Book Review: “The Intent to Live: Achieving Your True Potential as an Actor” by Larry Moss
Larry Moss coached Leonardo DiCaprio, Helen Hunt and Hilary Swank to Oscar-winning and nominated performances. Can his book bring the best out of you?
If you were stuck in the Amazon rainforest with one acting book to base all of your learning, this is the book I would bring on that ill fated airplane ride stranding you there. Mr. Moss goes over the most important acting teachings from each standard drama philosophy. The Intent to Live is an acting degree in SparkNotes form. You won’t get the full experiences from that degree. Actors I know may tell you, “Use the book! The blessing is you won’t get stuck for life with the student debt that comes with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in drama.”
All of my life, I meet amazing people who did/do great things serving locales or their country for the USA and elsewhere. Veterans from WWII and the Vietnam War were/are all over the Midwest and Manhattan. Bumping into them, I always ask/ed them stories with their permission because I wanted to use them for writing action movies when I was older. A former boss of mine proudly served in the USA military doing things out of movies around the time my teacher’s former student came in to share with us his own Tom Cruise storyline adventures of real life bravery. Retired police officers in New York and Illinois share with you about what they do. These admirable people blow you away with how much of their work requires acting and strategies based on science and psychology. Your heart pumps listening to their real life jobs and how they pull things off like going undercover in a taxi to catch bad guys in their youth or dropping off WWII documents pretending to be a ditzy young woman who loved wearing high fashion makeup. A man who learned foreign language fluency in one month! My Congressman at one time was a Vietnam veteran talking about his days in the service, a very nice man.
The world of stage and on camera acting has 0% logic or science to it. Larry Moss gives you this. Honesty as my specialty here, I’m going to say yes you should study formal acting on your own with books and friends if broke and take acting lessons if you can afford it. You need to know this mindset because actors you may direct or work with on screen as an actor/actress yourself are going to come from these styles. No, these methods are not for everyone. Yes, there are acting methods that will work for you. Find out what they are! If studying mainstream acting methods worked so well, all waiter slash actor types in LA ought to be A-listers turning in solid acting performances. Have you ever watched a movie so bad, you have to shut it off because the plot is wonderfully written and the acting so terrible? Or hit mute until the actor you do like comes back on screen? Those bad actors studied acting like you and everyone else, so lather, rinse, repeat, THESE LEARNING STYLES DO NOT HELP EVERYONE. Personally, I do best with the logic based tips I gained from meeting people in non-acting professions.
If I were you at home wanting to be a great actor, I would buy one acting book only in this one, read this book then put it down and find yourself at the nearest VA hospital where you need to be meeting retired Navy, Air Force and Army people who had to do out in the field method acting sometimes because any wrong move meant being caught. Find out what they did to be convincing on the job. That is real award worthy acting no one will ever applaud them for. People who helped shape the future of the world are all ignored at nursing homes and everyday restaurants eating next to you, too old to be hip to the TikTok kids. LEARN FROM THE REAL DEAL!
Larry Moss’ writer voice is either going to really reach into your heart or get on your nerves. When I read the Amazon reviews about how repetitive this book is, I felt maybe they were trolls sabotaging his book reviews. Possibly rival authors! No, this book format goes like:
tell you an acting lesson through a story of coaching some actor/actress
be written in a tell it like it is format the way some speak in parts of the northern USA, LOVED!
repeat why that story is important
mention Stella Adler or someone from old school acting worlds of thought
share how Mr. Moss’ acting class students got it right/wrong
quote why the same movies and plays are great, every chapter
have a nice very human story from Mr. Moss about his life journey, LOVED!
repeat the lessons and something from the beginning about five more times, this I could do without as a person who felt 45 minutes in junior high per class was a waste of time when I caught it in the first few minutes
Mr. Moss does his best here teaching what might work for the majority of students who are very free spirited, artsy dreamer types. No shame if you are: we need people like you in the performing arts! From the writing, he seems to be a very likeable person with a strong Broadway background deserving all of his success. For people like me who always lean better at analytical thinking who love math, tech, science and music, you will feel like you’re on a one way ticket to vintage GameBoy Kirby’s Dream Land off doing karate against cloud people and spitting out giant tomatoes at trees. Method acting for actors is kind of for good or bad depending on how you feel, out there. Remember Judy Funnie on Nickelodeon’s Doug when she said to be liver and onions, you must sizzle on the carpet like liver and onions, verbally ZZzzzzzzzing the sound effects? Yeah, when I first saw that, I thought it was an in joke parody of actors for the show. Nope. Studying acting is THAT. Mr. Moss at one part of the book talks about becoming animalistic as an acting exercise, say you imagining you’re some animal, my pick if I had one I guess imagining here, me becoming a snake slithering on the floor. Smacked between lessons like using past experiences to help cry on cue or how you ought to really find part of someone attractive for romantic roles and love scenes, or you could run with the fired up hatred of someone and turn that into passion for love scenes. Umm…I’m kind of uncomfortable with those last suggestions of either hating or being attracted to someone for on camera stuff to work. Others may be OK with that and find that they give the performances of their lives with those tips! The power of celebrating difference, right?
I highly recommend this book, but as with some prix fixe meals where with diabetes and preferring vegan items I’m not going to like everything on a planned menu, eating maybe two of the five items in an agreement with the cafe, you’re going to want to highlight the passages that speak to you so you don’t waste time with the repetition in this book when you read it again often for work. For people who gain from that repetitive style of learning, you do you because it helps about a good chunk of the population. My copy is a digital one from Apple iBooks, allowing me to virtually highlight anything I want. A physical edition of this book will get messy doing that. Please get the digital copy because you will as a working professional actor and/or director need to know what goes on in some people’s heads when they go to set and highlight the heck out of this book in assorted shades. Not all people think alike. That’s OK! What makes us great is how different we are and working together as a team from accepting ourselves as mini puzzle pieces fitting one giant puzzle!
Acting degree and/or acting classes with a pile of debt or a $14.99 digital book? The choice is obvious. Go with the book. Work on the lessons here with your friends. Discuss them and why you do/don’t care for them. If you disagree, chat about how people want to be directed when you act together for professional projects and/or DIY drama classes.
