Interview Transcript

Gabby: So I know one of the questions I had sent you was in your professional work do you yourself use Stanislavksi's methods and do the people are you use them?

Jean: Yeah, I mean, I think you know Stanislavski is the method. So I think whether it’s Stella Adler or Meisner, Utah Hagen, you know any of the techniques, it's all from Stanislavski. I mean because his work was, you know, changed theatre forever because it’s coming from a psychological point of view. And using your imagination, using sense memory, you know memories that you have and then using substitution. You know all the things we talk about. And all the other people, you know names you hear Hagen and Adler and Meisner and so forth, they’re all doing the same thing; They’re just going about it in a different way. So, they all use Stanislavski, I mean he’s the basis of everything. It’s just what their focus is. Like you know, Meisner is really listening and responding. (Makes noises to represent back and forth with snapping) Its back and forth. So his focus is the listening and responding aspect of Stanislavski. Uta Hagen is more like the sense memory and imagination aspect of Stanislavski. But, it’s all coming from his basic work. And the method or not, you know depending, but I think there's nothing new from any of these techniques. And I think it’s what works for you individually, you know, what works for you as an actor, and we’re all different. So, an exercise that Meisner uses may not work at all for you, but it might work perfectly for me. And Stanislavski’s sense memory might work for me this year but not next year. Or it mgiht work for me one time in a scene, and then I can never use it again. So, it’s all the same thing. It’s just point of view of attacking it.

Gabby: Gotcha, okay cool. Now, do you think your students use those same Stanislavski techniques after they graduate and when they’re working?

Jean: Oh absolutely.

Gabby: Yeah.

Jean: Even more so.

Gabby: Mhmm. That’s awesome.

Jean: Even more so because the more you work, the more you understand you have to do that. You have to work even harder. You never stop working. As we said, You always have to go down to the mailroom and work your way up to the corporate office with every role. You can’t start in the corporate office with that role; you gotta go back down to the mail room.

Gabby: Now can you tell when an actor, let's say in a movie, can you tell their technique that they’re using? Or no?

Jean: I mean I can tell if they’re real or not. And if they’re real, they’re using Stanislavski's work. Because what Stanislavski's work is, is being an actual human being. And actually really listening and actually really responding.

Gabby: Yeah, yeah.

Jean: Rather than "putting on a character" and pretending. Because before then that’s what is was. These gestures (does gesture) meant this and the frown. It wasn’t coming from here (points to self), it was just a show. You know, a representation of a person, and not a real human being. That was what was so astounding.

Gabby: Yeah. Was that it was actually real.

Jean: Real. They would really cry. They would really feel things, or they'd really be happy. Or they would really respond to what somebody said rather than “knowing their lines” and waiting for this person to finish “and then saying their’s” (said in character voice)

Gabby: So you think for those same reasons that’s why a majority of conservatory programs and acting training programs use Stanislavski.

Jean: Yeah, exactly.

Gabby: Because it’s the way now.

Jean: Yeah, I mean there’s nothing else. I mean his is the basis, his work is the basis of everything. And reality acting, you know. I mean unless you’re going to clown school.

Gabby: (Laughs). yeah, yeah.

Jean: I mean seriously. Or going into the school of melodrama or maybe cartoon school, I mean I don’t know. I mean I think if you’re trying to create a real human being onstage, yeah, you’re going to his methods. (Laughs)

Gabby: (Laughs) Great.

Jean: I mean maybe we should start a cartoon. That’d be fun- let’s be as fake as we possibly can. But you know, even that’s a technique, to push it as far as you can and just be so unbelievable. But sometimes that’ll push you to a place that makes you believable.

Gabby: True. I didn’t think about that.

Jean: Yeah, so there are no rules. We’re just trying to get to real people, as opposed to a caricature of a person.

Gabby: And that’s what Stanislavski does.

Jean: Yeah, exactly. Have you been reading a lot about him?

Gabby: Yeah, umm, I have been reading a lot of academic journals so far on like a lot of comparing his work. One his comparing his work to some psychologists theory to Stanislavski's methods and the breakdown of beats and objectives and things like that. Then I read one that was based off of applying Stanislavski's method to Greek tragedy's, Trojan women especially, and how some people academically don’t believe you should be applying Stanislavski because it can take away and make the characters more real. And that’s exactly what it (the method) is supposed to be doing. One lady was arguing that that’s what you want the characters to be doing so that they’re more relatable. We should be applying those techniques to later texts that came before Stanislavski.

Jean: Absolutely. Yeah, I mean like Shakespeare.

Gabby: You gotta have some access point to it.

Jean: Yeah. And who’s to say the people in those dramas weren’t doing that.

Gabby: Yeah, yeah.

Jean: I mean, there were great actors, even before Stanislavski. He just put it down into a way to work. I'm sure there are other people that felt that way.

Gabby: Do you think we would’ve gotten to this point of realistic acting without Stanislavski?

Jean: No I think he was the first person, well yeah probably, but he was the first person that wrote it down and really had his own theatre with a group of like-minded individuals. I mean Isadora Duncan came to Stanislavski. You know, she was the creator of modern dance being, it came from your heart and not just a technical ballet of all technique. It came from your soul. And that’s what Stanislavski… But I think he really put it into play with his books and just having the experience of having a theatre and having the people to work and help him.

Gabby: On his method.

Jean: Yeah, exactly. And working with Chekov. You know, all of that, to make it a realistic, you know. I mean, I can’t say it’s just all him, but I think it was the group with him, and the people that came right after him. And then its just developed. And people just take what he started and spins it in different ways. But it’s all coming down to the same thing. You know what I’m saying?

Gabby: Definitely.

Jean: Awesome. Alright, cool! Thank You

Gabby: Thank you.

Jean: It was fun to kind of think about it.