(Offscreen) Hello.
Hi, sorry I didn't know we were rolling I
thought this was ahh... sorry I was just looking
through some of my notes I had made in my
journal. Should never be too far from it,
always a great source of inspiration for the
artiste.
Uhm I'm Jamie Williamson you can find me on
Spotlight under the name James T. Wills. I'm
an actor, currently in training at drama school
at the London Academy of Music and Entertainment
and today as part of a series detailing the
lives of people in lockdown we'll be going
through an actor's process during this terrible
time of Covid-19. And hopefully we'll give
people some inspiration.
(gibberish)
(Offscreen) Is there a specific role you're preparing
for at the moment?
I'm glad you asked. Today I've just got some sides through for an audition for a new BBC
three project. Very excited for. All I know
is it's the character of Jim, he works in
a sort of wholefoods, health food kind of
shop. Uhm...vegan. I'm not a vegan, so I think
how am I going to get into the mind of a vegan?
What I like to do sometimes is that I find
out...uhm... I do an object exercise so I
find out is there an object that is uhm particularly
important to that particular character?
Object here. I think this is going to do well.
I'm going to have a lot of fun. And what I
do is I go about, recently I've been going
to the multistorey car park.
It's got great acoustics and it's got a  fantastic space to really do
this uhm serious ground work for exploration of the character.
(music)
WHAT DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?
It's OK, it's OK.
WHY?!?
So venomous to the touch!
We could never be together... I wish I could kiss you but I cant!
(gasping inaudibly)
NO.
CHICKEN. BREAST.
I'm sorry. We must never speak of this. I
must. Be. Free.
That... powerful stuff. Uhh... I don't really
know what to feel right now that was..uhm...extraordinary.
Right now as me auditioning for the part of
Jim, a vegan, if someone came up to me, for
instance, and said here are two chicken breasts
and they were holding them out, would you
like to eat them? I'd probably say no.
Do respect the Government's guidelines, keep
two meters apart, it's very important to do
this to save live. Don't stop yourself from
being creative. Do promote yourself. The industry
has taken a bit of a hit so you need to be
a sort of creative about how you get out and market yourself.
So I'm going to uhhhh show you what I'm going
to do. Gabriel can you pass me the packet
please? Thank you. So as you see in here this
is my head shot uhmmm. Bro what the fuck is this?
Why have you got yellow lines going
through my face that's not going to work,
that's not going to get me a job. Fucking
hell man. Cut this shit out, alright? At least
go with the black and the black and white
one! Look at that?
(off screen) What did you do on the printer?
I don't know I thought it was... I mean this
kind of looks like I'm in in in sort of behind
bars.
(off screen) It almost looks like a stylistic
choice. Shall we just retake it and you tell
us it's a stylistic choice?
Yeah let's do that.
This is my head shot..uhm.. we are it's got
these bars over it to subliminaly put in
the casting agents mind that 'oh he's a bit
of a bad boy, has he gone to prison? Has he
uh sold drugs?' I've not done any of those
things nor am I any of those things but I could
be. So when someone comes and sees the notice
about it being closed 'oh no the cinema's
closed, oh who's that guy? Why is he behind
bars? I'm interested'. So the next time they
hear James T. Wills, which they will, they'll
associate it with ' oh Avengers, Star Wars
the Force Awakens, James Bond' all these things
you see in the cinema. See it's subliminal
messaging.
So, what I've been doing is I've been developing
a new form of theatre. Uh... the moment working
title Covid Theatre that will change obviously.
The Marshall, I will call the Marshal. I saw
Alice Barra with the devil.
You've got here The Crucible. Arthur MIller.
A fantastic book changed my life when I read
it aged 12. Uhmm... but we'll be taking some
of these very important works to the public
uhmm... they're not going to be expecting
it.
Who charged her? Why Abilgail Williams charged
her. On what proof? What proof?
I saw Goodie Hawkins with the devil! I saw
Goodie Biba with the devil! I saw Goodie Booth
with the devil!
(Offscreen) So as an actor, how do you keep
your ego in check when you have audience clapping
for you and lots of adoration? Things like
that.
Well I think it's important to know that it's
about the craft more than anything and yes
an audience is going to love what you're doing
but at the same time it's about the uhm...
it's not about you as such it's about the
performance.
As a character as this one is that works in
a vegan health store uhm... that person is
going to have... this person is going to have
quite a deep connection with animals.
I love you. Moo.
We are going to get our inner movement ques
from uh.. Mother Nature today.
I love you. I love you cow.
Mooooooo (echoing)
See the key to acting is transformation you
see all the great actors are people who transform.
Like your Daniel Day Lewis when you watch
Lincoln it's like that is Abraham Lincoln.
Those cows took me in as one of their own.
(Harmony of mooing)
I feel the love.
(offscreen) What's on your mind James?
You know, just the world at the moment is
a funny place to live. Very hard place to
live for a lot of people, lot of social causes
that need addressing that uhm.. I think we
as actors need to do more.
(offscreen) What's a cause that you're personally
supporting?
I'd say all of them.
(offscreen) All of them?
Well the thing is every worthy cause is....
The environment for instance, is is a great
uhmm... is is is in absolutely disarray at
the moment. I mean whos gonna, who's gonna
solve that? You know. Environmental agencies?
Uh... dunno, Governments? Pftt... I mean they
haven't been doing a great job so it becomes
the job of the actor.
You look at the great humanitarians uhmm of
our time. The real pioneers for social change.
Emma Watson. Leonardo Dicaprio. Angelina Jolie.
What do they all have in common? Actors.
So I feel prepared now, I feel good. I think
this is going to be a really good take.
My name is James T. Wills. Currently unrepresented.
Auditioning for the part of Jim.
(off screen) Excuse me? Can you tell me where
the bread is?
Uhh bread is aisle four.
(offscreen) Thanks.
(Offscreen)Do you feel like that's a solid audition take?
Well I'd hope so. I mean there was a lot of
work that went into it clearly and obviously
that uhm.. is gonna be reflected uhhh.. so
yeah, we'll see what happens. Uhm... we did
good work today, I think. And we'll see if
I get the part.
It's so easy to look at this world and say
'yes I live in it. Uhmm it's fine. I'm going
to die soon. I have money.' But you only have
one planet. So I say don't take it for granted.
