Speaker B:We lock them in.
Speaker B:I learned this early, early on because I taught in drama schools for about 10 years.
Speaker B:And my.
Speaker B:I did direct, but I was also had a voice, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:And so I used to find a lot of crying in my first years when all I was doing was putting them on the floor and letting them breathe because they were unlocking a lot of stuff.
Speaker B:They felt fine afterwards.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're letting go of things that were holding in.
Speaker B:Of course, that happens to us all our lives.
Speaker B:So probably we don't always do it.
Speaker B:Probably all of us ought to lie on the floor and go through everything and.
Speaker B:And send some warmth and unfreeze the bits of ourselves that have got lost.
Speaker B:We would know more than us.
Speaker B:But that's, I think, important.
Speaker B:Very important.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely agree.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:It's so beautiful.
Speaker A:And you can.
Speaker A:It's very, very easy to do as well.
Speaker A:You can lie out in the sun for three minutes and just feel the warmth of the sun melting everything away.
Speaker B:It's simple.
Speaker A:You know, it doesn't have to be a huge spiritual moment or working with the chakras.
Speaker A:It's just, as you said, just melt it away.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Just go and smell that rose or.
Speaker B:I mean, there's a million ways I'm so lucky in the countryside and just watching clouds and, you know, seeing things in eyes everywhere.
Speaker B:They've certainly got an energy.
Speaker A:I can say what they mean shamanically.
Speaker A:But I'll tell you afterwards.
Speaker A:So I'd like to go back to, you know, where you were saying when you first realized that you had the.
Speaker A:The real passion for coaching.
Speaker A:And then you were talking about how helping your students just release everything.
Speaker A:And I'm doing this because I'm bending over.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:So how, how.
Speaker A:How is that.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:Is there a feeling of unity?
Speaker A:Would you say, when you're.
Speaker A:When you're in your coaching and your acting sessions, when you're physically there and when you're online as well, is there a real sense of unity and a real sense of connection, would you say, to bring that out?
Speaker B:You mean between myself and the other actor?
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker B:100%.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And how does that feel?
Speaker A:This is what I was trying to ask.
Speaker A:So that first moment where you saw somebody come up and you saw that they realized their role, they had an epiphany moment.
Speaker B:It's actually very physiological as well, because they were obviously locked here where we feel.
Speaker B:And then if you hang someone over, particularly making sure the neck goes, obviously, be careful of your backs.
Speaker B:If you're trying this off to gently go down, but then you need to come up and bring your head really last.
Speaker B:And if you keep speaking on the way up, press when you need them.
Speaker B:And when you come up, you're working from here.
Speaker B:That's why it works, because it doesn't work with hair and makeup, which is why I've got other versions as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, that was where I first sort of went.
Speaker B:And then when I joined the rsc, or Shakespeare Company as a voice coach, there's a wonderful.
Speaker B:One of my books dedicated to Cicely Berry.
Speaker B:And I told her how this.
Speaker B:I was extraordinary because.
Speaker B:And I told her about the physical things that your voice is then rooted and free and how wonderful it is.
Speaker B:And she just looked at me with these very bright blue eyes and said, but what for?
Speaker B:And I said, well, to communicate with others.
Speaker B:And she went, right.
Speaker B:And I was in.
Speaker B:That was the job.
Speaker B:Fantastic.
Speaker B:Because, yes, it's all about communication, isn't it?
Speaker B:And for me, I always feel there are some givens.
Speaker B:The relaxed breathing, unless your role is running from a lion, but your relaxed breathing and posture, because the only reason people come forward or bring their shoulders up or whatever, unless there's a very specific other reason, is just, again, the feeling of needing to protect, which then cuts you off from the very thing you need.
Speaker B:So those two remain constant.
Speaker B:But otherwise, part of the joy that I get is fishing around with the other person and just trying to find a key that unlocks them to feel free and go for it in the.
Speaker B:And that's the exciting thing that I never would have ever found.
