Howard Fine In Australia (12 Years On)
For over a decade, Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia has been helping aspiring actors hone their craft and succeed in the entertainment industry. As one of the most respected acting coaches in the world, Howard Fine has trained numerous award-winning actors, including Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, and Emmy Rossum.
His approach to teaching the art of acting is unique and innovative, focusing on emotional honesty and authenticity. In this exclusive interview (recorded 15th March, 2023), Howard Fine shares his insights of running an acting studio in Australia, the importance of empathy in acting, and the qualities he looks for in his students. Whether you're a seasoned actor or just starting out in the industry, Howard Fine's expertise is sure to inspire and guide you on your journey.
It was an absolute pleasure and delight to get an opportunity to sit down and have this discussion with Howard Fine.
Interview: Howard Fine In Australia (12 Years On)
Australia vs LA, who's better?
Howard: If my feet are in Los Angeles, it's Los Angeles, and my feet are touching Earth and Australia. It's Australia. And I do the same thing when I'm in Australia, between Sydney and Melbourne. It's wherever I happen to be. So just now I'm a fair-weather friend and cannot be trusted.
Are there any recurring differences between Australian and LA based actors that you've noticed?
Howard: Besides the accent? No, what's beautiful is we can be from different parts of the world, different cultural backgrounds. We have so much more in common. And as artists, that's what brings us together. So, here's this guy from the United States that can come to Australia and immediately connect with everybody, as human beings. So, that we're International is the beautiful thing about us as artists, that we are much more similar than different.
What are your fondest memories of working in Australia?
Howard: I would say my very first Masterclasses in Melbourne and in Sydney… My very first scene in Sydney was from the play by Kenneth Lonergan; This Is Our Youth. And the two actors did not know where they were, why they were there, what it was about, or anything about how to work. And I thought, oh, dear Lord, what have I done? And how am I going out these people.
But within a day of the notes, the work started to shift so profoundly. And I thought I could make a difference here. Because these are talented people, really talented people and really open and hardworking and wanting to learn. They need this training, and they deserve this training.
So by the end of the four days in Sydney, and the same thing happened again in Melbourne. I was on a high because as a teacher, I want to make a difference, and I could see it immediately the difference that was being made.
The first Masterclass in Melbourne, two actresses were working on a scene from the play Laundry and Bourbon (by James McLure), and one character has had the worst day. Her children were out of control; while they were shopping, one was chasing another with a hammer that broke, another was stealing. She finally drops them off at her mother-in-law's house. It's hot, it's humid, she's come to find her best friend. She has been buzzing the front buzzer, she doesn't realise it's not working. She finally finds her friend out back. Her friend offers her all sorts of soft drinks and then bourbon and then she says yes.
Well, the first time the actress did the scene, she was fresh as a daisy looking just perfectly put together and made up and saying, ‘what a morning I've had’. And I said, ‘your preceding circumstances are not fun facts and what you have to anchor yourself to’. And when she came to the rework she had made every bit of that morning real for herself. She used a spray water bottle to get the wet, her hair was a mess, her makeup was a mess. And when she talked about the morning she had you believed it and when she said yes to the bourbon, the whole audience laughed because you could see the need for the bourbon.
It was just stunning. And in that first Masterclass was Emma Choy and so was Sarah Hallam (Technique & Scene Study), and Sarah did such a wonderful bit of work she had made place and other people had not, and she was playing a real relationship. And I looked at her and I said, ‘What? Why are you so far ahead of where everyone else is?’ She said, ‘Well, I read your book, and I did the exercises.’ There would be a future faculty member right there! And Emma showed the same potential.
Working overseas as an Australian, what should I know?
Howard: The industry is the same in certain ways, in that you're auditioning, your submitting self tapes. Self tapes are the best thing that ever happened. Because you no longer have to live in Los Angeles, as long as you know how to produce a proper self tape. So you've got to know technically how to shoot it, how to light it, how to set up the sound. What a professional self tape is in appearance, and then you have to memorise, you have to know the level of work that's expected. But you can compete from anywhere in the world.
If you are going to move to Los Angeles; Number 1, 2, 3 & 4, is make sure you’ve got the Visa requirements met. And that you will be able to work in Los Angeles. And come here with a plan; in terms of where you're going to live, if you know other people that are already in LA, that helps, because maybe you have a place to stay at first and friends to show you around. Save up as much money as you can. So that you have time to just sort things out before you even try to pursue your career. And a beautiful thing is that the LA studio is immediately family. And just this past month, one of the Australian actors Jordan Iverach (Full time, 2017), moved to LA and he's in my Saturday morning Scene study class. And he immediately has friends. He has a community and the LA Studio will be that for anybody who moves from Australia to Los Angeles.
What accents should I have in my pocket? I think the Southern accent is probably the easiest for most Australians?
