With 20 years writing and directing for Hollywood, Alveraz Ricardez is cementing his place within the industry as a Hollywood actor. In this episode we discuss how to take off your backpack, how to let it fly in the audition room, and how validating yourself is vital for your career longevity and for your community.
TRAINING
Studied Film, TV, and acting at UCLA.
Acting coaches: Jeff Seymour, George Gallagher, Paul Schackman
CREDITS INCLUDE
ABC's Grey's Anatomy
Netflix's Grace & Frankie
FOX's The Orville
QUOTABLE TAKE-AWAYS
"I believe that the work is the audition. I believe that that's what we need to be excited about."
"Until we [...] get excited about the audition [...then] it's not happening. Because you're putting it all on the job."
"The love, the acting, and the moment can be right there in the audition."
"You've gotta be focused. You've gotta be grounded."
"It's not that Stanislavsky and all these wonderful processes are not beneficial to the actor [,...] we know countless actors who do beautiful work--authentic work--that is based off of years of training from these wonderful legends. And that's fantastic. But at the end of the day, the actor stepping off the bus in Los Angeles has gotta first get his foot in the door. And that starts with 'Do you want butter on your potatoes?'"
"How can you compartmentalize that for now? I need you to stop being the actor that walks in the room [...] with all of this s**t as an actor. And I'm sure you're an amazing actor. In fact, you won't get invited to the Network audition unless you are an amazing actor. But we gotta be able to set that aside. Because I need you to walk in here to ask your wife for a divorce. Quickly. I need you to walk in here and give this guy a speeding ticket. I need you to walk in here and set the check down on the table for this customer. And that's the only thing you need to do."
"I think all that process has its place. I just run into so many actors that are wearing it like a backpack. And it's so heavy."
"Show up and be real."
"That's all the bonus stuff--between action and cut--and what's that add up to? Minutes? Maybe hours if we're lucky in a year? That's such a small part of it. And that is the bonus. And that is the cherry on the cake. But you really have to look at it that way. And not make that the work. The work is the audition."
"It's nice to have some validation every once in a while. If I get that through helping others, if you get that through talking to actors, and having a place--kind of creating a place--where you belong within a community that's surrounded with so much rejection--this constant grind--it kind of makes things a little bit more feasible and we can relate to it a little bit better and we're able to kind of relax and enjoy this space as actors. It's difficult if we don't have anywhere else. If we just go to auditions and we just hear "No" "No" "No" "No" 'No." Y'know, then I mean, what are we doing? So if there's a way to find another thing within the acting community that you can do and give back. You're doing something special. You're validating yourself as an actor. And that's kind of special."
CURRENTLY APPEARING
Amazon's Bosch
CBS's Life In Pieces
HOW TO FOLLOW ALVERAZ
Website: The Primal Audition https://www.primalaudition.com/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1856798/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/primalaudition/?ref=group_header
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlverazRicardez
