Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Adam Scott on the Humiliation and Embarrassment of Acting

In a new interview with The A.V. Club, Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation, Party Down) discusses his career trajectory, why he regrets not going to college, and how ensemble casts make him look good. The actor also admits that he related to the characters in Party Down, the Starz original comedy series about struggling actors and writers who work for a low-rent catering business, because he already "understood the humiliation and pain" of being an actor.

Read an excerpt from the A.V. Club Q&A below:

AVC: Looking at your career trajectory, it kind of feels similar to Henry’s [in Party Down] in a way. When you saw the part, did it kind of have any familiar ring to you at all?

AS: Yeah, totally. I immediately understood the general air of humiliation that comes with trying to do something as ridiculous as be an actor in Hollywood. It’s just kind of an embarrassing endeavor. I never had that thing where I had this success where people were stopping me and saying embarrassing things to me at the time—I mean, now I have people telling me [Henry’s catchphrase] “Are we having fun yet?”—but at the time, I didn’t have anything like that. But I certainly understood the humiliation and pain of having to stand there and feel like a piece of garbage while you list your credits for somebody who wants to know what they may have seen you in, and then it turns out they haven’t seen you in anything, they had just met you before or something. You just feel like an idiot at all times. I think all of us in the cast related to that. Being an actor is just kind of embarrassing. So I think we all certainly saw a lot of truth in it.

Actors Walk to Fight Alzheimer's

Actor Nancy Daly has organized a national team for the Alzheimer's Association's 2011 Walk to End Alzheimer's. Her team, "We Take Care of Our Own—Actors United to End Alzheimer's," will participate in walks in several cities across the country between now and Nov. 5, and is receiving support from Actors' Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Screen Actors Guild.

"My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two days before Thanksgiving in 2009," Daly said. "I founded the national team, 'We Take Care of Our Own—Actors United to End Alzheimer's,' so that actors across the country could join together to support all of their fellow members who are living with Alzheimer's. It is too late for me to have more time with my mom—she doesn't know me anymore. But maybe this work will bring guidance, support and comfort to other actors and they might be able to have one more month of awareness with their own mom or dad while they still remember their name."

New Day Job for Actors: Playing Faux Medical 'Patients'

Tired of your day job waiting tables or working retail? Well these days, actors are turning "sick days" into a whole new sort of day job that pays the bills between gigs and keeps their performance gears spinning.

The Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan is just one of many hospitals and medical schools using professional actors as "standardized patients" to simulate a clinical diagnosis for their med students. Paying professional actors $25 an hour, Weill Cornell trains performers to portray the symptons of specific illnesses as they are examined by med students who need to learn which diagnosing questions to ask. It's as much of an exercise in withholding as it is providing the students with information. The interaction between actor and student are videotaped, allowing the students to then be judged on their empathy, communication, and ability to diagnose and gain helpful feedback.

But it's also a cool job for the actors. Quinn Lemley, an actress who plays Rita Hayworth in a one-woman show at night, doubles as a standardized patient during the day, excited by the ability to play a whole range of characters in one eight-hour session. Other actors who have appeared in commercials and on TV shows like Mad Men have also been hired.

Beginning My Film Career With a Message for 'Teens Like Phil'

I am proud to say that my film career as an actor has begun. This spring, while doing my daily browsing of the new casting opportunities on BackStage.com, I came across a casting notice for School of Bullies, a nonunion film that would be submitted to film festivals and air on Logo TV. The description of the film, which is based on a true story about a gay teen who is bullied to the point of becoming suicidal, also made me think about today's issues surrounding same-sex marriage and the countless young homosexual high school and college teens who are being bullied because of their sexual orientation.

As I read the breakdown for School of Bullies (which would later be re-titled Teens Like Phil) on BackStage.com, there were three characters that I knew I could audition for: Phil, a lonely gay high school outsider; Adam, Phil's crush; and Shaun, the bully. Not only did these characters fit my age range, but they were all just regular high school teenagers. This would not be my first audition for film, but it was the first one for which I was confident that I was the right actor for the project – not only because it was about characters who are roughly my age, but because I felt so strongly about the topic.

For a couple of weeks before my audition, I began to focus on learning how gay teens socialized with certain groups of people. I wouldn’t say I "studied" any specific behavior, but I kept my eyes open and learned a lot from that process. I researched news stories to familiarize myself with the ongoing problems within the United States regarding teen bullying and harassment, as well. I thought that as an actor, being familiar with the topic was something that could help me succeed in this audition.

I was a bit nervous, but also confident in myself when I went to the auditions at CAP 21 at NYU. I entered the audition room, where there were two men in their late 20s, a stool, and a camera about one foot away from the stool. I sat on the stool and proceeded to stare into the camera as I began the two-minute monologue I had prepared, a comedic piece from Albee’s The Zoo Story. David Rosler, the film's producer and co-director, then asked me to read for Adam and Phil. After reading the sides that were handed to me, I shook their hands and walked out the door. Even though I had no idea whether or not I had earned a part in the film, I was excited to leave the audition feeling mostly satisfied with myself.

Getting In Character with Theatre MAMA in Times Square

Neon lights, mile-wide billboards, and monster screens are not the only things that make Times Square a wonderland. On the ground – far below the hi-tech spectacles, and scattered throughout the hoards who visit the theater district each day – are live actors performing for the crowds.

