We’re looking forward to introducing you to ACTORISM . Check out our conversation below.
Hi ACTORISM , thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
I have. I stood for myself, my truth, even when it meant walking away from security, comfort, and everything the world promised.
The outer world can never be completed. It keeps moving, always changing, always a few steps ahead while you chase. The exhaustion of it, always trying to prove you’re deserving. Of success, recognition, everything. Everything becomes a competition. You have to show the world you have the right job, the right status, the right future. Even love becomes something you earn through what you possess, what you’ve achieved.
The competition never stops. It cuts through everything.
I wanted out of that mad race.
So I turned inward.
Art helped me do that. Art accepted me as I was, without needing proof of anything. It taught me to think from the heart. The outer journey is about the self, conquering, controlling. The heart wants something else.
The heart wants you to surrender.
Art accepts you for who you are.
What was at stake? My career. My comfort. Future. Everything the world told me I should want.
The world outside isn’t permanent. Time takes it all away. I wanted something beyond that, something beyond the idea of beyond, timeless, eternal.
Art showed me the way.
Acting gave me the chance.
Acting is different from other art forms. A musician plays the instrument. A painter stands before the canvas. In acting, you are the art. There’s no separation. You dissolve completely. Creator becomes the creation.
No matter how successful you become, you live only one life. An actor lives many. So many characters that I forgot to worry about my victories or losses. I loved my characters’ dreams, felt their defeats, celebrated their victories, cried their tears, and even died their deaths.
Yet acting resurrected me. Again and again.
That cycle of dying and resurrection revealed something inside me that never dies.
Art took me from self to heart. From heart to spirit, you need something more.
You need spirituality.
Without it, art is just another chase. You’re still running after beauty instead of success, or success through beauty. The worry never leaves. Art without heart becomes a commodity. The market is there to trade it.
Art is born to represent love. To serve humanity. If it fails to spread love, to stand for humanity, to rise against injustice, it’s just a commodity, something to use and throw away, a one-time watch,.It’s not union.
Art is heart. When it’s pulsating, it’s living. It gives life to society.
And when art brings spirituality within, those necessary changes happen.
You stop creating to be seen. You create because it feels like giving birth, a new life. Art becomes your prayer.
Only then does art stop being something you chase. It starts to choose you instead.
Spirituality brings you within. Within, you discover something the world can’t give you or take away. You are your own beauty, your own worthiness, your own security.
The work becomes different, not proving yourself to others, but improving what’s inside. Not competing for validation, but moving closer to what you truly are. That inner work is enough. It brings you closer to something complete, something eternal.
An artist, if he’s lucky, sees this early, sees that all the external chasing leads nowhere. The awards, the praise, the beauty everyone celebrates, all temporary.
He feels a pull. A pull to create something that doesn’t need the world’s approval. Something that just is.
He turns to his heart.
But you have to be ready to sacrifice everything.
Only then does art start to reach for you, not you reaching for art anymore. It becomes your beauty.
In that moment, you and art become one, timeless, eternal.
The artist dissolves into his art. Creator and creation merge into one.
Only the art remains, breathing, expressing, celebrating its own existence.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Irfan Hossain and I am the founder of Actorism. It’s an advanced learning module for professional actors, where we do character building and role creation based on the script. Actorism is where scripts breathe. We infuse personality into the written texts.
Most actors perform in their own personality. They start repeating themselves film after film. Their characters think like them, speak like them, and behave like them. If their personality is charming, their characters look charming, but slowly this repeated behavior makes them monotonous and repetitive and finally brings irritation. Their charm loses its attraction and they fade into oblivion. Actorism was needed to help actors perform their roles, not themselves.
Most actors think that their personality must be impressive. They give so much attention to their outer personality, they don’t learn to adopt the character’s inner personality. If you are already a fixed personality, you can’t adopt different personalities. An actor should have a neutral personality and should know how to adopt different personalities and their inner and outer emotions and expressions.
We create behavior, speech patterns, gestures, postures. We translate a character’s psychology into the character’s behavior. Actorism helps actors become a complete being with their known and unknown experiences translated into a living being.
We decode and translate a character’s psychology, philosophy, ethical, moral, and spiritual values into their behavior, emotions, expressions, and speech. We help them create their internal, external, and emotional environment to help them truly live their part.
Actorism helps actors find their character’s likings and dislikings and reach out to their instincts. We train actors to find their natural instincts, even animal instincts, which helps actors behave in a particular way and express it with its unique individuality.
