Acting Training

Opinion on acting training in Toronto vs Los Angeles

I was always mesmerized by movies for as long as I can remember. In first grade I wrote out the entire screenplay, by memory, including every song and all dialogue, of the Wizard of OZ. I lived for movies. I started acting at a young age and booked a few things without any training, but when I started taking acting classes, I was convinced that I wasn’t an actor and “quit to focus on becoming a fashion designer” instead. I really took the “what do you want to be when you grow up to heart. I grew to believe I wasn’t an actor because other child actors were so animated and much louder than me. They were like cartoon adults with so much confidence and pizzazz and I wasn’t that. The teacher loved what they were doing and he seemed to think I wasn’t doing anything at all. So I quit acting. I still devoured movies, mostly foreign independent cinema. I grew into quite an art snob by the time I hit high school. I dreamed of becoming a director one day. I read books and film diaries about and by performers and directors who I adored. I listened to them talk about process and became rather picky about what I liked and didn’t like. I kicked my boyfriend out while we were watching My Own Private Idaho because he thought was “so weird”. I took it all rather seriously. The most influential book I read when I was 16 was by Anthony Sher - The Year of The King; an actors diary and sketchbook of becoming Richard III. It deeply inspired me at a time when I was drowning in teen angst. I came out of retirement at 16 to play Juliet at the Leah Poslum theatre directed by Lewis Baumander. I had just ran away from home and this role gave me life. At first, I found myself surrounded by performers who were louder and more animated than me and this made me feel inadequate all over again. Even the producer didn’t like me, but Lewis saw what I was doing - I was being Juliet. For my audition I practiced the Farewell soliloquy in a park at night to scare myself. I wasn’t playing at Juliet, I was becoming Juliet. At least that was the plan. I remember stomping across the stage to yell at the Friar and how incensed with raw rage I was. I felt, for the first time in my life, like I knew what I was doing and all I wanted to do was that. With each breath and step I took, Juliet took possession of me. I was fully immersed in the story and the world. I knew unequivocally that this was what I wanted to do with my life. 

After that performance, I wanted to go to theatre school but I could’ve figure out how to. I was completely on my own and this was basically before the internet, plus I couldn’t afford to go. So, I started taking acting classes, doing theatre and eventually got an agent. “You’re so natural.” was what I was continually told. I booked American TV and films and what I eventually realized was that performers from Toronto had a different style than the performers I loved. I didn’t feel like I fit in. I felt like I had different taste then everyone around me and this, in part, led to me moving to Los Angeles. 

For as long as I could remember, Canadians made fun of Canadian TV. Everyone knew it wasn’t as good as American TV, but why was this? There is extraordinary Canadian talent - comedians, directors, writers, producers, performers etc. Lack of talent wasn’t the issue. The issue was and is what is funded and what is put forth.

There were many personal reasons to go to L.A., but one of the professional reasons was because after SARS and the CAD going up, Hollywood left Toronto. I knew one day Canada would stop being dependent on US productions but I didn’t have time to wait for that to happen. Yet still, to this day, 70% of all productions shot in Canada are US productions. After the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, I discovered that nothing had changed in 20 years and that Toronto is still deeply dependent on Hollywood. AND that’s totally fine. There is nothing wrong with that reality. What I find disheartening is the attitude about it. There is a general resentment for American performers and crew coming to Toronto. Many believe American talent and crew think that they are better than us. After living in America and working on American productions, let me say, it’s because they actually are better. Now, calm down! That’s not exactly what I mean. I know you’re super talented and I don’t think that American’s actually think they are better. In fact, I don’t think they think about it. There’s tons of talent in Toronto, but what there is not is work ethic. It’s really nice to be around people who are not “live or die” about their work, but that’s what it takes to be the best sometimes. I trained for the Olympics as a gymnast when I was a kid and I have that level of discipline engrained in me. It was one of the many reasons I was drawn to Los Angeles. When I got to America, I felt like I was around people more like me. When I’m in Ontario my family and friends just want to kick it. It’s all about the cottage and the life between the work AND that’s so wonderful. BUT, don’t complain that Americans think they are better than you - they don’t think that - they are just dead serious about their work and Canadian’s aren’t.

