Interview with Casting Workbook

Interview hosted by and courtesy of Casting Workbook and President & Chief Marketing Officer, Christopher Ian Bennett.

With me on this show today is a veteran actor, a long time friend of the Casting Workbook family, Sarah Redmond. Sarah is an eclectic actor and performer, someone who has got an incredible background in film and television and stage and theater and dance and all these great things; but what she’s doing so well and wants to do more and more of for 10 years now, has been coaching. She is an accomplished actress, well versed in the many aspects of her chosen profession. She considers that to be her craft, and indeed, throughout her entire career, Sarah has gathered an extensive resume of skills, experience, including things like I mentioned earlier, dance and theater, but all of that comes into her film and TV work, which comes back to coaching and to acting.

Born in Cyprus, Sarah-Jane and her family visited so many countries before settling at the age of 10, here in Canada. She recalls from an even earlier age that she always wanted to become an actor. The young and inspired Sarah Redmond attended dance maker studio in Toronto for six years under professional Brian Foley, before she moved to London after her graduation. Within her first year in the UK, she was accepted into the theater school, but instead she wanted to come back to Canada and study at the famous William Davis Center, right here in Vancouver.

William Davis is an incredible name, by the way. If you have not come across it yet, you most certainly will, he’s an actor who cares deeply about the craft. William is recognizable as his famous portrayal as the one and only Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files series.

Thank you so much for doing this show today, I really appreciate it and tell me about, let’s, let’s start there, Sarah, tell me about, I know you… you light up when you talk about coaching. I know how important it is to you and one of the things I thought that made you such an outstanding CWBLive coach is that you’re not really preoccupied with how much experience an actor has, you really look at each one, you know, on an individual case by case. Can you tell me a little bit about the types of actors you love working with? Does it matter how much experience they may or may not have?

No definitely not. I mean, I think that’s one of the wonderful things that I love about coaching is, just to be able to see the individual person, and when you, when you get a chance to see people with their masks off, um, metaphorically, obviously. I mean, you know, when you just see them dropping to themselves and, you know, I think we all want to be seen, for the most part.

We all want people to see who we really are. And I think coaching really gives me that opportunity. I did study also in expressive arts therapy, when I was going to have a child. I thought, oh, maybe I need to get a real job, so I went back to school but that also helped me a lot, in terms of, in terms of my coaching, just with finding different ways in.

Tell me about that, that’s what I mean. That is something I think unique, that I have yet to encounter, or any of our coaches who bring that particular experience to the table. Can you tell us a little bit more about expressive arts therapy?

Yeah, so it’s very esoterical, in terms of a broad spectrum. Whether, you know, if you’re working with children, if you’re working with the elderly. If you’re working with people who have emotional, physical or mental challenges, or if you’re just dealing with somebody who may not find talk therapy the most, the easiest way to, to find ways into things that they’re trying to navigate.

So it uses different platforms. It could be dance movement, voice singing, drumming, all different types, just depending on the individual. And I, that’s where I find it kind of merges into coaching, in that everybody’s so, everybody is so different. Everybody is so unique. My way of working with you, perhaps, in let’s say you have a scene that you, you know, is quite an emotional journey, and you… it may not be the way that I work, my way may not work for you. You’re like a musical instrument; I don’t know which notes work for you. This note works for me, but it certainly may not work for you, and so it changes in your point and where you’re at in life.

So it’s kind of about reading the person, we’re really getting a sense of them in the first, you know, ten or fifteen minutes, or five or ten minutes, um, and finding a way that works for them, rather than trying to, rather than, trying to force my way in. There’s all different ways of theirs, working from the outside in, for the most ‘connection’. There’s all different ways.

Tell me about your approach to one on one coaching. There’s so much a big trend now, that is moving so quickly is, of course, this virtual coaching. But really a lot of actors wanting to get more one on one work with their coaches, as opposed to smaller or larger group type workshops and sessions.

How do you approach the very beginning when you’re working with an actor? Is there anything that’s important to you to begin on the right footing?

Sure, yeah, so preparation. I find the more prepared the person is. I do like to get a sense of where they’re at… whether they’re just beginning, what they think their blocks might be, what they want to get out of the session. Is it one session? Is it an ongoing thing, where they want to go? And I love to set goals. I love to set timelines. I love to set, you know, even, even in this business, where you can’t say, “Well, I’d like to book, you know, such and such, by such a date.”, but I think in a sense that you can. You can set those certain goals, and you do to a certain extent. If you don’t believe it, it’s not gonna happen. If you don’t say it out loud, it’s certainly not gonna happen.

