Cherif Gacis Chassis Musings

"Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is"~German Proverb The past few weeks have been challenging due to the fact that our assignment was to willingly ask people for their opinions on what type of character they could see us portraying. The challenging part is having to be completely open and receptive to whatever may come our way, which I must admit caused some discomfort. From years before, going back to high school and college acting projects, I've always been cast as a bad guy and more specifically one that is written off in a double cross type of situation. Twice I've portrayed a drug kingpin or mastermind who is killed by being in too deep. Most roles from people that knew me were somewhere along those serious roles: a mobster, a politician, a soldier, a Chuck Norris type of hero, an FBI agent. The part that was even harder was asking complete strangers out of the blue. Maybe it was because of the change in appearance (clean shaven, fresh haircut) or the mo...

"Once a word leaves your mouth, you cannot chase it back even with the swiftest horse"~Chinese Proverb The old Axiom of sticks and stones may carry a good message about inner worth and self esteem, but it's a fantastic fallacy. Truth is that words have meaning, and they are powerful. That's why the Bible talks about edifying speech and building up one another. It is true that if you are someone who is secure enough to not worry about petty gossip or malicious slander, you more than likely have a less stressful and more fulfilling life. That's why words are an integral part of an actor's message, an actor's performance and their delivery. Seeing how the person who had asked me to work on a Middle Easter accent for an audition coming up was someone I respect and trust, I immediately dove headlong into it. Surprisingly, perhaps in part because I grew up speaking Spanish and French, an Arabic accent came easily. Within 40 minutes of practicing, I had a goo...