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| Interview: Miranda Harcourt – Acting Coach to the Stars |
26 November 2008 |
| StarNow: | What made you decide to become an acting coach? Val Bocking, London | | Miranda: | I love teaching, I love directing and I love helping other actors to do their best work. Many of the productions I have directed have won best actor/actress nominations and awards. So when I decided to stop being the head of the acting department at the national drama school in New Zealand and return to working in the actual industry, I wanted to keep developing those skills helping other actors.
My first job as an acting coach was with AnnaSophia Robb on "Bridge to Terabithia" (for that role AnnaSophia won Best Actress at the US Young Artist Awards this year, and was one of only 4 finalists for the prestigious Critics’ Choice Awards, along with Nikki Blonsky, Dakota Blue Richards and Saoirse Ronan).
I absolutely loved working as a crew-member rather than as an actress — working alongside the key creative team and seeing the performances blossom. So I started looking out for other work in the same realm. It is only 2 years later and I am about to start coaching on my fifth feature, working in NZ and internationally.
Now that I think about it I realise that I worked as a coach years ago – I coached Melanie Lynskey to win the role of Pauline Parker for Peter’ Jackson in "Heavenly Creatures". But it was not until "Bridge to Terabithia" that I decided to make this a career path.
I still work as an actress. In fact, as I write I am in 33 degree heat on the Pacific Island of Rarotonga playing a lead in the BBC/TVNZ TV series "Paradise Café". But as a mother of 3 young children I cannot work as an actress fulltime, it is too demanding on my family. So I am mixing it up between these two passions. Mind you, on my last coaching job I was away from home for 3 months working 14 hour days in another city. I guess there are no cushy jobs in the TV and film industries, you have to be able to work very hard. Read more >>> |
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