I never took an acting class, so I've made all my mistakes on film.
As a child, one of my defense mechanisms was to try to be funny. My mom tried to nurture that by putting me in acting class. But I got bored when we stopped pretending to be trees and actually had to work.
My first real kiss came when I was 10, and it was in an acting class. I had to do a scene from a movie where someone gets kissed under a tree, and I did not want to do it! But my acting partner wanted me to feel comfortable, so he bought a picnic basket with all these snacks. He made such an effort - and it was cute.
If you sit and feel sorry for yourself, you're wasting your time. You should be in acting class, instead of feeling sorry for yourself. You should be working.
What you learn in any acting class is how to make a fool of yourself and enjoy things and get out of your head.
I was really shy when I was younger, so my mom got me into an acting class to see if I would open myself up more in front of an audience. Her plan was for me to just talk more.
I think everyone should take an acting class. It's like therapy because you get to learn a lot about yourself if it's the right teacher. You're putting yourself up there in front of people, and it takes a lot of the intimidation of everyday away.
I recommend doing some sort of acting class, something that can eventually get you in front of an agent or a manager, and practice is very important.
Acting has always been a way for me to express the emotions I had buried. If I hadn't acted, I would have gone insane. In my acting class, I could let out my real tears and everyone thought it was the character. But no, it was me.
When I audition, I understand what it takes and the insecurities that come with it. If I do anything, I put actors at ease. I used to tell directors who weren't actors, the best thing they could do was take an acting class for a couple of months. Just to understand.