"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves"

viktor frankl

Buenos Dias.

Today we're looking at why one actor said this:

and another said this:

and why they're both wrong.

Let's begin.

Our industry thrives on scarcity. On gatekeepers. On making us think we are competing with each other for scraps.

But we are not.

We're not fighting for the same 10 roles.

We're all trying to build sustainable careers in a broken system that wants us desperate and grateful.

The Brando can't be a secret we hoard.

Because the more actors who join together against the impossible back-braking conditions, the faster we can change this bollocks system we've inherited.

Our best work happens once we know our lines inside out and back to front.

That's how we get to the place of discovery and escape.

The place where you and the writing fuse to form something that has never been done before, never been seen before.

This is your art. This is where you become alive.

But the lines must be deep.

As Tom Hanks puts it:

But that place is impossible to get to with the short turnarounds we are given for selftapes.

That is why taping feels so dissatisfying.

1. Learn 10 pages of dialogue.
2. Read and analyse the script.
3. Make bold choices.
4. Find someone willing to give up 1.5 hours of the day.
5. Make them come to you.
6. Pay through the nose for a reader if you have to.
7. Set up a film studio where you live.
8. Do you have good lighting, sound and camera?
9. Buy it if you have to.
10. Make sure there is no noise.
11. Adhere to our strict guidelines exactly.
12. Be grateful. you're lucky to be taping for this.
13. You have 48 hours.
14. No excuses.
15. Go.

No matter how much we object, the Producers instructing the Casting Directors instructing us say they are unable to give us more than a few days to come up with something they take weeks and weeks and weeks to reject.

A few days is not nearly enough time to learn deeply.

A few days is not nearly enough time to do the work we need to do.

Especially when you are factoring in other things, like paying rent, like childcare, like life.

But.

What happens?

We tell ourselves it must be possible-

It's not because you are broken:

Everyone else is thinking the same thing.

Which guarantees you'll feel shit when you do the tape.

And round and round it goes. The whirly gig of a broken industry.

They know what they're asking for is near impossible.

But they've got 200 other actors willing to cancel their lives and send mediocre tapes just to stay in the running. There is no incentive for them to change.

As a result we are all stuck on a treadmill that isn't slowing down any time soon.

The goal of the Brando is to help you off that treadmill.

Not just by helping you improve the quality of your tapes.

But by helping you get fulfilment from your work

To help you feel proud of the work you send.

Why Does Memorisation Kill Your Tapes?

When you've got 2-5 days to learn lines it's impossible to get to where Tom wants you to be - you end up in the "no man's land of memorisation".

You may be able to muddle your way through a scene. But there is no way you can live inside it, enjoy it, find flow.

If you've ever felt this way, you're not broken. The science that backs you up.

Research on learning curves, cognitive load, and automaticity shows why your brain gets stuck in that middle ground- where performance goes to die.

Here's what's happening: your brain is trying to do four things at once:

1. Remember what comes next (retrieval)
2. Check if you got it right (monitoring)
3. Manage the panic about forgetting (anxiety)
4. Responding to the other person (acting)

Something must be sacrificed. And it's always the last thing on that list, the acting. It's why your performance may come out self-conscious, stiff and not at all what you had in your mind. Because your mind was putting out fires everywhere.

The research shows optimal performance happens at two extremes:

Complete automaticity - lines learnt so deeply you could recite them in your sleep (like your phone number). But this takes weeks, sometimes months. You barely have days.

Fresh, present-moment engagement - sight-reading, cold reading, improvisation. You're not trying to remember anything. You're just responding to what's happening right now.

You can't hit automaticity. You don't have time.

But you can stay fresh and present. And that's what this method does.

The Brando

The solution is simple:

Stop learning your lines.

The method you received yesterday lets you self-tape without memorising a single word. You write out your lines in a specific way, analyse the text in whatever way works for you and then as you tape you'll find your brain is free to listen, respond, and make bold choices - all without the "what's my next line?" panic.

YOU MAY HAVE SOME VERY REASONABLE QUESTIONS:

1. "Isn't this cheating?"

The technique is named after Marlon Brando because it's an adaptation of what he used on The Godfather.

He used cue cards for his work. Insisted on it. Not out of (as is widely believed) laziness. But because he was experimenting with his craft:

He believed rote memorisation sounded like "Mary Had A Little Lamb" to his ear. Rehearsed. Fake. Dead.

So he used cue cards to create spontaneity. Searching for his words in the moment.

This is technique.

And the cast supported it. Yes, because it was Brando, but also because it worked.

Robert Duvall said:

They were serious about the work. But playful with each other.

History tells us how his experiment worked out:

The film was the film, he won the Best Actor Oscar and turned in one of the most iconic performances in cinema history. With the help of his cast mates.

