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AIFFA 2013 Interviews Kamil Haque
Actor, Acting Coach, Festival Consultant & Singapore Liaison Director
When you work with actors as a fellow actor or as their coach or director, what can they expect from you?
I am very upfront with the people that I work with. You’re working with me so that means we are going to have to get ugly before we can look pretty. Women for example spend hours in front of the mirror putting on make up to look like they are not wearing any make up. Same with acting. It takes a lot of effort to make something look effortless. I’ll be the first one to admit, I don’t have all the answers. I’m also the first to admit, if I don’t know, then teach me. Or let me ask someone who can give me an answer so I can help you. I’m learning from my colleagues, students, clients, actors as much as they are learning from me. Acting is a living problem. I feel, we can begin to solve these problems by asking questions. I love asking questions. I want to make it clear that anyone who claims they have all the answers to any subject, be it producing; directing and acting, life or anything really, run away as fast as you can from that person. The truth is no one has all the answers. We are all works in progress. I’ve always thought, the day I say I know all the answers, I hope the next day I die. Think about it, if you feel you already have all the answers, what is there to learn? What is the point in living?
One of the most courageous things is a baby taking his very first steps. He doesn’t know what he is doing. He takes a step. He falls, he is in pain, he cries but he sees his mommy or his favorite toy across the room. He knows what he wants so he gets up and tries again. He learns from what he did so he can do it better. He doesn’t criticize himself for falling. He simply tries again till his mission is accomplished. Whether he knows it or not, he has given himself the permission to ‘fail’, to question and explore how he can be more efficient and better.
Tell us a bit about how you became the first Asian and Singaporean and an acting instructor at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.
I have been fortunate to do a lot of things in LA because I was willing to ask. I remember, the very first day I arrived in LA to register for classes at theatre school as a student, I told the administrative head I wanted to teach there instead. She laughed and said I couldn’t simply because I didn’t know what they taught. I was really stubborn and I insisted we come to compromise.
We agreed that if I could finish the 2-year program (and many people don’t for various reasons) then I could possibly teach. Challenge accepted. Literally, the day after I graduated, I told them “I’m done with the program, I want to teach.” They saw that throughout the two years, I was willing to work hard, to grow, to learn, I was also helping people who were new to Los Angeles, the school and to the work. They saw the passion so they fulfilled my wish.
What are some things you enjoy about acting?
Regardless of the various hats I wear as an actor/acting coach/director/producer, what I really enjoy most about acting, is not the end result, it’s the process, the rehearsals. The time when I work with other actors. The spirit of collaboration, communication, creativity, the willingness to question everything, to discover the problems, to come up with solutions together, to dare to be better.
If ASEAN had a similar number and quality of opportunities for actors as Hollywood, what do you think are the reasons why Actors wouldn’t work as much aren’t working as much as they could?
At least from what I see, what actors today lack is a willingness to fail and be okay with it which is the ego getting in the way, a reluctance to take risks, a reluctance to thirst for knowledge and experience, to push boundaries, to not accept status quo. The two reasons why actors don’t work – self sabotage and factors that are out of your control.
Self-sabotage – you don’t learn your lines, you don’t have discipline, you’re troublesome on set, you’re too demanding and your ego gets on the way, you avoid going to the audition because you think the director or casting director won’t like you, a lack of business sense, you have that inner voice telling you you’re not good enough or you feel like you have not done enough – that paralyses you. And that applies to all areas in life, acting is life!
Factors out of your control – you are adequately prepared and ready for your audition for example but you do not get the job simply because you are too tall, too short, too ethnic, not ethnic enough, too thin, too fat, the producer wants his girlfriend to take your role, the lead actor wants his best friend to take your role or he will drop out of the project. The list goes on but as you can see, none of these things has anything to do with you personally. It is not a reflection of you, or your talent or your personality. You did your best, you didn’t get the job, it’s not your fault and that’s okay. You are not defined by your job or your lack of one.
The reality is actors face more rejection than most other professions. Each time you audition it is a new job interview. Statistically, you WILL hear more no’s than yes. Can you imagine going through 3-4 job interviews a week on average, trying to be your best in each one and not always getting picked?
Why do some actors succeed and others not or even quit for ‘normal’ jobs?
