you
[Music]
[Applause]
I went to high school in the late 90s
where tolerance was just starting I went
to high school in Eastern North Carolina
and people knew I was different I walked
differently and I spoke differently it
was a small farming high school they
loved to tell me all the things that I
should be they loved to define me and I
was horrific aliy insecure about who I
really was I faked it a lot the only
time I felt peace is when I would go and
visit my grandmother she had this big
farm and you could escape there and we
all know those places that you love to
escape and it was there my grandmother
was just like me if you know what I mean
and we would take these just walks and
she had tons of land on her farm and
there were these wonderful trees these
beautiful oak trees and together we
would pick acorns it was a special
memory for me we picked the best ones
fresh off the tree with that shiny brown
look it was a simple time I loved it she
told me something and she said you need
to tell yourself the truth about who you
really are come to grips with that I
remember the day that I did it I was
wearing cargo pants it was the 90s I was
wearing this yellow hoodie and I was
sitting on a park bench back at home
downtown and and I said to myself I’ll
never forget it I love nuts because I’m
a squirrel
and I didn’t fit in in the human world
okay I’m kidding I’m lying I’m actually
not a squirrel I’m a human being I did
play a squirrel for a couple weeks in a
movie and I try to make it really
convincing now when I talk about lying I
don’t mean it the way we do here in the
Bible Belt I don’t mean it with this
immoral sense and I don’t mean it with a
sin nature attached to it I just mean it
with the intention to deceive that’s
kind of the definition does the
intention to deceive and I like to do
that and you do too every day so I
decided as an actor I’d always grown up
as an actor my mom was an actress and of
course I was in like every church play
and all kinds of things and I decided
that man this was my way of escaping I
really did love it wanted to explore it
now about a decade ago I decided I want
to get into film and television which is
different than theater the trainings a
little different get this camera lens so
close and directors would say things
like well they can tell your thoughts
you know the camera can see it and that
makes you very vulnerable and a little
exposed
and so I noticed that when I started
studying film and television that when
you do a great job the critics will say
things like oh such an honest
performance so truthful integrity of
that character work so organic natural
believable and when you’re not good at
it you might get a critique such as you
were stagey and fake and we could tell
you were lying
and that kind of stings I’m gonna be
honest with you that hurts but I really
wasn’t a squirrel of course I’m
pretending and that’s not my voice I’m
not a six-foot-tall
wrote it I mean that’s not who I am so
naturally and no one gets offended at
Elmo you know like when your kids are
playing with that we’re kind of
deceiving them right so let’s go on a
journey about setting how we can be a
little more authentic when it’s time to
perform
there’s tons of methods in acting
they’re all kind of like religions and
so when you study a method that
instructor is probably going to tell you
this is the one true way to get to truth
and it’s it’s very interesting and there
are thousands of exercises to being more
authentic when you’re lying and I will
say some of these are going to be simple
but they’re not easy it takes some of
them almost 20 years to become good at
it there are two questions that every
actor starts with and these are two
questions we should all be using what do
I want and how do I get it a lot of you
start with the what do I want you’re
pretty good at setting objectives
intentions I want the jury to agree with
me I want the PTA to go with this little
legislation I want the teacher-student
conference to go this way I want my son
to pay more attention to this I’d like
for my wife to listen I don’t want a
problem solve I just want to fix it yeah
all these kinds of things so you’re
setting the objective but you’re not
really setting the tactic that’s the
phrase tactic an action verb that’s what
I’m looking for the how do I get it see
a lot of you just have two or three
tactics that you use all the time in
your life just two or three and the
people in your life know when you’re
starting to use just those two or three
tactics and that
when they no longer want to pay
attention to you and that’s when they
stop listening to you and they just put
up that little wall tactics are what
make people very interesting let me give
you an example you’re baking a cake it’s
going to be great you have just hit an
obstacle because you realize you don’t
have enough sugar to make the cake so
what do I want I got to make a cake I
don’t have any sugar
I want sugar how am I going to get it
well your neighbors got some sugar so
maybe you can go get some sugar from
your neighbor so what will be
interesting is you’re going to come up
with a cool tactic to do it I’m going to
flirt to get some sugar now depending on
your neighbor you might kick it up a
notch and try to get a little sugar with
the sugar yeah but maybe you’re not
attracted to your neighbor or you’re not
in an open relationship so you might
need to plead I got to have this sugar
please you don’t know how important this
is and if that doesn’t work you could
guilt them maybe you could say you gave
me sugar again I gave you sugar last
week so hey you got to give me the sugar
this week and if you don’t I’m kidding
kidnap your kids and that’s blackmail
that’s a different tactic probably don’t
use that doctor don’t do that let’s not
do that
so you see figuring out what you want
and how you’re going to get it is what
makes you entertaining go to google and
type in action verbs and just see all
the random choices when you’re giving a
presentation and you’re talking to the
