Will Smith:
“Baring yourself is what makes you look strong on camera.”
(arranged by Carmichael Phillips)
(Will Smith in Gemini Man)
“Baring yourself is what makes you look strong on camera.”
“You have to clear your own personal blocks. You have to be able to be vulnerable in front of anybody, you know?”
“You have to be comfortable looking silly. You have to be comfortable making mistakes. And you have to break the thing inside of you that doesn’t want people to see.”
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“Because as soon as you allow people to see, all of a sudden, you get access to [emotions] that you didn’t realize that you had access to.”
“In acting, every take is a rejection.”
“For example, a thing I used to do is when I was 18 or 19 years old, I got in touch with those blocks. The camera hates emotional blocks.”
“Like, you put a camera in somebody’s face, and they’re uncomfortable about delivering the emotion. It looks fake and you feel it. You immediately know it’s not real.”
“Look at the size of a (movie) screen. And, in a shot, that whole screen could be just your eyes. So, it’s like, you can’t hide discomfort, uncertainty…”
“So, you have to be able to get comfortable being anything! Anything that you have to be for the role, you have to be comfortable being it.”
“You have to be comfortable looking silly. You have to be comfortable making mistakes.”
“But then, by the same token, you have to be able to just be quiet, to be nervous, to really love someone.”
“So really, at the end of the day, it’s about finding ways [to remove blocks].”
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“Girls are good, too. Like, at a party, get comfortable walking up, saying ‘hi’, and getting rejected hard! But you’ve gotta break it.”
“Because in acting, every take is a rejection. That’s what it is. You do a take and people don’t clap. It’s a rejection, and you can’t allow that to close you down, because baring yourself is what makes you look strong on camera.”
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