Actorism helps actors using ancient mystical and other meditative and scientific methods to reach out to the core of emotions, expressions, and behaviors. Actorism not just helps actors to live their roles, it helps them to play it, perform it, and create magic with it on screen.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
When I was very young, maybe five or six, I grew up in a small city in India.
In those days, both parents and teachers believed that children had to be beaten to learn good behavior.
They wanted discipline first, then education.
So we were learning through fear.
Fear was our teacher, and we learned through beatings.
I was one of those kids who always got into trouble ,talking too much, acting in class, making people laugh, forgetting homework.
Almost every day, something would happen, and I’d get punished.
Over time, I began to believe that maybe I was a bad student, that something was wrong with me, and that fear and punishment were the only ways I could improve.
One day, a teacher walked into class and asked, “Who wants to take part in the school play?”
I raised my hand, not because I loved acting, but because I thought, at least for a few days, I’d be safe from punishment.
That small decision changed everything.
During the shows, the teachers smiled and clapped for my performance.
Even when I made faces or acted wildly, they appreciated it.
For the first time, I realized there was something beautiful inside me,something worth appreciating.
That appreciation gave me a sense of power.
I decided, quietly, that I would keep learning more about it and find ways to grow in it.
That’s how my journey began ,one small play, one small child, and one big realisation : love teaches better than fear.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
When life pushes you to your knees, it’s the perfect position to pray.
Suffering shows who your real friends are. Success reveals whom you are a real friend to.
Through suffering, I learned that being alone isn’t the problem ,loneliness is. If you can be alone and still feel peaceful, you’ve become your own best friend. Your happiness doesn’t depend on others. It comes from within. Your aloneness becomes your strength.
When you’re successful, the world gathers around you. In pain, you discover who truly stands beside you, and who you truly are.
Suffering is the seed. Pain is the water. Flowering is the outcome. When the flower blooms, it gives fragrance even to the hands that once crushed it.
Physical wounds heal with time. Emotional pain the kind that shatters the heart ,teaches sensitivity, understanding, longing . Pain is the labor through which the heart gives birth to art.
As Ibn Sina said, sometimes we don’t want to heal because the pain is the last link to what we’ve lost. Pain keeps us connected to what we once loved. It reminds us of our humanity and the beauty that still lives within us.
Even in our darkest moments, when the world rejects you, your pain reveals a quiet gift: the chance to discover what is hidden treasure in you.
Take your broken heart and turn it into art. Through pain and suffering, your heart gives birth to your art..
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie the film industry tells you is that talent alone will do the needful.
The truth is. along with talent you need timing, luck, perception, and resilience to handle rejection. You need humility to learn constantly, patience to endure cycles, and the courage to stay authentic when the world wants you to imitate.
The industry also tells you that fame equals fulfillment, that rejection defines your worth, and that success is permanent. None of these are true. Fulfillment comes from craft, honesty, and truth not applause or awards. Rejection is part of the process, not a judgment on your ability. Success is never permanent; trends, cycles, and public taste are always shifting.
It may tempt you to fake it to get noticed, but confidence or formulas cannot create truth on screen. Authenticity, vulnerability, and the willingness to risk yourself are non-negotiable.
If you remember anything, remember this: the industry can shape you, distract you, and define you ,but the work, the inner journey, and the devotion to truth are yours alone. That is where your art truly live
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
When I’m not pretending, not trying , just being. When my mind, heart, and speech move together without conflict. When my thoughts, feelings, and words become one truth.
When I speak and someone’s eyes brighten, when their face softens, when I notice even the smallest reaction , a breath, a pause, a shift , that gives me peace. Because in that instant, I know something real has passed between us.
As Al Pacino said, an actor always tells the truth, even when he lies.
Acting isn’t pretending. It’s living truthfully inside imaginary circumstances. It’s the heart speaking through the mask. When I act, I try to speak through the experience the character lived through, not through memory. I try to behave truthfully, as if I am living life itself in that moment.”Truth leaks out between your expressions and dialogues (Hazrat ALI A.S) “ In that space, something wordless reveals itself ,a code only the heart can read. I search for those hidden treasures buried beneath the lines, the gems living in the subconscious and unconscious, waiting to surface through performance.
When I can play, perform, and create magic with it .When love and respect rise in the hearts of people who don’t even know me , that becomes the greatest gift I could receive.
That’s when I’m at peace. When truth finds a voice through me ,I feel at peace.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://actorism.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actorizm
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