Aaron Marcus shares what he learned working with A-list actors like Phylicia Rashad, Ellen Burstyn, and Judi Dench. He breaks down three different approaches based on character relationships and includes bonus advice from Tom Hanks on set preparation.
In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you one really important way to act with famous actors. Also, stick around to the end and you're going to get a bonus video. It was just great advice that Tom Hanks shared with me that I use every time I walk onto a set. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. I've been very fortunate and I've had the chance to have scenes with 3 Academy Award-winning actors, 1 Tony Award-winning actor, and, and I noticed that I worked differently with each one. And what I want to share with you is I based my reaction and how I dealt with each actor on my character, what I wanted to get out of the scene, what was going to take place in our scene. So I want to give you a couple of quick examples, and I hope this will be helpful to you as well. So when I had the opportunity to work with Phylicia Rashad, it was on a TV show, and I was the president of a hospital. And she was one of the heads of the hospital. I decided that since we have a strong business relationship, that's what I wanted to do with her prior to shooting. We talked, nothing personal, had a lovely conversation, but I wanted to keep our relationship businesslike prior to shooting. And I'll tell you, I found that to be very helpful. When I had the opportunity to work with Ellen Burstyn, Academy Award-winning actor on House of Cards, I was— my character was Michael. I was her caretaker. I did everything for her. I was Butler, caretaker. I basically— whatever she needed, I was there to do for her. And so for that scene— or actually, there were about 3 scenes— I needed to make sure that I really cared about her. I needed to make sure that I felt some love towards her. And, you know, of course, I I've never talked to another actor this way, like, hey, I'm supposed to show love toward you and, and really care about you, and so why don't you— I do it much more organically, although I, I am thinking about that. And, and I made sure that we spent some time together, we had some meals together, and I wanted to learn more about her life. Look, I wanted to learn more about her life Anyway, she's such an interesting person, starting off as a model and then just becoming this really famous actor and an amazing actor. And as she was telling me about her life, I just felt— I did feel this connection with her. I felt this love, and I found that so helpful to use in the scenes that we shot together. The last person I want to share with you About our scene because I had a very different approach. And it was with Judi Dench, and I was her priest and she was confessing to me. And just on a little bit of a side note, she was just unbelievable. She's just an incredible actor and even a nicer person. And so because of the fact that I'm her priest. She's confessing. I really— I didn't know her. She just came into my church. I also was a little concerned about the fact this is Judi Dench that I'm about to have a scene with. So for her, I completely stayed away. Didn't want to talk to her ahead of time. Talked to her afterwards. But before the scene? No connection, didn't want to look at her, stayed— stay far, far away from her. So the first time I ever laid eyes on her, although I didn't really lay eyes on her because she's in a confessional booth, it was when we started shooting. And for all 3 of those situations, I took different approaches, and they all were very, very helpful to me. So hey, look, if you ever had a scene with a well-known actor and you had a specific approach as to how to go into the scene, please share it with us so we can learn from you as well. If you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell. That's actually very helpful so you always know that a new video has been uploaded. And if you like it, give it a thumbs up. And most importantly, share, share the link with your fellow actors so we can continue to build a great channel of actors who are helping each other. I promised that I was going to share another video with you, just great advice that Tom Hanks shared with me. You'll find it right up here. Hope you enjoy it. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
