In a 1985 Los Angeles Times article, Judy Kerr recalls the difficult decision to leave her husband and pursue acting at age 36. Pounding the pavement, doing shows for which she got paid $5 a piece, and serving as Joan Darling’s (“Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” “First Love”) acting class secretary, Kerr assembled the beginnings of a successful career in the industry.
Forty years into her career, acting coach and author Kerr tells Backstage she’s still promoting the same mantra she’s had since the beginning: You can have a thriving career in acting “if you dream it and want it and are willing to really work at it.
“I believe that having talent drives you from inside. So I don’t believe people have to question whether they have talent or not. This business is too tough; you don’t go too long without something driving you inside,” she adds.
Today, Kerr still keeps in touch with Darling, who just called her about an upcoming coaching opportunity. (See, connections really are everything!) An established coach and writer of “Acting Is Everything: An Actor’s Guidebook For A Successful Career in Los Angeles,” Kerr gives Backstage readers the lowdown on private coaching.
On when an actor is ready for a private coach.
A private coach is not for everyday use, according to Kerr. “For beginning actors, if they’re afraid to go into a class, if they just have no confidence at all, then that might be a time [for private coaching],” she says.
For more established actors, private coaching is for “when you’re wanting to develop material and develop characters and you want an hour solidly spent on you.”
And lastly, Kerr says private coaching is great for actors particularly during pilot season, “when you’re on the run and you’ve got auditions right and left. You don’t go to any audition without coaching and if you can’t afford it you grab your buddy from class and make it work.”
On the most important thing she tries to teach her students.
Among the many things Kerr helps her students with, the most important is “to be as powerful in themselves as they can.
“Your person, your essence, your spirit is what you bring to every role and that is what is delicious, delightful, and different about you,” she says. “And so building your inside—your spirit—is the most important and then that comes out on camera.”
On the qualities to look for in a private coach.
Kerr says the most important quality in a coach is honesty, and if you’re with the right coach you should be growing each week. “I feel like you can’t go wrong jumping in taking a single class, and if you like it and it works out, you’ll certainly learn something—even if it’s, No matter how fabulous others say this person is, I just don’t get along with them.
“The town is full of acting coaches, don’t get stuck with something [that doesn’t work].”
On the misconceptions actors might have about private coaching.
“I think the biggest misconception is that one can really learn to act completely with a private coach. I think that is the biggest mistake and I see people who come to me who have been studying acting for years, and only privately, and they can’t play. They can’t do anything and I send them immediately to improv class and get loose,” says Kerr.
She also encourages actors to never rely solely on private coaching, stressing the importance of being in a group setting. “You’ve got to work with others. Acting is interacting, it’s listening, it’s being surprised by who you’re talking to and dealing with.
“All the politics and everything that’s going on in class—acting is everything you do, it’s not a private thing you do. A private coach is a specialist,” she adds. “You don’t go to your heart specialist all the time, you got to your general doctor. You go to your class, your buds, your pals.”
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