Howard: Yep, have a Southern Accent, have as many you can master. If you've got an ear for accents, that's fantastic. At least Standard American. And if you want to try Southern that's already terrific. So most things are in Standard American, some projects will require a dialect. Southern being one of them, New York would be another, Boston would be another but those are really hard. But it is amazing to me because Americans cannot do the Australian accent. They cannot.
Well funnily enough, my next question is can you do an Australian accent?
Howard: I can say Melbourne correctly. And I can say this… ‘Don’t be a bludga!’ I can say that. But beyond that, can I do it? No, not really. Not well.
What motivated you to create a studio in Australia?
Howard: Patrick Constantinou, who has since passed, and Phil brought me there and immediately cooked up the idea of an Australian studio. Patrick, at the end of my first day of teaching the Sydney Masterclass at dinner said, ‘how would you feel about Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia?’ And so it fell into place. And Phil and Patrick had organised the first classes and they were well organised. So that gave me confidence in going further and the level of actors in the classes gave me confidence that, ‘my goodness, we could really do something here’. So it sort of found me. I believe Patrick read my book, called me, and I said yes! And then it happened.
It's amazing in life you plan, plan, plan. And things don't come to fruition. This is not something that was ever on my radar. It happened. But if I hadn't trusted the business partners, the plan, their end, I would have returned to LA after the first classes and thought, ‘Okay, that was an experience, on to the next’. But, it was so well done, and the transformations were so profound, it's still that way. When I do the Masterclasses in Australia, there's still profound transformations that occur. But all of the props are there now, so many tools. And actors have had this training. I might work with some people from outside The Studio in a Masterclass, but the other actors have all had the training. So everything goes so much faster than it did in the first Masterclasses.
Would you say those transformations that you're seeing in actors? Is that your driver with teaching? What do you really love about teaching?
Howard: Yes, that's a great question. And that is the truth. Any teacher worth their salt wants to make a difference. And when you can see it, right in front of you. That I give notes and actors are grabbing those notes are hungry for them, will go away from class and work on them. It's the actors who have the drive that make me want to be the best teacher I can because they, they're anxious to get it.
In the four day masterclass, there's just no time, I have to give everything that I can as quickly as I can. And the actors have to absorb it. At that moment, there's no time to slowly take it in. So on both ends, the teacher and the actors, there's a heightened sense of stakes, high stakes. But it is so rewarding to see people who were totally off track when they started and suddenly on fire when they do a rework.
Why is the study of acting so timeless?
Howard: Because the human condition is timeless.
Think what has happened through history? Why do we still want to watch Bridgerton or Shakespeare? The human condition has not changed. What has changed throughout history: politics, religion, language, customs, clothing, but human behavior? Since the beginning of time, human beings have lived, loved, lost, been betrayed, had hopes, had dreams. All of it is the same. And so when will studying ‘Human Condition’ ever be irrelevant?
When are we going to tire of seeing ourselves, our lives portrayed on the screen? Our experiences? It makes us more human. All of the arts do that for us and make us more human. So, I think why we pick up Shakespeare and say, oh my god, Romeo and Juliet still speaks to me. Because star crossed lovers from families that don't get along it. It's timeless, the human condition and our experiences are timeless.
Has any of your career or acting advice changed post-COVID?
Howard: If it does anything, I think it makes the point if you have hopes and dreams, pursue them now. Because we don't know. Every day is a blessing we don't know. So why postpone what makes you happy? Better pursue that. So in that way, it's given an immediacy to that.
It has brought self tapes forward. In fact, I'm revising my book, I'm in the process of revising it. And we're going to release it in the next year. And I didn't write anything about self tapes in the first book, because that was not the thing. And now it is.
And I'm very pro, the self tape process. Because an actor used to give THREE auditions: one on the way, one there, and one on the way home. And usually the one on the way home was the best of the three, right? Where people would come back going: ‘Oh, that kept me waiting an hour’, ‘I ran into somebody I can't stand’, ‘The reader was terrible’. All of these things, or ‘I flubbed it’, oh, ‘I just went up on my lines right in the middle, I got nervous’. Well, you get to send the absolute best take, you've got to make sure you've got a great reader. You're in control of all of that. So you can send in your best work. And that's fantastic. Right? So that's really good.
But that has changed in the pandemic, because there's less than person auditioning. But I think that's fine. What we're doing now on Zoom, I had thought for years that I should do something online. Would I have gotten around to that? The pandemic forced it. Because the physical studio both in LA and Australia was closed. And there was a moment there where Phil and I were having conversations going, ‘how do we go forward?’ and then we figured it out.
And now I'm able to work with the Australian Studio all year, not just coming in for a few weeks, but all year, checking in with their progress periodically, because of online so the pandemic has changed all of that. And we're all able to be in class together, at the same time, wherever we are. So light has come out of the darkness.
