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Sam Christensen
BackstageWest Interview
www.backstagewest.com | May 6, 1999
The Actor’s Way by Karen Kondazian
Public Image Limited?
Image consultant Sam Christensen explains the first step to acceptance in the industry is accepting yourself.
Sam Christensen, one of LA’s best known image consultants for actors, could be the poster child for teaching by example. He is the embodiment of the charismatic confidence he tries to infuse in actors as they work in his classes to clarify their identities and bridge their exterior and interior selves.
Christensen’s expertise is culled from a varied career, which has included concert promoting, theatre production, managing actors, and casting on the series Rhoda and, for eight years, M*A*S*H. Each step in his career has brought him closer to his dream of working directly with actors who, as a group, both intrigue and inspire him.
His classes, in which his passion for communication is exceeded only by his love for the work, include a unique approach to image as well as acting and cold-reading. The aim of these classes, called the Image Design Process, is to "isolate and define the individualism that each of us has been given by God," said Christensen. Through his training program, Christensen tries to funnel actors’ individualism, teaching them to translate their uniqueness into characters created by others. The ability to do this is at the center of all the teachings of the masters, from Harold Clurman to Stella Adler, said Christensen.
Back Stage West: What is "image" and why should an actor care about it?
Sam Christensen: I know that the moment the work "image" comes up, people have notions about "spin." The reality is that an image is not any kind of illusion or any kind of thing we do to convince people in order to manipulate their minds. An image is the public reflection of who we privately are. It’s what everybody knows about us anyway. So what an image becomes is the proclamation, "I know what it is that I’ve created, now let me let you know that I know. Let me let you see that I have accepted myself, that I understand who I am. Furthermore, who I am becomes the vehicle for me to reach out to you. I use pieces of me, whether I like them or not, to touch."
When somebody says, "I know what you see. I know what my flaws are, what my strengths are, what attracts you, what repels you, I know what amuses you, I know these things and I will share them with you. I’ll use my gifts to reach in where you are," that’s incredibly powerful.
BSW: Doesn’t charisma play a large part in how powerful your public image is?
Christensen: When you’re able to say, "Here’s who I am," and you display public self-acceptance — that’s my definition of charisma. When someone demonstrates public self-acceptance, when they create that charismatic aura because they accept themselves in front of other people, it does two things. First, it makes communication possible. Second, it says, "If I accept myself, you can accept yourself as well."
That’s why we’re so compelled by stars. Meryl Streep makes me feel like it’s OK to be me because she makes it so OK to be her. Her self-acceptance helps me. As flawed and wacky as Jack Nicholson is, he makes you celebrate that you’re a human being. That’s what actors do. They enlarge the human experience and make you want to live your life more.
BSW: But a lot of actors don’t know who they are.
Christensen: We’re all involved in the search for "who am I?" Figuring that out is a lifelong thing. And a lot of us have 12-step programs, and therapists and gurus to help us with it. But when we’re actors, who we are is not the same thing as finding yourself in life. The problem is simple. It’s technical. You’re inside, everyone else is outside. It creates different perceptions. There’s a lot of what other people perceive about you that you already know and it makes perfect sense to you. But there are other things that you may not know. Successful acting is about finding ways to describe yourself that are accurate from either perspective.
Let’s say that people call you "cool and distant" and you’re surprised, because you see yourself as shy. I guarantee that somewhere in the English language, there is a word that captures their feeling of coolness and your perception of shyness. It is that word, along with others, which combine the inside and outside and allow you "public self-awareness." And those are the words you can use to guide your photographer, your coach, or anyone else who needs to understand who you are as an actor.
BSW: It’s so interesting that you talk about bringing that integration to photographers. It’s a really good marketing tool.
Christensen: When you go in to a photographer without the integrated descriptions of yourself, it’s like a director who doesn’t give you direction, who just says "show me things." When that happens to an actor, they automatically go for what’s worked for you before — formula. But if the director spells out the themes of the character, you can bring your interpretation of those qualities. Same with a photographer. If you don’t give them themes, they go to their formula and you end up with a nice picture; it just isn’t really a picture of you. You end up without the you of you. And that’s simply because the photographers don’t have the guidance.
The same applies to coaches, video editors, and all those who help the actor translate the uniqueness of themselves to our industry. I try to give the individual actor the same thematic ability that the golden era studios used so well to define stars. Today, the actor is their own studio and has the option to create an image based on the reality of how they’re perceived and how they perceive themselves.
BSW: Is there anything you’ve always wanted to say to the actors out there?
Christensen: Yes, actually. Actors need to know that what they do is really necessary in this world. As an art form it’s always been interesting, but in today’s world it’s more necessary than it has ever been. There’s so much going on in the world. We’re confronted with so much and actors humanize all the experiences we’re having. They allow us to be in touch with emotional ranges that we’re just too busy for or that we’re in denial about. There’s so much that everybody has to deal with that I think the ability to go into a theatre or watch television and to see life and experience and go, "Oh, it’s OK to feel what I feel" is essential.