warsaw dreams
11-09-2007, 12:13 AM
Here is a bit from a recent interview with Dan Schneider. He mentions his Head of the Class days.= How did your experience as an actor influence the work you do today, especially the way you work with child actors?
SCHNEIDER: When people ask me, “How do you become a great show runner?” I tell them that the best way to do it is to be an actor on a TV show. Learning it from that side helps in so many ways. It helps me because I know how actors think and I know what their needs are. When I was an actor on Head of the Class I felt very much like I was treated like a prop that talks. You know: here are the lines, say them—and we weren’t always encouraged to contribute. Now I really maintain a very close relationship with the actors [on my shows] because I feel like I’m one of them, I’m in their club, and I want them to know that. I’m not just a producer who can’t empathize with what they go through.
When I was on television, sometimes I’d get great lines and sometimes I’d get lines that weren’t so great. While I would always do my best to do the lines to the best of my ability, sometimes I would get frustrated when things that were clearly not working wouldn’t get changed or rewritten. So what I do—and it’s because of those experiences—I never give any of my actors material that I myself wouldn’t be excited about performing. The actor in me makes me want to give the actors great material to work with and I probably ask for more takes than anybody in kids’ TV.
SCHNEIDER: When people ask me, “How do you become a great show runner?” I tell them that the best way to do it is to be an actor on a TV show. Learning it from that side helps in so many ways. It helps me because I know how actors think and I know what their needs are. When I was an actor on Head of the Class I felt very much like I was treated like a prop that talks. You know: here are the lines, say them—and we weren’t always encouraged to contribute. Now I really maintain a very close relationship with the actors [on my shows] because I feel like I’m one of them, I’m in their club, and I want them to know that. I’m not just a producer who can’t empathize with what they go through.
When I was on television, sometimes I’d get great lines and sometimes I’d get lines that weren’t so great. While I would always do my best to do the lines to the best of my ability, sometimes I would get frustrated when things that were clearly not working wouldn’t get changed or rewritten. So what I do—and it’s because of those experiences—I never give any of my actors material that I myself wouldn’t be excited about performing. The actor in me makes me want to give the actors great material to work with and I probably ask for more takes than anybody in kids’ TV.