CALLING L.A.-BASED HOOKS-PEOPLE
Many of my former acting students have migrated to Hollywood or are heading that direction soon. I would like to put together a networking e-mail list for those who want to do it. Drop me a note if you want to be included, and I'll prepare the list and send it back to you. I will limit the info on it to e-mail contacts. When you send me your e-mail, make the subject line read: "Hooks Actor - LA".

FREE AND CHEAP THEATRE
Chi Town actress Bethany Jorgensen maintains a valuable web site, www.FreeAndCheapTheatre.com. She tells about actors' nights, low-priced previews, house paperings and discounted tickets. Good stuff. If you want to receive her Newsletter (it's free!), send her an e-mail at bethanyj@freeandcheaptheatre.com.

CONGRATS! Maxwell Richard was born to Hilary and Keir Beidling (s.stdy - current) August 12th. Mom and baby are doing great. Dad is a basket case.

CLASS SCHEDULE:
All of my workshops are now officially transferred from California to Chicago, and I am accepting new students. My new acting studio is in the Lakeview neighborhood of the city. If you would like to speak with me personally, either send an e-mail to me at edhooks@best.com, or call me at home, 773-929-1667.

SCENE STUDY -- On-going, Monday nights, 7-10:30, start at any time, free audit.
Film Demo Workshop -- Start September 25th. Tuesday nights,
7-10:30pm. Nine week session, limited to ten actors.
COMMERCIALS WORKSHOP -- September 29-30, Saturday 9am-4pm and Sunday
10am-5pm. The next class after this one will be November 17-18.
PRIVATE COACHING -- I am available for private work on cold reading,
monologues or career strategies. $75 per hour.

HOOKS ACTORS WORKING
NICOLE DOHERTY (comml - May '00) booked a national commercial for Natrol (a pharmaceutical company), and she is appearing in "The House of Blue Leaves" at the Hillbarn Theater. JEANETTE HARRISON (F/TV - '99) played Julia in Shady Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona" last month. Before You Go! ROCKY LA ROCHELLE (f/tv - '00) is in an indie entitled "Before You Go!". He also recently shot "At Most Fear", a Project AMF Production. TINA BARBER (s.stdy - current)
appears in Sacramento's Studio Theatre production of "Six Women with Brain Death." For tickets call 916-446-2668. RAY RENATI (s.stdy - '00) shot an indie film entitled The Duel", in San Jose. LEN SHAFFER (all classes - '98) has been cast in "Jesus Christ, Superstar" at Pacific Alliance Stage Co. in Rohnert Park, playing four different parts. NEIL HOWARD (comm'l - '99) in August
reprised his role of Dr. Jason Posner in San Jose Stage's remount of last spring's sellout hit 'WIT.' He also landed a lead VO part in Namco's latest video game EVERGRACE II, and shot two promo spots for TechTV. JOSEPHINE DE JESUS (s.stdy - current) is the voice of a new toy that will be on the market next year. (Shhhhh...very confidential). It was recorded by Creativity, Inc. ROBERT
DUCKWORTH (comml - '99), having shifted his focus away from acting and onto stand-up, appeared on BET's Legendary Comic View 2000-2001 season. He reports that his new set will air sometime in September on BET's 10th Anniversary season of Comic View. ANNAN PATERSON
(comml-'97) performs her one-woman show "Deep Canyon" at the Cancer as a Turning Point conference September 8th at U.C. Davis. For more info, check out www.healingjourneys.com. MELINDA MEENG (s.stdy - current) is shooting an indie entitled "Traveling with Child."

CRAFT NOTES
September 11, 2001 Tragedy - An Actor's Response

Actors are shamans, and it is our job is to help the tribe survive. We are needed most keenly in troubled times, when our people are unexpectedly lost, confused and demoralized. The tragedy of
September 11, 2001 has thrown us all into deep unrest. We are hurt, angry, milling about, cursing, and weeping. Our tribal chieftain, George Bush, wants to wage a military war on "evil" in the world, which is an admirable enough goal but is probably impractical. How do we define "good" and "evil"? America is the "good"? And....who?...is the "evil'? The terrorist attacks on U.S. civilians were horrendous and inhuman, but the truth is that they were carried out by deeply religious people who were convinced that they were serving God. The attacks on the world trade center and pentagon were, I would remind everybody, suicide missions. The terrorists were not evil in a stereotypical black-hatted Hitler or Stalin sense. They were not godless, and they were not interested in accumulating earthly riches or power. They believed they were going to a better world by departing from this one in an explosion of fire and destruction.

