Enjoy the content.

1. Authenticity
II. Authenticity: Being True To You
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” –
Shakespeare

2. Be Inspired
“Deep, deep within ourselves within the
treasure house of our souls are buried
tremendous creative powers and abilities. But
they remain unused as long as we do not know
about them or as long as we deny them.”
-- Michael Chekhov, one of Russia’s preeminent
actors and directors

3. Authenticity
• “I know when I sing I’m honest. I’m giving my
authentic response. The rest of the time I
don’t know.” Frank Sinatra

4. Authenticity
• As controversial as this might sound, you’re
the most interesting when you’re not
managing yourself and responding impulsively
from how you feel.

5. Authenticity
• Here’s a short story about how leaving
yourself alone leads to more truthful and
honest behavior.
• When I auditioned for my first role, I had to
memorize a lengthy monologue. While
reciting it, I forgot one of the lines and froze
like a dear In headlights. It took a couple of
seconds for me to regain my composure, but I
was soon able to recall the line.

6. Authenticity
• Afterwards, I was expecting the casting
director to berate me for forgetting the line.
To my surprise she said, “Do you know what
the best part of that monologue was?” I said,
“What?” She said, “When you forgot your line
and you had to struggle to recall the words.
There was something distinctly human in that
moment when you struggled – that was when
we got to see the real you emerge.”

7. Authenticity
• From this, I learned two important lessons.
– If there is something real flowing through you and
you let it “live” inside your body by experiencing
it, it will manifest itself through your behavior. No
information is needed because the behavior
reveals it all.
– When you have freedom, a much richer version of
you emerges. Give yourself permission to let go
and be free.

8. Authenticity
• Disclaimer: I’m not suggesting that you “screw
up” in the courtroom. What I am suggesting,
however, is that you follow your impulses and
allow yourself to respond truthfully from how
you are feeling in the moment.

9. Courtroom Example
• Expert: I offer my opinion – within a
reasonable degree of medical certainty – that
the patient’s subcutaneous emphysema
resulted from and had progressively worsened
as a result of endotracheal intubation and
bronchoscopy.

10. Real Life Example
• Me: Spontaneously and instinctively.

11. Real Life Example
• Response: Gales of laughter by the jury. But
they weren’t laughing at me – they were
laughing with me. They were just as confused
as I was and were able to empathize with me
because I was expressing something that they
couldn’t: the frustration of being completely
and utterly lost. They were living vicariously
through me!

12. Spontaneity
• A slight digression into spontaneity.
• One of the cardinal rules in acting is that
unexpected and unplanned behavior is much
more interesting than planned behavior.
• The ability to not anticipate what’s going to
happen next and to genuinely be surprised by
the unexpected is the source of creativity. This
requires the mind to be removed from the
work.

13. Spontaneity
Spontaneity is to acting what salt is to soup.
Without it, it’s bland.

14. Authenticity
• It can be difficult to stand before the
jury and be yourself. Why?
– (1) Because we don’t think that we’re
enough. We feel like we have to “go
big” or “go home,” otherwise we’ll be
dull and uninteresting. There is an
element in a performing artist’s talent
that seeks out drama.

15. Authenticity
– But when we push too hard and try to make
something happen, we overdo it and our
performance loses any semblance of truthfulness.
Instead, it becomes artificial and contrived. In
acting, we refer to this as “embellishing.”

16. Authenticity
– Thankfully, there is a way out of it. In acting, we
call it the “pinch” and the “ouch.”
• Don’t do anything until something happens to make
you do it.
• Example: I pinch you. You say, “ouch!” My pinch
justified your “ouch.” Stated otherwise, your “ouch!”
was the direct result of my pinch.

17. Authenticity
–(2) We are our own worst critics. We are
painfully aware of our own
shortcomings and what we might even
describe as our “glaring defects.”

