• Whenever someone asks me what I'm doing and I say I am the dialogue coach on Its like, you know..., or the show I'm currently working on, they ask, "What does that mean?" Or they think it is a dialect coach who corrects speech or teaches accents or dialects, which it is not.

• Cherie Franklin, actress and acting coach, is a well known dialogue and acting coach on feature films and television.

Q: What do you do as an acting/dialogue coach on a set?

• I try to isolate each actor's individual problem. They might be frightened or lacking information or knowledge. I get to know the actor in order to find what might be stopping him from really nailing a script or understanding the emotion of a character and being able to use his own emotions to fuel that particular character's life. Our tools are our emotions and our facility to call those emotions up and down easily at 2:l5 in front of 75 people and 50 crew members. It's my function to get the actor comfortable with being able to use his emotions. I build up a safe bed of trust where the actor can tell me his needs, can admit his flaws, can state his fears so that we can eliminate them. I am working with the director's vision, supporting the actor in his ability to take direction and to execute the director's request in performance efficiently.

• Each dialogue coach may give you a different job description. On other shows, I have been the acting coach where I actually prepare the actor or actors for the director, rehearsing with them and helping them to make their acting choices.

• On the show I currently work on, and in the recent past, I am there to run lines and rehearse with the actors, to help them memorize their lines and incorporate any line changes or new scenes that suddenly arise. Typically on sitcoms, there are changes each day and even while shooting, there may be changes between takes. Sometimes I just read the cue lines flat; other times I read the full lines of the other characters, close to the way the characters will be saying their lines so the actor I'm reading with can work out their moves, timing and reactions.

• Sometimes we will have non-actors as guests on a show. I usually work very intensely with them to not only help them to learn their lines but to help them sound real. We had Los Angeles Mayor Riordan on Its like, you know..., he had all of his scenes with A.J. Langer who plays Lauren. As I was running the lines with them, the Mayor said about himself, "Oh that didn't sound real.". A.J. gave him such a great tip. She said, 'Try and make each line just a little different, have a different attitude on each one." That was such an easy way to think about the lines. He understood what she meant and really gave a good performance and got laughs.

• Each actor has their own personality and their own way of working. The coach must try to be very sensitive to their needs because there is much more that goes into the acting process than the words. