It’s a hard industry. As long as you love acting, do it for the acting, not for making money. Be in it because you love playing other characters, and never stop growing. Study. You are going to learn a lot from everyone. Stretch yourself. It needs to be your passion, and not for fame. I have very lucky my whole life, and I just love acting so much. Embrace it and immerse yourself in it

You are so right. You really can’t act as if you can dance or sing on stage. It’s actually something you have to do live. You end up learning new skills. That reminds me. For me, the good minister from Kunyarara pushed my physical stamina for a role. I remember TCee, who was in charge of choreography – it was 6 weeks of torture. But the applause made it worthwhile. One thing we tend to forget as performers is what a varied audience we always have. From the dancers themselves to fellow actors, doctors, students, lovers and what not. There’s a level of honesty that you have to find within yourself to truly ‘sell’ your character’s performance in every show.

Passion and a sense of self. You need to be passionate about whatever it is you want to do, period. Now with acting, it has to be the same. A sense of self is simply knowing who you are, owning your craft and knowing your worth. You need to believe in your own sauce.

Acting requires a creative and compassionate attitude. It must aim to lift life up to a higher level of meaning and not tear it down or demean it. The actor's search is a generous quest for that larger meaning. That's why acting is never to be done passively.

My goal as an actor is always to be as truthful as possible, and to find the truth in the material I am representing. So I think that it’s the same with performing music. But in a way, performing your own music, it’s easier to find the truth in it, because it’s coming from yourself. There’s no translation needed.

The main thing is to remain yourself, and this is impossible for a professional actor. Although it is difficult to think ahead. It seems to me that cinema and music, complementing each other, can coexist in my life.

I feel like you kind of have to live life to its fullest in order to be a good actor. Draw on experiences. The more experiences the better, and I really have had a lot of experiences in life, even at my young age.

Skills and talent are very important. It goes beyond having just a pretty face or nice body…you need to be really talented. Also, acting is hard work, and you must be disciplined. Above all, you need God’s grace.

Who's to say that every performer should be a good actor? Why can't you just be yourself?

If you're an actor, a real actor, you've got to be on the stage. But you mustn't go on the stage unless it's absolutely the only thing you can do.

My main focus while teaching is that the actor learns to fully express their own uniqueness and truth as a human being, and break through the patterns and blockages that prevent them from living fully and truthfully that part of themself that is the character, onstage or in front of the camera. We train and rehearse with very specific exercises that reveal the actor to himself and to the audience and also give the actor the courage to express who he is and to trust in himself and his instrument.

Well, first of all, it's imperative not to judge the character. Because then you've lost as a performer. You have to try and understand [them]. You have to be like a kind of emotional detective. But your job primarily is to define the truth in the character to try and portray them in a truthful way.

At a performance everything works out on its own. I've solved the mystery: You have to submit silently. Open up, let go. Let anything penetrate you, even the most painful things. Endure. Bear up. That's the magic key! The text comes by itself, and its meaning shakes the soul. Everything else is taken care of by the life one has to live without sparing oneself. You mustn't let scar tissue form on your wounds; you have to keep ripping them open in order to turn your insides into a marvelous instrument that is capable of anything. All this has its price. I become so sensitive that I can't live under normal conditions. That's why the hours between performances are worst.

Acting is a great way to channel the rage and stuff that is a wasted emotion anyway. Acting is all about being in the present. There is something about the power of now. The whole concept of you can’t control the future, and what just happened doesn’t matter, so being in the present gives you extra awareness if you can do it. Stay in the moment. A lot of our fear is misplaced. Can’t control the future so you might as well deal with it, and stay in the present. It’s one moment in the present to the next moment in the present. That’s a lot of what acting is about. I think it’s also a good way to live. Stay real. I just think about the big picture. It’s an interesting time we live in, and definitely a good time to be in the entertainment business.