18. Authenticity
– (3) We strive for perfection. There can be
nothing more stifling to creativity than
the need for perfection. It paralyzes us
like a cobra’s venom and is the leading
cause of procrastination. Yet, perfection
is something that has been ingrained in
us since we were in law school. As
elusive as it might be, it’s something that
we strive for every day.

19. Authenticity
– The transcripts of some of the best opening and
closing statements ever made contained some of
the worst bastardizations of the English language
and would have been enough to cause any
respectable elementary school English teacher to
roll over in their graves. Yet they were as truthful
and honest as the lawyers could be in the moment
they made them.

20. Authenticity
– (4) We carry the weight of the world on
our shoulders. The stakes could not be
higher. One false step and our client could
spend the rest of his life rotting away in a
cold, dank jail cell.
– (5) Finding the courage to be yourself
requires a certain amount of emotional
vulnerability, vulnerability which is
viewed as a “weakness” by those in the
legal community.

21. Authenticity
• Who is to blame for this “baggage” that we carry?

22. Authenticity
• One culprit is pop culture: Society has conditioned us to
mimic the mark and style of others. We’ve been told
that if we can look like others, act like others, argue like
others, then and only then can we be successful. For
example, “Be like Michael Jordan or at least wear Air
Jordans.”

23. Authenticity
• A second culprit is ourselves. We all have a version of
ourselves that we want to present. As lawyers, we have
preconceived notions of what a lawyer should look like
and sound like.

24. Authenticity
• The result …
–We walk around behind a veil – concealing
what we’re actually thinking and feeling –
and go out of our way to be like “them.” In
today’s environment where the next
disparaging comment is but a Tweet away, it
is easier to stay in the background and not
draw any attention. Unnoticed seems easier
than unworthy. We spend our lives editing,
censoring, and hiding ourselves from the
world.

25. Authenticity
• We indulge in this fiction for a number of
reasons:
–We want to fit in. There is a puritanical
goodness to avoiding attention. It’s
almost a moral cleanliness, like an
organized closet. Across geographic
borders and cultural boundaries,
attention attracts danger while
anonymity can be seen as a virtue.

26. Authenticity
–We feel that the real person is not
nearly as “charming” and interesting
as the happy and cheerful person who
goes out of his way to complement
others.
–We are embarrassed at what we
perceive to be “glaring defects” and
“imperfections” – i.e., traits that are
viewed by society as impolite and
uncivilized.

27. Authenticity
• What’s wrong with this?

28. Authenticity
–When you walk around like Michael
Jordan or Edward Bennett Williams,
you become nothing more than a
carbon copy of them – an impostor of
sorts.

29. Authenticity
–The tragedy in this is that there will
never be another “you” that walks this
Earth yet you have deprived the world
of the richest, most colorful, and most
exciting parts of yourself that sets you
apart from every other human being
and that gives you your unique,
personal identity.

30. Authenticity
Your authenticity cannot be replicated!

31. Authenticity
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
-- Oscar Wilde

32. Authenticity
• One day I was watching a lawyer in court.
• He was short, with a round belly and a
baldhead, and a little rim of hair around the
sides. His ears were as large as Dumbo’s. He
wore oversized glasses with large black rims
that sat on top of his large nose. He blinked a
lot when he talked, and his voice was soft
and scratchy.

33. Authenticity
• Despite the fact that he seemed timid and
stiff, he also seemed comfortable with who he
was and unaware of what most would label,
“glaring defects.”
• There was a power to his presence.

34. Authenticity
• The argument was distinctly his. There
will never be another like it.
• Afterwards, I spoke to him. What he said
had a profound effect on me even to this
day: “I’m all I got. And that’s enough.”

35. Authenticity
• People ask me what drew me to acting. From
the first day of class, I realized that I had
something in common with actors: a
common struggle.
• The struggle that I’m talking about are the
very things that had plagued me for most of
my adult life: self-limiting beliefs.

