Larry Moss

One and a half stars. When I opened up this book and read the first few pages, I thought, "This is the acting guide I needed, and thought others would be." Then I kept reading. If you want acting exercises, you only need to read to chapter five, then read page three hundred till the end. The rest is just him talking about actors he admires, movies he likes, and experiences he's had teaching, plus how desperately he wants to have tons of sex with Sanford Meisner. He would -not- -stop- -elaborating- on how much he wants this guy. Paragraphs upon paragraphs on how great this one person is, and don't you dare question the methods! It seriously read like a UST-centric fanfiction.

In all those things, there is:
-a graphic, pages-long description of him staring at a dying puppy who's been hit by a car
-him praising a director who advocates imagining kicking pug puppies as a way to get over your fear
-weird second person
-victim-blaming
-Racism towards a Black student to get a reaction and praising himself for it
-transphobia
-self-loathing due to his Jewishness, which he tries to hide by saying he got married under a chuppah
-advocates straight actors to play gay characters and brushes aside real challenges gay actors face
-He calls readers lazy if they're skittish about finding and doing different accents; and scolds readers if they don't adore Shakespeare and Chekhov

Over and over in ways big and small, he is cruel towards his audience and by extension, clearly the actors he claims to teach. I kept having to set the book down because it brought back so many awful memories. This is bullying in book form, and it will not teach people how to act outside of the exercises in the first five chapters he provides, plus pages three hundred to the end.… (plus d'informations)