Speaker A:And because you also.
Speaker A:It's not just actors, is it?
Speaker A:You also work with business executives as well.
Speaker B:Yes, Yes.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:You're meant to look smart and be well turned out, and I don't know how to do that anymore.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker B:But I did for a long time.
Speaker B:I did long before I worked with actors.
Speaker B:I. I always felt that I didn't have the right to work with actors because I wasn't a superstar or whatever.
Speaker B:Whatever.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So it was quite late on that.
Speaker B:I then sort of first worked with an evening Drama school, I love this.
Speaker B:And then very quickly worked everywhere, all over the place and so on.
Speaker B:So that was, that was my own worry, you know, that it wasn't.
Speaker B:But, but from my, I was working with business people and I worked with them right up till, I don't know, 15 years ago.
Speaker B:I still would occasionally.
Speaker B:To their bodies.
Speaker B:Yes, but of course you're using the same thing.
Speaker B:You, you, you know, I used to do the cats and dog thing instead of elements so that, you know, people that are full of empathy are the open handed dogs, you know, and then, and so all hatches tend to be that.
Speaker B:And then the cool, calm people that spend the money tend to be the cats.
Speaker B:You know, that was one of the ways in for the physical stuff and the breathing.
Speaker B:I will tell you one quick story.
Speaker B:I had one business guy on three course and he would not believe, you know, when we're relaxed and lie on the floor and you breathe, what's happening is as you breathe, your diaphragm contracts and goes downwards.
Speaker B:So your outer muscles get out the way, so you feel your stomach go away from you and the breath comes in and then back when your breath goes out.
Speaker B:Well, he argued with me all, you know, all the time for the first two days.
Speaker B:No, look, look, I'm not, See, I'm keeping it going in.
Speaker B:Just like when the doctors put a stethoscope and they say, take a deep breath and you take a deep breath.
Speaker B:They go, no, a deep breath until you eventually give in and take a.
Speaker B:And they go, thank you.
Speaker B:There's nobody, when they think about it, if they're not trained, does do relaxed breathing.
Speaker B:So he argued me and then on the third day he came in and he said, mel, you're right.
Speaker B:And I went, oh, that's nice.
Speaker B:Why am I right?
Speaker B:He said, yeah, yeah, your belly does go out when the breath comes in.
Speaker B:I was watching the football and my wife brought me my third Bailey's last night and I thought, oh yes, she's giving you the tension that people hold when they work in that difficult world of heavy business.
Speaker B:You know, I was usually working with the people sort of higher up the building and they worked that they've just forgotten how to let go and breathe.
Speaker A:Football and two Baileys.
Speaker B:Yeah, watch the football and have two Baileys and on the third you'll go, gosh, that's, that's doing that now.
Speaker A:It's funny because I've, I've been doing all my breathing exercises anyway, but as, as you've been talking, I've automatically been really noticing.
Speaker A:And I have my Hara stone here as well.
Speaker B:What does that do?
Speaker B:Tell me about that.
Speaker A:So the Hara stone, I work with hot stones.
Speaker A:It's a bit warm at the moment, but they ground, so it's.
Speaker A:It's very beautiful.
Speaker A:And this one is to put over your solar plexus and lie over your solar plexus, so it releases everything.
Speaker B:So it's you earthing yourself, but more slowly connecting it to your fire.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Because they're hot as well.
Speaker B:Oh, beautiful.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I don't know why I failed to say that, but here they are and I'm surrounded by crystal.
Speaker B:Sounds like I've got some lovely flat stones in the garden.
Speaker B:I shall try them.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's gorgeous because you can just.
Speaker A:Leave them out in the sun and then when you put them on, on your skin, because they're actually basalt stones, so that it's found volcanic rock.
Speaker B:Wonderful.
Speaker A:They're very, very, very old as well, the stories.
Speaker B:Well, I borrow from lots and lots of places and I do acknowledge whenever it's a conscious borrowing, and so I borrowed quite a lot from things like the shiatsu.
