The Vulnerable and Heroic Meisner Actor

The two-year acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio teaches actors the Meisner Technique in a small, comfortable studio setting. In this interview with Katie, Tayler Hamilton discusses what it means to train as an actor after receiving her undergraduate degree.

Q: Tayler, what did you think it meant to train as an actor before you started at the Maggie Flanigan Studio?

I didn’t have much of an idea about what any specific acting training was. I didn’t know anything about Meisner or much about the other types of acting techniques. I took a few acting classes before I came here but nothing ever super-condensed and conservatory-like Maggie Flanigan. I did not have a clear picture of what actor training actually meant. I didn’t know how much work and heart and soul it takes to train as an actor.

Q: Now that you’re almost done with the first year, what do you think it means to train now?

Wow. To train as an actor is, I think, now one of the most vulnerable and heroic things that someone can do. You put yourself out there; you are completely vulnerable. You’re open all the time, you’re showing your true self, you’re showing the things that you don’t show to people every day, and people see things about you that you’ve never have spoken about in public or to anyone other than yourself, or maybe your close family or close friends. I think training as an actor is just such an immense thing to do in someone’s life. I’m so glad to be able to do it.

Q: What led you to decide to commit to training at Maggie Flanigan Studio?

Before I came to Maggie, I had moved to New York four years prior. I came to New York intending to be an actor. I moved right from when I finished my undergraduate degree, and I just started looking for acting stuff online. I had no idea what I was looking for. I didn’t know what the industry was like at all in New York. I started from the ground up and tried to figure it out on my own. It took some time, but I started auditioning for student films, independent films, smaller theater projects, and I did a few things with that in the first couple of years of being here. Then I started to develop a better sense of what I wanted to do. As an actor, I knew I wanted to do film and TV.

Specifically, I started forcing myself to search out those opportunities more precisely, and I started getting a better idea of who I was as an actor and how I was being seen. Then I got headshots in months for short– I guess I started auditioning and getting parts in short films. That was just in the past year or two, I’d say. It was when I began to work more on camera doing roles that I felt a connection to, and it wasn’t just like a random thing that I found online. Then I started feeling like when I’d be on set, even if it was for a smaller set, smaller budget, independent films, I felt like I was not that confident in what I was doing.

I felt like other actors around me seemed more confident, and they had techniques that they would do to warm up. I was like, I don’t know any specifics to try. I knew that I had an instinct and I’ve been performing since I was young, but I never had the training, and I never knew like, “Okay, if I need to get to this point, let me do this.” What led me to Maggie was one of my good friends was a student here, the first year, and I saw that complete change in her as a person as well as as an actor. I thought it was remarkable. She raved about the school; she raved about Charlie and the training.

She was the one to bring me to Maggie. She told me about the school; I didn’t know about it before. She told me to try the Summer Intensive and then I couldn’t do the summer, so I luckily joined in the fall at the very last second, and thank God I do. It seriously has been the best decision of my life, and that’s not dramatic. That’s true.

Maggie Flanigan Studio: The Two-Year Acting Programs

Learn more about the acting programs at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, including the two-year acting programs by visiting the studio website https://www.maggieflaniganstudio.com/. Students who are interested in applying to the program but have questions should call (917) 794-3878 during studio hours.