How Director Terry Knickerbocker Is Helping To Make the Entertainment Industry More Diverse and Representative
Over this past year, superhero movies started to emerge with more diverse themes, casting, and storylines. Black Panther and Into The Spider-Verse are two examples that are incredibly important for people of color because they can finally say, “There’s finally someone who looks and sounds like me on screen. Oh, I’m up there. I can relate to this.” Our country is a melting pot and movie studios need to keep telling stories that touch every corner of our society. Art changes people’s lives, but only if they see themselves represented. Seeing people of color playing parts that aren’t traditionally associated with people of color, is also tremendously important. Crazy Rich Asians is another tremendous example. I can’t tell you how many Asian students just were so excited and relieved to know that there’s more work for them now thanks to this film.
For the past 30 years, Terry Knickerbocker has acted, directed, coached, and produced artistic works with some incredible and talented creative minds. Knickerbocker is a graduate of the Experimental Theatre Wing at New York University and trained as an actor with William Esper. He taught at The William Esper Studio for 25 years and continues as part of the core faculty at the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Today, he is the Founder and Studio Director of the Two Year Acting Conservatory Terry Knickerbocker Studio in Brooklyn, New York. Knickerbocker has coached actors on over 300 films, television, and theater projects, both on and off-Broadway and regionally. His studio’s alumni include award-winning actors like Sam Rockwell, Zac Efron, Boyd Holbrook, Natasha Lyonne, Leslie Bibb, Emmy Rossum, Yul Vasquez, Jordana Spiro, and many others. Knickerbocker’s directing credits include many new works as well as contemporary and classical plays such as Measure for Measure, Tartuffe, The Normal Heart, Candida, All My Sons, and David Rabe’s In the Boom Boom Room.
Thank you so much for joining us Terry! Can you please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I grew up acting and directing then went on to study at NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing. But I quickly realized that you can’t make a living as a theater director unless you’re the buzz of Broadway. So I figured there were only three ways to make a living as a director.
The first was to work for a theater, so I applied to every theater company in New York but none of them were hiring at the time. The second option was to be a soap opera director. A lot of theater directors directed soaps and I had a friend on CBS’s Guiding Light so I shadowed him for one day. It was soul scarring so option two was dead in the water.
So teaching became my final option and it turned out to be my destiny. I approached my mentor, William “Bill” Esper, and asked if I could start teaching. He replied, “That’s nice, I don’t need any teachers” and I said, “What would happen if I just keep coming to teach until you tell me not to come anymore?”. Eventually, Bill did need a teacher and I was prepared, waiting in the wings. That relentless desire to work ignited my teaching career and a journey that defined my life’s work.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The thing about acting studios is that there’s always something exciting, interesting, weird, or novel happening so it’s difficult to pinpoint one specific story. But here we go.
I instruct my students to participate in an activity called the Independent Activity, which is supposed to bring actors to life and be physically engaged. During this activity, one student of mine was sitting there on stage with a potato in his hand. He just stared at the potato for 10 minutes while the exercise went on. After noticing his lack of movement during the exercise I asked, “What are you doing?” He replied, “I’m trying to levitate the potato with my mind.” Surprised and amused, the entire class laughed about it for the rest of the day.
Aside from funny moments in class, the most interesting times are watching students open up over the course. Simply watching how, through just sheer determination and heart, they crack themselves open and move into really rich work, is unbelievable.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I don’t know if this a funny story or horrifying but mistakes in communication that result in comical actions always lead to a good story.
One day I drove out to Rutgers to substitute teach for Maggie Flanigan and the students were doing a scene from Stage Door, a story that I was pretty unfamiliar with at the time. But as their temporary teacher, I was ready to side coach the scene when they needed more direction so that’s what I did.
As the students progressed throughout the scene one actor was supposed to be packing a bag then leave and he kept getting waylaid by his partner who was trying to do some real “acting.” So I kept calling out from my teacher’s desk, “Pack. Pack!” but he wasn’t taking my direction. His lines just kept getting bigger and louder so after they called Scene I asked, “Did you hear what I was saying? To Pack?” He replied, “Oh, I thought you were screaming, A-C-T.”
Experiences like this taught me to manage scenes more closely and challenge my students at our studio.
Can you describe how you are helping to make popular culture more representative of the US population?
At my studio, we are training people who are diverse in life experience while helping them become the best artist they can be. By attracting more students from underrepresented populations, different races, genders, and social groups, we are helping populate the Industry with a more honest representation of the world.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by the work you are doing?
Everyone who comes to this training is impacted significantly and in life-changing ways. But when I think about who was challenging, I think about Jackie Carlock, a recent Terry Knickerbocker Studio graduate.
Jackie arrived to our studio after pursuing a career in nursing and she was consumed by her anxiety about whether she could afford her housing during her studies. Her work was full also of anxiety and she wanted to see results right away. Jackie had to learn that acting requires emotional freedom and eventually she was able to advance her talents thanks to her great work ethic. Slowly but surely she summoned the courage to let go, all her walls began to break down.
By the time we reached the scene work in Second Year, she was a different person and a different artist. She transformed from someone who almost quit that first week to someone performing stellar, beautiful work.
Can you share three reasons with our readers about why it’s really important to have diversity represented in Entertainment and its potential effects on our culture?
Over this past year, superhero movies started to emerge with more diverse themes, casting, and storylines. Black Panther and Into The Spider-Verse are two examples that are incredibly important for people of color because they can finally say, “There’s finally someone who looks and sounds like me on screen. Oh, I’m up there. I can relate to this.” Our country is a melting pot and movie studios need to keep telling stories that touch every corner of our society. Art changes people’s lives, but only if they see themselves represented.
