How did you first fall in love with acting? And was there a moment where you knew that this career was for you?

 I was fascinated with acting because of literature and writing—that was my first love. I discovered books. I read a lot of comic books, you know, young-young, and then that sort of moved into fiction.

I found a whole world in great books and teachers and librarians and my mom. When I got into high school they had drama classes, because I’d never been to see a play. I watched movies of course, but I didn’t think of it that way. But something clicked, because I loved the idea that you could take this thing on paper and then bring it to life without the paper. I It is like a book, it is like fiction, only it’s 3D, you can act it out — ButI didn’t think of it that way really, I didn’t know any of this, I was just being a kid doing it. I was about 14, and I said, “this is so much fun.” And I liked the other people — I found a tribe, you know? I found a tribe of people who loved the arts, loved performing, loved the camaraderie. I discovered that the weirdos are the cool people, you know?

I was in sports, I ran track, I was a junior class president. I’m bragging now! I was nuts about high school. I was a nerdy kid in junior high, I was pretty unhappy, my parents divorced, so in high school I kind of found my way.

It was centered around the drama group, and we did challenging stuff like Molière and musicals and a play where I played Henry David Thoreau. It’s like, perfect match for me. So that’s what I fell for. So by the time I came to college I thought, “Oh, I really want to do this. I want to write and I want to act.”

 What do you think was the most important lesson you’ve learned earlier in your career and one lesson you wish you had learned sooner?

When I was an actor in grad school, the people I really admired pulled me aside and said, “I have an idea for you. Why don’t you try a little teaching? We’ll see.” And I really loved it right away. I loved the acting, teaching together—both.

And early on, because of them, and also my nature, I learned to be kind—I’ve never, ever been a mean teacher. I didn’t have a model for that. When I heard or saw other people doing it I was sort of shocked. It’s like if someone smacked their kid right across the face in public, you know? I thought it was just so unethical and not conducive to helping an actor, for one thing.

Things I wish I learned: that not talking is as powerful as talking.

Now, I just showed off everything I knew and talked about everything. That moment, okay—I had six notes, when I learned later one note would work. That’s all that we can absorb. Just pick one, you know? But I wanted to do everything, you know? And that was slow—that took me a while to learn.

 When you start working with an actor, what’s the first thing you see or look for?

Do they have a process that serves them reliably and artistically? It’s not an intellectual process, it’s not something they’re hiding behind like a crutch that makes them feel like, “If I do these things, then I’ll be good.”

It’s something they’ve learned—like, when they pick up a script they go, “Oh okay, I do this. That’s how I become that person. That’s how I collaborate to that story.”

Essentially, if they have that quality—and if they don’t, in my studio then we take them through the beginning process slowly, to give them that foundation of a visceral way of approaching the work. So that’s what I look for. If they have it, that’s fantastic. Now we can work on more sophisticated things.

What do you think actors tend to overcomplicate when it comes to their work?

They overcomplicate trying to map the whole thing out and how to do it. They’re directing themselves.

Because with self-tapes in particular, auditions in general but with self-tapes in particular, you have to self-direct. But you need to be able to put yourself in that, you know, put the dial on: “Okay, this is a science. I’ve got to make a tape that’s gonna work. I can’t just experiment and feel and see what happens. I’ve got to know what’s going on.”

Versus rehearsal or being on set. What I always preach is that if you do all that work of carving out: “Oh, I know, I get this, I know what’s going on, I know what she’s going through, I know who I’m talking to, I know what the emotional core is. I plant it in a way that’s true for me and everything’s cooking,” then you can play like that. Then you don’t have to be frozen.

I say if you do all that specificity then you can just put your brain to the side and say to it: “Thank you for your service, I’m going to play now.” At the end you put the head back on and go, “How’d that go?”

You don’t want this going on while you’re performing. It’s gonna operate. You’re not gonna fall into the stage. You’re not gonna bump into a camera, you know? The brain will help you.

But if you’re thinking, “I’m gonna turn like this, and then I’m gonna get that look, this is where I cry”—all that stuff—yes, you’ll do it all really weird.

 My last question, to send it off, is going to be: What do you hope your students walk away with beyond just acting skills?

 It’s really important to me, and I hope to the actors that I work with, that they are an important sector and element of the society they live in.

Without hyperbole, without being pretentious, I really do think actors are healers. I think that the arts in general—and actors—have the power, whether it’s in person or through the screen, to give people something that really heals them. Even if it’s laughter, or it’s something that they don’t really think about.

I want the actors to be human beings first, because they’re playing human beings. And it’s important that they have full, rich lives to draw upon. You know—art imitates life, and so if you don’t have any life to draw upon, your art starts to get really stale.

So I want them to be full human beings. And I also want them to be collaborative artists, because acting is a team sport.

People think, “I’m just in it for me, you know, then you get—‘if you look at me on that line then I’ll be able to get mad, but I need you to look at that line and then I’ll do it to me’”—or, you know, and it’s all about you. That kind of selfishness is just kind of boring.

So, to answer your question, I would say: be a human being first so you can play a human being. Realize your important function in society as an actor. And be a collaborative, sharing team player.

— Scott Freeman

Check out the classes he offers at https://thefreemanstudio.com/