“Feel like a messy puppy,” Julia Crockett instructed me, her eyes shining with enthusiasm, as if she was already in the process of embodying herself. “Be a good lazy puppy,” she repeats excitedly. “Sloppy puppy, sloppy puppy.”
Now, Crockett isn’t literally asking me to transform into an animal over a matcha latte at a Lincoln Heights cafe. But that was the very real advice she gave Sarah Pidgeon (or “Pidge” as she refers to the actor) when it comes to harnessing the physicality of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, the role she recently played to rave reviews in the Ryan Murphy-produced TV series Love Story. “Her senses had to be alive,” Crockett says. “And I kept saying to Sarah, ‘Really use your eyes to see the world, touch the world, taste the world, breathe through your mouth. Notice every little thing.'”
Crockett’s sensory awareness makes sense considering she’s a movement coach. This means, in the simplest terms, that she helps the actor transform. She not only teaches her performers how to anthropomorphize various animals (a deer in the woods is one of them, according to her longtime client and friend Sarah Paulson), but also how to make them move as if they have greasy joints and slippery bones. First, walk using your nose. And I felt like my heart was about to burst. Sometimes it becomes her job to identify physical habits. “The other day I was in a session and I was like, ‘Loosen up your butt cheeks,'” Crockett says. “And she said, ‘How did you know?’ Usually that involves unraveling the underlying psyche of the character, which she likens to ‘a room inside an actor that you have to find the door to.’
For Crockett, it’s always been clear that the body should be carefully considered when telling a story, and these days more actors want to be involved in the process. She has worked in film, theater and television with an ever-growing list of clients including Emmy Rossum, Cristin Milioti, Austin Butler, Rachel Brosnahan, Luke Kirby, Rachel McAdams and Tommy Dorfman. She wishes she could work with all of them more, but it’s difficult to be in the same place long enough. Prior to our interview, Crockett had just returned to his home base of Los Angeles from finishing an unreleased project in Montreal. Afterwards, she’s heading to a sword session. There she will watch the unknown musician-turned-actor practice before flying to Kyoto together next week.
Although Crockett typically prefers to keep the big stars she’s worked with private (“It’s a very intimate experience,” she explains, and feels “almost perverted” to post about it), her clients are happy to praise her. “Our sessions leading up to filming felt like being kids again: exploratory, open-ended, safe, and without shame,” says Milioti, who co-starred with Crockett in the Emmy-winning role of Sofia Falcone on HBO’s “The Penguin.” “Julia introduced me to a way of working that I didn’t know existed,” Paulson says. I first met Crockett when she was preparing to play Linda Tripp in the Emmy-nominated film Impeachment: American Crime Story. “That was about six years ago, and I had never done any work without her.”
If this is your first time hearing about movement coaches, you’re not alone. It may be niche, but there are certainly others doing it. “I didn’t invent it,” Crockett insists. She points out that theater conservatories usually require some kind of movement class. “Even if it’s just a dance class, there’s an understanding that your body has to do its thing,” she says. “You need a dynamic, delicate, lively body.”
Crockett should be recognized as the inventor of her unique movement training method, which combines conditioning and personality coaching developed over nearly 20 years of studying the body. The NYU Tisch graduate was taught the discipline during her acting training by Nathan Flower, director of movement training at Terry Knickerbocker Studios, who noticed that she was particularly talented at it. At the time, she wasn’t completely sold. “I was like, ‘Okay, cool,'” Crockett laughs. “‘I’m going to be a movie star, so let’s do this while I’m at it.'” But for much of the next decade, Crockett served as an athletic director at schools such as his alma mater and conservatories such as Maggie Flannigan Studio.
Rossum was one of the first celebrities Crockett worked with as a coach. Rossum’s acting coach asked Crockett to help with the process. This is one example of a role where Crockett’s services can come in handy. It is based on persona, where actors are required to embody a person who is clearly different from themselves.
