And I found it quite profitable, too.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happened:<\/p>\n
Last year, I had read a book by Brian Timoney about Method Acting (he\u2019s one of the best in the world at teaching Method, having even helped gotten actors into Hollywood movies, etc). And I wanted to use some of his ways to help me get better at being more in \u201ctouch\u201d with my list, market, and even my enemies\u2026 so I could better know them, serve them, or (in the latter\u2019s case) exploit them.<\/p>\n
So here is what I did:<\/p>\n
* I created a fake character\/persona who is, in many ways, the exact opposite of me<\/p>\n
* In this case, the character was a Latina (partly based on Stefania\u2019s mom, not in personality, but in speaking tics and accent)<\/p>\n
* This character I created is also a commie who\u2019s obsessed with POC (people of color)<\/p>\n
* Everything with this chick is \u201cPOC this” and “POC that\u201d<\/p>\n
* Far as she is concerned there are not enough POCs in Hollywood, in the world, and it\u2019s obvious she has nothing but contempt for white people<\/p>\n
* To her everyone who is white is a fascist and a racist<\/p>\n
* So to her, the cure of this is America needs more POC, and diversity, with even the most inanely created movie & TV characters who are POC celebrated, and with even the most celebrated movie directors & movies like Peter Jackson\u2019s Lord of the Rings trilogy being paragons of white supremacy, and chock-full of identity politics<\/p>\n
* And so on, and so forth<\/p>\n
Anyway, so what I did was this:<\/p>\n
I went on a movie forum, as this character I created (not as Ben Settle, but as this character, with her own screen name, back story, etc), looked for the people on the site who are on Ben Settle\u2019s \u201cside\u201d in politics, culture, and movie preferences, etc, and then\u2026 started picking fights with them.<\/p>\n
Yes, I fought tooth & nail against my own ideological counterparts.<\/p>\n
For instance:<\/p>\n
I talked about how great Naru was in the latest Predator movie (Prey \u2014 which I hadn\u2019t even seen, but in my mind I had) and how she was the greatest action movie star ever. Or how Sophia Nomvete (as the dwarf queen in Rings of Power \u2014 again, I had never even seen it, but in my head I had) was going to be the greatest actor in all the Lord of the Rings movies. And how She-Hulk was going to be the greatest TV show ever because it was finally featuring a POC (rationalizing that She-Hulk being green made her POC\u2026 I didn\u2019t say any of this made sense).<\/p>\n
And it was amusing at first.<\/p>\n
But then something very startling happened:<\/p>\n
I started to almost believe my own bull shyt!<\/p>\n
I kid you not.<\/p>\n
After doing this for just a few days I started spinning complete fantasies into facts that didn\u2019t exist completely in service of this character I had created, because that is the only way a person like her could legitimately exist and not end up in the insane asylum.<\/p>\n
Otherwise the cognitive dissonance would drive her insane.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I was called out for just trolling and people caught on.<\/p>\n
Specifically, when I said Warner Bros should recast Joaquin Phoenix\u2019s Arthur Fleck character in Joker 2 with a POC actor like Jaleel White (the character who played Erkel in Family Matters). I guess at that point it was so silly even the low IQ commies (most of the people on the site) knew I was full of it and just trolling them.<\/p>\n
Which, interestingly enough, disappointed me.<\/p>\n
Because I\u2019d become quite fond of the character I played \u2014 despite her bat shyt opinions.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing to realize:<\/p>\n
Stefania will tell you \u2014 she often sat next to me as I fooled around doing this in bed at night, on my laptop \u2014 I was having more fun being this fake character than being myself. I even started kinda talking like her, sympathizing with her ridiculous views and opinions and, in some ways\u2026 started becoming her.<\/p>\n
Not in a \u201ctime to cut my balls off, and mainline estrogen” kind of way.<\/p>\n
Although that probably would have scored me some sweet corporate endorsements.<\/p>\n
But along the lines of Leonard Nimoy, when he talked about the years he played Spock in Star Trek. Five days a week he played that character, and the entire week he took on Spock\u2019s personality at home, off set, including on weekends. And it wasn\u2019t until Sunday night when he finally went back to being just Leonard, only to have to go back on set and do it all over again the next day.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d \u201cbecome\u201d that character, more than he was himself.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s how it was with this short experiment I did with method acting.<\/p>\n
Anyway, doing this was pure fun.<\/p>\n
And it was also enormously useful for my email and infotainment skills.<\/p>\n
The point?<\/p>\n
The way I see it, if you want to be great \u2014 not just good \u2014 at entertainment, you have to literally become an entertainer.<\/p>\n
And who better to learn from than great actors?<\/p>\n
And, ideally, than doing what great actors do?<\/p>\n
Learn and then apply to your emails for more sales, engagement, fun.<\/p>\n
Next:<\/p>\n