Veteran US actress and drama teacher Dee Wallace has plenty of advice for her students, which she will impart at masterclasses in Melbourne and Brisbane this month.
The first lesson she will offer for those who are starting out: “Go get credits anywhere you can and get film anywhere you can if you want to be a film and TV artist because the first thing they will ask you for is your reel.”
The star of such seminal films as Steven Spielberg’s ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, Joe Dante’s The Howling and Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners, the actress says her technique is based on what she learned from actor and acting coach Charles Conrad in the 1980s.
“It changed my life as an actor, took away all the fear for me and taught me how to work really quickly,” she tells IF. “Once you get the technique down it’s freedom, it’s exciting and it’s easy.”
Her Australian classes are also open to writers and directors and anyone else who wants to understand what makes actors tick.
Wallace is shooting writer-director Craig Anderson’s thriller Red Christmas two hours out of Sydney, co-starring Geoff Morrell, Sarah Bishop and Janis McGavin.
She plays a grandmother who is forced to defend her family when an intruder strikes on Christmas Day. “It’s a wild ride,” she said.
She is giving the masterclasses at Monster Fest, where E.T. and The Howling are being screened, and in Brisbane. “I really do love the horror genre because it gives me the chance to really do a lot of emotional work,” she said.
Her first Aussie film, Disney’s Bushfire Moon, was directed by George Miller in 1987, co-starring John Waters and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.
She has also appeared in TV shows as varied as My Name Is Earl, The Office, Law & Order Los Angeles and Criminal Minds
Another piece of advice will be directed at young actors who find fame quickly: “You’re in for a long haul here. If you can sustain a 40 or 50 year career then you can start believing you have some substance. But to come out and get big and go away in two years doesn’t really state the worth of what your talent is.”
Wallace, who had her own acting school in Los Angeles for 18 years, has also given classes to directors on how to work with actors. She told them, “Just think of us as children, taking care of a child that you love and trying to guide them into being the most giving and complete person they can be."
But how do you deal with a latter-day director in the vein of an Alfred Hitchcock, who famously had little regard for his actors?
“I can tell you from an actor’s point of view that is a devastating experience," she said. "You know from the writings of Tippi Hedren and a lot of other people who worked with Hitchcock how damaging he was to their lives and how they are still trying to recuperate from that.”
Dee Wallace masterclasses: Sunday November 29, 12:00 pm, Swinburne University Of Technology
Monday November 30, 1.00pm – 6.00pm, Roundhouse Theatre, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane