Daddy on the Edge of Believing...

My daughter was in a recent episode of the award winning web series "Haywire" .  She had some very basic action - be chased from one room to another.  I was at rehearsal and watched her pretend to run from someone, causing the person chasing her to slow down and end up pretending as well.  I asked the director if I could speak to my daughter for a moment.  He agreed and I quickly walked over to her and said "I'm chasing you - don't let me catch you!  RUN!", and I chased her at full speed.  Now that she was actually being chased, it was real for her, and the pretending was over.  Because acting is not ever about pretending...

Acting is about make-believe.

Some would call pretending and make-believe the same.  The Free Dictionary lumps make-believe together with fantasy, unreality, charade - even mock and sham - and a host of other terms that would regulate it to the world of the imaginary, the unreal...the false.

I disagree.  In Daddy's lexicon,

Make-Believe = Making the viewer Believe.

It's not about pretending; it's about convincing.  And to truly convince someone else, you first have to convince yourself.  Great actors immerse themselves in a role, losing themselves, so that they might become this other person, and convince you that they have done so.  Acting is like sales; the first step is that you yourself believe in your product. You have to make yourself believe, in acting, in sales...in our everyday lives - and sometimes that last one is the toughest - can you make yourself believe...in you?

Sometimes, that's a tall order.  Sometimes Conventional Wisdom, The Powers That Be, or the so-called Experts will make it almost impossible for you to believe that something is possible.  They'll call you a dreamer, or worse - a fool for believing what you believe.  Can you still overcome?  Can your belief system overcome theirs?  Can you make yourself, and others believe what, up until now, was wholly unbelievable?

Let's ask this guy...




Thank You, Arthur Boorman - for your service to our country, for serving as an amazing inspiration, and for making Daddy cry those good tears, those happy tears...those tears that flow every time I watch you run...

You Make Me Believe.

Thanks, 

Daddy