Crockett and Rossum on the set of “Angeline”
As the name suggests, character coaching focuses on the inner growth of a character. (Conditioning, another element of Crockett’s coaching, helps release the “tools” of one’s body, a body-focused work that actors typically do when they’re not involved in a project.) For Crockett, it also means conceptualizing a physicality that can reveal itself to an audience, or, in her words, “helping someone tell a story with their body.” It varies from project to project and actor to actor. “Some people really respond to energetic ideas and metaphors,” says Crockett (see: Sloppy Puppy). “Some people are very technical…think about your head being higher.” It took a little bit of both when it came to helping Paulson transform into Tripp. “It was like, ‘Linda is heartbroken, so I want her to be heartbroken,'” Paulson explains. “It wasn’t just, ‘You’re playing the role of a duck, and this is how you walk like a duck.'” It was, “Why do ducks walk like this?” What is the physiology of ducks? ”
Apply that to a role like Bessette Kennedy. “There are anecdotes about her that she was a very charming person and a very pleasant person to be around. She touched everyone and made everyone feel like family,” says Crockett, who combed through research and existing footage of deceased publicists to help her conceptualize. “It seemed to me that she must be a very sensual person.” This shaped Bessette Kennedy’s mannerisms in Pigeon. “The eyes were a really big part of it,” Crockett said, as well as the mouth. “(It) was so important to me that she kept it loose and open.” Pigeon’s lip biting and hair tossing were also deliberate choices. “It became something of a Sarah Pidgeon idea development,” Crockett says. “I also think that when Sarah did it, it made her feel like she was.” “This is where physical training comes in handy,” she continues. “Actually reaching that level of sensory confidence is not necessarily unique to Sarah Pidgeon, but for some it may mean a lifetime of therapy.”
Sarah Pidgeon plays Carolyn Bessette in “Love Story.” CR:FX
But if there’s anyone better suited to deal with an actor’s anxiety, it’s Crockett. He’s adapted well to it at the moment and, as Paulson explains, is usually unfazed by things that would make a normal person blush. “There’s no judgment,” the actor says. “She’s so comfortable in everything that you instantly feel comfortable in everything.” And, sure, that’s why even well-regarded actors can be shy, Crockett says, and it usually takes several sessions (at least three) to get someone to really open up. “The first few times, he was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,'” Crockett says of Chris Messina’s (another valued client) nervous first time. “And it was a lot of fun.”
Most clients prefer to be with Crockett whenever their schedules allow, whether in rehearsals, on set, at the reading table, or, as in Paulson’s case, in the living room. For “Love Story,” Crockett was around as much as possible with Pigeon, both physically on set and via FaceTime the night before filming. Logically, it looks different every time. “We have millions of pictures of Julia on set, sometimes crouched in a small corner, sometimes sitting in a trailer with the dog, sometimes sitting in a big square with the director,” Paulson says. He is often with Crockett during filming. In an ideal on-set operation, Crockett could work on an iPad connected to QTAKE, the on-set video assistance software. Depending on the director’s comfort level, she will give notes on the performance or translate. And when she’s not so welcoming on set, Paulson explains, “She hides in my trailer and she’s on her iPad, she’s using QTAKE, she’s got headphones on and she’s texting. I sometimes have my cell phone, but I just leave it on the couch or somewhere, and she’ll give me notes from there.”
Crockett serves as a kind of artistic ally for his clients, both on and off set, in a process that usually occurs in solitude. “Rehearsals are actually done on the spot with cameras, and then adjustments are made by the director,” says Crockett. Paulson points out that that’s difficult for actors, especially in television, where directors come and go, and it’s the actor’s job to “get the big picture.” Crockett can help you with that.
“When I was scared of ruining everything, I always left feeling energized by the time we spent together and shaking with excitement,” says Milioti. “Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of why I do this for a living because there are so many distractions and so much noise. There’s no noise in the room with Julia.”