Speaker B:And I thanked them in the.
Speaker B:In the notes because things just.
Speaker B:Just stupid things like attacking down.
Speaker B:I mean, we all used to go as voice coaches, but now I know this is the LAN channel and all of that, you know, difference and.
Speaker B:And if you need energy, you know, that clapping down the outside of your legs and back up the inside and all that, we're ready to go.
Speaker B:I think of the hands.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Or any of those.
Speaker B:But then we all do that, you know, to get rid of the tension.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:And that's true, but there's.
Speaker B:Everything has also deeper, deeper things when you're doing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:In fact, you introduced me in a way, because you mentioned the qigong when I was on the course with you, you reminded me again.
Speaker A:And it is beautiful.
Speaker A:It is all the elements and.
Speaker A:And you can.
Speaker A:I mean, just talking about it, I can feel the QI happening.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:And I mean, everything that we've ever done about posture from anyone, anything, the golden thread that takes you up to the heavens from the center, but ground your feet, but let your knees be relaxed.
Speaker B:The whole thing, I mean, this is.
Speaker B:It's all, I think, like everything else, you know, everything is connected.
Speaker B:Trouble with drama schools is they get specialists and so you end up doing a voice and then doing movement and then doing acting.
Speaker B:But actually, in life, everything is fused.
Speaker B:The whole thing is fused.
Speaker B:So what you work with, what I work with, what my shiatsu friends work with what yoga teachers work with, whatever.
Speaker B:The whole thing is a fusion.
Speaker B:And then if you go into a country which they're not cramped into subway trains and everything else, where people are really using the land and dancing and things, they don't have to be told that because everything is fused, just like children don't have to be told that everything is fused.
Speaker B:But then eventually we grind down to one way we live and one way we work, and the rest gets stiff and disappears.
Speaker B:And so we need people like you, and if you're an actor, possibly like me, but there are many others like me as well, and we need that to reconnect the bits that we forget about.
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:It's almost like removing the imprints that we've.
Speaker A:So, like you said as children, we just explore.
Speaker A:Curious.
Speaker A:And then little by little, society imprints, family expectations start going on, don't they?
Speaker B:And it's just physical things of being at a desk all day or dragging a van all day or that you don't have time to go out and dance or breathe or lie in the sun.
Speaker B:That lot of people were just running and running and running.
Speaker B:So the body and the mind are so, so connected that if you hold your body in some particular way, that affects how you think.
Speaker B:If you think in a particular way, it affects how you move.
Speaker B:It's indivisible, you know, it's constantly moving, flowing, fusion, you know, and we get in the way and we try and pin it down.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's why I really hate expressions like, I nailed that.
Speaker B:If you nailed it, it's dead.
Speaker B:No, it.
Speaker B:It is another possibility that is endless.
Speaker A:I've never thought of that, actually.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's a really good point.
Speaker A:That Done.
Speaker A:And, you know, you mentioned how, you know many other acting coaches, et cetera, but for me, you are the best.
Speaker A:You are amazing.
Speaker A:And I've already.
Speaker A:One of my special guest speakers would like to meet you, so I will introduce you.
Speaker A:He's huge.
Speaker A:He's hugely creative and beautiful and works between both.
Speaker B:He was.
Speaker A:He was a professional choreographer and he's a singer and so much more.
Speaker B:Yes, Well, I mean, this is the thing.
Speaker B:If you're creative, you're creative, then you can move into other areas of creativity and you bring such a lot to it.
Speaker B:Well, as you do, as any human being, you bring yourself, you bring things.
Speaker B:Yeah, wonderful.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because the reason that I really felt to create this series is because I'm very creative, but also being an intuitive empath, I allowed some really beautiful creative opportunities to go through fear through comparison Overwhelm, you know, through unworthiness, through distraction, all that kind of thing.
Speaker A:So this is why I really wanted to create this.
Speaker A:You've already said so.
Speaker A:People don't have to go through that.
