Episode 98
Coaching Actors for Success
Episode 98 - Coaching Actors for Success
In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, host Jaclyn Whitt interviews actor and coach John Goad. They discuss challenges for actors within the industry. John emphasizes the importance of praying for guidance, getting proper training, and creating content to develop one’s skills. They touch upon various aspects of the acting journey, including the necessity of investing time and money, understanding one's unique path, and the significant roles of perseverance and passion. John also explains his distinctive approach to teaching acting, focusing on emotional expression, imagination, and his approach to memorizing lines.
Highlights Include:
- Pray About it
- The Importance of Training
- Creating Your Own Content
- Investing in Your Career
- Your Path to Acting
- The Role of Passion and Perseverance
- John's Teaching Philosophy
- Acting Techniques and Memorization
Bio:
John Goad is an actor, voice actor, and actor coach with over 35 years experience in theater, film, television, commercials, and audiobooks. He's received training from the likes of Harold Guskin and Tom Todorov, among others. John is now a much sought-after coach for actors himself, being featured at ICFF and other Film Conferences. He focuses his talents solely on the faith based industry currently. Look for him as Bebe in the upcoming feature film ‘Casting Nets’ John lives in Houston, Texas, and is the proud father of eight children. He serves his church as an integral part of their media ministry.
Email John: johnegoadjr@gmail.com
Call or Text: 713-578-0897
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The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers, talent agents, and distributors.
It is produced and hosted by Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt , and is brought to you by the Faith & Family Filmmakers Association
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Transcript
listening to the Faith and Family Filmmakers Podcast.
Jaclyn:My name is Jaclyn, and I've got John Goad with me today.
John:How do you do?
Jaclyn:How are you?
John:I'm doing well.
Jaclyn:Awesome.
Jaclyn:Okay, so you already explained in your last interview with Geoff, you explained how you got started, but you know, that was a while ago.
Jaclyn:So I am curious, have things changed since then?
Jaclyn:Because the world has changed since then.
John:Uh, boy, have they, well, first of all, the path to this industry is going to be different for everyone.
John:Uh, certainly different for me.
John:like I said, in the previous one, I was kind of thrown into it, more as a therapy than it was for a career.
John:All right.
John:So I didn't, I didn't want to be in front of people.
John:I just found that I had a knack, to be in front of people.
John:as far as the process now or what I would recommend someone go through, if they want to be an actor the first thing to do is to pray about it.
John:when, God told, Abram to go.
John:He went,
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
John:when he told Moses to go, he kind of bargained, he talked back,
John:et cetera.
John:Yeah,
Jaclyn:you meant me?
Jaclyn:You know who you're talking to, right?
John:Right.
John:Uh, he came up with so many excuses, but he eventually went.
John:So there's a listening to the calling and responding to the calling, and it's going to be different for many people different ways.
John:All right.
John:So that's the first thing.
John:First of all, pray about it.
John:and understand that your obedience level may be different than other people's obedience level.
John:I get it.
John:I totally get that.
John:the first thing to do, I would say is to get training.
John:Talent is not enough.
John:I think that there are people who can go out and make some great work in their garage in, woodworking.
John:but in reality, until they get training on how to use the tools, when to use the tools, what the different types of woods are and their qualities and, when to use different joinery, blah, blah, blah.
John:that's actually what makes them a artisan, a, a good woodworker, get the training.
John:And with that training, you're also going to get immediate feedback.
John:And that is so, so important.
John:Yes.
John:you can figure out a lot of this stuff on your own.
John:We talked about this in the previous, episode.
John:you can get a lot of information on your own in this business, but in reality, the training is, you can't skip it.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:No, No, Like talent is enough to get you started, but it's not enough to keep you going.
John:it really isn't.
John:so that's the first thing is to get, or second thing, pray.
John:Get training
John:and then work on making your own content.
John:find people of your, level of competency, I should say.
John:That's probably the best way to put it.
John:that you're willing to work with, just to make a project, small things, short things just to get actually the experience now outside of class,
Jaclyn:Yeah, the more you can see yourself on a screen, the more you understand how you look on the screen, the more that you can, assess yourself and have that awareness.
Jaclyn:I know for myself, having worked a lot in audio production, like I hear my voice all the time.
Jaclyn:And, you know, some people say they hate their own voice, the sound of their own voice.
Jaclyn:Well, you get used to it though.
Jaclyn:And it's the same thing with seeing yourself on, the screen.
Jaclyn:for myself, for quite a while, I didn't really like seeing me on a video.
Jaclyn:I wasn't used to it.
Jaclyn:But then the more that I had to do it, the more that I got used to it, and I realized, oh, yeah, so I do do that with my face.