And I thought when the pandemic first hit, ‘what will become of the arts? People are just trying to stay alive’. And then we realised, wait a minute, everybody was binging Netflix, or whatever other entertainment they could get their hands on. That's where everybody turned in that moment to keep them going. So if anybody ever tells you as artists, what you do is not important. Yeah. Take away their TV, their movies, their books, their music, I think I don't think we're going to be so happy.
The culture of teaching at Howard Fine Acting Studio is so giving. I've started reading the book, ‘Give and Take’ by Adam Grant, book you recommended to Phil, who then recommended it to me. What led you to be such a giving teacher?
Howard: I think it is the core of what teaching should be. It depends on what brought somebody to teaching to begin with and what you get from that experience, and so, for me the joy of teaching is helping people on their journey of personal growth. I enjoy giving that and I receive back from it great joy in watching somebody go from the very beginning to the awards podium, and being part of that with anyone is profound. It’s a beautiful experience. So, from the beginning, teaching was that for me.
There are people teaching and sometimes, unfortunately, teaching in the arts and very much in acting, who are angry people. And interestingly, the person who recommended ‘Give and Take’ to me, is Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Who I quote quite a bit. He’s a very well known author and Rabbi and my dear friend, and he recommended ‘Give and Take’. I quote Joseph in my book, and he returned the favour. He quoted me in a biblical book he wrote on the Scholar and Sage, Hillel. So as far as I know, Joseph Telushkin is the only Rabbi quoted in an acting text, and I'm the only acting coach quoted in a biblical text.
But Hillel had a teaching that has been long forgotten, and should be remembered, especially by acting teachers. Hillel taught: an angry person cannot teach. He makes the student afraid of the subject.
And so when you get acting coaches who yell and scream and berate people, they're terrible teachers, because they're making people afraid to do it. And the person who's yelling and screaming, is yelling and screaming because they can't actually critique the scene. So they make the actor feel miserable.
There are two extremes in teaching: There's the teacher who gives everybody a trophy for participating. Okay, that's not me. Because you can't learn that way. The teacher must be critical. But you do that in a way that you hope empowers people to do their best work. And so I'm not a fan of the destructive approach. To me, it shuts artists down. So I am specific, as you know, I'm going to be incredibly challenging and I will set the bar very high. But I'm not angry, I'm not bitter. I'm not teaching because I failed at something and I'll do this as a last resort. Teaching to me as a calling. And the part of that calling is to nurture talent, not destroy it.
What do you think makes an ideal student and by extension actor?
Howard: They're the most obvious things. There's work ethic. I've seen people who have talent that are lazy. And I've seen that person never get anywhere, someone else who's got a work ethic, maybe not as much natural gift, but a drive. And they'll put in the time, I've seen them surpass somebody with more natural talent.
So work ethic, intelligence; I've never successfully taught an unintelligent person. You must be an avid reader, you have to have a sense of history, psychology, you have to be in your body. There is an epidemic of Attention-Deficit Disorder, and stillness is essential. You have to have a mind, a body, a voice that is responsive and responsive to you. And you have to have a core.
I've been asked from prospective students, what do I look for in a student? And I'll say, ‘I look for somebody who has the ability to choose me’. Because if you are constantly looking over your shoulder going, ‘Oh, that sounds good. I'll try that. I'll try that. And I'll try that, well, maybe that's what I should be doing’. Three months with this teacher, six weeks with that one, workshops here workshops there, that person doesn't have a core.
You should look around, see everybody who's out there, check everything out. But then when you decide ‘this is the training for me’, stay with it. Because that's how you're going to develop your craft. So I look for somebody who has the ability to choose me. And that person has a core, they're able to say, ‘this works for me, this is what I want to pursue’. And I think that's why we have a lot of long time relationships, because we tend to attract that person who says, ‘I know what else is out there. I choose this’. That's the person that I look for.
What are the top resources an actor should know?
Howard: Well, first of all, every actor is their own, their own being. It's the books that we recommend. It's the Uta Hagen book, ‘A Challenge For The Actor’. It's the video of her classes that we made in the 1990s - so worth watching - that's a terrific resource. Alexander Technique, voicework, everything that's out there that The Studio offers.
And be curious. Right? Be be curious as a human being.
Travel is wonderful for anybody because you're going to grow through that. But whether or not you travel, be open to people from different walks of life and be interested. Interesting people make for interesting actors. There's tonnes (of resources) out there, and also know how to take care of yourself. Take care of yourself emotionally. Whether that's through therapy - which I advocate - having done it myself, or any type of self help. If we're constantly seeking to grow, that's a good thing. That's a beautiful thing.
What's the one thing you have found that a new actor needs to hear?
