Acting coach of Austin Butler, Daniel Craig hosts class in Vancouver

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Terry Knickerbocker boasts a decades-long resume working with bold-type names like Daniel Craig, Austin Butler, Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams.

The New York-based acting coach is coming to Vancouver on April 1, 2, 4 and 5 to give a master class to local actors. The event is in conjunction with local acting studio Jeb Beach & Associates.

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“It is a level of world-class experience,” said Beach, who met Knickerbocker through a mutual friend and has had the acting coach do online work with the studio in the past. “I think it is totally and completely critical to have different perspectives.”

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Knickerbocker is a renowned teacher of the Meisner Technique. Developed in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, the approach teaches actors to not centre on themselves but instead turn their focus to the other actors.

“The first thing we start with, is you put your attention on the other person. That solves a lot of things, including having your attention on yourself, which is what a nervous actor is going to do,” said Knickerbocker during a recent phone call from N.Y. “It really frees you up to anchor your attention on the other person and really see what’s there. And, of course, you’re not just watching them — you’re responding to them.

“At the end of the day, it is all about telling the story in a truthful way,” added Knickerbocker.

Knickerbocker has spent the past 30 years in New York acting, directing and coaching. He was also an alumnus and faculty member of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He opened the Terry Knickerbocker Studio in 2015.

A big part of Knickerbocker’s career is coaching actors while they’re preparing and working on projects. He helped Austin Butler bring to life the villainous Feyd-Rautha for the new blockbuster Dune: Part Two.

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“That was a little tricky,” said Knickerbocker, who has worked with Butler in the past. “You know, some of these big productions are very touchy about letting people see the script. And so, he couldn’t even give me the entire script. He just had his lines … we just had little bits and pieces from all his scenes. So, we started from that to construct what was the essence of this human being.”

And that essence was a whole lot of baddie with “a snake-like sensuality.”

“It had a lot to do with him being a person who lacked empathy, somewhat of a sociopath,” said Knickerbocker. “Someone who relished power and loved getting inside people and disrupting them.

“It came out pretty well. And we had a good time putting it together. And, to Austin’s credit, he has an incredible work ethic. He doesn’t have a lot of screen time in that picture, but I think every moment counts. And we spent a lot of time crafting those moments.”

Knickerbocker has worked with Academy Award-winner Rockwell throughout his career, including both theatre and film roles. Craig is also a return client. The former James Bond enlisted Knickerbocker for help with his Knives Out detective Benoit Blanc for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The pair will soon be working together for the third film in the Knives Out franchise.

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“He’s not the villain, he’s the hero. But it is a character-based detective, so that’s fun too,” said Knickerbocker about Craig’s southern American private investigator. “I relish good writing and fun characters and ideas, and collaborating with actors to create a performance that they get excited about. And that they’re proud to put up there.”

Knickerbocker explained that coaching these days is paramount as many productions don’t pencil-in time or money for rehearsals.

“You really need a coach these days because the economics of film and TV are very different from what they were even 20 years ago when you might have some rehearsal. There’s no rehearsal,” said Knickerbocker, whose client list also includes Zac Efron, Sacha Baron Cohen and Emmy Rossum. “For the most part, you show up on the day and do hair and makeup and have a camera-blocking rehearsal. But no director is going to talk to you about your character. And you’re not necessarily going to have a chance to work it out with other actors. They just don’t have the budget for that.”

While his busy A-list coaching work is very fulfilling, Knickerbocker says he loves to be in the classroom.

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“I love the process and I’m an eternal learner,” said Knickerbocker. “I love helping actors and kind of being a midwife for their dreams. And helping them to get a tool kit that sets them up to go out in the world and feel really prepared to do that.”

dgee@postmedia.com

twiter.com/dana_gee

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