Seeing people of color playing parts that aren’t traditionally associated with people of color, is also tremendously important. Crazy Rich Asians is another tremendous example. I can’t tell you how many Asian students just were so excited and relieved to know that there’s more work for them now thanks to this film.
Can you recommend 3 things the industry can do help address the root of the diversity issues in the entertainment business?
I like what Francis McDormand said when she won the Oscar, about Inclusion Riders. I don’t know how many studios and projects are doing this, but that speech codified it and says, “I will not do this project unless there are inclusive people represented across the board in tech, casting, and writing.” If studios focus on fairly implementing more diversity in these three areas of film making, the entertainment industry will continue to improve.
I also think that incubators for the work of underrepresented populations is vitally important. Like the Sundance Writers Lab, for example. There needs to be more support and opportunities for underrepresented populations to have access to mentors, financing, and access for them to grow their work.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
I heard a story the other day about leadership that I really liked. A young Marine was assigned to the most demanding and insulting drill sergeant on base. Every day, the sergeant barked, “Who wants to take me on? Who wants to take me on? Come on!” After ten days of relentless verbal lashings, the young Marine stood up and shouted, “I will sir!” The sergeant calmly turned to the rest of his squadron and said, “This is your squad leader” Then walked away.
Great leaders fearlessly run towards dangerous, challenging, and scary situations. They’re not afraid to be brave, do the dirty work, be open to making mistakes.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- I wish my mentor told me how hard it was going to be. Getting a job in this industry is hard. Teaching acting students is hard. Opening up your own acting studio is unbelievably difficult. Critiquing people who invest so much into a scene is one of the hardest things about being an acting coach but when it’s your job, you have to do it. After all, you’re there to make everyone better.
- There’s going to be massive resistance and some students are going to hate you, some students are going to love you, and some students are going to want to date you. Acting teachers become a target for their student’s projections so you’ve got to be okay with personal issues getting laid at your feet.
- You’ll learn early on that every teacher isn’t right for every student and you can’t reach the students that can’t take direction. If they can’t hear you that doesn’t mean you’re a bad teacher. It just means it’s the wrong relationship for both of you.
- Even though you’re the teacher, you don’t try to have all the answers. It is okay to say, “I don’t know.” When I started teaching, I thought if someone asked me a question, I had to come up with the answer. I felt that way as a director too. That fallibility in giving up the need to be the all-wise one, the all-knowing one is helpful.
- Admit your mistakes and know when to let your students teach you something. Sometimes you’ll direct your students in a certain direction and then halfway through the class you realize, “You know what? I think I was wrong. Let’s go with what you were thinking.”
If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
“Everyone should volunteer their time for people who are less fortunate which cultivates empathy. A great example is Mother Teresa’s Mission, I visited her Mission in Calcutta, which was offering care for those who needed it the most.
I was at the zoo today with my son and it was so cool. There was an elderly guy by the snow leopard exhibit. Clearly retired, and clearly a volunteer. I was like, “What fun.” I love that spirit of service.
In the first week of September and at Thanksgiving my son’s daycare used to have a soup kitchen, a toy drive, and a food drive, for people in the neighborhood who were less fortunate. These kids, two, three and four and five-year-old kids were seeing something about the world around them.”
Can you please give us your favorite life lesson/quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
While traveling around southeast Asia, I stopped in a town called Tiruvannamalai and needed to have my clothes laundered at the local laundry shack. It only takes a full 24 hours to get your laundry cleaned but I had three days to spare so I brought my clothes to Mr. Pandmoodi, the shack owner, and told him that I need them ready before I left for Bangalore. Wearing nothing but a loincloth, he confirmed that my clothes would be ready in three days.
Three days later I returned to his laundry shack to see when my week’s worth of laundry would be ready before I departed on a bus at 1:00 PM. I was greeted by Mr. Pandmoodi’s son and was told to come back later when his father was in. So I leave, have a traditional Indian breakfast, check out of my hotel, and return to the laundry shack that afternoon.
“I’m here for my laundry” I say to Panmoodi’s son. “He’s not here right now and I don’t know where he is”. Concerned for my laundry and making my bus on-time, I get frustrated but recall the Islamic saying, “Trust in God, but tether your camel.”
Knowing that this not a laundromat in Manhattan, I patiently wait until Mr. Panmoodi returns. 45 minutes before my bus leaves, Mr. Panmoodi shows up without my laundry but he’s in a very jolly mood. He pulls on my sleeve and we walk across the road. He takes me to a big white fence and there’s all my laundry, hanging across the fence and it’s soaking wet!
Before I can get angry he says, “Sit, sit, sit” and proceeds to take out gigantic old cast iron and lights a fire. In a matter of seconds, he is drying my clothes and his granddaughter appears with afternoon tea, biscuits, and lunch for me. Then Mr. Panmoodi’s brother arrives and offers to drive me to Bangalore and help me find a hotel. Before I know it, I’m seated a spacious vehicle with my freshly pressed laundry, eating a delicious lunch, and headed to Bangalore!
During my seven-hour drive to Bangalore, I realized you can’t be fixated on getting things done your way and you’ll be rewarded when you’re flexible. I was so locked in a “my way or the highway” attitude and this experience allowed me to let go and enjoy the flow of life. Don’t work so hard against it.
Can you name one person in the world, whom you would love to have a private lunch with and tell us why?
My first thought was Abraham Lincoln, then Oprah Winfrey, then Stephen Hawking and of course the Barack Obama. But I’ll go with Oprah. I think she’s an inspirational person who really wants to do good and make the world a better place for as many people as possible.
She has had to overcome tremendous personal obstacles in her life and as an acting coach, I admire how she was cast part in The Color Purple. She’s philanthropic, she’s spiritual, has a beautiful life mission.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
You can follow us on Instagram @terryknickerbockerstudio
Twitter @tknickerbocker
