Feature: Star tutor deciphers secrets to UK actors' Hollywood success

When British actors have been showered with top prizes from the Golden Globes to the Oscars, a seasoned acting tutor in London are trying to decode the secrets to their triumphs in Hollywood's most demanding business.

Kenneth Rea, a veteran performing tutor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, has trained more than 1,000 actors during the past 30 years. He coached some of Britain's most famous actors, including Orlando Bloom, Ewan McGregor and Daniel Craig, before they ascended to international stardom.

In recent weeks, British actors have been laughing all the way to some of the world's most coveted acting awards, including the Golden Globes, the Oscars and the British Academy Film Awards (also known as BAFTA awards).

In Oscars alone, Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and Rosamund Pike from Britain were all nominated for their roles in films like The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game or Gone Girl, with Redmayne winning the best actor.

Rea said there was something unique about the British way of training actors, which helped them stand out on the world's stage and screen.

"It just gives people a solid sense of craft, of respect for the profession, and not to have too much egotism. To be generous and open, and to be comfortable in themselves," Rea told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The acting expert stressed the importance of "classical basis" in training actors. Many of his international students traveled thousands of miles to London to get an authentic taste of the British drama coaching.

"That is maybe one of the reasons why people from all over the world, particularly American actors, come to Guildhall and other top drama schools in Britain. They want to learn the solid nature of that classical acting basis, and the feeling for language," he explained.

Apart from the "classical" training, Rea also acknowledged that there were some commonalities among his most successful students.

"One thing those people had in common was great enthusiasm for the job. They brought a kind of enthusiasm to the work every day, day after day," he said.

And then comes charisma. "What makes an actor charismatic? I think one of the key things is focus, is to give total focus to the other actors," he noted. "If you look at the great actors on stage and on screen, they focus totally on the other actor, rather than thinking 'are you impressed by my good performance?'"

These are just two of the seven keys he has identified to successful acting, with the other five being: warmth, generosity, grit, danger (the capacity to surprise audience) and presence.

"Ken taught us to be dangerous; to abandon any sense of failure and to take risks -- that's where to find creativity. A lesson we can never stop learning," said Rea's former student Orlando Bloom, who stared in Hollywood blockbusters Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Convinced that these seven traits can make a real difference to an actor's career, he elaborated them one by one in his book, titled "The Outstanding Actor: Seven Keys to Success," set to be published later this month.

Ewan McGregor, another former student, known for his roles in films Trainspotting and the Star Wars series, said Rea's methods "opened the mind to what acting could be."

"There seemed no end to the possibilities, to the depth, only how far you were prepared to go," McGregor wrote for his tutor's new book. Endit