Words to Live By

Prepare to be unprepared.  

- Ed Zwick, Director/Writer of Love and Other Drugs

Someone asked the question last night, "Have you ever shown up on set and had no idea how to play the role?"  Jake and Anne conceded that, yes, this happens every time and proceeded to give examples.  But Ed Zwick summed it up best.  He said that as a director this happens too.  He plans everything out to a tee but, once shooting starts, everything changes.  The key to preparing for a project is to "Prepare to be unprepared."  You prepare so that you can be unprepared and let the project breathe.

That is the crux of our art, isn't it?  We do all of this studying, we do all of this research, we fill our scripts up with all of this technique and, when we finally get to work, all of that preparation is the foundation, not the actual guide - no matter how badly we want to cling to it.  It holds us up, it allows us to work without a net but the real challenge comes with just throwing all of that away.  Actually getting rid of the net.  Right, Chubbuck-Studio friends? #12 - Let It Go.  The hardest tool.  But the most important.  Just trusting that the work is there so you can live in that world. Where the life of the project takes us has to be a surprise.

None of this is a great revelation.  Just a great reminder.  To trust.  To live.  To breathe.