advice for actors...20 years later

[phosteres]

Warm greetings Tom,

I once asked you what advice you would give a theatre actor,
You told me, "Reach for the stars and pray to god your fly isn't undone."

My question... now nearly over 20 years later, what advice would you give a theatre actor of today?

Thank you kindly for answering my first question to your lovely forums.
Cynthia

[Tom Baker]

Dear Cynthia,

Did I say that? Did I really say that?

I should have said: don't move too much, acting is lying and and liars are more convincing if they are still. It's very hard to be still. Look around you in the coffee house, they twitch. And why? Because they watch actors on TV who twitch. And why do they twitch? Because they think that is natural.

There is nothing natural about acting, it is entirely unnatural. I was at the death scene of an actor friend of mine recently; even in death he was quite still, unnaturally still. It was perfect, what a performance, he was the perfect corpse.

Warmest wishes after so many years, Cynthia,

from old Tom Baker