Review
“I love the work I’ve gotten to do with Larry. He loves actors, he loves acting, and I love him.”
–Helen Hunt
“Larry Moss is probably the most knowledgeable, articulate, creative, compassionate teacher of acting in America today. He is solely responsible for transforming me from a talented person into an artist.”
–Jason Alexander
“Larry has an uncompromising dedication to the art and craft of acting. I wouldn’t take on another role without working with him.”
–Hilary Swank
“Larry is pure genius. He opened my heart and allowed me to feel again. I would not have been able to be John Coffey without him.”
–Michael Clarke Duncan
From the Inside Flap
When Helen Hunt and Hilary Swank accepted their Academy Awards they cited Larry Moss's unorthodox and demanding guidance as the key to their career-making performances. There is a two-year-long waiting list for his advanced acting classes. But now everyone--professionals and amateurs alike--can discover Moss's passionate, in-depth teaching.
"I call this book THE INTENT TO LIVE rather than The Intent to Act because great actors don't seem to be acting, they seem to be actually living," Moss writes in his introduction. When Larry coached Hilary Swank for her Oscar-winning role in "Boys Don't Cry," he had her live as a man for a month to prepare for the role. She bound her breasts and stuffed her crotch and had her husband introduce her as his younger brother, all so she could get inside her character's head and experience first hand the fear of being found out. He got Helen Hunt to pull all her energy down from her head into her feet, so she could play the waitress in "As Good As It Gets"--another Oscar performance. Right now, he is working with Leonardo di Caprio for his upcoming role as Howard Hughes and with Sally Fields in a Kennedy Center revival of The Glass Menagerie. All these stars--and many more, will be giving us quotes.
But THE INTENT TO LIVE is much more than wonderful theater stories. It's a meat and potatoes guide to the basic tools and techniques of acting, like how to come up with emotion-on-demand when you've been doing a stage show for months or they're filming your big final scene out-of-sequence on the first day of shooting. And even more important, it's a book about how to do the inner work required to become a true artist. In nearly 30 short, fascinating chapters he offers the case studies, exercises, and insights that enable actors to connect personally with a script, develop their character from the inside out, overcome fear and inhibition, hone their technical skills, and, above all, come alive in the moment on stage or on camera. Filled with a wealth of theater lore and appreciations of great performances, this is a delicious read for theater lovers, as well as a sure-to-be-classic text for actors.
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