Daily Inspiration Quote by Lusia Strus

Strus is describing a kind of acting that thrives on a productive contradiction: discipline as the precondition for danger. She starts with the script, not because she’s reverent about text, but because it’s the only stable surface that lets you push off without wiping out. “Take cues directly from the script” signals respect for structure, pacing, and intention; it’s also a quiet rebuke to the romantic myth that great performances are pure instinct.

Then comes the real tell: “I like to surprise the other actors.” That’s not about showing off. It’s about creating live voltage on set, forcing partners out of autopilot and into something closer to real listening. In an era of heavily storyboarded, coverage-driven filming, surprise becomes a way to reclaim immediacy - the sense that something is happening for the first time, not being re-enacted for the fifteenth take.

But Strus isn’t endorsing chaos. “Maintain control… see how far you can go up, down or out emotionally” frames emotion like a soundboard, not a mood swing. The subtext is professional ethics: you can take risks, but you’re responsible for the scene, your partner, and the larger story. Going “out” emotionally hints at extremity, even messiness, yet it’s calibrated, tested against the boundaries of the character and the moment.

“Balance the craft with spontaneity” lands as an acting manifesto suited to contemporary realism: technique that doesn’t show its seams, freedom that’s earned rather than performed. It’s not spontaneity versus craft; it’s craft as the mechanism that makes spontaneity legible.