Star Maker
Top acting coach (Cruise, Foxx, J-Lo) Susan Batson comes home for an award in her mother's name.
Do famous actors get stage fright?
Absolutely. Without question.
You've seen it.
Oh, absolutely. I mean big-timestage fright. Some throw up. Some have anxiety attacks.
Nicole Kidman calls you a great coach in her introduction to your new book, Truth. What makes a great acting coach?
The biggest thing is empathy. The second is the love of the art form. I'm going on an 11-year relationship with Nicole. You would think at some point she would say, "I don't need a teacher or a coach." It's a sense of discipline and responsibility. She would never go on set unprepared.
Can you teach anyone to act?
You have to have some roots. You have to have a passion. You may not have great talent. But if you love it, you can lift that person to maybe not great, but good. When I first met Sean Combs, he said to me, I have a desire to be a great actor. The passion was there. He had a kind of commitment to be true. He may lie every day on the street, but he had this inner integrity that blew my mind.
Why was your own acting career so brief?
I became a single parent. I think I had tunnel vision. I could not balance the parenting on the level I wanted to.
But do you think if there were more roles for black actresses, you'd be acting or coaching?
This is very good point. I do know that when I coach actresses, what's on the table for her would never be on the table for me. Never. I think of an Angela Bassett. Or even Whoopi, who carved out the best career she could. I'm on a film now with Janet Jackson. There is movement.
You grew up in Roxbury and your late mother, Ruth Batson, founded METCO and served on the Democratic State Committee. Is there acting in politics?
I think my mother was the greatest actor I know. She could literally imitate anyone. She could drop into their voice and accents.
She also once filed a discrimination suit on your behalf when you lost a role to a white actress. Did you feel discriminated against?
The director could not say it was a bad performance. I knew that. I think we politicized the situation, which I am still known to do.
Politics have always been a part of your life. Were you surprised when you heard you'd receive an activism award named for your mother? (On April 10, Batson will get the first Ruth M. Batson Social Justice Award from Harvard Medical School's Office of Diversity and Community Partnerships and Cambridge Health Alliance.)
I could cry right now. I think it's great. Her contribution has not been forgotten. She walked the talk. For people to keep remembering that is amazing. To receive it is beyond anything I could desire. 