The Sarah Scoop Show hosted actor and director Gregg Daniel. Gregg, who has stared in shows like Disney's "Good Luck Charlie" and HBO's "True Blood", gave us the scoop on his new show "For Life", directing plays at the University of Southern California, and what is takes for someone to become a movie star in Hollywood. Watch the interview below!
Acting Tips
"Learn how to act. Really learn...how to act. Learn the craft. It's a craft. I mean, there are days you're gonna feel awful, days you feel great...but you still have to give a credible performance, so learn...It's like a dancer or a violinist or whatever. You don't go on stage if you don't know the notes or how to read and how to tune the instrument or dancers how to how to dance...Know what the fundamentals are. Know what the foundation is. Then you can do anything."
- Gregg Daniel
Watch Gregg Daniel in True Blood by binge watching the entire series!
British Background
Shakespeare played a huge role in inspiring Gregg to pursue a career as an actor. He found something almost magical being conveyed through the complex language of British Playwright.
"I grew up in Brooklyn. I'm from Brooklyn. I claim those roots, and my father was an immigrant. He was from the Caribbean islands, and his island was a colony of the British for the longest time. And I say that because we had in our home when I was young lots of things that I say were of British influence. For instance, we had a volume of Shakespeare's works... I would pick it up from time to time and look at these speeches. I had no idea what they meant. No idea, but there was something about the poetry and something about the rhythm of the language. Even then I guess it's fair to say I was introduced to acting through language...of course the language of Shakespeare, you can't get me much better than that."
- Gregg Daniel
Passion for Plays
As a theatre professor at the University of Southern California, Gregg Daniel has been afforded many opportunities to direct plays at the school.
I've been lucky that I've directed a number of all August Wilson's work, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, who wrote Fences and did a series of ten plays...documenting black life in America decade by decade. I've directed about three of them. I'm slated to direct another one later this year here in Los Angeles, and being in that world of August Wilson, the poet, the play wright. It's just it's magical, such a powerful experience. He's one of America's finest playwrights."
- Gregg Daniel
Gregg is a theatre professor at USC. Why not rock a vintage USC sweater this this one?
Versatility is Key
Gregg has starred in television shows and films ranging from "The Amanda Show" to "Grey's Anatomy" and "True Blood". It's sufficient to say the Gregg truly has a diverse resume of acting credits.
"I'm very lucky in that I can do sitcoms, a comedy or sketch shows or a serious one-hour episode. I'm very lucky in that the kind of career I've had that I could accomplish them all, so I haven't had to stay in one genre because I only know how to do that. I can do pretty much do anything if I'm giving a script...I can pretty much do everything, so it's fun to look back sometimes."
Gregg Daniel
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Make sure to watch Gregg Daniel on ABC's For Life, and check out more episodes of The Sarah Scoop Show!
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