This LGBTQ-affirming acting class is fostering 'the new Hollywood'
LOS ANGELES — Morgan O'Sullivan darted into a diner and sat across from Jasmine Linforth. Linforth began to eat oatmeal out of a cup, using it as an opportunity to seduce O'Sullivan by rubbing her leg against theirs.
The diner scene from David O. Russell's 2012 film "Silver Linings Playbook" became a tennis match of sorts for the two actors, who played the parts of Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence in the movie) and Pat (Bradley Cooper) in the middle of the Broadwater Studio during a weekly ActNow class led by its founder, Rain Valdez. As the actors volleyed back and forth, so did the tension.
Valdez paused the scene. She leaned forward and spoke from her theater seat in front of the black-box stage. Fellow students watched in anticipation from their own seats. Valdez encouraged the two actors onstage to raise the stakes.
Beginning again, the scene took on a new, playful energy that erupted in a passionate connection between the two. Valdez turned to Linforth and said that what she saw onstage was good enough to be in a Hollywood film, explaining that Linforth was clearly not holding back and that she was giving her all.
"You gave me permission," Linforth said. "Thank you."
For Valdez's students, this class' potency goes beyond the talent of its instructor — it also allows queer and trans actors to be themselves. "The space is more home than home feels like, because at home, we haven't been able to be
