Quote

Listening is not merely hearing, it is receiving the message that is being sent to you. Listening is reacting. Listening is being affected by what you hear. Listening is letting it land before you react. Listening is letting your reaction make a difference. Listening is active.

Michael Shurtleff

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Michael Shurtleff
Age: 86 †
Born: 1920
Born: July 3
Died: 2007
Died: January 28
Actor
Casting Director
Writer
Oak Park
Illinois
Acting
Message
Make
Hearing
Reacting
Active
React
Merely
Reaction
Listening
Receiving
Difference
Sent
Hear
Letting
Land
Affected

More quotes by Michael Shurtleff

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The first step to a better audition is to give up character and use yourself.
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If we lived for reality, we'd be dead, every last one of us. Only dreams keep us going.
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An actor must make his needs (goals, wants, objectives) so strong that he is willing to interfere with the other actor in order to get what he needs. Interfering means getting in their way so that what you want is stronger than what they want.
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Conflict is what creates drama. The more conflict actors find, the more interesting the performance.
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Actors, who should pride themselves on their singularity, are forever trying to be someone else. It isn’t necessary for you, the actor, to like yourself— self-love isn’t easy to come by for most of us— but you must learn to trust who you are. There is no one else like you.
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The moral: Don't settle for anything less than the biggest dream for your future Fight to make the dream come true.
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An expression of feeling isn't worth anything unless it interferes with what the other actor in the scene wants.
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Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before.
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There's only one reason why a character drinks: to seek confrontation. To fight for what they want in ways normally denied them.
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Most actors make themselves unhappy by searching for their sanity, by insisting on their normalcy it's a grave mistake.
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