My active interest in acting as an exploration of living started (of all things!) when I watched some of the Star Trek NG franchises. Some performers just seemed to stand out more amongst the others, even though their lines were just as terrible, and I found myself more involved in their character’s predicaments than the rest. Since then I’ve come to admire many actors whose diverse styles and approaches reflect how different people act in a number of situations. Since a child I’ve always found Ray Winstone an incendiary on-screen presence, Robert de Niro a disinterested magnetism, Gillian Anderson a silent implication. Though an untrained vaudeville performer, the son of deaf mute parents Leonidas (‘Lon’) Chaney became a silent movie star, a born mime artist whose behavioural tics spark his performances into fascination. Though his films seem dated today, their sensibilities quaint and their plots melodramatic, Chaney re-creates an essence of his understanding through a dazzling mix of charisma, observation, disguise and immersive transformation.