Acting Business Boot Camp

Eric Nelsen is a 4x Emmy Award & Tony Award-winning actor and producer.

He is currently starring on the Paramount+ hit tv series, 1883 alongside Sam Elliott and Tim McGraw.

He has been seen on the big screen in NIGHTMARE CINEMA, opposite Academy Award Nominee Mickey Rourke, in RAVAGE opposite Academy Award nominee Bruce Dern, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES opposite Academy Award Nominee Liam Neeson, and COMING THROUGH THE RYE opposite Academy Award winner, Chis Cooper.

Some of his favorite tv roles include a series regular in Hulu's revival of ALL MY CHILDREN, a recurring role in Showtime's THE AFFAIR and working opposite Kevin Bacon in THE FOLLOWING, opposite James Spader in THE BLACK LIST, opposite Adam Driver in GIRLS, and opposite Denis Leary in ERASE.

Notable producing work includes WAKEFIELD starring Bryan Cranston and Jennifer Garner, and THE INHERITANCE on Broadway.

Instagram: @EricNelsenOfficial

Just ask.

Remain teachable.

Actors who have longevity are open to learning.

We are dropping this podcast in honor of Mother's Day but also on the actual day she gave birth to me!

Food, Drink, and Celebrations of the Hudson Valley Dutch (American Palate)

Her Latest Cookbook

Advice: "When I'm stuck in a story, I talk to someone else."

Keep doing what you're doing and enjoy it!

Learn more at peterrose.com

Work hard to keep your brain tight so your nasty messages in your brain don't have power.

Having a relationship with their highest wisdom, that will help you solve all your problems.

"Hell no! I am not under any circumstances going to let this happen."

Is this real or is this my ego?

"It is coming, it is baffling, it is powerful"

Take care of yourself and do what you set out to accomplish.

Managing Emotions

About Amelia:

Amelia Campell was most recently in the Lucille Lortel nominated Coal Country at The Cherry Lane Theater. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her first Broadway play Our Country's Good in 1991.

Additional select theater: Broadway: A Small Family Business; Translations; The Herbal Bed; Waiting in the Wings; A Streetcar Named Desire. Off B'way: Middle of the Night(Keen Company); Taking Care of Baby(MTC); The Exonerated(Culture Project); The Fall to Earth(59E59); Philip Roth in Khartoum(LAByrinth); The Misanthrope(NYTW); Tryst(Promenade); Love, Janis(Village Theater). Regional: A Midsummer Nights Dream; The Night of the Iguana; Desire Under the Elms.

Film & T.V includes Anthony Arkin's "Sender"; "Things Like This"(upcoming); "I Am Michael"; "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors"; "Coming Up Roses"; "Leaves of Grass"; "The Paper"; "Bull"; "Mindhunter"; "The O.A."; "Alpha House"; "Third Watch"; "Law&Order"/"Law&Order Criminal Intent"; "A Dog Year"(HBO) "My Louisiana Sky"(Showtime).

Amelia has been an acting coach since 2005. She co-created the audition workshop "What's Stopping You?" with Jack Doulin at HB Studios. She also co-created the groundbreaking on-set/on camera workshop "Being On Camera" with Anthony Arkin, which they have been teaching together since 2012. They currently teach their workshops at Primary Stages school ESPA. Amelia teaches at Pace University in their FTVC B.F.A. Acting program.

What makes Amelia nervous about auditions:

• Expectations for what good means
• What is your personal best?
• Rejection is constant
• That little voice still shows up

"The biggest thing you have to sell is yourself."

Humans are messy and flawed, and you have to remember as an actor you have to be that too.

Prepping for an audition:

• First step: Script analysis
• Start to get a sense of what I'm wearing and hair
• Shoes can even help
• Read it and move around
• You have to think of an audition as your role for the time you are working on it

"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever has."

Learn to apologize less.

Tips for Newbie Actors:

• Pay attention
• You don't know everything
• Be interested and curious
• Want to learn and grow
• Choose to grow into the best version of yourself
  • What is that?
  • What does that look like?

It's ok to be new and it's ok not to say anything.

When in doubt leave it out. Listen and absorb.

Sign up for Adrienne Stern

Monologues with Andrew Dolan

Katie Flahive Classes

Feeling triggered by other people's posts.

"Sometimes I feel social media affects my confidence or self-esteem, even though I know it's primarily used as a highlight reel. Some actors post every single audition they go on to Facebook or Instagram. Others post throwback photos from past shoots or opportunities that they've had. And it can trick us into thinking, Well, why am I not there yet? A good example for me is there was of another actor same age as me, kind of type wise, playing similar roles. You know, we're different, but we're not different kind of a thing. And you know, she has some really good credits on stage on film, and she also has the advantage of, you know, coming from, you know, people who have been in the business before. And she loves posting a lot. And sometimes, you know, I feel like, I don't know the answer to how I should be investing energy into social media and how much, you know, I should be investing in myself."

