claytoncast

As a child and this was probably one of the most exciting times of the year. Next weekend would see the start of the big long summer  holidays. Six or seven weeks of no school, and long empty days to fill as you would, with all sorts of games and leisure. And, of course, boredom. Inevitably by the end of August, the novelty of lots of long unstructured days had begun to wear off, and one craved a little order and routine. As an actor long unstructured days are not only the province of the summer, but things can feel even harder when there is a holiday feel all around you, and all you desperately want is work. The dread that if you've not been cast in something by the end of July, then you probably won't be actually working until at least early September is one that can bring dark clouds into even the brightest of summer days. Yet as an actor you are working all the time, whether it is for someone else, or yourself. It's easier to convince yourself you had a good day whe...

Actually we have just come back from our summer holiday. Two whole weeks of gorgeous sunshine, delicious food, and the fabulous hospitality that is Turkey. Of course today I am paying for it all with a desk full of emails, invoices, post, and a week ahead of meetings etc that require preparation. That, and a guest appearance in the Sydenham community play next Sunday afternoon, should mean that the holiday will soon become a distant memory. Yet it is incredibly important. It’s two whole weeks that I get to spend exclusively with my partner. It’s all about me and him, and allows us to renew our batteries, and the joy we have in spending time with each other. It also allows me to step away from my work, and see things in perspective. It’s very easy for actors, desperate for work, and constantly having to chase every opportunity that comes up, not to allow any time for themselves. Between leaving drama school in 1978, and meeting my partner in 1996, I took one holiday. Sometime in ...

As an actor in training, one of my favourite games was "Yes...let's". An exercise to encourage the ability to accept ideas from fellow actors. "Let's go the Zoo..... Yes, let's"  "Let's all lie down and pretend to be in the Arctic...." Yes......(Sideways glance for a skulking polar bear) ....Let's". The whole concept of being open to things and reacting to them in a positive way.  To build and not to block. The whole idea of trying something out wholeheartedly before rejecting it is key to the way we work in the rehearsal room and in front of the camera. Yet there is a very important place in our work for the word "NO".  It's all part of the process of knowing yourself, and knowing that what you bring to each and every job you do as an actor is yourself. You have likes, and you have dislikes. You have standards, and you have an ability to compromise. You also have the choice to decide when all those things co...

All in a days work. Like most actors, my first television job was “doing a day on something”. Not a regular member of the cast,  but just booked to do one day’s filming and a couple of scenes. I say a couple of scenes,  but these days with the advent of two camera shoots, the workload can be much heavier. My first two guest appearances in “Doctors”, the esteemed BBC1 soap, each consisted of one filming day of between 22 and 27 scenes. A whole plot line. In today’s cut-price world of television, schedules often ensure that guest artists spend as little time on set, but doing as much work as possible.  So how do you make sure that this day goes well? You've no time to get to know anyone, and you’re stepping into a unit that runs like a smoothly oiled machine, it can be hard to find a comfortable place to be.From the minute you step out of the “non-exclusive transport”  that your agent has managed to negotiate for you, you need to fit in. The second assistant...

In the early eighties I had the great joy and honour of being cast in "Mother Courage" at the RSC opposite the person whom many of us feel is one of our greatest ever actresses, Dame Judi Dench. She's one of the people about whom you will never hear a derogatory word said. Her spirit shines out as a person, and when you are opposite her on stage, you are in no doubt that you are working with a true great. Rehearsing opposite her, although nerve wracking at the time, was a joy. Her immense sense of fun is something that is undeniable, and at no time when you were working with her did you ever feel that she was acting. In fact, I began to wonder when she was going to "turn it on". When would the big performance that Mother Courage demanded start coming into play. Every time I stepped onto the stage opposite her, I was talking to the same Judi with whom I would share a cup of tea in the green room. The Thursday afternoon of our first full run through arriv...

A new experience this week. Performance by phone and internet. Usually when travelling abroad on a job, I advise whoever I'm working for that its dangerous for me to travel out on the same day as the job. If flights are cancelled or delayed, the job can be screwed and the client still has to pay once they have confirmed my booking. This particular client had decided that starting a job at 2pm in Amsterdam meant that I could fly out the same morning at 9:25 AM from London City. That flight lands normally at 11:40 AM Amsterdam time giving me around two hours to get to the office which is perfectly reasonable. The next flight from London City however is of course one hour 15 minutes later, and London City airport is notoriously the first to be fogbound when the weather is inclement. And inclement it was on Wednesday morning. I had started out early in order to defeat the tube strike, and actually the journey by overground  and Docklands light Railway was probably even better ...

I never used to find it a problem to learn lines when I was younger. I have memories of rehearsal afternoons on particularly difficult scenes in those high points of my career where I had a lot of dialogue, and then retiring to my digs for a quick read through of the lines we had done that afternoon before preparing supper and repairing to the pub. A quick read through  post pub before I went to bed, and the lines seemed to somehow get into my head.  As I've got older, it hasn't stayed that easy. Now I have to work hard to get the lines in. Having recently finished a stint in a soap, I am in awe of the actors who have managed to learn four or five scenes the night before. I can learn lines quickly, but I really do have to work at it. I used to have a music stand which I would set up in the lounge and onto which I would place my script. I would then stand and recite lines from it only looking down when I needed a prompt. It worked rather well, but of course carrying a ...