Head of the Class Prominent acting teachers—like David Legrant—and the students they’ve inspired Listings start on page 18 Tobey Maguire and David Legrant DAVID BORTOLUCCI DAVID BACKSTAGE.COM | SEPT. 30-OCT. 6, 2010 | SPOTLIGHT ON ACTING SCHOOLS & COACHES | 13 0930 SPOT ASC LA Teachers.indd 13 9/28/10 3:28 PM SPOTLIGHT ON ACTING SCHOOLS & COACHES David Legrant and Tobey Maguire David Legrant By Jenelle Riley
[email protected] lyson Hannigan believes that if David Legrant hadn’t become an acting teacher, he could have had a g reat career w riting A bumper stickers. “David has t hese great sayings,” enthuses the “How I Met Your Mother” star, who began studying with Le- grant when she was 20. “I wish I’d written them down because they were so clever and t hey help me every t ime I t hink of t hem.” L e- grant has a k nack for distilling his years’ worth of k nowledge into memorable phrases—one of Hannigan’s favorites is “If you’re going to paint a pic ture, are you going to p aint it w ith your own eye or someone’s else’s?”—that encourage actors to take charge. Fortunately for actors such as Hannigan, Tobey Maguire, Danny Glover, Bernadette Peters, and Steve Martin, Legrant opted out of DAVID BORTOLUCCI DAVID the bu mper-sticker bu siness a nd s tuck w ith h is p assion: teaching generations of actors the craft he knows and loves. “Acting can be Walton Goggins difficult, no doubt,” Legrant says.