Acting
-
Evil Star Katja Herbers on Over-Directing: I Know How Not to Listen” (Back to One, Episode 216)
Dutch actor Katja Herbers plays forensic psychologist Kristen Bouchard on the hit series Evil, which just finished its third season at Paramount+. On this episode, she talks about how saying no to the audition actually secured her the role, and hitting it off with “the Kings” (show runners Robert and Michelle King) helped her feel ownership of it. We get into the beautiful weeds about the pitfalls of over-directing and how she often simply ignores direction or translates it into something she can use. She explains why laboring over an emotional through-line is unnecessary, how working with the girls that […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Aug 16, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 213: Angourie Rice
She’s only 21, but Australian actor Angourie Rice has earned respect in Hollywood for stacking up diverse roles in The Nice Guys, The Beguiled, Jasper Jones, Mare of Easttown, not to mention a few Spider-Man movies. Now she has her first starring role in Honor Society for Paramount+. She talks about how it helped her to be able to relate so much to her character in that film, and why talking directly to the camera was oddly easy. We chat about her podcast, The Community Library, which is a celebration of literature and storytelling of all kinds. This leads to […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jul 26, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 206: Rupert Friend
Among many appealing qualities as an actor, Rupert Friend certainly has “range.” His two most recent roles are James Whitehouse—elitist, upper-class British politician in David E. Kelley’s Netflix limited series Anatomy Of A Scandal; and The Grand Inquisitor—blowhard Star Wars bad guy in Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s probably best known for playing Peter Quinn on a few seasons of Homeland, which got him an Emmy nomination. On this episode, he talks about why his preparation process is more “uncovering” than “building,” how energy management has served him well, the gift of being allowed to “fail safely,” and the most important thing […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jun 7, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 203: Giancarlo Esposito
Few characters born in this current ‘Golden Age of Television’ rise to the legendary status of Gustavo Fring. Giancarlo Esposito brought the drug kingpin to life on Breaking Bad and now he’s finishing out (or filling in) his arc on the prequel Better Call Saul. On this episode, Esposito talks about the careful way he “whispers” a new character into existence, and why the identification and breaking down of his own resistances is so important. He tells the story of the eureka moment he had reading the words “hiding in plain sight” and how that opened up the character for […]
by Peter Rinaldi on May 24, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 201: Anamaria Vartolomei
Anamaria Vartolomei is the French-Romanian star of Audrey Diwan’s film Happening, about a young college student in desperate need of an illegal abortion in 1960s France. The camera follows Vartolomei’s character so closely, both literally and figuratively, that you begin to feel like you are experiencing the movie from inside her. On this episode, Vartolomei talks about why the closeness of the camera actually made her feel protected; how curiosity rather than competition helped her in the audition; how feeling safe leads to fearlessness in action; and the importance of breathing, surprises, and, most importantly, anger. Back To One can […]
by Peter Rinaldi on May 10, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 198: Fiona Glascott
In the new HBO Max series Julia, talented Irish actor Fiona Glascott plays Judith Jones, the real life editor who pulled Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking from the reject pile and turned it into a bestseller. In this episode, Glascott talks about the joy of inhabiting that trailblazer and playing opposite the great Judith Light in a pivotal scene. She also details the unique preparation process she employs when she takes on the young Professor McGonagall in the Fantastic Beasts films, shares an inspiring reason why she doesn’t obsess over landing some ideal role, and much […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Apr 19, 2022 -
Back To One Episode 195: Kelly AuCoin
You know him as Pastor Tim on The Americans, or “Dollar” Bill Stearn on Billions, or maybe Kelly AuCoin has wowed you as a regular on the New York stage for many years. In this episode he lifts the hood and lets us peek in on what keeps his acting engine running, or (because he prefers sports metaphors) what keeps him in the game. He talks about how his wife made him realize he actually does have a preparation process, the differences between his hours leading up to “action” as apposed to “curtain up,” the importance of the often overlooked […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Mar 29, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 194: Ani Mesa and Alessandra Mesa
Alessandra Mesa and Ani Mesa are the stars of Erin Vassilopoulos’ debut feature Superior, a fascinating, fun, and suspenseful genre-blending exploration of identity. The three collaborated on a short of the same name six years earlier, and the feature functions almost like a sequel. In this episode they talk about the benefits of having the “real memories” of the short as a kind of backstory to use in the feature, how they made the anxiety of shooting on film work to their advantage, the interesting way Ani helped Alessandra (who co-wrote the script) take off the writer’s hat and put […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Mar 22, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 187: Renate Reinsve
Norwegian actor Renate Reinsve’s performance in her first leading role, in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, earned her the best actress award at Cannes and is slowly taking the world by storm. She embodies Julie with a levity and depth that is both grounded in a relatable reality and poetically expresses the beauty and heartbreak of life at the same time. To say it’s the kind of work that changes people’s lives is not an exaggeration. In this half hour, we take the microscope to her performance and lay out the factors at play in its creation. […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jan 25, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 186: Eric Roberts
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Eric Roberts will soon have more credits as an actor than anyone else who has ever lived anywhere in the world. An intensity matched only by raw talent on display in films like Star 80, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and Runaway Train established him as a respectable actor’s actor in Hollywood. And, as he talks about in this episode, once video replaced film, and more people began shooting, they wanted Eric Roberts in their movies. And once he became privy to how many offers were coming in, he started saying yes. Work begot work fairly […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jan 18, 2022