You see, you don’t choose to act. Acting chooses you. Perhaps you were a kid and you performed a role in a kindergarten play and love the attention. Maybe you loved playing make-believe, maybe you saw a movie or play or TV show that inspired you. Mine was watching “Dead Poets Society” starring Robin Williams. That was when the ‘acting bug’ bit me. As a beginning actor you go in guns blazing trying everything, doing everything, thinking you can play any role, and out-act anyone, anywhere, anytime and some of the work is instinctive maybe tempered by genius, but you are perhaps unaware that for the most part your work as an amateur is substandard. The longer you remain an actor; you begin to discover the history, the craft and work. You then realize that even with more experience and training, you still aren’t reaching the heights of the person or event that inspired you. Your level of work frustrates you because of a perceived lack of growth. That awareness of where you are with the work versus where you wish were creates what I call the “Creative Gap”. This “Gap” has no fixed time limit and that often disheartens a lot of actors and many of course end up quitting. The thing is every actor goes through this “Gap”. It’s like a rite of passage. The only way to get over this “Gap” is through the work. Lots of it. Studying more, auditioning more, asking more questions of your teachers and agents for example. My belief is this, “Genius is inspiring. Hard and smart work gets results.”
What is one thing many actors are perhaps unaware of when it comes to auditioning?
Actors like ‘regular’ folk with 9-5jobs always feel that auditions, job interviews, presentations are time for failure and rejection, but that is simply not true. When you go into an audition room for a project, every casting director or director wants you to be the guy or girl they cast. They want you to solve their casting problems. They WANT to hire you. For most of them, the last thing on their mind is to want to reject you on purpose. That only means more work for everyone involved. You don’t have to fear the people in that casting office, audition room or HR office or meeting room when presenting anymore.
Do you subscribe to any particular acting techniques?
While I do borrow a lot from a few sources and adapt it with my own techniques, really with acting – at the end of the day, no one cares about the recipe; they just want to eat the food. No one cares who trained you or where you trained, what technique you use, worse still if they can see your technique. It all boils down to “can you act?” “Can you tell an effective story?” It probably take an untrained eye something like 30seconds or less to tell if they like what their watching and then choose to engage or disengage. So regardless of technique names which are just labels really with all due respect to the masters who formulated them, it’s about the work. The work will always speak for itself.
What is it about AIFFA that attracted you to the project?
Having only come onboard with AIFFA only a few months ago, beyond the obvious reasons of ASEAN coming together and the spirit of collaboration I find it refreshing that it is honest simply because we are new so we do not always know what we are doing and we are willing to ask for help, take risks, we are willing to try and willing to question. We don’t have any set pattern to follow, and we just learn along the way. Despite not having a path to follow, we are working hard to create what we think will be a world class festival. Whether that happens in this edition or in future editions, we’ll only know after the Festival but we do want to set the foundations, solid.
What can we expect from your acting workshop during AIFFA 2013?
When I work with my students and clients, I always try and make what they learn applicable in real life. The techniques and things they learn in class are designed to live outside of the bubble and safety net of the class room. I often use a lot of dry humor to bring go about educating on ‘serious’ matters. Also I like working on developing individuals as individuals in a typical small workshop setting. This means that you learn more about yourself, your philosophies and capabilities even as you are taught and drilled in technique. One of the big big things in my workshops is that we spend a lot of time on relaxation. Many people mistake it for yoga or stretching or meditation but it’s none of the above. It’s to do with working on your concentration, creating mental and physical connection with your body so your senses can be heightened to create. It’s to sharpen your sensitivity and self awareness so that you can begin creating from a place of openness, focus, and efficiency.
For example, one of the most basic exercises is the “Breakfast Drink’ exercise – I work with people to be more aware of their body to recreate imaginary realities of a simple daily activity. If you cannot do a simple exercise like that truthfully with specificity, then how do you even dare to hope playing major characters like Romeo or Juliet? Acting is the most difficult of all the arts because unlike a painter or a musician who has an external means like a paintbrush or violin to express himself, actors have to use their own bodies, their own 5 senses, their minds, their hearts, their own voices to create stories. Like a finely tuned violin though, an actor’s instrument needs to be checked and rechecked to keep it at its sharpest and in tune. That is where I come in.
What’s next for you after AIFFA 2013?
A long holiday preferably! Actually it’s back to work straight away. I’ll be attending an acting working in Singapore on April 1st with a view to coaching undergraduate and graduate medical students at the National University of Singapore. Beyond that, I’m in the midst of setting up my own school in Singapore where actors and non-actors can learn more about the craft in a non-academic setting and see how it applies to all areas of their lives. Of course, I’m also going to continue coaching my current set of clients around the world via Skype so they can be ready for their next audition. Phew! Did I say I needed a holiday yet? In the meantime, see you at AIFFA 2013!!!
More Information about Kamil Haque is available at www.kamilhaque.com and his soon to be launched website for his school, www.hcac.sg