Jaclyn:Okay.
John:right.
John:Oh, I have that quirk
Jaclyn:Yeah.
John:yeah.
John:So then give yourself the experience.
John:there's that old saying, you can't get experience until you have experience, right?
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
John:I can't build a resume until I have stuff to put on my resume,
John:type of deal.
John:go out and make your own context.
John:Go, go play and learn.
John:And that's the big thing is that you find out, what not to do.
John:learn from your mistakes.
John:when I work with my students, tell them.
John:One of the best things you can do is record, watch, record, watch, record, watch.
John:you've heard that phrase, practice makes perfect.
John:And I think that is a lie.
John:perfect practice makes perfect practice, the good swing and all the fundamentals of the, of the swing slowly until it becomes the memory.
John:So when you step up to the plate, you don't have to think about all these little things you just swing,
Jaclyn:Yes.
John:get rid of the things that don't work.
John:Enhance those things that do work.
John:And you're going to learn a lot more quickly that way.
John:then after praying about it, training, lots of training, uh, making your own content, continue your training.
John:there's a lot of investment in time and sometimes money, I
John:guess.
John:Uh, before you ever step on a set
Jaclyn:Well, but you think okay, I just want to stop for a second because like, think that a lot of the time there's this hesitation of wanting to spend money.
Jaclyn:And I understand you know, we need to be wise with where we spend our money.
Jaclyn:But, it is an investment.
Jaclyn:And if you're looking at anything as a career, putting money into training is an investment.
Jaclyn:And you would do that if you wanted to train to be Pretty much anything.
Jaclyn:You would pay somebody who has the skills that you want to learn to teach you those skills.
Jaclyn:and so, I definitely want to put that out there.
Jaclyn:Like, to have a serious conversation with yourself, you know?
Jaclyn:Like, am I doing this as a hobby or am I doing this as a career?
Jaclyn:And how far do I want to take this career?
Jaclyn:Because that is very much going to depend on how much you're willing to invest into it.
John:right.
John:Absolutely.
John:even a hobby, you should still invest in maybe not the, you know, I'm not going to go out and get myself a, uh, 36 inch planer, right.
John:cause that's an investment.
Jaclyn:that is.
John:Okay.
John:So it's a big piece of
John:machinery.
Jaclyn:with Geoff.
Jaclyn:He knows what you're talking about.
Jaclyn:Okay,
Jaclyn:so, carry on.
Jaclyn:You explain to me this 32 inch planer.
Jaclyn:It's
John:It's a
John:big
John:it's a big machine.
John:It costs a lot of money, but
Jaclyn:It's overkill if you
Jaclyn:don't
John:that's for make it.
John:You're making productions tabletops basically.
John:Right.
John:Exactly.
John:now if you're wanting to get into the business of production tabletops, investing in a 32 inch
John:planer is great.
John:and that's the kind of thing is that once your skillset gets to a certain level.
John:You You might want to continue investing in a higher, education, I guess, is probably the best way to put it, right?
John:better coaches, more coaches, different aspects, different, perspectives from different
John:people.
Jaclyn:exactly.
Jaclyn:It's what you need to get where you want to go.
John:And like you said, it's an investment.
John:And, along those lines, understand that your journey.
John:Is not the same as everyone else's journey.
John:you have a different aptitude for learning things at a certain speed, or even different aspects at a different, understanding,
Jaclyn:yeah.
Jaclyn:And different factors in your life even, you know, like everybody's got a different life that they're living,
John:But understand too, that I really do believe, and I always use the example, they'd never give a scalpel to a first year med student, right?
John:welcome to med school.
John:Here you go.
John:Let's go operate on people.
John:That there's, a lot of theory.
John:There is a lot of practice on things that have already died,
Jaclyn:Uh huh.
John:right?
John:A lot of testing.
John:Uh, and it's years before you ever.
John:Decide, yeah, I can actually go into someone's brain without killing them.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Do more good than damage.
John:right.
John:and understand then that is really the, uh, business of acting to that, there's a lot to put into it, understand that you don't just take two classes and go, okay, I'm an actor.
John:I'm ready to go.
John:Um, no, it takes sometimes for some people years of training and getting over some psychological blocks.
John:I talk about that in my training, there's some things that we are just kind of hard, hardwired, or even.
John:have been rewired, brainwashed into believing that we have to kind of get rid of.
John:anyway, we're still not even to the point where you could be auditioning for roles.
John:I say also go, be an extra on a set.
John:That's still not acting.
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
John:You can't put that on your resume, guys.
John:Sorry.