36. Authenticity
• Here’s what I mean.
• Often actors are embarrassed about what
makes them unique. Many are afraid that they
are not enough. They think they are “too nice”
or “not nice enough” and try to cover it up by
attempting to be someone who they aren’t.

37. Authenticity
• Ironically, those traits that actors find most
embarrassing about themselves – such as
quirks, peculiarities, and idiosyncrasies – are
often times an actors’ greatest strengths.
Indeed, they are the most powerful
experiences that actors can draw upon to
bring a character to life.

38. Authenticity
• Think about it. Who doesn’t like to see
the craziness of Jack Nicholson, the
self-deprecation of Ben Stiller, or the
painful shyness of Diane Keaton?

39. Authenticity
• Why? Because it’s real!
• When an actor brings the essence of his
true self to a role, the audience says, “Wow.
You’re brave to show what you’re really
like.”

40. Authenticity
• There is a story about the legendary actress Uta Hagen. She
was asked to play a comedic role, but because she didn’t think
she was funny she turned it down. She changed her mind
when she realized she could be as silly as the character by
tapping into the part of herself that came out when she was
feeding her poodles.

41. Authenticity
• Takeaways from this story:
– Access what you already know! You don’t need to
invent anything. What’s there is already enough.
– While we each possess our own individual truths,
every one of these truths is universal. In other
words, we should be able to play each of the
different cores – from love to power to respect –
by mining our mental rolodex and asking, “When
am I like this?”

42. Your Rich Inner Life
• How you live in everyday life is not all of you.
We have a much richer inner life than what we
let out. If our full potential was represented by
all of the keys on a keyboard, most of us would
spend our entire life playing the same two keys
despite the fact that a keyboard has 88 keys and
vast tonal capabilities.

43. Your Rich Inner Life
• We have not even scratched the surface of our
tremendous creative powers and abilities. They
remain dormant and unused as long as we
don’t know about them or as long as we deny
them. The best and most human parts of you
are those that you have inhabited and hidden
from the world!

44. Your Rich Inner Life
• A keyboard has 88 keys. How may keys does
your instrument have?

45. Authenticity
• As the great Ernest Hemmingway once said, “the
truth has a certain ring to it.”
• Acting is about finding that truth because the truth
of ourselves is the root of our acting. And advocacy is
no different. Great lawyers are not afraid to be who
they are, whatever that is.
• When a lawyer brings the essence of who he is to the
courtroom, the jury thinks, “Wow! That lawyer is
real!”

46. Authenticity
• Finding the courage to be yourself is not
easy. But it is a courage that we all possess. It
requires getting in touch with your emotions
– taking a journey into the deepest recesses
of your being to find that chest where your
innermost fears and experiences are buried,
opening it up, pulling them out and
exclaiming, “Here! Here’s who I am!”

47. Authenticity
• You might be surprised to find what’s inside. It
is not all rainbows and unicorns. As important
as it is to know your strengths, you also need
to know your differences.

48. Authenticity
• There is a story that when Jack Nicholson
discovered his quirky and eccentric side, he
was mortified. Ironically, that rich inner life
that he was so ashamed of became his
signature trademark. Now, when Nicholson is
cast in a movie, directors go out of their way
to write scenes which will allow this colorful
side of him to be on display.

49. Authenticity
• Jack Nicholson’s story teaches us that we
might have “blind spots” when it comes to
how the world sees us.

50. Authenticity
• These are not necessarily shortcomings, and
the key is not to “fix” them or to become self-
conscious about them.
• Instead, the objective is to see yourself from a
new perspective so that the blind spots are no
longer blind.

51. Authenticity
• Consider the reflections of Sanford Meisner.

52. Authenticity
• Meisner: “Examine the partner sitting next to
you. And give me, when I ask for it, a list of
what you observe.”
• Student: When she is asked, the blond girl
says about the young man seated to her right:
“I observe red hair. I observe a soft green
shirt. He has blue eyes and short, thin, lighter-
colored eyelashes. Small hands. Leans over a
lot. Stocky. Green pants. Brown shoes.”

