The most powerful moments... a word is never spoken

From the period piece - feature film "The Lonesome Trail" where I play a settler in Red Springs, Montana (circa 1887)

Even though I have only taken a few first steps of my journey on the well traveled road of this thing, this craft, called "Acting," I have quickly come to the realization that the most powerful moments in a performance a word is never uttered. In many cases the moments you recall and want to share around the the water-cooler with someone are not the lines that were in the script, but the actions and reactions that bought the preceding or next lines to life... The performance.

For me, understanding this concept was a moment of "Saba". Saba in Persian (and many other languages) is a poetic term referring to the "Ah ha moment" or "the moment when a reader understands the meaning of a poem and achieves enlightenment". For me, this moment of Saba came under the tutelage of a wonderful acting coach Stephen Mitchell of Action/Reaction.

Beau Willimon and Lamont Easter - Underwood Secret Service

READING FURTHER CONTAINS - House of Cards - SPOILERS

I was just reminded of my Saba moment this morning, while reading a Entertainment Weekly magazine interview with Beau Willimon the Creator/writer/and producer of House of Cards (pictured above with me), about Season III of the show. At the very end of the article Beau Willimon drops some wisdom, and it goes like this... 

[Tim Stack] "One great theme of this season is how people express themselves in non-verbal ways, like Frank urinating on his father's grave or spitting on a Christ statue, or Claire taking a power meeting with the Russian Ambassador while peeing in a restroom stall." [Beau laughs] "Well, we speak much louder with bodies than we do with our mouth. We're always thinking about all the ways people communicate with each other: hands, posture, gesture. They can be quite loud or quite subtle."

I have been on set and watched many of the great Directors at work on this show - David Fincher, Carl Franklin, James Foley, Jodie Foster, Joel Schumacher, John David Coles, Agnieszka Holland, Robin Wright and they get it. Likewise, I have watched many great performers such as, Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Micheal Kelly, Nathan Darrow, Mahershala Ali, Michael Gill, Molly Parker, Kate Mara, Gerald McRaney, Corey Stoll, and Paul Sparks to name a few, and they actually do it! Oh! and some Casting Directors get it too! Like Kimberly Skyrme of Kimberly Skyrme Casting.

Ah ha! Saba!
Have a great day!

To read the full article Click here (WARNING SPOILER ALERT!)
Entertainment Weekly Interview with Beau Willimon

Fun Fact! Beau Willimon is from Alexandria, VA!

For more information about me - Lamont Easter click here Lamont Easter