people at your office you probably only
have one tactic go find some new ones
they’ll start listening a little bit
more because it’ll be brand new now when
you start studying acting we’re going to
tell you something when you walk into a
studio we’re going to say stop worrying
about how you look stop being
self-conscious this is super important
when it comes to film and television I’m
going to tell you can you become
self-aware it’s a little different we
have this gentleman that came in to
start working with me he was a
pharmaceutical sales rep and he wasn’t
doing well and so his boss sent him to
train with me how he could be a better
salesman when he walked into my studio I
was scared to death this this dude was
six seven he was a bodybuilder so when
he walks in his body language is already
telling a story without saying a word
and I asked him to do a sales pitch and
I was even more scared he was very
aggressive and I said what are you doing
I’m making a sales pitch no no no like
what is your tactic what are you doing
what’s the verb oh I’m showing that I’m
confident not you’re not doing that
because every time he would talk to me
he was telling me what he was doing and
I said what do you do before you go do
your sales he’s like man I’d love to go
to the gym and hit the heavy bag men so
he wasn’t self-aware so until I recorded
him he didn’t know that the story he was
telling was I’m gonna murder you instead
of like he probably know way better if
he flirted her seduced but he didn’t he
didn’t do that
you gonna play a fun game at an office
party after a few drinks here’s what you
do say we’re gonna play a game of
charades everybody and I want you to
only do an impression of someone else at
the office and you will become
self-aware really quickly
because when you do an impression you
overdo the personal habits of someone
and you turn it into a cartoon character
of what they are in real life there’s
another part of being self-aware and
that’s the listening part of being
self-aware a lot of you don’t know your
listening face and you’re unable to get
what you want because you’re telling a
bad story to the person who’s trying to
give you information to help you get
what you want your listening face speaks
volumes this is the face that you’re
resting the muscles in your face when
they’re resting
they are already telling a story now
it’s very interesting if you were to go
look at pictures that you’re tagged in
and social media not the ones where
you’re like cheesy you know you’re
slaying it not those pictures but the
ones where you’re in the background and
randomly got tagged in you might be able
to tell the type of face that you have
we often refer to this sometimes as
resting bitchface is a technical term
Shakespearian something like that so I
would love to challenge you to be a
little more self-aware finally I want to
share with you and I’d like for us to
talk about something super important now
we talked about the objective what do
you want and how do you get it okay we
talked about that now if they were to
make your life into a movie and every
scene in the movie was about you
fulfilling an objective getting what you
want or an even better way of explaining
it if we were to open the DVD cover and
look at all the titles of the chapters
Drew’s born drew gets his first bike he
gets baptized he plays his first tennis
tournament
if we were to do that in your life and
we were to look at all of those things
in the descriptions of every scene in
your life there’ll be a common theme now
we call this in the acting world a super
objective so if we added all these
together and came up with the sum it be
a super objective I learned about this
from a man named Larry Moss you all have
a super objective right now I have a
super objective the super objective is
what is fueling your entire life and it
is what totally determines whether you
are authentic in everything that you do
because if you’re unaware of it you’re
faking everything and it goes a little
something like this I want you to ask
yourself what you want and then I want
you to ask yourself why do you want it
until you get to the core of your
foundation drew what do you want I want
to have a good job why because if I have
a good job I’m going to have plenty of
money vacation time I’ll be able to take
care of my wife and my daughter
why because then I’ll be a great
provider and that makes me feel good to
know that I’m providing and taking care
of people that I love
why because I because my parents were
really good providers and they did a
great job and so I would like to be like
them why
because they mean a lot to me and I care
what my parents think why
because I would like for my parents to
notice me just once and if I have those
things I know they’ll pay attention to
me so what’s your super objective drew
that everything I’ve ever done for the
36 years I’ve been alive has been to get
two people to pay attention to me and I
look forward to the day I get an attaboy
from them until I realized what my super
objective was I had no interesting
tactics I was incapable of telling
anybody else’s story because I was
always trying to get to people to notice
me I couldn’t be truthful in any of the
lies I was telling on stage or on camera
because I was secretly trying to get the
attention of other people because I
desperately cared how I looked and I
wasn’t self-aware and I had no
interesting tactics the same is true for
you and I really wish I would have
started studying film acting a lot
sooner because that super objective
drives you and it pushes you and it can
be a great thing and sometimes it’s a
not-so-great thing do you know what your
super objective is do you know the story
you’ve been telling are you a bad liar
are you an honest storyteller
Jimmy Cagney had some great advice on
being a professional liar actor and he
said this so simple find your mark plant
your feet look the other fella right in
the eye I’ll tell them the truth
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