John:but you understand how a set works and you understand the different positions of people and the timing.
John:And, you can actually tap into other actors where you want to be.
John:you can tap into their processes, their methods, their way of thinking, their lifestyle, et cetera, and, not idolize them more like emulate, okay, if it's working for them, what can I use from works for them to help me?
John:So you learn, while you're on set.
John:We're still not to the point where we were auditioning for parts.
Jaclyn:hmm.
John:understand too that you're still not at the place where you're getting an agent and getting all your materials together.
John:That's actually where this comes in.
John:After you got the training and the experience and know that this is your calling, get that immediate feedback from your coaches and then develop where they see you or.
John:where you see yourself as your brand, your type, your, ideal roles, and then focus your training more in that direction.
John:and then from there you can get headshots that help display that type, or accentuate those character type roles.
John:and then that's when you get the agent.
John:So you have to put a lot of work in and then you get the agency,
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
Jaclyn:let me just pause there for a second because, It sounds like a lot of work, but this is actually a good test because I think that if you have an idea or you feel like there's something that you're supposed to do, and as soon as you hear how much work it's going to be, if that turns you off, then maybe actually it's not for you.
Jaclyn:But if you are told this is what you have to do, even if it's a lot of work, and you're like, okay, well, good, now I know what to do.
Jaclyn:Like if, if your attitude is like gratitude that now you understand the process, then that's a pretty decent sign because I know sometimes when I talk to people about screenwriting and I say, okay, so then on your first draft this, and then your second draft do this, and your third draft, and they're like, wait, how many do I have to write?
Jaclyn:And I'm like, uh, as many as it takes.
Jaclyn:Like how far do you want to go with this?
Jaclyn:Right.
Jaclyn:And, so I, I just put that out there.
Jaclyn:Like If you're thinking about pursuing something, but if the amount of work pursue it at the level that you want is turning you off, you know, maybe rethink it.
Jaclyn:But on the other side of it, If you are excited about doing the work, that's awesome.
John:And it is work and, there's no such thing as an overnight success.
John:everyone that you see successful, believe, you're just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
John:There's so much stuff underneath that they've put into it.
John:so much stuff.
John:I've put years, decades, quite literally, into this craft.
John:there we go.
John:have this little thing about the arts and crafts business.
John:that's what acting is.
John:It's an arts and crafts business.
John:Art.
John:You have talent, craft.
John:You actually need to hone that talent.
John:You need to find people who can teach you.
John:and the business, you've got to be good at the business side too.
John:all three of those things have to work together in order for this to be a success.
John:and if you feel like the work in one area is not worth it, then, then yeah.
John:there was a speech not long ago.
John:I should say.
John:It's kind of recirculating now.
John:In fact, I think it was Steve Jobs talking about passion, and that there are people, when they focus on something and it becomes something they love, they will pursue it it.
John:Even through the hard times, even when things get tough, but when things get tough for some people, they just like, okay, this wasn't it.
John:That means you just didn't love it.
John:so you have to evaluate whether or not this is something that I'm willing to, go through the tough times for.
John:And that's actually what passion comes from.
John:Passion
Jaclyn:Yeah.
John:word paseo, which means to suffer.
John:Are you willing to
Jaclyn:Okay.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:Because in order to stretch yourself outside of what you currently are and beyond what you currently are, that stretching process is difficult.
Jaclyn:That means that you're going to come up against situations that you don't already feel like you're capable of managing and you're going to have to learn how to manage those new situations and gain these new skills and figure out even what they are.
Jaclyn:Like, there's so much stretching when it comes to, pursuing your passion.
John:And be willing to learn from your mistakes.
John:Good
John:grief guys.
John:Every time we fail, it's because we didn't do something right.
John:I don't want to put it that blatantly, but find out what you need to do right.
John:Uh, by learning what not to do,
Jaclyn:Yeah, Yeah.
Jaclyn:You can learn from anything.
John:Learning to do what's right is basically learning not to do what's wrong.
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:and that's why sometimes, when you watch someone do something well, yeah, you can learn from that.
Jaclyn:But when you watch someone do something horribly wrong, sometimes it's a lot easier to see.
Jaclyn:where those things went wrong.
Jaclyn:Like, it's not necessarily just the end result that's wrong.
Jaclyn:You can kind of back it up and be like, Oh, because of that point, that's where things started just to
John:That's where the wheels start to fall off.
John:Right.
Jaclyn:yes, exactly.
Jaclyn:So you can learn from anything for sure.
John:sometimes you're learning, is to your benefit.
John:Sometimes it's, for someone else's benefit.
Jaclyn:Yeah, exactly.
