"It's actually very freeing to be given permission as an artist to let that ride and to really let it ride, to actually experience it and bring it out of you. It's been uncomfortable and it's freeing at the same time"
About this Quote
Holloway is describing a rare kind of license: not the freedom to invent, but the freedom to stop controlling the parts of yourself you normally keep camera-ready. The phrase "given permission" is the tell. Actors are paid to be porous, yet most sets quietly reward containment - hit your mark, keep it tidy, don’t let the emotion smear the schedule. When someone in power (a director, a scene partner, a script that finally fits) signals that mess is welcome, it can feel like a door opening in your own chest.
"Let that ride" is industry slang turned confessional. It suggests an impulse or feeling that arrives mid-take - anger, grief, desire, shame - and the usual instinct is to smooth it out, to protect the performance from looking "too much". Holloway’s repetition ("let that ride...really let it ride") makes it sound like a dare against self-editing. The subtext: discipline is part of the job, but so is surrender, and the best work often happens when you choose surrender without losing craft.
The interesting paradox lands in his last line. Uncomfortable and freeing aren’t opposites here; they’re linked. The discomfort is vulnerability, the fear of being seen as excessive or unprofessional. The freedom is discovering that the very thing you’re guarding might be the fuel. In a culture that polishes everything for consumption, he’s pointing to a more radical move: letting the raw material show up, then shaping it into something watchable without sanding off its edge.
"Let that ride" is industry slang turned confessional. It suggests an impulse or feeling that arrives mid-take - anger, grief, desire, shame - and the usual instinct is to smooth it out, to protect the performance from looking "too much". Holloway’s repetition ("let that ride...really let it ride") makes it sound like a dare against self-editing. The subtext: discipline is part of the job, but so is surrender, and the best work often happens when you choose surrender without losing craft.
The interesting paradox lands in his last line. Uncomfortable and freeing aren’t opposites here; they’re linked. The discomfort is vulnerability, the fear of being seen as excessive or unprofessional. The freedom is discovering that the very thing you’re guarding might be the fuel. In a culture that polishes everything for consumption, he’s pointing to a more radical move: letting the raw material show up, then shaping it into something watchable without sanding off its edge.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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