James Cromwell talks about acting and studying at the Beverly Hills Playhouse with Milton Katselas. James says that you always get something out of anything if you show up. That's the willingness to participate and put yourself out there. Actors are always concerned about being observed in a non-supportive way. Milton Katselas makes sure that the atmosphere is one that supports the work. Other artists practice their craft on a daily basis. It's always good, for the creative juices, to think on a daily basis. James says that if you put yourself in a circumstance where you do this on a daily basis, and it comes to the money job where people are maybe critical, to be able to step back and train yourself to find your way; to identify what's in the way of giving the performance you want to give. Before James got "Six Feet Under" he came to Milton because he had always been a character actor, played roles that never got the girl. He had never been able to inhabit the "me" sexually and romantically- those aren't usually offered to character actors who never get the girl. Milton had him go back to class and had him do an improvisation. It was to follow a girl home, meet her on a subway, approach her doing something he would not otherwise do, and to follow the objective and allow himself to be seen in his frustrations and his embarrassment. He did this and managed to get to the end of it and he did what he usually does, which is to pull back. In the critique, Milton said that James has everything except the end, which is not allowing himself to have the cheese. James believes that actors are there to show up and allow an audience to see you, on every level of your being, to allow yourself to be seen. He tries to bring to it his humanity, his concerns, his investment, his limitations. Two weeks after the improv, he got "Six Feet Under" and he got the girl. But then he started to resist the process of not knowing where his character was going. And a friend of his reminded him that he couldn't do anything about the lines or the circumstances, but the silences were his. He found that there, he could place his humanity and his persona. That's something that Milton had spoken about all the time, but it was brought back to him by my friend.The Beverly Hills Playhouse Acting Schoolhttp://www.bhplayhouse.comJames Cromwell on IMDb:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000342/
