Sandra Seacat, actress and renowned acting coach to stars including Laura Dern, Andrew Garfield, Harvey Keitel and Michelle Williams, died on Tuesday at the age of 86, a rep confirmed to TheWrap on Thursday.
She was surrounded by loved ones in her home in Santa Monica, California, friend of the family Stan Rosenfield said in a statement shared with TheWrap.
“She was a revolutionary, a culture-changing teacher of acting and storytelling,” said actor Andrew Garfield, who costarred with Seacat in what would be her final acting role in FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
Also Read:
Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Screen Legend, Dies at 95
Garfield added that Seacat, who played his mother in the limited series, was “a beacon for all of us of what a life of deep meaning and beauty can look like. And she was irreverent and forever playing like a joyful unbridled child. I feel grateful beyond...
She was surrounded by loved ones in her home in Santa Monica, California, friend of the family Stan Rosenfield said in a statement shared with TheWrap.
“She was a revolutionary, a culture-changing teacher of acting and storytelling,” said actor Andrew Garfield, who costarred with Seacat in what would be her final acting role in FX’s “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
Also Read:
Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Screen Legend, Dies at 95
Garfield added that Seacat, who played his mother in the limited series, was “a beacon for all of us of what a life of deep meaning and beauty can look like. And she was irreverent and forever playing like a joyful unbridled child. I feel grateful beyond...
- 1/19/2023
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Celebrity acting coach Sandra Seacat, whose students included Jessica Lange, Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern, died of natural causes Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 86.
Seacat’s unique coaching style made her the acting teacher of a generation and helped actors create honest naturalist performances. Aside from Lange, Garfield and Dern, Seacat taught actors such as Harvey Keitel, Marlo Thomas, Aaron Eckhart, Meg Ryan, Misha Baryshnikov, Isabella Rossellini, Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, Mary Kay Place, Peter Falk, Shia Labeouf, Martin Henderson, Mickey Rourke and Michelle Williams.
“Sandra lived by seeing magic and possibility in everything. She met the discovery of character and story with equal protectiveness, irreverence, humility and grace,” recalled Dern in a statement. “She taught us the practice of investigating healing through acting. But more than that. She invited us to know ourselves as artists and humans in ways I could’ve never begun to explore without her.
Seacat’s unique coaching style made her the acting teacher of a generation and helped actors create honest naturalist performances. Aside from Lange, Garfield and Dern, Seacat taught actors such as Harvey Keitel, Marlo Thomas, Aaron Eckhart, Meg Ryan, Misha Baryshnikov, Isabella Rossellini, Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, Mary Kay Place, Peter Falk, Shia Labeouf, Martin Henderson, Mickey Rourke and Michelle Williams.
“Sandra lived by seeing magic and possibility in everything. She met the discovery of character and story with equal protectiveness, irreverence, humility and grace,” recalled Dern in a statement. “She taught us the practice of investigating healing through acting. But more than that. She invited us to know ourselves as artists and humans in ways I could’ve never begun to explore without her.
- 1/19/2023
- by Julia MacCary
- Variety Film + TV
Sandra Seacat, the actress and influential acting coach who as a Lee Strasberg disciple taught the craft to the likes of Laura Dern, Mickey Rourke, Harvey Keitel, Common, Andrew Garfield, Michelle Williams and many others, has died. She was 86.
Seacat died Tuesday of natural causes in Santa Monica, family friend and publicist Stan Rosenfield announced.
Seacat’s students said her innovative techniques were able to extract out of them their most truthful, powerful and naturalistic performances.
“Sandra lived by seeing magic and possibility in everything,” Dern said in a statement. “She met the discovery of character and story with equal protectiveness, irreverence, humility and grace. She taught us the practice of investigating healing through acting.
“But more than that, she invited us to know ourselves as artists and humans in ways I could’ve never begun to explore without her. She’s been my teacher since age 17, and I had...
Seacat died Tuesday of natural causes in Santa Monica, family friend and publicist Stan Rosenfield announced.
Seacat’s students said her innovative techniques were able to extract out of them their most truthful, powerful and naturalistic performances.
“Sandra lived by seeing magic and possibility in everything,” Dern said in a statement. “She met the discovery of character and story with equal protectiveness, irreverence, humility and grace. She taught us the practice of investigating healing through acting.
“But more than that, she invited us to know ourselves as artists and humans in ways I could’ve never begun to explore without her. She’s been my teacher since age 17, and I had...