Jaclyn:Nice.
Jaclyn:So tell me about the training that you provide.
John:I take students of all levels, beginners.
John:in fact, before I ever go to training, I have a one on one kind of an interview with you and explain, this is going to require some work.
John:Are you willing to put in the work?
John:Um, and that talent is not enough and all that I really hopefully, set them up for, the expectations that.
John:This is not, easy.
John:It's simple.
John:It's not easy.
John:So I go deep into psychological aspects as well.
John:I'm writing a book, maybe you can help me later, for actors, and I want to title it act like a six year old.
John:I believe there are a couple of things that we, again, uh, talk about that hardwiring or, learn behaviors, et cetera, that we need to kind of get rid of.
John:and I talk about all those little psychological blocks, and one.
John:reason I want to call, act like a six year old is because that's about the point where they're starting to get a handle on their emotions, and be able to verbalize what they're feeling instead of just letting emotions control them.
John:but then we grow up with the idea that certain emotions are bad.
John:Or, we have coping mechanisms for, so that we don't have to feel those emotions, et cetera.
John:And, and I get rid of those.
John:I really, I, I do my best to help you understand that emotions are not bad.
John:They're actually God's design for you to handle stress.
John:So let's embrace, that system and, learn how to be brave and expressing those emotions.
John:and then the other thing is I think our imaginations.
John:Um, you've watched a six year old play the,
John:you know, they're Godzilla and they're Tokyo and, know, they're, they're, they're all the players at once and they're in their own little world.
John:They've completely shut
John:out, the real world and they are there 100%.
John:And I think we've kind of lost that ability as we grow up that we think our imagination is silly or no one wants to know what's going on in this brain of mine.
Jaclyn:Unless you're a writer.
John:but then no one sees it yet.
Jaclyn:Oh, but you know what?
Jaclyn:okay, I know when I was younger, my imagination was so wild that I remember thinking even when I was, I think I was only 11 or 12 Something around that age, I remember thinking if I don't get a handle on my own imagination, it is going to ruin my life because it was so hard to not imagine things and it was getting me in a lot of trouble and so I, I did have to learn how to discipline my own imagination and control it because it would honestly largely, um, Robert, um, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, Geoff, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, Geoffrey, It was, it will show some of these pronouns, some of what's going on in there on both questions.
Jaclyn:So yeah.
Jaclyn:question onclines are, you about to, you about the question of cat, but there are of them.
Jaclyn:The question of mutants.
Jaclyn:The thing is that we do need to still be able to access all of the emotions, even though we can discipline our behavior,
John:Yeah.
John:And I think we've grown up brainwashed that we shouldn't access some, and that's really what I, help people get to that point where they're Courageous and, brave in their vulnerability, and then again, as far as creating a character, I go into, not just developing, these backstories and using your imagination in that sense, but also the psychological stuff that goes on.
John:We behave in a certain way because we think a certain way or believe certain things.
John:So, I go over that deep too.
Jaclyn:hmm.
Jaclyn:Yeah, that's awesome.
Jaclyn:That makes me as a writer very happy because I do all of that work when I'm creating the characters, to hear that an actor would think about all of that.
Jaclyn:as they're portraying the characters that I've written, that they're putting that work into it, it makes me feel like, yay, I can trust them.
John:Not all of us, unfortunately.
Jaclyn:Oh, but the ones that are doing that, you know, like, they're, going to probably make more out of the character, and I think they could probably find clues within the script to pick up on certain things that maybe I didn't, not just me, but any writer, maybe we didn't necessarily point blank put into the script, but we have left little clues in order for the actor to understand how to put together that character, to, to draw that out.
Jaclyn:So, Oh, that's really cool.
Jaclyn:Is there anything else that you want to share with our listeners before we close out this interview?
John:I guess philosophy, the way I teach, I'm not like, uh, Most classical coaches, I guess I don't have the same approach really.
John:I have developed my own way of teaching and my own way of doing things.
John:but I really do believe that we're talking earlier, you know, words matter,
John:right?
John:Uh, so what you say has an effect on what people perceive, I guess is probably the best way to put it.
John:like I mentioned kind of briefly.
John:that I don't like the word rejection.
John:people always talk about this business is just full of rejection and,
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
John:and honestly, I think that's a perceived, I didn't get the role.
John:Therefore they hated me.
John:uh, unless you've been told, get out of my office, you're in the wrong business.
John:you're not being rejected.
John:You are just not the perfect fit for what we were looking for.
John:I've gone to so many auditions.
John:I didn't get the part, but they said, Hey, you're on our short list, for other things, other projects we're working on.
John:That's not
John:That sounds like a win to me.