L.A. actors are the nicest and hardest working people I know - even on holidays and yes, even in the summer. They are hustling, working side jobs, indefinitely putting up scenes in class every week, doing casting workshops, taking improv classes, working out, auditioning and self funding their own projects. I tried to get an acting class together in Toronto and it was like pulling teeth. Summers are no good, winters are no good. There’s very few times of the year when Toronto actors want to work on their art. It’s just not part of the culture. This isn’t just with actors either - this is a way of life. Ontarians value their summers more than they do work. After a winter in Toronto, it’s easy to see why. When I try to see my family in the summertime in Ontario, I can’t get ahold of them because that’s how serious their summers are. As far as I can see, this is the way it is. Like I said, L.A. actors are in class indefinitely. I was in class at Stuart Rogers Studios for ten + years. My class was full of series regulars and semi famous actors who put up work every time they were in class. Sometimes class even happened on a holiday and we all showed up because as Stuart said “do you have anything better to do?”. It’s an artistic community that is a way of life and it inspires some of the best work in L.A. and has a great reputation because of that. Some actors had been in that class for over 20 years and their work is better because of it, getting better weekly. Their work is dangerous, surprising, heart breaking, chilling, funny and always honest. This is why L.A. actors are flown to Canada to work. I now teach at Stuart Rogers Studios and wanted to bring our process to Toronto because I know Toronto actors would thrive with it and because it would elevate their work. It’s a level of acting that isn’t taught anywhere in Canada and I was excited to share it with my hometown. Unfortunately, even though it was well received and I had a few inspired students who were very receptive to the methodology and did some absolutely beautiful work, the dedication to be in class on an ongoing basis wasn’t there. It was extremely hard to get students to be off book, prepared for class and even sign up and trust that this studio from L.A. was teaching something real and valuable. It’s like acting as a hobby, not a lifetime commitment. Toronto actors are smart and well trained. They think they know it all but yet their work is generally not representative of that and I think that’s because actors are not training on an ongoing basis. Although Toronto actors do it well, it’s simply not the bar of excellence that is found in Hollywood. This isn’t to say that there isn’t some extraordinary and comparable work coming out of Toronto, because there very much is and there are so many incredible Canadian actors thriving in Hollywood because of that - I’m talking about the culture on the ground, not any individual artist. I say all this because Toronto performers are so privileged to have casting opportunities that most actors in Hollywood never have and I don’t think anyone in Toronto truly understands that. L.A. actors work so hard at their art and I think they suffer for it in ways that can be devastating but it is also rewarded with a level of recognition that just doesn’t happen in Canada. I was once a Toronto actor who craved that level of excellence. I was in class on an ongoing basis (when I could afford to be) which is not the norm in Toronto. I left, in part, because it started to feel like I was singing in the shower. I wanted to surround myself with people who gave a shit and who gave everything for their art. I would have thrived in Toronto with a community and philosophy of acting like Immersive Acting if it existed. I know there must be actors in Toronto who also feel the same….

I teach a process called Immersive Acting that was developed by Stuart Rogers who listened to his students and A-list performers along with the last teachings of Stanislavsky, to develop an intuitive and comprehensive acting process that takes actors from an objective point of view about a character to a first person experience of a life. Immersive Acting gets the circumstances of the story into the body in a actionable, fast and intuitive way. I love teaching Immersive Acting because it teaches actors how to be artists and nurture their artistic process. Acting is an art form. It's not just a craft. Actors who study at Stuart Rogers Studios are some of the best actors out there with an excellent reputation in the industry. They are also the most dedicated artists and the studio is the best artistic community I know of in Los Angeles. Actors who find themselves at Stuart Rogers Studios are very lucky.