As the entertainment industry absorbs new technology at unprecedented speed, the founder of the Michelle Danner Acting Studio and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory is betting on the one thing a machine can’t produce: a human being telling the truth.
The entertainment industry has never faced a shift as turbulent as the one it faces right now. New technologies are being embraced on a scale nobody has seen before, and many artists are unsure what the future will bring or what the long-term ramifications of artificial intelligence will be for the work they do.
Michelle Danner knows one thing for certain. No matter how advanced it becomes, technology will never achieve the kind of performance a human being can give.
A world-renowned acting coach, actress, and director of stage and screen, Danner is the founder of the Michelle Danner Acting Studio and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory, a pair of LA-based drama schools that have spent more than two decades equipping the next generation of storytellers with the skills they need to make their dreams come true. That mission has always been about craft. In the age of AI, it has also become a statement about what craft is for.
The Golden Box
Danner’s flagship workshop, “The Golden Box,” embodies the schools’ dedication to educating students on the wide variety of techniques championed by the great actors and teachers of yesterday and today. The idea is not to hand a student one method and call it finished. It is to make them intimate with many different approaches to characters and scenes, so they can discover the tools best suited to their own unique strengths as a performer.
It is a philosophy Danner has spent a lifetime building. She trained extensively in Paris and New York with Stella Adler and Uta Hagen, and she served as Managing Director of the Larry Moss Studio in Los Angeles for 20 years from its inception. She teaches the Golden Box workshops around the world, including South America, Europe, Toronto, Vancouver, Dubai, New York, and Sydney, and is putting the finishing touches on a book of the same name.
Over 30 years of teaching, she has worked privately and on set with a long list of A-list actors, including Chris Rock, Gerard Butler, Seth MacFarlane, Penélope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Isla Fisher, Common, Zooey Deschanel, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Coolidge, Henry Cavill, Michelle Rodriguez, James Franco, Christian Slater, and Rita Ora. Backstage readers voted her their favorite acting coach. She was brought in for her expert coaching on the WB series The Starlet and was featured with Andy Richter on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.
The business of acting, and the community around it
Technique is only part of the curriculum. The schools also place a strong focus on the business of acting, teaching aspiring artists how best to break into Hollywood and navigate the industry’s ups and downs. Given how quickly that industry is changing, Danner considers it an invaluable skill set to have.
Equally important is a sense of community with one’s fellow artists. That is why the mission of the Michelle Danner Acting Studio and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory is not just education, but also fostering unity among actors and actresses from around the globe.
That instinct to build places where artists can gather runs through Danner’s career. She is the Founding Director of the Creative Center for the Arts, formerly the Edgemar Center for the Arts, where she raised $1.3 million to construct two theaters and an art gallery and served as Artistic Director for 20 years. At the opening ceremony, Steven Spielberg remarked, “Here we have a venue that can turn out some extremely experienced, daring and resourceful artists.”
Why a human performance still matters
Danner’s case for the craft is a simple one. Human emotion is not so easily replicated, and it is not easily communicated to an audience without the refinement of craft, the bravery to take risks, the willingness to be vulnerable, and a commitment to empathy and understanding.
These are qualities the artist must possess, and they are what leave audiences with something more. Truth and authenticity that resonates with people is the commodity the actor deals in. Danner wants to ensure that those carrying the torch of storytelling are both well-versed and passionate about an art form as old as humanity.
A director who practices what she teaches
Danner does not only teach the craft. She works in it. Her films Miranda’s Victim, The Italians, and Under the Stars boast A-list casts, and her upcoming projects Starstruck, Helios, and Party Crasher will continue that tradition, grounding stories from a variety of genres through riveting performances.
Miranda’s Victim, the true story of the creation of the Miranda rights told from the victim’s perspective, stars Abigail Breslin, Ryan Phillippe, Luke Wilson, Emily VanCamp, Mireille Enos, Josh Bowman, Andy Garcia, and Donald Sutherland. The Italians, a family comedy with Matthew Daddario, Rob Estes, Perrey Reeves, Lainie Kazan, and Abigail Breslin, premiered to a sold-out crowd at the ITALIA Film Festival and is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Under the Stars, a romantic comedy filmed in Puglia, Italy, stars Alex Pettyfer, Eva De Dominici, Toni Collette, and Andy Garcia.
She is currently in post-production on the rom-com Starstruck, with Matthew Daddario, Alice Eve, Rob Estes, Doug Jones, Josh Bowman, Catherine Bell, and Billy Zane, and in pre-production on the sci-fi thriller Helios and Party Crasher, a true story about life and fame.
Earlier films include Hello Herman, starring Norman Reedus, which won the award for social relevance at the Monaco Charity Film Festival and was distributed by Warner Brothers, and the psychological thriller Bad Impulse, which took Best Feature Film honors at the London International and Manhattan Film Festivals. Her action-thriller The Runner, released by Saban Films, earned Best Director awards at the Vancouver Film Festival and Paris Play Festival, among others.
Every one of those sets is, in its own way, an extension of the classroom. The performances Danner grounds her films in are the same ones she is training her students to give. In a moment when the industry is asking what technology can do, her answer is to keep teaching what only people can.
Michelle Danner Acting Studio: michelledanner.com
Los Angeles Acting Conservatory: losangelesactingconservatory.com
Instagram: @michelledannerla · @actors.international
TikTok: @michelledannercoach
IMDb: imdb.me/michelledanner
Learn more about Michelle Danner, her schools, and her films at michelledanner.com.
Mara Alcantara is a tech-savvy writer with a creative eye who tends to see life in color. Pairing an analytical mind with a knack for spotting talent, she covers music, voice acting, and entertainment for The LA Note. Outside of writing, she’s busy raising her kids and hiking with her family.
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