Dressed in striking costumes as characters from some of the most popular shows on Broadway, these animated street performers attract the attention of flocks of wandering visitors. Their draw? Live human energy. Zoned-out tourists, ambling with their eyes to the sky and jaws dropped, snap back to street level as a grinning Chicago chorus girl slinks past with Fosse flare. A family bustling past with rolling suitcases slows to share a tickled laugh with a stewardess from Catch Me If You Can as she offers the local time. John Lennon of the Beatles tribute musical Rain waves good morning to a bike messenger, and a 1950s sock-hopper skips down the sidewalk singing "Baby, It’s You."

They are all part of a street team employed by a creative promotional company called Theatre MAMA, and their mission is to distribute free discount ticket vouchers (up to 50 percent off) to several Broadway shows, while providing an impromptu, up-close preview of what it feels like to be in the audience.

Laura Benanti Will Be On October Playboy Cover?

Tony-winning actress Laura Benanti will appear on the cover of the October issue of Playboy, according to her Twitter account. The Broadway star plays Carol-Lynne, the first Playboy "Bunny," on the new NBC series The Playboy Club.

Benanti tweeted earlier today: "So excited to shoot the October cover of @Playboy for [The Playboy Club]! Carol Lynne is coming to a news stand near you."

Who Can Live Up to Liz Taylor?

Before her death from congestive heart failure earlier this year, Elizabeth Taylor's career spanned from being a breakout child star at age 12 to becoming one of the great actresses and symbols of Hollywood's Golden Age, and one of the most enduring glamour icons of all time. Her romance with Richard Burton is again in the spotlight, following the publication of Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger's book Furious Love in 2010 and a Vanity Fair cover story the same year; Martin Scorcese is now in talks to direct a film adaptation of Furious Love.

Famous for her glamorous career and tumultuous love life, Taylor became a model for the modern day celebrity. The question now, though, is which of those current celebrities could plausibly portray one of our most beloved Hollywood actresses on screen. The Huffington Post provides us with a potential list of 10 Hollywood beauties, wondering if any of them has what it takes to play Elizabeth Taylor.

The most obvious choice, for many reasons, is Angelina Jolie. Glamorous and constantly in the spotlight, Jolie's billing in a movie might just be the modern-day equivalent to Taylor's. There are few "old fashioned" movie stars left in Hollywood, but we could argue that Jolie is one of those leading ladies (along with male counterparts George Clooney and Brad Pitt, perhaps). Johnny Depp, who co-starred with Jolie in The Tourist last year, told the Telegraph that she and Pitt are "the Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton of our era."

Are 2011 Movie Choices Destroying Oscar Winners' Reputations?

Grantland editor Lane Brown is rightfully disappointed with the output of movies this year. "Lately it seems like even the most serious thespians would step over Terrence Malick to get to the nearest green screen (and easy paycheck) to deliver crappy dialogue into a 3-D camera," Brown wrote in his post for Grantland's "Hollywood Prospectus" yesterday, titled "Which Actors Tarnished Their Oscars the Most in 2011?". But what is a general statement such as this without statistical proof? Well, Grantland's "department of made-up entertainment-related statistics" has all the proof you need.

Using Rotten Tomatoes scores to reach his conclusions, Brown averaged the ratings of all of an actor's post-Oscar films (including the one for which the actor won their award) up until the end of 2010, then averaged the ratings of all their post-Oscar films up through this past weekend. Subtracting the average including 2011 from the one from 2010 results in how much the actors' Oscar was tarnished -- measured in units appropriately named "cubas" (for the way Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career has been full of flops since he earned an Academy Award for his performance in Jerry Maguire).

As 'Harry Potter' Film Franchise Ends, What's Next for Its Young Stars?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, The eighth and final film in the Harry Potter series will be released July 15, marking the end of the franchise, and fans are very anxious to see stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint on the big screen as J.K. Rowling's iconic characters for the last time. But many of you might ask, "What’s next for these young Harry Potter actors?"

Many of us cannot imagine actor Daniel Radcliffe in another role, because when we see him all we think of is Harry Potter. Radcliffe first appeared in the title role in 2001, when he was only 12 years old; he turns 22 on July 23. But while we can all say safely that Radcliffe has delivered outstanding performances as Harry, where will his career go from here?

At Jennifer Aniston's 'Inside the Actors Studio' Episode Taping

I was in the audience last Thursday, June 23, when Jennifer Aniston came to The Actors Studio at Pace University for a taping of Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton. As you'd expect, the popular movie star talked about her childhood and discussed her film and TV work, for an episode that is scheduled to air next month on Bravo.

As she discussed her early years, Aniston revealed some personal stories that stunned the audience. She pointed out that she was a terrible student -- not in drama, but in all of her other courses. Aniston also talked about how her parents were very funny people, and she said that she got a lot of her talent from her parents. Aniston was very comical as she stared at Lipton when he asked his questions, and made side comments to herself when answering them. And of course, the actress played to her audience, making us and Lipton laugh every time she held an awkard pause or reacted in ways that reminded everyone of her Friends character, Rachel. As many gossip sites have already reported, Aniston also brought her new boyfriend Justin Theroux to the theater, and throughout the interview she kept looking back at him and making flirty gestures.

But Aniston actually seemed very comfortable in the seat on stage (possibly because she performed in front of a live audience on the set of Friends, before her work on film sets?). Aniston said that she loved performing in front of a live audience, because she felt it was like theater and gave her a similar rush of energy.