And really, the question that she's asking is, you know, how much stock do you put in this kind of a thing? Why not me?

And I kind of want to turn that around and say, well, why not you?

"Losers focus on winners. Winners focus on winning."

Keep the focus on your life. You've only got one.

I can't focus on somebody else's life because it's not mine to live. I only have mine.

Ask yourself: How I can make it the best possible life I can? What are the things that are required of me to do that?

Get the focus off of other people and get it onto yourself

Write down areas of your life:

• Social
• Career
• Finances
• Family
• Hobbies
• Health

Ask for each: Where am I and where do I want to go?

Because if you want good health, but you're thinking, "I'm always sick", that's not working.

That needs to be aligned. "I feel good, I want to feel good."

And then also it's about the actions. EX: I really want to be in great shape.

Your thoughts need to be "my body works wonderfully for me. I'm in fantastic shape."

How social media can be helpful: When you see a friend starting to get real success, here's an idea. Support them.

Somebody else's success does not take away from yours. That's ego talking. That's little t truth.

Universal Truth is infinite. There is enough success out there for everyone, so if Joey just put the lead in a Broadway show or the lead opposite Denzel in a film that does not take away from you?

Say if they can do what I can do it too.

• Get closer to that person.
• You want to know how they did it.
• What did these people do?
• What did they think?
• What was their process before they became successful?
• Ask them: What was it like? What is it like when it's tough? What is it like, when you just started out?

Because it's from that that you can get the inspiration to apply it to your own life.

So when it comes to social media and seeing your friend's success. Embrace it. Embrace it.

Turn it on its head, let it motivate you to focus on what you want, and if you don't know what you want.

What is your ideal career? It's one of the first things I ask. Because then we got to align your thoughts.

We got to align your actions, and we've got to get your acting training up to snuff.

So in terms of the trap of social media for actors, again, I ask you to turn it around.

Practice contrary action. And that is not only with your actions but also with your thoughts. Instead of resenting, support. Instead of wanting to pull away from that person, go closer to them. Congratulate them. Ask how they did it. What advice they would have.

Be curious, be curious about your friend's success.

That's how you learn. That's how you get successful.

I so, so strongly believe that you need to do that, the thing that scares you most in life. Is the thing you want to learn how to manage and handle and transcend.

So that you can ultimately shine your own light. Because the world needs you.

So don't get stuck in the trap of social media. Embrace social media and the success that it can give you to motivate you to get the focus on your life and get you into that real positive stream of energy that is out there for you.

About Andrew:

Andrew Dolan's credits include American Daughter (Broadway), Strictly Dishonorable (Vineyard), Pink, Ted Kaczynski (SPF), What Then (Clubbed Thumb), Tree House (NY Stage & Film), Measure for Measure (Target Margin) UK: Edmond (National Theatre). The Woods (National Studio), Boy from the Book (English Touring Theatre).

Regional: Mamba's Daughters (Spoleto Festival), Burn This, Marco Millions, Cyrano, 12th Night, Hapgood (ACT), Substance of Fire. Savage/Love (Magic Theatre), Loot, Amadeus (Arizona Theatre Co.), Road to Nirvana, Down the Road, Boy's Life, Coming Attractions (Encore Theatre).

TV/Film: House of Cards, Your Honor, Chicago Med, Blue Bloods, Bull, Elementary, Good Cop, Blacklist, Handsome Harry Unstoppable, Partners in Crime, 28 Days, Being Human, David Letterman. all Law & Orders, Conviction, Return of Jezebel James.

Training: Bowdoin College, American Conservatory Theatre.

He is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His play, The Many Mistresses of Martin Luther King won the Ovation Award for Best New Play in Los Angeles. He also has an extensive voiceover career. He has taught at Stella Adler, ACT, AADA, and TheFreemanStudio.

Operative words and images and how much you can throw away.

Identify the core emotion of the script.

Find the words and phrases you can act upon.

That's when you lean into everything you have to give.

"Find the good stuff."

Your body needs to be engaged even when your full body isn't on the camera.

Mentality: practice as hard as you play.

One quality a CD looks for in an actor: I know I am in good hands with them.

Self-esteem needs to be earned by yourself.

Monologues:

• Find a cut that works
• Always leave them wanting more
• Catalogue of works
• Casting yourself is 70% of the game
• Don't be lazy, find material that works for you

Sign up for Andrew's Monologue Class

Ground yourself in the realities so you are ready to play.

The purpose of technique is to fill in the gaps when the inspiration fails.

Use the conscious side of your brain so your unconscious can be free.