Speaker A:And, and I, I really feel as well, it's, it's never too late.
Speaker A:So, for example, yes, there's, you know, there's certain ages in every industry, but it's never too late, is it, to embrace your creative.
Speaker B:Things are getting better across the board.
Speaker B:Whether we're looking at ethnicity or people with disablements or whether we're looking at age, doors are opening.
Speaker B:Maybe not wide enough yet, but they are.
Speaker B:And things are changing.
Speaker B:And technology has become so much cheaper that people are able to start creating themselves.
Speaker B:Doing a podcast I really like, but didn't know that term intuitive empath.
Speaker B:Okay, so is it an actual term or is it what you feel that you're intuitively empathetic?
Speaker B:Obviously that's what it means.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So to explain an empath, many of us and many in the creative industry are empaths.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker A:It's being empathetic and feeling what's going around.
Speaker B:Would you be creative without it would be my next question.
Speaker B:Especially in a collaborative business.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:This, this is my whole reasoning for this is these really lovely intuitive empaths who have all this gorgeous creativity inside but are hiding.
Speaker A:I really want to help them be inspired by the rest of the.
Speaker A:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker A:Listen to fabulous people like yourself and, and feel that they can be part of this.
Speaker A:So an intuitive empath is somebody who gets messages.
Speaker A:So be.
Speaker A:So being an empath is, you know, is exactly what you're describing, is feeling the moment is feeling the energy around, but you also feel the energy of other people as well.
Speaker B:That's what we should all do.
Speaker A:Yes, we're going much more towards the divine feminine.
Speaker A:So it's becoming more prevalent actually, that more and more people are.
Speaker A:Are feeling this.
Speaker A:And an intu.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And an intuitive empath is somebody.
Speaker A:So for example, I'm an Akashic channel.
Speaker A:So when Arlene's out the way and I'm doing Akashic channel reading, I'm.
Speaker A:I'm intuitively speaking to, without getting into too much about it, to the guides of somebody else and receiving that.
Speaker A:And in my everyday.
Speaker A:I'm an intuitive empath.
Speaker A:So I feel and get messages more often than not from everybody around me is why I love nature so much.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker A:So that's an intuitive empath.
Speaker B:Lesser degree, I think everybody that is working with someone else, whether they're doing shiatsu and feeling where they need to, or whether I'm working with someone on a roll and feel the bit that.
Speaker B:That needs help or whatever it is.
Speaker B:So you are obviously, you know, beyond that, I think all of us equal, apart from an awful lot of people that run our world who are not the least fit, empathetic or intuitive.
Speaker B:And this is our problem, I suppose.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:But following on from that in, I firmly believe as well.
Speaker A:For example, I can't watch the news all the time.
Speaker A:I try not to watch the news because I do believe there's a bit of scaremongery going on and, you know, as you said about the.
Speaker A:The let's not say the world leaders, but.
Speaker A:Well, maybe the world leaders.
Speaker A:There's an awful lot going on that if we just keep sending out the love, keep sending out the light, it might sound a bit cliche.
Speaker A:It's not Pollyanna.
Speaker A:It's actually quite, quite serious.
Speaker A:We keep sending out the love, we keep sending out the lights, because you can't.
Speaker A:It's not a fight.
Speaker A:It's the balance of the masculine and the feminine.
Speaker A:And if you're reacting with hate, to fear, then that's just going to exacerbate.
Speaker A:And by working with love and working with light and listening to our intuition and really feeling for.
Speaker A:Because, for example, this idea for the podcast series I was in, I was in one of my own processes and it was on day nine, I thought, I have to get in touch with Mel.
Speaker A:I don't know why, but I have to get in touch with Mel.
Speaker B:Well, you see, that led you to take practical action, because the only thing that I would add to all of that is that then that has to make us take positive action, whether it be, you know, making sure that we're looking after the planet better.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, it's good to feel everything you said and then actually out of that.
Speaker B:Yeah, we had to look after our planet and try to make other people understand that.
