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  • Jo Kelly

Don't ever try to know how you'll do a scene! Agree or Disagree?

Usually actors want to know because they’ve done their scene breakdown, marked the beats, analyzed the subtext and prepared their emotions/ behavior. They have a whole strategy for how to approach the scene.


The way we traditionally approach acting is that there is me, there is the character, and I need to prepare to become the character. Actors are taught if they don’t prepare, they’ll make mistakes.


This conventional approach takes all the fun out of acting!!! It becomes like homework and it ramps up the pressure because now you have all these markers you need to hit.


When you watch my training you'll discover that acting as an art. You can’t control how you’re going to do a scene. You’re fucked if you do. There’s no way you can control a moment and be in-the-moment.


Not knowing how you’ll do a scene is an opportunity to show up in a magical way like great actors do. When you do not know how things are gonna go, you show up with your reactions in-the-moment.


Acting is the art of being fully alive. Take what being alive is, and bring it to your acting.


You’ve read the script and know what it’s about. But you’re cultivating your capacity to not want to know, which is how life is. We don’t know what’s gonna happen in life from one second to the other. We just react to things in the moment.


Work on your instrument and on your character but don’t prepare how you’ll do a scene. Not knowing how you’ll do a scene is how you’ll be present in the scene.


You. Are. Present.

YOU = the full version of you, your whole instrument.


ARE = from the verb ‘to be’. Being is a childlike quality where you’re consumed with the current moment, and you’re not concerned with the next.


PRESENCE = all of you in the circumstances.


When you are present, GENIUS HAPPENS. Everything is allowed to flow through you because you go with it and react with it. It’s nothing you’ve calculated or designed before.


Make sure that you’re not just okay with not knowing, but you’re actually running towards not knowing. It begins with liberating your instrument.


Watch my training below to hear all my thoughts on this topic.




If this resonates with you and you’re ready to be free, I urge you to check out the Reset Journey from Resistance to Freedom. Get in touch with us click here and write us an email with the word RESET BLOG and we’ll send you some info.

And to take the conversation a little further, I’d love to hear from you.

Post a comment in our private Facebook Group, so we can take the discussion farther. You’ll also get access to more videos and resources, and connect with more than a THOUSAND like-minded actors across the globe for extra accountability.

If you’re not already a member, be sure to request to join ASAP.

See you there!


Jo Kelly

Creator, The Reset Journey From Resistance to Freedom

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are two ways I can help you:

1- Join my free Facebook Group, THE INSTINCTIVE ACTORS’ SOCIETY, exclusively for actors who are ready to go from good to great and become undeniable.


2- Get on the waitlist for my course, The Reset Journey From Resistance to Freedom, and stop struggling to access your natural, authentic talent in the audition room or on set. You’ll learn how to reset your instrument to be 100% instinctive and free in just 33 days.


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