Sanford Meisner
American actorWikipedia
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Search complete. 40 mentions across 20 episodes found for "Sanford Meisner".
Oct 4, 2026
Marty SchwartzHOST
in an episode
Scott SharplinHOST
He studied with Sanford Meisner, and it was Burt Lancaster who encouraged him to try directing after he worked with Burt and John Frankenheimer-
Marty SchwartzHOST
Oh
Scott SharplinHOST
...
ChrisHOST
Now, you did study a lot of acting as well.
ChrisHOST
Before, obviously, doing this to filmmaking, the company that you started, you studied Meisner technique at the Antaeus Theatre Academy and William Alderson Studios and things like that.
ChrisHOST
So how much of what you learned as an actor, especially because the Meisner technique is obviously quite a popular technique to learn, how do you find that influenced you in the way you direct actors today in the movies that you make?
Tom MichaelsGUEST
Well, the benefit of...
Tom MichaelsGUEST
The benefit I have is I am
Giovanni AxibalHOST
This goes more tailored to my classmates because a lot of them would give a lot of information.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
I said this in episode two, where you'll have some improvisers, maybe you are one yourself, where you just give so much information, so much specificity, which is great because if you can be specific, and a lot of people have a hard time doing this, and a lot of people have, uh just the natural and easy way to do this but don't give your scene partner or the group just so much information just trust that what you say is enough just a little goes a long way and This kind of gave me an epiphany moment as I was watching these scenes, because I love Sanford Meisner's definition of acting, which is acting is being truthful under imaginary circumstances.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
And some people say acting is reacting.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
Acting is listening.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
And let me say something I haven't said before.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
I mentioned how in improv...
Giovanni AxibalHOST
Improv is just like acting's definition of Sanford Meisner's definition, which is acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
Giovanni AxibalHOST
But if you think about it, that's what life really is.
Glenn EricksonHOST
Hmm.
Jon BryantGUEST
It was a Meisner technique, and the teacher there, he was like, he's from Seattle, but he had, he had worked in Hollywood a ton, and he's like, "You should, you should consider acting up in Vancouver, like, if you ever go back there." And I'm like...
Jon BryantGUEST
He's like, "There's a lot work, you know, there's a lot of work up there." And I was like, "Ah, well, I don't know if I'm going back to Vancouver.
Jon BryantGUEST
We'll see." 'Cause I was living in Seattle, and I did for another year, year and a half.
Oprah WinfreyHOST
Yes.
Viola DavisGUEST
I find in telling stories it's, it's, it's like the great Sanford Meisner quote is, "The most important question an actor can ask is why?"
Oprah WinfreyHOST
Yes.
Viola DavisGUEST
And you do that when y- of course when I wrote my book.
JeffGUEST
But so, as an actor, one of the things that you learn along the way is...
JeffGUEST
Um, is the, the, there's one of the great acting teachers named Sanford Meisner once said, the most interesting thing about watching people on stage is that real connection between two actors, right? So it's not when someone's doing this in their head and they're thinking about their performance, it's boring.
JeffGUEST
It's not real.
JeffGUEST
It's, it's disconnected from reality.
Alli MangHOST
Number one, rank these acting teachers top down and tell us your favorite and why.
Alli MangHOST
Stella Adler, Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, Stanislavski.
Ellen DubinGUEST
Okay.
Ellen DubinGUEST
So everything, every technique that an actor uses, as long as they're truthful and you want to pay attention to their performance is valid.
Ellen DubinGUEST
So she is one of my favorites, but they all kind of lead to the best performance.
Ellen DubinGUEST
So whatever technique works for an actor, I can't run them in order.
Ellen DubinGUEST
But what I can tell you is quickly Meisner focused on your scene partner more and the response to the scene partner Stanislavski, who was the sort of the guru of everything pursued psychological and emotional truths.
Ellen DubinGUEST
Uta Hagen was more living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
Craig JohnsonHOST
He appeared in five plays during his senior year, and later said of the experience, "...it was three of the greatest years of my life.
Craig JohnsonHOST
It woke me up and made me a human being." Lacking just one course credit, he didn't graduate with the rest of his class and instead headed to New York to study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse with the famous acting teacher Sanford Meisner, the creator of the Meisner Technique.
Craig JohnsonHOST
To be an interesting actor, Meisner said, you must be authentic, and for you to ever be authentic, you must embrace who you truly are.
Craig JohnsonHOST
Peck was certainly dedicated to his craft.
Pam ShermanGUEST
By becoming a better actor and studying acting fully, I realized that acting, and this is the definition I live by, is the ability to behave truthfully in given imaginary circumstances.
Pam ShermanGUEST
This is a great quote from Sanford Meisner.
Pam ShermanGUEST
And if you think about it, isn't this what we want from our leaders? We're all given the circumstances that we're given, but we have to be able to behave in a way that will make a difference for our scene partners, that's our colleagues, for our community, for those we wish to impact, lead, and serve.
Pam ShermanGUEST
And to do that, we have to solve any gap that we have internally that may stop us from believing in ourselves, because it will affect our audience's ability to believe in us.
Mike GriefHOST
So I've been boning up on, you know, teaching methods and things.
Mike GriefHOST
So, I mean, I've been reading, I'm reading my Meisner book again.
Mike GriefHOST
I've got, you know, Sanford Meisner.
Mike GriefHOST
I'm reading Uta Hagen.
Mike GriefHOST
I've got my Lee Strasberg.
Mike GriefHOST
the which are the i guess they which studio at nyu
John FerrentinoHOST
nyu
Mike GriefHOST
and strasburg yeah which they're all i mean they all come from the uh from a russian actually i mean i think the most of the methods come from stana stanislav what was his name something like that but uh yeah strasburg lee strasburg he was an incredible uh you know same thing i've got i've got his book i'm reading one of his books right now i'm reading like four books at a time i got like Samford Meisner book, my Lee Strasberg book.
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