The U.S. response to this tragedy has so far been predictable and conventional. President Bush and his team are rallying the troops, going on television and pumping up public emotion and fervor, leading the tribe to believe that there is a definable enemy. Soon, we will surely begin bombing Afghanistan and other middle-eastern countries. I fear that even if we do that until there is nothing left living in those impoverished lands, it will not solve the problems that led to the present disaster. There will still be deeply religious people who hate the U.S. and its foreign policies and will be willing to die for what they perceive to be a higher value.

In the Christian religion, there are fundamentalists, too. There are people who believe, for instance, that it is okay to kill doctors if doing so helps reduce the numbers of abortions. Are these people "evil"? I don't think so. They are ultra-conservative fundamentalists who fervently believe they are doing God's work.

I want to urge all of my Newsletter readers to please not accept nor look for simplistic solutions to these terrible events. Yes, we should respond, but we must be clear about what we are responding to. And we must be certain that our response will accomplish something positive. Our development and growth as a people and a tribe will surely be reflected in the way we handle this. We are looking at something here that is more than a simple case of "good versus evil."

CRAFT NOTES -- II
"The Perfect Villain"

A recent Internet poll of 17,000 movie fans concluded that Hannibal Lector, as portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal", is the all time best movie villain. Darth Vader came in Number Two. It got me to thinking about what makes a good villain. How does one act a villain? What is Anthony Hopkins doing that is so wonderful? I have some conclusions to share.

Hopkins manages to position his Hannibal Lector on the fringe of humanity. Hannibal is a brilliant mad man. He is not a monster. The key here is in playing him as a man, not as a monster. The further toward monster the character goes, the more risk there is that the audience will not empathize. And empathy is the key to a good performance. Regardless of the character you are playing (unless you are acting in a play by Brecht, which is another matter entirely), your job as an actor is to create in the audience a sense of empathy. The person in the audience needs to identify with what you are doing, not simply be entertained by it. Hannibal Lector is chilling because he is part of the human family. He is one of us. Anthony Hopkins is giving quite a brilliant performance by placing him far enough to the fringe to be disturbing but still within the realm of human kind.

There is a scene in "Silence of the Lambs" in which the character of Clarissa, played by Jodie Foster, tells Hannibal about how her father died. It is her side of a deal she has made with the man. She will tell him about her father's death, and he will in turn help her solve her serial murder case. The story she tells is of a bloody, violent and gory death. If you watch the scene carefully, you will note that Hannibal Lector is stimulated, almost sexually, by the description of the blood and gore. But here is the brilliant part of Hopkins' performance: At the same time Hannibal is stimulated, he also empathizes with Clarissa's pain at the loss of her father! He is still human enough to know what loss feels like, and he can feel what Clarissa is feeling. Empathy is a key characteristic of what binds humans together. Hopkins manages to get us in the audience to see in ourselves just a tiny bit of Hannibal Lector. It is an awesomely excellent performance.

Empathy is different from sympathy. Empathy literally means "feeling into" and sympathy literally means "feeling for". You can feel sympathy for someone and still not empathize with him. And what causes empathy? The survival mechanism. We all act to survive. We recognize in one another that we are surviving, trying not to die. The key to a successful performance is in finding the survival mechanism in the character. Hannibal Lector may be half-crazy, but in his own twisted way, he is still acting to survive. He knows he ought not to be killing and eating people, but it is a deep obsession for him. He acts on his obsession while keeping one foot in the normal world. He can still carry on a reasonable conversation, and he can still experience emotion. Most important, he can feel empathy. A hallmark of a sociopath is that he his ability to empathize is broken. A true sociopath will break into a home, kill the entire family and then sit down and eat the dinner they had not finished. No problem, no fuss, no muss. If he could experience empathy -- if he could identify with the pain of his victims -- he wouldn't have killed them in the first place. Anthony Hopkins has created a character that is warped and obsessed but is still this side of being a sociopath. He has feelings.

Artonin Artaud famously observed that actors are athletes of the heart. This is important. Not athletes of the head, but athletes of the heart. Hannibal Lector is a feeling villain. And that is, in my opinion, why he is now officially recognized, at least in one poll, as the greatest movie villain ever.

Return to Top