[Image credit: Dallas Bland]

In early 2019 I will be launching my eagerly anticipated book on the intricacies of acting, entitled Garry’s Way: How to do Good Acting. Following my hugely successful debut solo show Garry Starr Performs Everything, which won numerous awards worldwide and even garnered Oscar buzz (despite being a stage show), it became clear to me that single-handedly saving the performing arts from extinction was never going to be enough for the fans. So it is with this new book that I moved beyond merely saving theatre and I will turn my hand to saving the artists themselves.

Acting was invented by the ancient Greeks. Before that people were just pretending. Sadly, we have now drifted so far from pretending it has actually become too ‘truthful’ and thus, too dangerous. Actors are quite literally dying onstage (and off).

This is one of the industry’s most closely guarded secrets. In Gladiator, Russell Crowe’s on-set persona was so truthful he actually slaughtered all the extras, daily, and they had to keep replacing them. He even slew a good chunk of the production crew. Thankfully London is constantly producing a plethora of drama school graduates who make excellent disposable extras, and with Ryanair flying from Stansted to Pisa for as little as £10 they were still able to stay within the production budget.

On Terminator Salvation it was Christian Bale who flipped out and literally consumed the director of photography, although this could also have been his way of bulking up for his next role.

A large chunk of the blame seems to be directed towards the training institutions and, in my humble opinion, rightly so! If only less schools promoted realism, naturalism and truthfulness, and rather touted pretend-ism, not-for-realism and fuck-aboutism, then surely less actors would be slaying themselves and one another. 

I also blame the parents. From a very young age we are encouraged to tell the truth and it’s really rather boring. Dishonesty shows creativity, especially when it comes to keeping up that convoluted un-truth over a period of time. Why not let them in on the Santa, Easter Bunny, Jesus stuff at a much younger age and encourage them to have a little fun deceiving their friends with this newfound wisdom.

With my new book Garry’s Way: How to do Good Acting, I will enlighten actors everywhere, teaching them how to pretend to be truthful and how this can actually appear just as truthful as being truthful and (truth be told) this will prove much healthier for them and much safer for the people they work with.

Garry Starr

www.garrystarr.com | facebook.com/thegarrystarr | @TheGarryStarr
Garry Starr Performs Everything, is at London’s Soho Theatre, November 20 to 24th

Tickets and Info: sohotheatre.com

[Image credit: Dallas Bland]