- 1/19/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sandra Seacat, a longtime New York and Hollywood acting teacher whose students would become or already were some of the biggest names in the business – Andrew Garfield, Jessica Lange, Laura Dern, Harvey Keitel, Michelle Williams and Common, to choose just a sampling, died of natural causes Wednesday surrounded by loved ones in Santa Monica. She was 87.
Her death was announced by a rep for her family.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Michael Lehrer Dies: Second City Alum Was 44 Related Story Edward R. Pressman Dies: Prolific 'Wall Street', 'American Psycho' & 'Badlands' Producer Was 79
“She was a revolutionary, a culture changing teacher of acting and storytelling,” said actor Andrew Garfield, calling her a “beacon for all of us of what a life of deep meaning and beauty can look like. And she was irreverent and forever playing like a joyful unbridled child.
Her death was announced by a rep for her family.
Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Michael Lehrer Dies: Second City Alum Was 44 Related Story Edward R. Pressman Dies: Prolific 'Wall Street', 'American Psycho' & 'Badlands' Producer Was 79
“She was a revolutionary, a culture changing teacher of acting and storytelling,” said actor Andrew Garfield, calling her a “beacon for all of us of what a life of deep meaning and beauty can look like. And she was irreverent and forever playing like a joyful unbridled child.
- 1/19/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Method acting is never far from the headlines as the technique seems to rally just as much support as it does hate from Hollywood insiders. Andrew Garfield is firmly in the former category.
“I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is fucking bullshit,'” the 39-year-old actor told Marc Maron on the latest installment of his Wtf podcast. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
Garfield, making an appearance on behalf of his Emmy...
Method acting is never far from the headlines as the technique seems to rally just as much support as it does hate from Hollywood insiders. Andrew Garfield is firmly in the former category.
“I’m kind of bothered by the misconception, I’m kind of bothered by this idea that ‘method acting is fucking bullshit,'” the 39-year-old actor told Marc Maron on the latest installment of his Wtf podcast. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
Garfield, making an appearance on behalf of his Emmy...
- 8/22/2022
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Method acting has taken something of a beating from celebrities in recent years, with stars like Brian Cox, David Harbour and Mads Mikkelsen calling the process “dangerous,” “pretentious” and even a “disease.” But the art form has a defender in Andrew Garfield, who spoke about the method in an interview on popular podcast “Wtf with Marc Maron.”
“There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” Garfield said. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
Garfield appeared on “Wtf” to promote the FX limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven,...
“There [have] been a lot of misconceptions about what method acting is, I think,” Garfield said. “People are still acting in that way, and it’s not about being an asshole to everyone on set. It’s actually just about living truthfully under imagined circumstances, and being really nice to the crew simultaneously, and being a normal human being, and being able to drop it when you need to and staying in it when you want to stay in it.”
Garfield appeared on “Wtf” to promote the FX limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven,...
- 8/22/2022
- by Wilson Chapman
- Variety Film + TV
This story about “The Power of the Dog” first appeared in the Down to the Wire of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
She’s not even 40 yet, so why does it seem as if Kirsten Dunst has been overlooked by the Oscars for years, maybe even decades? It feels that way, of course, because we’ve been watching her since she was a child, from her startling preteen performances in “Interview With the Vampire” and “Little Women” through coming-of-age stories like “The Virgin Suicides” and “Bring It On,” hits like “Spider-Man” and critical favorites including “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Melancholia.”
And now, after 33 years of acting, almost 60 movies, 19 TV shows (including the recent “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”) and two children with her partner, Jesse Plemons, she has her first Oscar nomination for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”
“Kirsten is a real woman,...
She’s not even 40 yet, so why does it seem as if Kirsten Dunst has been overlooked by the Oscars for years, maybe even decades? It feels that way, of course, because we’ve been watching her since she was a child, from her startling preteen performances in “Interview With the Vampire” and “Little Women” through coming-of-age stories like “The Virgin Suicides” and “Bring It On,” hits like “Spider-Man” and critical favorites including “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Melancholia.”
And now, after 33 years of acting, almost 60 movies, 19 TV shows (including the recent “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”) and two children with her partner, Jesse Plemons, she has her first Oscar nomination for Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.”
“Kirsten is a real woman,...