So I do like to set goals with people. If I’m working with somebody just on a one on one, let’s say an audition prep, my biggest… please be off book. And I know we all have lives, and sometimes you get it the night before and you might be working with me the next day. And that’s okay. You know, it does take especially with dialogue for example, you know, a show where you’re playing a lawyer, and you’ve got to ‘rapid fire’ that dialogue. It’s gonna take five or six or seven tries to get those really clean takes, and that’s okay. But just being, being prepared. So that we can, we can work on getting into the coaching, rather than maybe by the end of the session we’ve got one clean take if we’re taping, but for we’re you know, we’re just trying to get to know the dialogue rather than, you know, get to know all of the other things that I love to work with somebody on.

Tell me about a mentor, a coach that inspired you over the years. I’m always curious how great coaches often have had either another great coach in their life, or the opposite of that, and so you sometimes become the coach, maybe you never had.

Was there someone special for you over the years that really helped? Or has this been an adventure you’ve really forged independently, on your own?

Yes, so that’s a really good question. I was fortunate enough to study with two great people and one that I didn’t have a good experience with at all.

I’ll tell you the one that I didn’t have a good experience with, and it was, it was a class and again, this may work for somebody, it didn’t work for me; where you kind of had to bleed all of your stuff out in front of everybody. And, you know, if we had this massive breakthrough, then it was a great class.

I’m not a big believer in that. I’m not a big believer in telling everybody your stuff, or having to bleed all over the floor in terms of and then, you know, that makes me a ‘great actor’. So that’s a long conversation but I wasn’t a big fan of that.

But then I had two great people that I studied with, and one was Michelle Lansdale Smith, and she was partnered with Kate Troff here in Vancouver, and obviously William Davis. I mean, he for me, he and I spoke the same language. He would often have, just have to say a couple of words, and I got it. “Yes! Okay, I got it.” And then, you know Larry Moss I can’t say enough about. He’s a great inspiration. I just had a chance to interview a few weeks ago, and, uh, studying with him was yeah, kind of, just made me remember myself, and remember why I started this whole thing, this whole journey.

Important, that’s important. Do you think that actors right now who are moving or considering moving into virtual coaching experiences, like CWB Live is offering, or other ways? Is anything lost in your mind through the technology? Do you think you can still be as effective, and visceral as you like to be… where once you might have been in the room together? What’s your take on how the virtual technology has made this a better opportunity? Or maybe not for actors? What do you think?

Yeah, so it’s a very, very good question. I think it’s different and it offers equal, positive aspects. They’re not the same positive aspects, but they’re equal, positive aspects. And one of the things that’s come up many times, with a couple of casting directors that I’ve been talking to over the past couple of months, and people like Larry Moss, and doing these virtual interviews. They’ve all said the same thing… that they were skeptical. They were afraid. They didn’t think this was gonna work, and they all said the same thing. “There’s a new level of intimacy”, which I have to say, I had the same thoughts.

I thought, oh, my gosh, I… technically… I’m first of all, technically… (laughing) it takes me a year to figure out how to send a video. You know, I finally had that down pat. So I was, I was, I was really nervous about it, and I of course, I love the one on one, because just, for so many reasons, I love the one on one, in person. So I was super skeptical, but then I have discovered that there is an intimacy about it, and I have discovered that I’ve had some really, really fantastic talks with people, coaching with people, over and over and over again.

So when Casting Workbook approached me, it was really exciting. It was really exciting for me because I do think even if we do go back to semi-normal, I want to keep this going on. There’s so many things that I love about it. So many positive things, that I love about virtual.

Yeah, and for someone like you who has been all over the world in your lifetime, what an opportunity to connect with actors all over the world. And I don’t disagree with you. I think you and I have talked many times before, and you know, I could get lost in a conversation with you, and sometimes if, if it’s a clear connection, sometimes you can forget that it’s being done virtually at all. And I think that’s where a lot of actors are in for a treat with this opportunity. It can, it can help. I know what you mean.

Sarah, tell me about your experience. What is an actor going to find, what it feels like? Are you going to challenge, or are you gonna push them hard? Are you a soft touch coach? What’s an experience of a session gonna feel like, when they work with you?

Yeah, Well, I can tell you what I’ve gotten for feedback. I don’t know what it feels like, but I can tell you what I’ve got for feedback.

I think I definitely come from a kind place, so I, I’m not.. I’m going to tell it like it is, but I’m, I’m not, yeah, I do come from a kind heart. And I would say that that’s probably one of the big… and that may not work for everybody. You know, sometimes people want that, yeah, but I do, I do like to tell it like it is.

