Episode Details

“I love acting because it’s a bit of an escape. It gives you the ability to reinvent yourself.” –Hayden Christensen 

Becoming a character is something I was told by a man I consider to be my big brother in acting. It was like a light bulb or, even better, a lightening strike in my mind. The concept of becoming is different than just acting. 

Acting in this sense is just going through the motions and doing the things a character you are chosen to portray will do. You can tell when someone is acting.

It’s a whole different thing when someone becomes a character. 

It’s like when someone is singing versus SANGIN’. You know it when you experience it. 

Becoming a character gives you the opportunity to have that escape that Hayden is mentioning here. 

As an artist, in general, you have to go outside of yourself sometimes to get the best result. Not the best result for others, but the best result for you. 

Some days your art is exactly how you’re feeling that day. Other days it’s the exact opposite. Whatever the feeling, the expression shouldn’t be suppressed. Let it flow. 

Regardless of how the feeling is expressed, there is an escape. An escape from the moment, the feeling, the experience. Sometimes there is an escape from the world into that moment, that feeling, or that experience. When that happens it feels like your art is pulling you in by a magnet that you can’t see. To the point that if anyone or anything snaps you out of it, you’ll lose everything that you put out there. Like you were so close to getting it but don’t. 

But when you allow yourself to be immersed in that moment, that feeling, that experience and complete the task you set forth to complete, there’s almost no greater feeling. 

In those moments, it’s important to allow yourself to flow. To escape. 

In those moments, it’s important to create a space where you can escape. 

When you find yourself outside of yourself, then you can reinvent yourself. 

Then you can dive into a new or adjusted version of yourself. A version you may not have expected to see. Or a version you planned all along.