I went to high school in the late 90s
where tolerance was just starting I went
to high school in Eastern North Carolina
and people knew I was different I walked
differently and I spoke differently it
was a small farming high school they
loved to tell me all the things that I
should be they loved to define me and I
was horrific aliy insecure about who I
really was I faked it a lot the only
time I felt peace is when I would go and
visit my grandmother she had this big
farm and you could escape there and we
all know those places that you love to
escape and it was there my grandmother
was just like me if you know what I mean
and we would take these just walks and
she had tons of land on her farm and
there were these wonderful trees these
beautiful oak trees and together we
would pick acorns it was a special
memory for me we picked the best ones
fresh off the tree with that shiny brown
look it was a simple time I loved it she
told me something and she said you need
to tell yourself the truth about who you
really are come to grips with that I
remember the day that I did it I was
wearing cargo pants it was the 90s I was
wearing this yellow hoodie and I was
sitting on a park bench back at home
downtown and and I said to myself I’ll
never forget it I love nuts because I’m
a squirrel
and I didn’t fit in in the human world
okay I’m kidding I’m lying I’m actually
not a squirrel I’m a human being I did
play a squirrel for a couple weeks in a
movie and I try to make it really
convincing now when I talk about lying I
don’t mean it the way we do here in the
Bible Belt I don’t mean it with this
immoral sense and I don’t mean it with a
sin nature attached to it I just mean it
with the intention to deceive that’s
kind of the definition does the
intention to deceive and I like to do
that and you do too every day so I
decided as an actor I’d always grown up
as an actor my mom was an actress and of
course I was in like every church play
and all kinds of things and I decided
that man this was my way of escaping I
really did love it wanted to explore it
now about a decade ago I decided I want
to get into film and television which is
different than theater the trainings a
little different get this camera lens so
close and directors would say things
like well they can tell your thoughts
you know the camera can see it and that
makes you very vulnerable and a little
exposed
and so I noticed that when I started
studying film and television that when
you do a great job the critics will say
things like oh such an honest
performance so truthful integrity of
that character work so organic natural
believable and when you’re not good at
it you might get a critique such as you
were stagey and fake and we could tell
you were lying
and that kind of stings I’m gonna be
honest with you that hurts but I really
wasn’t a squirrel of course I’m
pretending and that’s not my voice I’m
not a six-foot-tall
wrote it I mean that’s not who I am so
naturally and no one gets offended at
Elmo you know like when your kids are
playing with that we’re kind of
deceiving them right so let’s go on a
journey about setting how we can be a
little more authentic when it’s time to
perform
there’s tons of methods in acting
they’re all kind of like religions and
so when you study a method that
instructor is probably going to tell you
this is the one true way to get to truth
and it’s it’s very interesting and there
are thousands of exercises to being more
authentic when you’re lying and I will
say some of these are going to be simple
but they’re not easy it takes some of
them almost 20 years to become good at
it there are two questions that every
actor starts with and these are two
questions we should all be using what do
I want and how do I get it a lot of you
start with the what do I want you’re
pretty good at setting objectives
intentions I want the jury to agree with
me I want the PTA to go with this little
legislation I want the teacher-student
conference to go this way I want my son
to pay more attention to this I’d like
for my wife to listen I don’t want a
problem solve I just want to fix it yeah
all these kinds of things so you’re
setting the objective but you’re not
really setting the tactic that’s the
phrase tactic an action verb that’s what
I’m looking for the how do I get it see
a lot of you just have two or three
tactics that you use all the time in
your life just two or three and the
people in your life know when you’re
starting to use just those two or three
tactics and that
when they no longer want to pay
attention to you and that’s when they
stop listening to you and they just put
up that little wall tactics are what
make people very interesting let me give
you an example you’re baking a cake it’s
going to be great you have just hit an
obstacle because you realize you don’t
have enough sugar to make the cake so
what do I want I got to make a cake I
don’t have any sugar
I want sugar how am I going to get it
well your neighbors got some sugar so
maybe you can go get some sugar from
your neighbor so what will be
interesting is you’re going to come up
with a cool tactic to do it I’m going to
flirt to get some sugar now depending on
your neighbor you might kick it up a
notch and try to get a little sugar with
the sugar yeah but maybe you’re not
attracted to your neighbor or you’re not
in an open relationship so you might
need to plead I got to have this sugar
please you don’t know how important this
is and if that doesn’t work you could
guilt them maybe you could say you gave
me sugar again I gave you sugar last
week so hey you got to give me the sugar
this week and if you don’t I’m kidding
kidnap your kids and that’s blackmail
that’s a different tactic probably don’t
use that doctor don’t do that let’s not
do that
so you see figuring out what you want
and how you’re going to get it is what
makes you entertaining go to google and
type in action verbs and just see all
the random choices when you’re giving a
presentation and you’re talking to the
