Lucas Alexander

Prepare, prepare, prepare… and Lennart

I am SO pissed at myself. I just finished a course in ‘Speak’ the kind you do when you do radio commercials, or an audiobook. And in my opinion I didn’t prepare myself enough for the last session we had, we went to a studio and recorded different stuff that we had prepared, and I just didn’t feel like I’ve prepared enough. And it’s not the first time I feel that way. When I’m sitting at home and should be preparing, I always postpone it. I did the same thing when I was doing the course in L.A.. We had ‘Shakespear class’ and was suppose to prepare for it, know the lines you know, and I came in and hadn’t prepared for it enough. So we took from where it was, from me not knowing the lines, and that was ok. But I could just really feel that the fact that I didn’t know the lines held me back, cause I couldn’t get into the text properly, cause I all the time had to see what the next line was. And after that I promised myself that I would never do that again, that I would always come prepared, and then today I didn’t come prepared.
And it’s not that I didn’t get anything out of this course, I really did and I’m sure I can use the disc we made today too, but I just know it would have been so much better if I prepare more…!

There is something that I wanted to share with you, but just haven’t… I was involved in this ‘Reading’. The concept was pretty simple, there had been a course in script writing, and as a wrap of the course they asked some actors to act out some of their texts. Kind of down to earth, we were allowed to hold the scripts, but it was still with an audience. A really REALLY interesting thing to be involved in.
There were especially this one part of a script (for most parts we were handed parts of scripts and not full scripts, cause we only had a short preparation) that I really like. It was between my character who was a grandfather to this young girl, played by my partner of course, and there were so much said between the lines, it was really interesting to do. And I really felt like I got this old guy, Lennart, was his name, under my skin. It was so amazing to get that sensation! Unfortunately I was so focused on my partner and that she had to remember to give me time to act, to show this guy and his silences. That I, at one point got lost in the piece, and stole one of her lines, which screwed up the beat a bit in the scene, nothing I thing the audience realized, but when it’s there, it’s such a shame, cause it should have been spotless. I learned a big lesson there, which was; focus on yourself! And then listen to your partner!

It’s a bit funny with these old guys, cause it’s not the first time I’ve done an old character whom I’ve really felt connected to, and who got under my skin. Don’t know what it is, but I really like playing them!

Godspeed Grandpa, you are in our hearts!

My thoughts to you and yours,

Lucas Alexander