- A character’s quirkiness comes directly and STRICTLY from their point of view; there is no need whatsoever to add any extra frosting onto it. NEVER GO FOR THE FUNNY. EVER.
- Jokes need to land with a specific eye line. We MUST know where it lands or it won’t work. NEVER allow a joke to become crop dust- we prefer a DIRECT DOSE!
- Pace + David E. Kelley = MUTHA FUCKIN’ BRILLIANCE. David E. Kelley is a human treadmill and only those who keep up with him have a shot at making it in a marathon.
- David E. Kelley and Aaron Sorkin characters ALWAYS function at the TOP of their intelligence; their characters are unwavering in their specific and utterly unique POINT OF VIEW on the world. No SECOND GUESSING! Your P.O.V. is your GOLDEN TICKET TO SUCCESS OF ALL VARIETALS!
- Just tell the story. YOUR STORY. YOUR take on life is what makes your performance great and uniquely YOURS. If I read ‘The Three Little Pigs’ to a group of kids, it would be nothing at all like Jose or Austin or Abraham’s version, even though we’re reading the exact same story everyone’s heard 14,000 times. The magic is US. The writer merely hands us a wand.
- Make everything a ‘want’ for your character. Go for the stakes of having your character WANT shit more than anything they’ve EVER wanted. When someone wants something so badly it’s AWESOME to see them go for it (RISK TAKER!) and either get it OR… NOT get it! We’re rooting for you either way and no matter the outcome, we’ve already identified and related to you and your character and we GET how GREAT it feels to win OR how SHITTY it feels NOT to, but we get the kick out of KNOWING how that feels! (Watch Paul Rudd for masterful demonstrations of this.)
- STILLNESS. Stillness creates TENSION. Tension is fascinating to watch and makes people horny. Now, staying still might make you wanna chew a handful of razor blades and wash them down with a cup and a half of Listerine (maybe that’s just me?), but those watching worship it. Stillness is like a laser. Unnecessary movement is like fluorescent lighting. Which one do YOU think is more bodacious??? (I’m gonna go with Dr. Evil on this one. “LASERRRR.”)
– Borden
