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Acting students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (mini传媒.) took part in a Q&A with one of the industry鈥檚 most versatile actors, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith MBE.听

In a career spanning over 20 years Kobna has worked successfully in film, TV, theatre, musicals, radio and audio books. His credits include films Wonka, Mary Poppins Returns and Ghost Stories, TV shows The Split, His Dark Materials and Motherland and stage shows The Effect, Hamlet and TINA: The Tina Turner Musical for which he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.听

His chat with students was wide ranging and insightful. Here are six of the key takeaways:听

The biggest challenge in your career is not the work. It鈥檚 what you do when you鈥檙e not working.听

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when you have to find fortitude, find a way to stay alert. If there鈥檚 been a long time since you鈥檝e worked it can erode your confidence. I had to find a way to stabilise when things weren鈥檛 going my way.听听

鈥淲hat I鈥檝e learned to accept is that there are always going to be periods when I feel a bit uncertain, a bit low, that I should have been a lawyer. But then something will happen, an opportunity to tell a story I want to tell, and it becomes a way of re-settling into why I do this.鈥澨�听听听

Collaboration is healthy 鈥� professionally and emotionally.听

鈥淓verything we do is collaborative. Everyone relies on someone else, so open yourself up to that. It will make you more generous, more curious and expose you to more human influences that you will then be able to express. And, just as importantly, it means you won鈥檛 be lonely and being lonely can be so depleting.听听

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to fall in love with everyone you encounter, but you do need to engage with them and that will keep you healthier than if you鈥檙e only thinking about me, me, me.鈥�听

Being a black actor is a different experience from being a white actor. There are more obstacles and challenges.听听

鈥淭here have been so many different drives, schemes, efforts, endeavours and initiatives to make things more equitable. I think those things are effective and are working but I do think things are harder, that鈥檚 just a fact. I don鈥檛 accept it; I just understand it.听听

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a young black actor, things are better than they were, you should keep going. Not only will you work, but you will also have opportunities to do interesting and exciting things. Whereas when I graduated it was like we had 鈥榦ne in and one out鈥�, where there would only ever be one black actor who was in the ascendency whereas there might be 14 white actors. I know things are changing but it can be very, very depressing if you zero in on the reality of things.鈥�听

What it鈥檚 like to win an Olivier Award.听

鈥淭hey read out my name at the ceremony, and it just didn鈥檛 feel real. The next 20 minutes I don鈥檛 remember. It鈥檚 only because I went back and watched videos that I was able to resurrect the memory.听听

鈥淚 have this photo taken after getting the award and I look like a 14-year-old because I look so confused that I鈥檓 holding an Olivier and its mine. It was incredible to have that affirmation and recognition from my peers and the industry, especially for my first musical and first time in the West End. It felt impossible.鈥澨�听

You don鈥檛 get paid for the stuff you want to do; you get paid for doing the stuff you don鈥檛 want to do.听

鈥淲hen I get a script, I will do four different readings of it as part of an objective analysis, which I think is vital. I will go through and write down everything the writer says about my character, then everything every other character says about my character, then everything my character says about themselves and finally everything my character does. Doing that exercise isn鈥檛 glamourous and it鈥檚 not hard - but it is tedious, that鈥檚 what makes it hard work.鈥�听

Learn your lines before you start rehearsals 鈥� it's a game changer.听

鈥淧eople will say 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to learn the lines yet because I don鈥檛 want them to be stale, I want to play with them.鈥� The only way you can really play with the lines is if you know them.听

鈥淎 director may say to you, 鈥業 know it sounds crazy, but can you try saying it like you hate her rather than love her?鈥� If you only know your lines a bit, you鈥檒l be reaching for them and what fuels your memory is the feeling you need to express. Unless you really know your lines, you won鈥檛 have enough versatility to try the new way of doing it. If you were to ask me for one bit of advice it would be, learn your lines!鈥�听

As well as the Q&A, Kobna also ran a workshop with a selected group students which explored how simple interventions to scenes can quickly produce results.听

Images: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith during a workshop with Acting students, and above Kobna with 12 of the students who took part in his Q&A. Photography Brian Roberts.

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