people at your office you probably only
have one tactic go find some new ones
they’ll start listening a little bit
more because it’ll be brand new now when
you start studying acting we’re going to
tell you something when you walk into a
studio we’re going to say stop worrying
about how you look stop being
self-conscious this is super important
when it comes to film and television I’m
going to tell you can you become
self-aware it’s a little different we
have this gentleman that came in to
start working with me he was a
pharmaceutical sales rep and he wasn’t
doing well and so his boss sent him to
train with me how he could be a better
salesman when he walked into my studio I
was scared to death this this dude was
six seven he was a bodybuilder so when
he walks in his body language is already
telling a story without saying a word
and I asked him to do a sales pitch and
I was even more scared he was very
aggressive and I said what are you doing
I’m making a sales pitch no no no like
what is your tactic what are you doing
what’s the verb oh I’m showing that I’m
confident not you’re not doing that
because every time he would talk to me
he was telling me what he was doing and
I said what do you do before you go do
your sales he’s like man I’d love to go
to the gym and hit the heavy bag men so
he wasn’t self-aware so until I recorded
him he didn’t know that the story he was
telling was I’m gonna murder you instead
of like he probably know way better if
he flirted her seduced but he didn’t he
didn’t do that
you gonna play a fun game at an office
party after a few drinks here’s what you
do say we’re gonna play a game of
charades everybody and I want you to
only do an impression of someone else at
the office and you will become
self-aware really quickly
because when you do an impression you
overdo the personal habits of someone
and you turn it into a cartoon character
of what they are in real life there’s
another part of being self-aware and
that’s the listening part of being
self-aware a lot of you don’t know your
listening face and you’re unable to get
what you want because you’re telling a
bad story to the person who’s trying to
give you information to help you get
what you want your listening face speaks
volumes this is the face that you’re
resting the muscles in your face when
they’re resting
they are already telling a story now
it’s very interesting if you were to go
look at pictures that you’re tagged in
and social media not the ones where
you’re like cheesy you know you’re
slaying it not those pictures but the
ones where you’re in the background and
randomly got tagged in you might be able
to tell the type of face that you have
we often refer to this sometimes as
resting bitchface is a technical term
Shakespearian something like that so I
would love to challenge you to be a
little more self-aware finally I want to
share with you and I’d like for us to
talk about something super important now
we talked about the objective what do
you want and how do you get it okay we
talked about that now if they were to
make your life into a movie and every
scene in the movie was about you
fulfilling an objective getting what you
want or an even better way of explaining
it if we were to open the DVD cover and
look at all the titles of the chapters
Drew’s born drew gets his first bike he
gets baptized he plays his first tennis
tournament
if we were to do that in your life and
we were to look at all of those things
in the descriptions of every scene in
your life there’ll be a common theme now
we call this in the acting world a super
objective so if we added all these
together and came up with the sum it be
a super objective I learned about this
from a man named Larry Moss you all have
a super objective right now I have a
super objective the super objective is
what is fueling your entire life and it
is what totally determines whether you
are authentic in everything that you do
because if you’re unaware of it you’re
faking everything and it goes a little
something like this I want you to ask
yourself what you want and then I want
you to ask yourself why do you want it
until you get to the core of your
foundation drew what do you want I want
to have a good job why because if I have
a good job I’m going to have plenty of
money vacation time I’ll be able to take
care of my wife and my daughter
why because then I’ll be a great
provider and that makes me feel good to
know that I’m providing and taking care
of people that I love
why because I because my parents were
really good providers and they did a
great job and so I would like to be like
them why
because they mean a lot to me and I care
what my parents think why
because I would like for my parents to
notice me just once and if I have those
things I know they’ll pay attention to
me so what’s your super objective drew
that everything I’ve ever done for the
36 years I’ve been alive has been to get
two people to pay attention to me and I
look forward to the day I get an attaboy
from them until I realized what my super
objective was I had no interesting
tactics I was incapable of telling
anybody else’s story because I was
always trying to get to people to notice
me I couldn’t be truthful in any of the
lies I was telling on stage or on camera
because I was secretly trying to get the
attention of other people because I
desperately cared how I looked and I
wasn’t self-aware and I had no
interesting tactics the same is true for
you and I really wish I would have
started studying film acting a lot
sooner because that super objective
drives you and it pushes you and it can
be a great thing and sometimes it’s a
not-so-great thing do you know what your
super objective is do you know the story
you’ve been telling are you a bad liar
are you an honest storyteller
Jimmy Cagney had some great advice on
being a professional liar actor and he
said this so simple find your mark plant
your feet look the other fella right in
the eye I’ll tell them the truth
[Applause]
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