Speaker A:Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:But that's the, that's what I was talking about with.
Speaker A:So if there's.
Speaker A:You see, I'm very fairy.
Speaker A:So an intuitive like me, who's very, very airy to.
Speaker A:To ground.
Speaker A:So for them to feel, to go to an audition, for them to feel, you know, that I really want to do that and take the practical action.
Speaker B:Then you need your earth, you see, your fire and your earth.
Speaker B:Excellent.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:And there is something that I was wanting to speak to you about as well.
Speaker A:I mean, we've mentioned many things, but one of the main themes so far.
Speaker A:I just held my harassed as I said that one of the main themes so far in, in all the, in all the podcast episodes has been to have fun, just to enjoy Absolutely.
Speaker B:Well, the joy.
Speaker B:You know, I got a whole chapter on the joy.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:I mean the whole point of it is, I mean the business itself can be very joy destructive.
Speaker B:You know, it's really hard to get work, to get paid.
Speaker B:You have to keep reminding yourself while you're doing it, you're doing it for the joy of doing it.
Speaker B:And if you happen to earn money and things like that as well, great.
Speaker B:But we mustn't forget that why we did it was to.
Speaker B:To find that joy, that joy in creating that joy we felt as kids, that joy in becoming someone else.
Speaker B:I'm Superman and I can fly.
Speaker B:You know, whatever it is, we have to refine that because otherwise once that's gone, then, well, you need to go and garden or go and do something else or you know, run or you need to for a while and come back to it or go and paint pictures for a while or find something else wonderfully creative and know.
Speaker B:Because it can be a very, if we're talking about, you know, the acting business, tough place and, and, and a fairly destructive place because it's run by the people that do it, you know, which in my business terms were the, were the happy hands up dog and the people that control it who were the not horrible, but the cats that were very contained and it's not a great mix.
Speaker B:So you have to find a way to keep the joy.
Speaker B:Yeah, gorgeous.
Speaker B:Play a cat, you know, you can play one of those.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker B:But the very fact of you wanting to play it means you're not one in a funny way because you're not here, you're here and then also.
Speaker A:So self care is hugely important as well.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I mean vocally, you know, coolly warming up, cooling down so you don't lose your voice, blah, blah, blah, as we've already said, you know, trying to recharge once a week by lying on the floor and making sure that you've not got tension stuck there, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker B:By having the.
Speaker B:Yeah, by, by not being afraid in a good way to say, I honestly don't want to play that one, or I feel we need, you know, intimacy coach.
Speaker B:You know, when I first worked movies, and I'm going back to the 90s, early 20s, when I went abroad, they had nurses who came along with hydration fluids.
Speaker B:You were looked after that's all gone.
Speaker B:Then you go and make a movie, never see one anymore.
Speaker B:You're on your own.
Speaker B:And it's really unhealthy environment because there's smoke everywhere.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:They call it Atmos or whatever.
Speaker B:It's still burning stuff.
Speaker B:And you're.
Speaker B:No heavy clothes in summer and freezing cold in the middle of the night.
Speaker B:And so, yes, you really.
Speaker B:And there isn't always somebody like me to say, no, they can't be sick again.
Speaker B:They won't have a voice tomorrow, you know, or whatever.
Speaker B:So, yes, we have to, in a good way, be kind to ourselves while still obviously supporting the project, etc.
Speaker B:But we do have to make sure we take care of ourselves and we end up healthy afterwards in every way.
Speaker B:Which is part of my magic circle that I don't.
Speaker B:I know that there are some famous people that do this that have won Oscars, but they've also left the business quite early on.
Speaker B:There are people that stay in a really difficult role 24 hours a day for five months, don't have great relationships, usually at home.
Speaker B:And obviously it affects you.
Speaker B:So my thing is.
Speaker B:Really another reason for these metaphors is it gives you a way of redoing it and being whatever, what a sportsman will call the zone.