53. Authenticity
• Meisner: “Was this observation done by you or by
some character out of a play?”
• Student: “By me.”
• Meisner: “Are you talking to me now or is Lady
Macbeth talking?”
• Student: “I’m talking to you.”

54. Authenticity
• Meisner: “That’s you. That’s you in person.
Your observation was straight, unadulterated
observation. When you observed, you
observed as yourself, not as a character in a
play.”

55. Authenticity
• Meisner: “Are you looking at me now?”
• Student: “Yes.”
• Meisner: “As Othello?”
• Student: “No.”
• Meisner: “As who?”
• Student: “As myself.”
• Meisner: “Can you hold onto that?”

56. Takeaways
• You never have to “play” at being a character.
It’s right there in your doing it.
• Every performing artist reveals themselves in
their work – you expose who it is you are. It all
comes from your “own garden.”
• Acting is the art of self-revelation – to find in
yourself and reveal what’s true about the
scene.

57. The Emergence of YOU
Ray Charles is present in his music.
“My music runs through me like my blood.”

58. The Emergence of YOU
Picasso is present in his paintings

59. The Emergence of YOU
Ernest Hemingway is present in his writings.

60. The Emergence of YOU
• It’s a fallacy to think that the actor becomes
another person. Instead, the actor turns himself
in a direction that others have never seen before.
• My instructor uses this example, “Before we can
get Othello on stage, we have to get you on
stage!”
• Of course, friends and family recognize me when
I’m performing. But with this caveat, “That’s Mike
playing Hamlet but that’s Mike doing things I’ve
never seen him do before.” I have revealed parts
of myself in the service of the role by bringing my
authentic self to the stage.

61. Authenticity
A poem to offer inspiration: “Take Off The Mask”

62. Authenticity
A vital part of the artist’s journey is the path to finding
yourself.
To discover and embrace who you really are.
To connect to your power by taking off your mask.
To let your core shine through to illuminate every part of
your work.
How liberating to take the risk to be you!

63. Authenticity
• How do you put your finger on the pulse of
what is special and unique about you – that
which makes you you?

64. Authenticity
• Imagine a mirror. When you look in a mirror
and you see the reflection of yourself, you’re
seeing how you see yourself. And you’re
seeing yourself with all the imperfections, all
the perceived flaws, and all the insecurities.
Your perception of yourself is very likely to be
distorted.

65. Authenticity
• What if you could have a different mirror? What if
you had a mirror that could show you the best of
how the world sees you? This may be idealistic, but
indulge in it.
• A mirror that didn’t just reflect yourself back to you
but that showed you why people value you, why
they fall in love with you, why they follow you, and
why they promote you.

66. Authenticity
• There is something very liberating about being able
to see how the world sees you at your best.
Knowing who you are when you are at your best
provides an aspirational vision of what you can live
into in your work and in your life.

67. Authenticity
• There is a brilliantly conceived exercise
developed by Meisner called the “word
repetition exercise” that is at the very core of
the Meisner technique. It will teach you how
to leave yourself alone.
• The exercise trains two muscles of an actor:
–The ability to look and see; and
–The ability to listen and hear.

68. Authenticity
• The creative genius of this exercise is that it trains the
actor to listen to what their partner means, not just to
what they say. In essence, we become “sensitized
responders.”
• We become better in tune to experiencing human
behavior and body language and answering truthfully
from where it goes inside us.
• This is important because while the playwright gives an
actor the words, it is the actor’s job to pick up on the
impulses so that he can fill the role with life.
• The more you do this exercise, the more perceptive
you will become.

69. Authenticity
• Take the time to step outside of yourself and
examine the character that you play in real
life. What makes you different and sets you
apart from others? Go on the hunt!
• Listen to feedback and take it in. Ask your
closest friends: “How would you describe me
in three words?” Dig into yourself to ask, “Is
there anything secret that I’m afraid to
reveal?”