Meet Screen Acting Student: Zoe Cunningham

I interviewed our Screen Acting student Zoe Cunningham to find out what inspired her to do our Screen Acting course and what she enjoys the most about our classes.

What is your background?

After doing a mathematics degree I got a job in the technology sector and have been working there for twenty years. I started as a coder, but I was lucky to have lots of opportunities and branched out into sales and management. I didn’t realise how much I missed doing something creative until I read the amazing book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron five years ago.

What inspired you to do a Screen Acting course with us?

Acting is a tricky pursuit because it’s hard to get opportunities to practice. I learnt how to code by having someone pay me to learn for eight hours every day. As an actor, it’s highly competitive to even volunteer for a student film, and it’s hard to make a film completely on your own. I’d done a couple of self-tape classes with Shaun at Stage and the City before so I knew that he had a really good teaching technique, and I thought the screen acting class was a good opportunity to practice and develop my screen skills.

What do you enjoy the most about the course?

Working on Tarantino scripts has been immense fun. The dialogue is really well written and it’s fun to imagine that you’re actually in the film. Tarantino’s work has formed the basis for a great series of simple exercises including trying to “wiggle your big toe” like in Kill Bill or shutting down a customer in the diner stick-up in Pulp Fiction.

How have the classes benefited you?

I subscribe to the ten thousand hour theory – genius (including acting genius!) isn’t innate, it’s the result of ten thousand hours of work. So every two hour class is two hours more on my journey!