Acting Success Now: Interview With Robert & Michelle Colt

I sat down and had a wonderful interview with Robert and Michelle Colt of Acting Success Now for MasterTalentTeachers.com. I have known Robert and Michelle for several years and the best way I can describe what they do, is that they help actors “get out of their own way”.

Acting Success Now was birthed when Robert and Michelle were both actors who were predicted and expected to do big things with their acting careers, but that didn’t happen the way they expected it to. They both were suffering and could not get out of their own way. Robert had done years of study and meditation and had read every book out there. What they discovered, was that the bulk of what they had been applying was very “truthy”. Stephen Colbert talks about “truthiness” which is a satirical term for something that feels right, but it’s not the truth.

Robert says the right information finally came in from the right teachers, and as he applied new tools, everything opened up.

Wanting to share this amazing information, Robert and Michelle formed Acting Success Now. Their Workshop applies to everyone in all professions, but Robert and Michelle chose to help actors, because it was who they knew, and they wanted to help fellow actors discover the tools to “getting out of their own way”.

They come from a perspective of Neuroscience, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mysticism. When they say Eastern Mysticism, they say it’s something anyone can relate to. Robert explained that Eastern mystics were the first physicists…but they were 5,000 years early. He says physicists today took 5,000 years to catch up with what Eastern mystics had to say about the workings of what we don’t see…the unseen World and how everything is interconnected in an unbroken whole. If an actor can really connect with that, not intellectually, but have a deep experience of it and be able to repeat it, immediately things start to relax.

If you go back to Stanislavski, Robert says, Stanislavski was not only influenced by the great acting in Europe, he was profoundly influenced by yoga in the East. When his book “An Actor Prepares And Building A Character” came here, it was one book. They separated it into two books and to market it, they took out all his stuff around yoga related to concentration and mysticism. His famous “circle of attention” came out of yoga practice.

In discussing what happens mentally to an actor in an audition situation, Michelle says that the actor is perceiving themselves as very separate from the environment. They become threatened, for instance, if a famous actor is waiting in the lobby or the casting director has a nice relationship with another actor. They are probably not aware of this consciously. But, it puts them in a strong situation of separation, which brings on fear and panic and anxiety.

Awareness is the main tool to help actors get out of their own way and to live their dreams and fulfill their fullest potential. It is an awareness game.

Robert and Michelle’s three day seminars at Acting Success Now go to the root of that problem. The tools they have come up with take care of the root, and then everything settles down. But, it’s not an intellectual activity. It’s something that has to be deeply grasped and applied. It’s no different than an athlete who is about to go to the line in a championship game and he has 2 foul shots to win it. He has the technique, but to get to the line all this stuff may come up. That’s where Robert and Michelle come in, before the actor steps to the line.

This brings in discussion of the Ego. There is a school of thought out there that actors have to bring in the stronger healthier Ego. That’s where Robert and Michelle are different. They are about dissolving the Ego. They believe if you really dissolve the Ego, then you are connected to the Quantum field and what’s happening then, is that the actor is really open. The Ego is the thing that has to get out of the way. The Ego must go!

Visit www.mastertalentteachers.com to watch Holly Powell’s Interview with Robert and Michelle Colt of Acting Success Now. www.actingsuccessnow.com.