But, in order for the technique to be useful to you, you must decide for yourself.

Watch the film.

Is he cheating?

2. "I need to see the other person in order to react off of them"

Do you?

Very quickly you will realise this technique forces you to listen, and you start listening very hard. Because your cue isn't on the sheet, you are forced to really listen to what they are saying and what they are doing.

You hear them shift in their seat. You hear their smile on the line. You hear their weighted pause before the storm.

3. "Will they see my eyes scanning across the page?"

Once you have done a few tapes you will realise that no, the method actually simulates how we look at people when we talk. Once in a while a line will be too long and you will catch yourself moving from left to right unnaturally.

If you spot this occurring, slow down, take a breath at a comma. Most issues can be solved by not rushing through the line.

4. "Won't casting directors/agents get angry at me for doing it this way?"

You are the artist. You get to decide how to make your selftapes. If you turn in a cracking tape before the deadline, who gives a shit. There is a meme going around that despite setting deadlines, casting directors are watching tapes on a first come first serve basis. This would put those with financial and caregiving responsibilities at a disadvantage along with those for whom it takes longer to learn. You can use the Brando to fight back against this unfair practice and submit a tape as soon as it comes in.

Lot's of actors already use this technique, but a few are a little worried about the decision makers finding out.

We believe they shouldn't be. This is an legitimate, artistic technique. And one that is necessary until the too quick deadline culture changes.

5. "What if the casting asks me to do it again without the script in a callback?"

At this point a few things have happened here:

1. You have workshopped your character. You have fooled about, experimented, tried new things, all in the pursuit of finding where this character lives in you. It simulates a very condensed theatre rehearsal, and by the time you have sent off the tape, you will have made choices.
2. Casting now has given those choices the green light:
   ​
   "We love what you are doing"
   ​​
   This provides you a heap of confidence going into your callback - the choices you made in your tape work, you are for all intents and purposes right for the role, the role is yours for the taking. You should feel confident.
3. This confidence will bleed into your learning, it's much harder to learn lines when you have worry, self doubt and unclear choices rattling around your head. It's much easier to learn once you have a clear direction to follow (e.g. your choices you found from taping).
4. Another benefit is the lines end up embedding themselves deeply from the act of workshopping the tape with your partner. They have been, essentially, par-cooked, and all you need to do is finish them off. As one Brando'er put it:
   ​
   ​"when you take the pressure off learning the lines, oddly they are just there."
   ​
5. And most of the time, you are given more than 48hrs before a call back.

6. "But does it actually work?"

I used to be that actor:

It takes me ages to learn lines. I cancelled a lot of my life for the job. I bought into the notion that that was what being an actor was. I must sacrifice my life because casting only have 3 days to cast this part...that's just the way things are. I signed up for this...

So I'd spend much wasted time desperately drilling lines. Feeling like an inadequate failure when my mind went blank on take 1. Sending in tapes I knew were crap because I'd run out of time or had just lost the will.

But then a few pals and I began working smarter.

It started out of necessity - there was no way to learn 2 scenes, 10 pages each overnight.

But then it developed into a technique that allowed us to make choices that we wouldn't have been able to make if we were constantly thinking "what's my next line"

I've been cast in 8 jobs using the Brando - Disney, HBO, Starz, Amazon, Channel 4, PBS, BBC. Including a few series reg roles.

Some of those jobs I was offered the role straight from the tape.

I have had over 20 callbacks from tapes where I didn't memorise a single line.

But I must be clear: this is not proof the Brando will book you more work, just that it has not prevented us from finding it.

But what's most valuable about this method is not the jobs.

It's that I no longer feel like shit when I tape.

I feel creative.

I now look forward to taping.

Try It on Your Next Tape

Even if you're sceptical, try it on 1 scene.

It takes 15 minutes.

See what happens.

If you hate it, discard it.

If if unlocks something in you, as it did me, then start looking for your collaborator -

Someone you trust. Someone who feels similarly about the too short turnarounds and broken system. Someone who'll enjoy workshopping with you, who you can do the same with when they need it. Send them the Brando PDF. That's all they need to get started. The industry convinces us we are alone, that we are fighting against each other, but we are not - as one 6 figure actor reader put it:

Once you've tried the Brando, reply to this email and tell me how it went. Did anything surprise you? What felt different?

(I respond to every email)

Happy Brando'ing.

A 🤘
x

p.s. the Brando has evolved from working with lots of different collaborators on many different variations of it, 6 figure actor does not own it.

Please feel free to take it, adapt it, share it, make it your own, improve on it, teach it, explore with it, distribute it. It's yours.

The industry's hard enough as it is. We must fight back together.