I do work a lot with choices, and verbing, and mystery and secrets, and inner monologue. Those are, those are some of the big, big, big things that I work on. Choices. Choices, choices. What are you doing on each line? What? What is your inner monologue? What are you fighting for? What are you gonna lose, if you don’t get it? And what are you gonna win? If you do get what you’re fighting for… and that inner monologue, there’s a really quick example I’d love to tell you about. I was actually working with an actor recently on a new Netflix comedy series, and very quickly.. I don’t know if this story will make sense. He had to… He’s playing this rough and tough cop. And his line was, he’s talking to a younger cop and, and all of a sudden, this rough and tough cop says, “You know, I love to watch a bird spread its wings and fly.” and the younger cops says, “Well, I don’t really think I’m a young bird spreading my wings to fly”. And the older cop says, “No. I watched a young bird spread his wings and fly this morning. It was beautiful.” And so he was going, “It was beautiful.” And I said, “No, no, no. Actually think of something that’s beautiful to you”.

We think, “oh God, it was beautiful”. It was hilarious, when it was actually real, when he was, when he actually made it real, as opposed to playing the comedy.

Which brings me to the note of, “If you think it, the camera will read it. If you’re playing your idea of it, it’s not gonna work.” And so it comes down to having that inner monologue, inner monologue, always going, which I find.. So those are the things that I really like to work on. The relationship, choices, verbing, inner monologues, mystery and secrets. What you’re not saying, but what you want to say.

Tell me about what you would say to perspective actors who are, maybe they’ve got some education and training formally, maybe they don’t… but they recognized the importance of coaching, which I think you and I would agree coaching is separate from training, because coaching can and probably should be ongoing, right? Something that you’re always working on.

What would you say to those actors who are thinking about dipping their toe into the virtual pool and interested in virtual coaching? Any message to leave with them?

Mmm, you mean people that are just sort of starting out? Is that what you mean, or?

Or new to the idea of coaching… whether its live or virtually, right? I talked to so many actors who feel like once they’ve completed a particular training program, or an extensive workshop or even a school, that sometimes they think the work is done. Now, they gotta go find the work. And then I meet a lot of other actors who have learned over the years and understood, coaching becomes an important part of that ongoing developmental journey, as an actor.

What do you say to those actors who maybe, haven’t discovered that yet? Any message, or would you encourage them to dive into virtual coaching? What would ‘you’ say?

You know, it’s not gonna hurt. It’s definitely not going to hurt. I think, try it out.

Its funny, I stopped coaching, myself on my auditions, a couple of years ago, and just recently, through the pandemic, I’ve been starting to get auditions. I thought, you know, I need to brush up my game, and I’m, you know, I’m so glad that I did coach with my friend, because she gave me this ‘Ah ha!’ moment and I went, “Oh, my gosh, Of course, I can’t play it that way. You’re right! I’m playing it on the nose and I can’t play it on the nose. And it was so great, because I talked to the director when I booked it and she said, “You know, you were one of the only ones that got (it)… Don’t play the words, play the opposite of the words”, and so I had to remind myself that I need to brush up on my skills, and I need to, you know, I can get complacent. Or people can get complacent, so I don’t think there’s any harm in it… I think a lot of times, what I hear from people is “Wow, how come I didn’t see that? How come, how come you came up with all those great choices, and I didn’t see it on the page?” And its sometimes a lot easier to see things when you’re not in it. When it’s not your audition. I find it’s a lot easier to come up with things that are not on the page, when you’re looking at it in the second person?

Sure. Yeah, I don’t disagree, Sarah. You’ve got an amazing bio, and they certainly list a lot of credits that make you among that special group of coaches, that are out there doing it, every day, and not only helping working actors, you are a working actor. And I think for a lot of actors, that’s gonna be a very important thing, that they’re going to be drawn to and want to know that you understand what the business is like, and what it’s going to take, and I encourage them to read more about you in your (CWB Live) profile below, and to book a session.

Sarah is someone that we have known and loved at Casting Workbook for years and years, and we look forward to hearing more from you real soon. Sarah, thank you for doing this show today. I hope we’ll get to talk again, really soon.

I hope so too. I hope so too, Christopher. No, thank you. Thank you. And the one thing I want to say to , and I want to leave you with, is this… When I graduated from the theater school, from the William Davis Center, he was outstanding, and this is no reflection on the school, but one of the reviews that I remember we got, now keep this in mind, is we did a play about potato farmers in the 1800s. So I don’t know how anybody gets a good review doing a play about ‘potato farmers in the 1800s’, but one of the reviews said, “None of these people will ever work.” That was actually a review, at some small, local newspaper or something like that. And I was like, “Oh, really?”  So the one thing I want to say to people is, there isn’t, there’s nobody that can tell you that. There’s no too old, too tall, too short, too this, to that, you know? So many people are going to say, “Well, really, you really want to do this? I mean, look at the statistics and look at…” I would say, shut all of that off.

Don’t listen to anything anybody is saying about the statistics. If this is something you wanna do, you know follow, follow it. And, you know, find your passion. And I think the doors will open, if you do.

Sarah, you’re tremendous. And thank you for your time today. And we will look forward to hearing more from you soon. Okay? Take care.

You too, Christopher. Thank you so much. It was fun, too!