Many actors have said that learning the lines or memorizing them is one of the hardest things for them to do. It’s a muscle and gets consistently better the more you use it. I learned this from coaching. I can usually be off-book after reading with a client once or twice. So work it hard and often, actors!
1. Move. When Kenny Wormald and I were training for his “Footloose” auditions, we weren’t given much time to prepare. As we worked one scene in particular it just wasn’t connecting for him, so we jumped in the car and headed to my favorite place to run lines: Fryman Canyon Park, which is a nice 45-minute hike near my house. As soon as we were moving with the lines he started to feel the connection to them in his body, therefore the words came easier as well as the intention behind them. I’m pretty sure we ended up doing every scene of his in the movie on that mountain. Another client of mine is a former NFL player who is making the jump into acting. When working on a scene in my office he kept searching for the words, so I suggested we walk around the block. As soon as we got moving his body started connecting and the scene really took off. It’s now what we do first.
2. Use a
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