Acting coaches consistently use words like “stakes,” “desire,” and “vulnerability.” But when that coach is two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, those stakes are taken to another level.
Hoffman has decided to share his decades of experience via the educational platform MasterClass. Five hours of the revered actor’s teachings are available online, broken into segments focusing on everything from line delivery and being in the moment to acting as yourself to be the character.
“He walked us through what it was like to not speak the subtext and talk as human beings,” says Emily McCook, one of the actors chosen to rehearse a scene with Hoffman live for the MasterClass cameras. “He encouraged us to speak not as the character but as ourselves; it was so interesting. We were playing this scene where [my scene partner and I] were having an affair and Dustin told us to play it how it actually was—we had just met each other—and to explore that.”
McCook says the exercise opened her up to a new level of vulnerability where she was no longer able to hide behind the character, and instead revealed herself to her scene partner in casual conversations about
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