Hollywood Portrait: The Actor/Acting Teacher

Diane Louise Salinger, 60

Location: ; Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue.

Original Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

What do you do? I’m an actress and acting teacher; I run the Diane Louise Salinger Acting Academy.  [In fact, Diane has had many famous stage roles, did Shakespeare for years around the world, and has appeared in many TV shows and movies, including Woody Allen’s Alice as well as Bird, Ghost World, Batman Returns, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Curb Your Enthusiasm.]

What’s working with Woody Allen like? I love with Woody that you are only given your own scene; you have no idea what the rest of the movie is; you don’t even know who else is in it. In Alice, Bill Hurt and I are completely improvising the opening of the scene. [Woody] does a lot of takes; we did maybe 15 takes of the opening of that scene, and each one was different.

What draws you to Hollywood? The work. To act and to teach. Actors come to Hollywood every day, and then need to learn their craft. I continue hearing how they have fear, whether they will succeed, how to nail an audition, how to deal with stage fright, you name it. I'm developing exercises and techniques to conquer fear and blocks to success. I do like to live what I preach, and I explore and fine-tune these new techniques in my own work before I pass them on to my students.

I also love the history of Hollywood, and I live in an historic house.

Isn’t this about the toughest time to be an actor? I look at it as a huge opportunity that you have to hone your craft. Actors have to start creating their own work. I encourage my actors to write their own pieces. We have a responsibility to uplift everyone. During the Depression, everyone went to the movies. It was the one industry that did well because people wanted relief. I’m not discouraged at all.