Matthew Dave McCallum and What Makes a Great Actor

Two nights ago, I met with the core cast of Starmind to start laying down the logistics of our production process. After a bit of socializing and a bit of business (and a delicious bit of Chef Dave's knuckle stew), Gerard and Charlotte departed for the balcony for gossip and bonding - a critical part of the actor's process.

This left Matthew Dave McCallum and I sitting on the couch with our first private opportunity to start hashing out how, exactly, an actor plays a pan-galactic consciousness that's possessing the Earth.

Dave and I have known one another for the better part of our lives, and both he and I have rich, lively intellects. One thing we appreciate about one another is how thorough we are in our respective thought processes, even though we're very different from one another in how we think. There's been plenty of times I've seen Dave engage an idea or a task, and I've always been impressed with his acuteness and diligence.

That all said, this is the first time I've put a nearly impossible performance task in front of him. As soon as Dave had the chance, he started asking questions - and they literally didn't stop for two hours. On the one hand, he was probing the actual mythology of the situation. On the other, he was feeling out the foundations of the character - where is my own understanding of what Dean is going strong? Where is it weak? Every time he perceived a crack in the concrete, he stood there and pointed at it like a ten year old finding a special bug or rock in the forest - he wanted me to know he saw it, he wanted me to know it needed addressing... and at the same time, he was thrilled by the opportunity to step in and co-create.

This process of taking apart the character and putting it back together energized him. While Charlotte and Gerard were out there on the balcony, the project was rapidly changing right under their feet - but they didn't need to know that. So much of what we're doing is improvisational that the actions themselves still hold up. Their script, such as it is, still works. This is something that will lead to endless surprises, though - and I get to capture those surprises on camera.

All the while, Dave was just gaining steam. Here he was, just coming off a non-stop European cultural tour, prepping for a catering job at 5 AM the next morning (for those who don't know, McCallum is one of LA's most reknowned master chefs) - and his relentlessly inquisitive sense of exploration is driving him through topic after topic like a runaway train.

One thing that bears mentioning here was that those cracks Dave was spotting weren't there as a result of negligence. Insight like Dave's is the product of decades of training and practice. One thing I know about Dave is that he will not coddle incompetence - if the story I've assembled couldn't support his talent, he would have left this project behind. No, this is what it's like when a phenomenally tuned actor with a passion for truth fully engages a story. For hours, we combed through the events of Starmind and pieced together the core of what the Starmind's modus operandi is really about, from the perspective of someone who needs to step into a scene and improvise that process.

There aren't many actors you can ask that of.

When presented with the chance to do this, McCallum didn't even hesitate. Instead, he started breaking down the character's actions to understand the tools that assembled them. He asked for my help AND pointed out the conflicts, without judgment or apology.

McCallum is the kind of actor that directors will tell you makes a project better. This is classical acting at it's best, and it's why I work with Dave McCallum.