So you can feel: I got this.

"By working on your acting training, you become more qualified for better acting jobs."

Core work--> so you can clean out the gunk that stands in the way of receiving opportunities that you have previously prevented yourself from receiving.

Matt Corboy Interview: "Don't put me into the role; put the role into me."

The chunk of ice metaphor.

Talent is undeniable.

Use your mind to govern your brain.

One baby step by one baby step.

How do I counteract that negative voice inside of me?

Practice contrary action.

One moment at a time, one minute at a time.

Louis Haye:

Affirmation: It is safe to look within

"My Life Doesn't Work:

I never get to do what I want to do. I can't please anyone. I don't know what I want to do. There is never any time for me. My needs and desires are always left out. I'm only doing this to please them. I am just a doormat. Nobody cares what I want to do. I have no talent. I can't do anything right. All I do is procrastinate. Nothing ever works for me, and so on. Plus, whatever else you have created for yourself. All these I have heard and more.

Whenever I ask a new client what is going on in his or her life, I usually get one of the above answers. Or maybe several of these answers. They really think they know the problem. But I know these complaints are only outer effects of inner thought patterns. Beneath the inner thought patterns is another deeper, more fundamental pattern that is the basis of all the outer effects.

I listen to the words they use as I ask some basic questions:

1. What is happening in your life right now?
2. How is your health?
3. What do you do for a living?
4. Do you like your work?
   1. If yes, why?
   2. If no, why?
5. How are your finances?
6. How is your love life?
7. How did the last relationship end?
8. And the one before that?
9. Tell me about your childhood briefly?

I watch the body postures and the facial movements. But mostly, I really listen to the words they say. Thoughts and words create our future experiences. As I listen to them talk, I can readily understand why they have these particular problems. The words we speak are indicative of our inner thoughts. Sometimes, the words they use do not match the experiences they describe. Then I know that they are either not in touch with what is really going on, or they are lying to me. Either one is a starting point and gives us a basis from which to begin."

Relationships: I attract how I treat myself

Outer effects of inner thought patterns

Underneath the thoughts are your belief systems.

How to change your belief system.

Actions create a new motherboard.

"It gets better; it gets worse; it gets different; it gets real."

When it gets hard, resiliency is being built.

Whatever challenge is being given. It is only going to help you in the long run.

Stop rest, deal with the tired, then realize your life is getting bigger.

About Matt:

Matt Corboy is a journeyman actor who has appeared in over 100 television shows and movies as well as over 125 national commercials.

Most notably, he was Cousin Ralph in the Academy Award-winning movie, The Descendants, alongside George Clooney; Officer Ray Carlson on Emmy Award-winning television series The Shield; and most recently, four episodes as Matt Dickson on This Is Us that aired this February on NBC.

When you're new, it's OK to be new, and you don't have to pretend that you're not.

• That goes back to like being your authentic self.
• Nobody expects the first time you're on set to just be like, "Yeah, hey, I just came from my trailer, and I'm ready for it."
• You don't have to put on airs of anything.
• Keep your mouth shut, observe, let it happen to you, and learn.

There's nobody on this planet who does you better than you.

The sooner you realize that authentic you is good enough. The faster you will start booking.

"Don't put me into the role; put the role into me."

The more you do that; the more people will say, "Oh my God, that's not how we saw it, but God, this guy just owned it."

The actors that continue to work have that enthusiasm every time they're on the set.

SIGN UP FOR KEN REA'S MASTERCLASS

The Language of Letting Go:

"When I meet people or get in a new relationship, I start putting all these repressive restrictions on myself. I can't have my feelings, can't have my wants and needs, can't have my history, can't do the things I want, feel the feelings I'm feeling, or say what I need to say. I turn into this repressed, perfectionist robot instead of being who I am. Me."

In auditions in the past, I would put restrictions, repressive restrictions on myself.

• Don't laugh too hard.
• Don't push
• Don't flub.

The fact of the matter is, I'm far more charming being imperfect.

If I am repressing myself and feeling like I can't have my wants in my needs, and I need to make this podcast absolutely perfect or, people aren't going to listen to it.

It's actually the opposite.

When you have the courage to be yourself. You are magnetic, people are attracted to you.

Sometimes we feel like, "Oh, I'm going to be judged" or "What would they think of me?" Or "what are they thinking of me?"

And the funny thing is that, especially in acting, if you're worried about what they're thinking of you, you're not acting in that scene. And therefore your work is not moment to moment. It is not special. It is not courageous. It is not playful and dynamic.

But, who else can we be? Who else would you want to be? We don't need to be anybody else.

"I just need to allow myself to be my imperfect self, living, and breathing, and being here as I am." That is that's neat. That's cool. That's magnetic. That's playful. That's fun. And that is what gets the job. Not even the job, but the connection with the casting director.