- 3/14/2022
- by Steve Pond | Photographed By Austin Hargrave
- The Wrap
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Kirsten Dunst, who steals the show from Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in Cannes director-winner Sofia Coppola’s Civil War potboiler “The Beguiled” (June 23, Focus Features). It’s her fourth collaboration with Coppola.
Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A...
Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A...
- 6/22/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Kirsten Dunst, who steals the show from Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in Cannes director-winner Sofia Coppola’s Civil War potboiler “The Beguiled” (June 23, Focus Features). It’s her fourth collaboration with Coppola.
Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A long career is up to you. It’s your barometer of taste and the choices you make as an actress inform how other people look at you and if they want you in their movies. So you have to be wise.”
Career Peaks: A model from the age of three, the child actress shot out of a cannon when she won a worldwide search for 11-year-old Claudia, starring opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in “Interview with the Vampire,” Neil Jordan’s fabulously kinky 1994 take on the Anne Rice classic. Dunst has long leaned into women’s subjects and directors, from Gillian Armstrong and Robin Swicord’s “Little Women” and Leslye Hedland’s raucous “Bachelorette,” to Coppola’s Cannes breakout “The Virgin Suicides,” shot when she was 16.
That film marked her segue to more adult roles. “I was sexualized,” Dunst told me, “but through her lens, which was such a wonderful way to be transitioned. There was nothing grotesque, even though I was doing things in that film that I was uncomfortable doing. I’d stress out about ‘Oh, I have to make out with that boy on the roof,’ but Sofia would just have me nuzzle into the side of their face. Even though I was blossoming, it was not something I was comfortable with yet. She really opened that door for me.”
Dunst went on to star for Coppola as a coquettish queen in the title role “Marie Antoinette,” and cameoed in “The Bling Ring.”
Assets: Beyond sexual allure, Dunst brings depth and mystery. She can play the girl next door (“Spider-Man”), a drunk bride peeing on the lawn in the moonlight in her wedding dress (“Melancholia”), an imperious 18th-century queen (“Marie Antoinette”), or a racist Nasa administrator (“Hidden Figures”). She has a steely edge, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Her career pivot came before 2010 Ryan Gosling two-hander “All Good Things,” when she started to meet with acting coach/therapist Greta Seacat (who also works with Coppola).
While Dunst always picks projects based on directors, she credits Seacat with a total game change “in terms of acting and how I approach things,” said Dunst. “And now it’s all about me. It’s cathartic for me. It’s my thing, it’s my experience, it’s nothing about pleasing anyone else but myself. And it all comes from me, so I have so much more control than anybody else; it’s all about my own inner life. By the time I get to set, I’m so prepared no one needs to direct me. No one needs to tell me anything. I feel so powerful with what I have to bring, that making movies is for myself now and it’s like getting rid of poisons. Like if you went to a therapist all the time, but I get to do it by acting out anything I want to, so that’s a powerful tool.”
She draws the line at too much nudity, and turned down a sexy role in another Lars von Trier movie. “I would work with him again,” she said. “It just depends on the part because he loves exposing… like Charlotte Gainsbourg, she has a less curvaceous body, so it’s less assaulting to see than if someone with larger breasts and more womanly-shaped did some of the things she did in movies.”
Biggest Problem: As she has come into a strong sense of her own identity, Dunst is making career choices for herself, not her fans. She’s not looking to please anyone else or playing the movie-star game, as evidenced by her maverick choices, from “Melancholia” to “Fargo.” “Only Lars and Pedro Almodovar write these incredible, messy roles for women,” she has said.
Awards Attention: She won Best Actress at Cannes for her hilariously depressed bride in Lars von Trier’s comedic end-of-the-world tragedy, “Melancholia,” after being quick enough on her feet to survive a disastrous Cannes press conference when her director went off the rails. While she earned plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination for Season Two of “Fargo” as the deeply flawed murderess Peggy Blumquist, she’s never earned an Oscar nomination. “The Beguiled” could be her first — she’s earning raves across the board.
Next page: Dunst scribes her character in “The Beguiled”: “Edwina would be me at my worst, working on a film that I don’t want to be on.”
Related storiesHow Controversies Can Hurt Movies Before They're Released -- IndieWire's Movie Podcast (Screen Talk Episode 154)'The Beguiled' Exclusive: Here's What It's Like to Work On A Sofia Coppola Set -- WatchSofia Coppola Explains Why She Left Her Ambitious Take on 'The Little Mermaid'...