John:In fact, it turns into multiple wins.
John:so that word rejection, I just, it just bugs me that that's still in the
Jaclyn:Right.
John:of the acting world.
Jaclyn:Yeah.
Jaclyn:It's just inaccurate.
Jaclyn:That's not what it
John:yeah, it really isn't.
John:so people beat themselves up.
John:That they didn't get the role and like
John:don't
Jaclyn:Yeah.
John:don't just it's so many factors that you can't control in getting a role just do your best and give it over to god
Jaclyn:Yeah.
John:it and forget it that's what i say submit it and forget it then the terms pretend i don't like the word pretend It comes from the same, root that we get pretense and pretense is to lie.
John:I don't like lying on camera.
John:I use the word make believe instead of.
John:pretend, because I think that changes the way you're doing things.
John:You actually tap more into your imagination by using that vernacular, uh, using that word, then pretend because, sure.
John:I used to tell people a long time ago, an actor has permission to lie.
John:and I, that's inaccurate.
John:The actor has the permission to make believe and use their imagination fully.
John:And then the last thing I think that a lot of actors have trouble with is, memorizing their lines.
John:And that's another thing that I really go over.
Jaclyn:Oh, yeah.
Jaclyn:That's a big one for me.
Jaclyn:I really struggle with memorization.
Jaclyn:I'm really great at reading as if I'm not reading, but I have a very difficult time with, actually memorizing.
John:Okay.
John:I have a different approach for that too.
John:so, I call it intent over content.
John:what the words are is not as important as what the words mean.
John:So
Jaclyn:Right.
John:whole power of what the words
Jaclyn:Yes.
John:really what you need to learn, not memorize.
Jaclyn:So then it's very helpful to understand your character and what they want and what they feel like to create all of that because then you understand how they think you can follow their thought process.
Jaclyn:So then what it means is going to be a lot more obvious.
Jaclyn:Is that
John:yes, yes.
John:And it's actually, you have done all your homework on who the character is and what they want and blah, blah, blah.
John:Like you're talking about, right.
John:And you're starting to think like that, you know how it is.
John:If you're in a foreign country, you guys are in Mexico, right?
John:you realize that you understand the Spanish language when you start thinking in the Spanish
John:language.
Jaclyn:it's true.
John:And it's the same thing with your character.
John:If you understand the character deep enough and start thinking as the character, aha, now we can actually start learning the lines instead of memorizing the lines, because I now know what I want to say.
John:And 99 percent of the time, what you say is what's on the page.
Jaclyn:See, I could do that.
Jaclyn:That would be a lot easier than trying to just memorize words in a certain order.
John:All right.
John:It's easier to memorize a train of thought than it is a train of
Jaclyn:Yeah,
John:one of my,
Jaclyn:definitely, I get that.
Jaclyn:Thank you so much for sharing, your story and your insights and, this guidance that you've offered.
Jaclyn:This is really awesome.
Jaclyn:How can people find your classes or your mentorship, all the things that you offer?
John:I really do mostly one on one coaching.
John:they can contact me directly through, my email or my phone.
John:I love teaching.
John:In fact, I will tell you that I have probably learned more or had more aha moments.
John:I should say, I've known quite a bit about acting, but I think I've had more aha moments.
John:Teaching someone because I had to be a bit more responsible and being able to articulate really what's happening, myself.
John:Now I kind of know and intuitively and as well as leaning on my training.
John:but in order to really, truly understand it, teaching people has been I've learned even more leaps and bounds
Jaclyn:Yeah, and so then, we'll have your contact info in the show notes, and, I've really enjoyed this, and I enjoy actually, having you in my table reads.
Jaclyn:I like when you, portray the characters that, that I've created.
Jaclyn:You bring so much.
Jaclyn:I remember there was this one time, I gave you a very difficult character, because this character, had, some mental instability, and had a very unique kind of character about him and you made it so believable and interesting and yet at the same time you'd switch to a different character and so, it was fun.
John:Yeah, when I'm on table reason, I'm actually the narrator and characters.
Jaclyn:Mm hmm.
John:I've watched a recording once and actually my eyes do this weird thing and I'm, instantly the character, then my eyes do the same thing and I'm back to the narrator.
John:there's a weird neurological switch or
Jaclyn:Well because you're, you're embodying a different character because even when you're a narrator you're a character.
John:right.
John:yeah.
John:Geoff And I were talking about that
Jaclyn:yeah, you're switching.
Jaclyn:It's true.
Jaclyn:It's true.
Jaclyn:Awesome.
Jaclyn:Thank you so much and, God bless.
John:Love you guys.