You don't audition for the job. You audition for the relationship.

We may be afraid that if we just relax and be ourselves, the other person will shame us.

And shame is a belief that there is something defective about you. And shame is tough to heal, but it's not impossible.

When we have shame and we feel that maybe there is a part of us that is not good enough and there's that fear that somebody else might see that too.

But the Truth, the truth with a capital T (the energy that knows best, the universal Truth) is, of course, that is bullshit.

There may be damage, but that damage can be healed. And the only one who can heal it is me or you.

When we are relaxed and we accept ourselves, we then thereby give permission to other people to do the same. And isn't that the greatest gift?

"By you letting your light shine. You thereby allow others to let their light shine."- Marianne Williamson.

• I no longer want to dim my light so that other people will feel more comfortable.
• I no longer want to lessen my own power so that others will feel more powerful or less insecure.
• How do I take that energy, that passion within, and just allow it to explode?
• If others don't appreciate us, do we really want to be around them?
• Do we need to let the opinions of others control us and our behavior?

Empowering Questions:

• How do I let the opinions of others control me and my behavior?
• How can I start to let that go?
• And what will that look like?
• What will my life look like when I allow myself to let that go?

Giving ourselves permission to be who we are can have a healing influence on our relationships.

• The tone relaxes
• We relax
• The other person relaxes
• Everybody feels a little less shame

Truth: Who we are is all we can be, and it is enough.

One of my favorite affirmations: I am enough, I am enough, I am enough.

"It gets better, it gets worse, it gets different, it gets real."

"When I'm in that feeling of being enough. I give others permission to know that they are enough."

So today, whatever day you're listening to this. Give yourself permission to be enough.

This is the miracle of Core Work: you can discover a new level of confidence, on a whole other level of self-assuredness, in a whole other level of the courage to be yourself.

The courage to be "Peter Pamela Rose," and show the world who that is, and be totally delighted whether the reaction is, "oh, I love her" or "oh no, thank you."

That feeling of being alive and that feeling of utter gratitude for my love, for my life and for what I have, and for my future. And it's an incredible, incredible place to be.

You may be asking: Well, how do I get there?

Go back to some of my previous Core Work Lessons.

• Listen to the episode, you can be at Whole Foods or, you know, walking down the street, listen to it once.
• Then go back when you're sitting at home or in a coffee shop and listen to it.
• And write down the questions and take notes.
• And when I ask Empowering Questions like, "why does this make me feel that way?"
• Set your timer for each question for 10 minutes. Just start at five or 10 minutes. I really encourage you to go to 20 minutes.
• And you don't know the answer to those questions, what I encourage you to do is just say I don't know.
• And then I want you to ask yourself, but what would it be if I did know? What would it be if I did know?

If you are looking to change and you're like, "I need more help than that," then SHOOT ME AN EMAIL AT [email protected].

And just say, "I want to get more in-depth with core work!"

Then let me guide you and help you there.

The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

"When I meet people or get in a new relationship, I start putting all these repressive restrictions on myself. I can't have my feelings. I can't have my wants and needs. I can't have my history. Can't do things I want, to feel the feelings I'm feeling, or say what I need to say. I turn into this repressed perfectionist robot instead of being who I am. Me."

-Anonymous

And the thing that hits me so painfully and so deeply about this is this is so how I used to be.

The core work is the power of turning from someone who is a repressed perfectionist robot into someone who has the ability and the courage.

That is something I've earned.

Like exercise, but in some ways much harder.

I know, it's very difficult to look at questions about yourself that are so searing and so painful, and I remember when I first started doing this work, I would get sleepy.

What happens is, is that our systems shut down to that new, almost invading message.

New information, those new probing, Empowering Questions that are going to lead us with time, effort, and energy to have the courage to be ourselves.

Think about it in terms of acting and being free to act in front of an Agent, a Casting Director, or a Manager.

It is magnetic. It's sexy, people want a piece of it when you go into a room being totally comfortable with who you and you own that room from the second you walk in.

You are not auditioning for that job. You are auditioning for that relationship. And guess what, you might actually get the job too!

No matter what is thrown at you on a set, your concentration, your ability to exercise your skills as an actor has to be there.

This core work is the magic sauce. You'll start doing this. You get your acting training at the highest level it can be. You get your business skills up and going, and then all of a sudden by magic, things start happening. Why is that? Because you are learning the courage to be yourself!

I can talk about this with utter passion because I used to be that actress, that repressed person, who would go into an audition, and all I would want it to be was perfect.

As opposed to going into an audition and letting it be and letting it fly and letting it live and letting it breathe.

Today, I encourage you to be yourself and to show the world how magnificent you really are and just let it fly.