Howard: It really depends on the parenting that they've come from. There are two types of parenting that I find difficult. The parent that thinks everything the child does is brilliant, everything. Therefore, that person is not realistic about their strengths and weaknesses. They think everything is fantastic and they're overconfident. Then you get the parent that criticises every single thing that the child does, and that person has no self esteem. And that is not good.
So we have to find balance in all things.
And when somebody comes to just begin their training, they must be able to handle criticism. Those who are defensive, are unable to learn. So you have to be able to handle making mistakes and pick yourself up and enjoy learning from mistakes. If making mistakes humiliates, that person will never create. We learn through trial and error.
Impatience, I think is the biggest obstacle in the young. It's wanting the end result. And I think as a society, we're moving so quickly - ‘if the website doesn't download immediately, but now I'm on to the next thing’ - And so learning patience, because this is a process, and it takes time to get really good at the craft, it's not quick. Anybody promising you fast food is not telling you the truth, it's a process. And as life deepens you, you have a chance to get better and better. But it's not all going to happen immediately. You have to know how to learn, and you have to love learning.
What's something that you found a seasoned actor needs to hear (who have had their career longer)?
Howard: Well, first of all seasoned actors are not surprised when they make mistakes. They're surprised when they do anything well.
So it depends on the actor. So many actors, good ones, will still come to work with me, especially on specific projects that challenge them. Because they want an honest opinion. Sometimes when somebody is making money already, they get surrounded by ‘Yes People’. Because it's the ‘Gravy Train’, that person is making a fortune from them. And they just ‘Yes’ them. And so they'll come to the acting coach for honest, accurate feedback, because my only stake in them is that they do their best work.
So you have to keep your, your support system around you, that keeps you on the ground. Because fame especially can be incredibly destabilising. And if somebody's not grounded… that's why so many young actors that succeed early, get very messed up by that, because it's an unreal thing to suddenly be famous. And so you're grounding and your family, your relationships, your friends, and the coach becomes part of that team, who are there to help you but also to be honest with you, because we all need honest feedback.
What does Howard Fine binge?
Howard: Well, ‘The Last Of Us’ at the moment, I'm binging that. I’m loving that. ‘Bridgerton’, whenever that comes on. ‘The Crown’, is another one of my obsessions that I just love. So I do that.
And also, I'm a sports fan. I watch baseball. I'm a Red Sox fan, a long suffering Red Sox fan. But I find that it helps me unwind. And sometimes I want to be away from acting for a moment into something else. But I also get acting lessons everywhere I look including sports, because the lessons are still the same. And if you ever hear a sports commentator talking, they're talking about all head issues, in the same way that we do - ‘Oh, so and so's trying too hard’ - it's all the same stuff. So I binge a lot on sports as well.
Are you reading anything at the moment?
Howard: I'm pretty much always reading something. In fact, this is something I'm proud of, one of our students is a Best-Selling author. His name is Boyd Morrison. He's a Jeopardy champion, and a best-selling author. And he's written a book called The Lawless Land. And I am reading his book currently, I love historical fiction. And this is his first work of historical fiction.
He's been a best-selling author for years. He's written a lot of a Clive Cussler mystery books. But now he's on his own, and is working with his sister. And he started this series. And I know it's the second book in the series about to go to print. And I'm sure it'll end up produced. And I've been telling Boyd - ‘Put yourself in one of your projects’.
What, if any, changes would you love to see in the industry or society at large?
Howard: Well, society, I don't think we'd have the amount of time…
But there is there's something I feel very strongly about in the industry that I think needs to change, and that is… a Producer may require whatever they want to require, but they should have to watch it or sit through it.
If they're going to ask for three scenes, WATCH three scenes. Don't ask actors to prepare that amount of material. And in in-person, then the actor gets there. And then they say, ‘Oh, we're only reading the first scene’. Give actors time. You know you're casting your project. You don't have to send somebody 15 pages the night before and say, ‘put this on tape and memorise it with an accent’.
So, I don't understand why that is allowed. And I think the Union should be really strong about this, that - ‘okay, you're casting a project? At least give somebody a week to prepare, especially if you want it off book, and you want to see somebody's best work’ - So actors, are asked to do very unreasonable things. It is unreasonable to get a last minute audition that is multiple pages, and be expected to put that on tape and do your absolute best work. It's unreasonable. Because everybody's got lives. Some people have survival jobs, families, and every actor wants to do their best work. So it isn't, it is entirely wrong to do that.
So number one, if you require this much material, either watch all the scenes on tape, or in person sit through all of them. If you ask all of that material to be prepared, or else DON’T. If you know, you're going to eliminate people very quickly, then read one scene and call people back on more. And the other is giving people time to prepare adequately. It is just unfair.
So that's my soapbox, and any actors who are listening, when you get in a position of power, change those rules. So that's my feeling about that.