Head of Acting for Stage and Screen here at AFTT Glen Hamilton had the privilege of judging the Logies again this year, and went along to watch The award ceremony.
We chatted to him to find out all about what it’s like to be a judge at the Logies and his advice for getting that win.
Glen trained and worked as an actor in some TV and film roles but predominantly worked as an actor and producer in theatre. He then moved his career more into directing, while also establishing himself as an acting teacher at various drama schools in Sydney including here at AFTT.
Glen! So how was it attending the Logies?!
It was a lot of fun! It’s always a great experience and is kind of flattering that they’ve asked me to do it again. Plus, I get to put on a suit which I don’t get to wear very often, the same one I wore last year incidentally!
What do you look for when you are judging?
It’s about presence on camera, whether the actors are honest in their performance and how they engage with their audience through the camera. It’s really all about reaching the audience through the actor’s relationship with the camera first of all and then how well they tell the story. Ultimately, believability is the true measure. Do I believe that the character I am seeing is truly experiencing their situation and the world around them.
What was your favourite part of the night?
Towards the end of the night when everyone is drunk! At the beginning you hang in the foyer and it is all a bit tense and awkward, but then about half way through the ceremony when the drinks are flowing, people start to relax and enjoy themselves more. It is a lot of fun!
So one of the biggest wins of the night was Waleed Aly taking home the Gold Logie. How was the atmosphere around that?
It was a pretty important thing. Noni Hazelhurst got the lifetime achievement award and you could definitely feel a sense in the room through her speech that people felt that a change needed to happen. She bought a lot of context into her speech about the way the industry is operated from a gender point of view in favouring men but also racially and culturally, so I think everyone was poised for it. I think everyone thought it would either be Waleed or Lee Lin Chin, but so many people got affected by his speech earlier in the year on The Project – it was a rising tide of awareness around racism and cultural perceptions. The community spoke in response to this and I believe the points he raised were vindicated through the public recognising this in his Gold Logie award.
What advice would you give to your students looking to make it in the industry?
There are a lot of factors involved in it. As a base, you want to make sure you are really good at what you do and really professional in the way you work but at the end of the day its really about casting. If you are the right person for that role and you get cast in it and the show does well then you can build a career from that, but there is no real set way of doing that, a lot of it is down to opportunity. At the end of the day, to make your chances the greatest, you need to be the best you possibly can, so work really hard, understand what it is like to be on camera and understand the relationship with your audience. I think a lot of actors don’t do that, they don’t understand that it’s about forming a relationship with the audience through the camera. A lot of people will get nervous with the camera and think of shutting it off and pretending its not there, where as I think it’s important to bring it in to what you are doing. Another important factor is to be professional and be nice to work with. Everyone who was up on that stage are there because they are team players.
Thanks Glen and congratulations to graduate Firass Dirani who was also nominated for Best Actor for his role in House Husbands!
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