Speaker B:So you can just whoosh when you take your clothes off and put your own on and go home and be you again.
Speaker B:And of course, it'll.
Speaker B:The experiences will always be there.
Speaker B:But it takes quite a while, I think, for people to heal from some of these things.
Speaker B:Things that they.
Speaker B:If they don't look after themselves and allow themselves to breathe, to come out and to start again the next time they're on set and not be permanently being that physically difficult person or that emotional murderer or full of fire and anger.
Speaker B:Let it go, you know, Then find it again with your magic circle and your movement and the phrase you can use.
Speaker B:And they're back there.
Speaker B:And then, you know, like we did when we were kids.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And we leave.
Speaker B:Did.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:But we were able to go.
Speaker B:Right, let's stop now and go and get something to drink and we'll come back tomorrow.
Speaker B:And then it's probably a different thing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because so many take on the role and with the method acting and just stay.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And method acting is.
Speaker B:I don't quite know what method acting is because we all.
Speaker B:Most of us have some Stanislavski base or whatever.
Speaker B:So it depends, you know, I always say whose method?
Speaker B:Which method I think anybody.
Speaker B:Anybody needs.
Speaker B:You know, you're in a wheelchair or you're not Eating or you're.
Speaker B:Whatever.
Speaker B:You don't have to, I think, stay that way till the end of the movie because it takes five months and you will be chilling, changed, and people around you won't be coping, and you'll have lost some of your elements, your auras and your empathy.
Speaker B:Of course, you're playing a cruel person and you never want to come out of it, so you start doing that at home as well.
Speaker B:I mean, it's not good for you.
Speaker B:It's not good for the people around you.
Speaker B:And I don't think it makes you a better actor.
Speaker B:I would go along with Judi Dench, who laughs to get rid of all her decisions and takes her jokes or whatever.
Speaker B:And yet when she's.
Speaker B:The minute the camera turns, she's there.
Speaker B:She's not the only one.
Speaker B:You know, there are millions of them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And anyway, we don't know if it's true.
Speaker B:Do these people really stay in 24 7?
Speaker B:But a lot of my drama students think you have to.
Speaker B:And I would honestly say that is only one way to work.
Speaker B:And I don't think it's a kind or healthy way for yourself, for you.
Speaker A:To work, and as you said, for your family and your friends as well.
Speaker A:If you're in the.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:In a different accent, stay in it all day and don't come.
Speaker A:I love accents.
Speaker A:I'm always doing with my cats.
Speaker A:You know, as we're talking about coming out of the role, of leaving the role behind.
Speaker A:But also you said about people in a.
Speaker A:In a situation where they're, I don't know, in a role for 10 years and going back and finding the freshness.
Speaker A:There are so many games in the Elemental Actor, and to go in and to really play with that, which is.
Speaker A:Was wonderful.
Speaker B:That's super.
Speaker B:That's super.
Speaker B:Well, maybe we can have another elemental discussion future time.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:It's been such a pleasure.
Speaker B:It's gorgeous.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:I'm already just looking at your screen or wallpaper, whatever it is behind you.
Speaker B:I feel better already.
Speaker B:And your art deco mirror and your.
Speaker B:Was it art?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But I feel calm just talking to you anyway, so I. I adored our course together, and thank you for your incredible generosity for coming on today.
Speaker A:It's been really wonderful.
Speaker A:Thank you so much.
Speaker B:Thank you very much for asking me.
Speaker B:And you are an elemental force yourself.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:So thank you, everybody, for tuning in.
Speaker A:I'm going to be putting all the information where you can get in contact with Mel and discover the book, please.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter if you're an actor or would be actor.
Speaker A:It's life.
Speaker A:It really just embodies you into life.
Speaker A:And Mel, again, thank you so much.
Speaker A:I wish you so many blessings.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:For you and the world.
Speaker A:You are amazing.
Speaker A:And thank you so, so much.
Speaker B:Been a pleasure.
Speaker B:Thank you very much indeed.
