New York’s Franklin Livingston or the climb of a successful Pakistani actor: The concept of beauty, success, and attraction must be open to all human beings, regardless of their cultural looks or affiliations. Franklin along with his passionate and devoted network of professionals aim to accomplish this change through entertaining and intellectual art. Franklin Livingston is a New York based actor, director and producer. He enjoys acting on stage and film. He has had the pleasure of working in English, Urdu. Hindi and Punjabi languages. Discover even more details on Franklin Livingston actor.
Where does Franklin Livingston’s possibility personality come in? It is after a long unfruitful wait that Franklin has decided enough is enough! Franklin is now producing content intending to provide grass-root level casts and crew members opportunities to work making films. In the past five years or so, through his Theatre and Film production companies in New York and Los Angeles, Franklin has shown hope in the Hollywood industry by giving out jobs and chances to thousands of upcoming American actors and crew members in major cities to showcase their work to the global audience.
Franklin has always been in love with cinema and has been making films since the age of 16. He has evolved as technology and style have progressed over the years, and he deeply enjoys the craft in every aspect. Despite excruciating long hours of creative thinking, planning, and executing, and typically being the first to and the last person to walk out of the film sets after sleepless nights, Franklin Livingston never falls out of love with expressing human emotion and capturing stories that need to be told. He believes that a good story must constantly be educating, entertaining and engaging. And that’s what he aims for in his productions.
Like someone that will put the needed effort in and behave like an actor both in the audition room and on the film set. Small acts of respect like turning the phone off before entering the audition room used to be a big indication of that, which is now lost in the “zoom room”. Then there is the emotional connection that you simply cannot make with your scene partner over zoom. So when we show up on set, it can produce some very dysfunctional results. Sometimes you will have very underprepared or undertrained actors that think all they need to do is recite their lines perfectly, but they have completely forgotten how to make that emotional, mental, physical, or spiritual connection with their scene partner(s) and get on moment-to-moment work to re-create a scene on set that they read on a piece of paper.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? Visualizing. Actualizing. There is beauty and power in these practices. However, I feel that learning to live, breathe, and exist in the moment without stressing about the future and focusing on your thoughts and feelings right now — is vital and the most valuable lesson you could ever complete. Often on the set myself or my assistants might worry about staying on schedule or getting behind, but there is no resolution without conflict, and we always claim victory when we work hard and never surrender.
I am a trained actor, filmmaker, and producer. I received extensive training from Atlantic Acting School, Moscow Art Theatre, New York Film Academy, and the Meisner Studio of Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. I received training in filmmaking and directing from New York University, and Yale University. I also trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. I prefer the more serious, dramatic roles that push and challenge my abilities. Please tell us how you make sure people will be fans of your work? I not only work very hard at everything I do, but I am a very genuine person. People often equate acting with pretending, but it is so much deeper than that. When I am acting, I am portraying a character that I have taken a very long time to get to know. You find a way to connect with the role you are playing so that there is personal truth in there too and when you get very good at doing this, your audience won’t be able to tell where you have blurred the line. It will feel very sincere instead, which is what viewers appreciate and deserve.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career? I hired an acting coach presuming that he was impressive because he was heavily connected with local television industry in New York. However, he would continually squander time talking trash, discussing my fees, and reminding me that because of my looks that I couldn’t possibly be the kind of actor I desired to be. One day he referred to an ethnic actor and said since he is ugly and a bit fat — that is why he got hired. He cautioned me that if I wanted to be fit and charming I still will not be hired because I could never live up to the American standards of good looks to be cast in any worthwhile projects. He told me light skin and light eyes are mandatory for popular lead roles and I had neither.
With possibilities comes challenges: Like many people who have been affected by the pandemic, Franklin is no exception. He mentions that during quarantine, he developed a couple of health conditions. He gained weight, became depressed, and started showing signs of aging. He, therefore, suggests an acting technique that supports the actors and can empathize with their emotional and cognitive state so they can have well-balanced lives. Franklin goes back and reflects on all the popular American acting schools and realizes that they affect actors emotionally or disrupt their mental well-being negatively. He mentioned it’s time for classic acting schools to revisit their curriculums and research why most actors who survive their training are introverts. They after two or three years of training, their actors end up becoming socially awkward, emotionally closed off, and distant from those community members who are not from the same professional backgrounds as them.