Kia Ora and welcome to my podcast! I am Miranda Harcourt and I coach actors and directors all over the world on film, TV, in the rehearsal room and on set. My clients have won and been nominated for many Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys and Baftas.

Do you want an insight into how they have achieved their award-winning performances?

Over on my Substack mirandaharcourt.substack.com you will find more than 50 articles about acting and directing. I aim to shift paradigms, empowering creatives to realise their own talent. I introduce simple but innovative ways of thinking about and achieving connection and character. I have developed a series of tools and exercises for use in rehearsal and on-set that get actors to where they need to be, fast.

My tools are quick, fresh, cheap and simple. They work instantly to help you advance your practice and your career as an actor or a director. You will find videos, images and references that will enrich your world and your work.

And now I have recorded those ideas and insights into a podcast so that you can listen wherever you are!

In this second episode, I invite you to travel with me from Japan across the Pacific to Samoa to find an acting tool that will enrich the way you speak dialogue — as well as your relationships with the other actors and with the camera!

Werner Heisenberg, the quantum physicist said There is no such thing as nothing. Even empty space can be thought of as foaming with energy.

Try stretching out your scene, using the exercise I call Accordion. Try playing your entire scene or monologue with no dialogue at all, using the exercise called the Silent Take. Play the whole thing in silence. All the actions, thoughts, impulses and exchanges are there but there are no words. When you are finished, now let the dialogue flow back in lie water, and play it again.

You will discover that the value of the scene is not carried only in the words. It is the glances, impulses, intuitions, responses and thoughts that make the scene a living thing. The words are lifted up and floated along by the tidal ebb and flow in the ocean of your behaviour.

You can continue listening over on the PAID site where you’ll find cool practical exercises to achieve freedom, connectivity and unselfconsciousness. Come on in! There is so much to explore!

Here’s what actors and directors say about my approach:

Intuitive, unique, amazingNicole Kidman

Miranda’s skills as a coach place her at the top of her field. The work she does is unique anywhere in the worldPeter Jackson

Miranda is greatJane Campion

Miranda really did teach me in that afternoon things that I still use to this day... if you can work with Miranda Harcourt, do it. She’s amazingMelanie Lynskey

Miranda is brilliant... So encouraging, detailed and truthfulRitu Arya

Check out my IMDB page

Official 2022 Substack Bestseller!
NOTES FOR ACTORS & DIRECTORS
“It's a goldmine for actors!”
mirandaharcourt.substack.com
Case studies, exercises, tips, tricks and provocations for actors and directors
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