Bottom Line: Dunst steered toward playing strong women from an early age, with films that include political comedy “Dick” with Michelle Williams, John Stockwell’s “Crazy/Beautiful” with Jay Hernandez, and Peyton Reed and Jessica Bendinger’s cheerleader sleeper “Bring It On,” shot the year she graduated from Los Angeles’ Catholic high school Notre Dame. She has never settled for The Girlfriend or romantic lead, although she made a memorable Mary Jane Watson in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Looking back, I’m proud of the choices that I’ve made,” she said. “A long career is up to you. It’s your barometer of taste and the choices you make as an actress inform how other people look at you and if they want you in their movies. So you have to be wise.”
Career Peaks: A model from the age of three, the child actress shot out of a cannon when she won a worldwide search for 11-year-old Claudia, starring opposite Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in “Interview with the Vampire,” Neil Jordan’s fabulously kinky 1994 take on the Anne Rice classic. Dunst has long leaned into women’s subjects and directors, from Gillian Armstrong and Robin Swicord’s “Little Women” and Leslye Hedland’s raucous “Bachelorette,” to Coppola’s Cannes breakout “The Virgin Suicides,” shot when she was 16.
That film marked her segue to more adult roles. “I was sexualized,” Dunst told me, “but through her lens, which was such a wonderful way to be transitioned. There was nothing grotesque, even though I was doing things in that film that I was uncomfortable doing. I’d stress out about ‘Oh, I have to make out with that boy on the roof,’ but Sofia would just have me nuzzle into the side of their face. Even though I was blossoming, it was not something I was comfortable with yet. She really opened that door for me.”
Dunst went on to star for Coppola as a coquettish queen in the title role “Marie Antoinette,” and cameoed in “The Bling Ring.”
Assets: Beyond sexual allure, Dunst brings depth and mystery. She can play the girl next door (“Spider-Man”), a drunk bride peeing on the lawn in the moonlight in her wedding dress (“Melancholia”), an imperious 18th-century queen (“Marie Antoinette”), or a racist Nasa administrator (“Hidden Figures”). She has a steely edge, as well as a wicked sense of humor. Her career pivot came before 2010 Ryan Gosling two-hander “All Good Things,” when she started to meet with acting coach/therapist Greta Seacat (who also works with Coppola).
While Dunst always picks projects based on directors, she credits Seacat with a total game change “in terms of acting and how I approach things,” said Dunst. “And now it’s all about me. It’s cathartic for me. It’s my thing, it’s my experience, it’s nothing about pleasing anyone else but myself. And it all comes from me, so I have so much more control than anybody else; it’s all about my own inner life. By the time I get to set, I’m so prepared no one needs to direct me. No one needs to tell me anything. I feel so powerful with what I have to bring, that making movies is for myself now and it’s like getting rid of poisons. Like if you went to a therapist all the time, but I get to do it by acting out anything I want to, so that’s a powerful tool.”
She draws the line at too much nudity, and turned down a sexy role in another Lars von Trier movie. “I would work with him again,” she said. “It just depends on the part because he loves exposing… like Charlotte Gainsbourg, she has a less curvaceous body, so it’s less assaulting to see than if someone with larger breasts and more womanly-shaped did some of the things she did in movies.”
Biggest Problem: As she has come into a strong sense of her own identity, Dunst is making career choices for herself, not her fans. She’s not looking to please anyone else or playing the movie-star game, as evidenced by her maverick choices, from “Melancholia” to “Fargo.” “Only Lars and Pedro Almodovar write these incredible, messy roles for women,” she has said.
Awards Attention: She won Best Actress at Cannes for her hilariously depressed bride in Lars von Trier’s comedic end-of-the-world tragedy, “Melancholia,” after being quick enough on her feet to survive a disastrous Cannes press conference when her director went off the rails. While she earned plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination for Season Two of “Fargo” as the deeply flawed murderess Peggy Blumquist, she’s never earned an Oscar nomination. “The Beguiled” could be her first — she’s earning raves across the board.
Next page: Dunst scribes her character in “The Beguiled”: “Edwina would be me at my worst, working on a film that I don’t want to be on.”
Related storiesHow Controversies Can Hurt Movies Before They're Released -- IndieWire's Movie Podcast (Screen Talk Episode 154)'The Beguiled' Exclusive: Here's What It's Like to Work On A Sofia Coppola Set -- WatchSofia Coppola Explains Why She Left Her Ambitious Take on 'The Little Mermaid'...
- 6/22/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
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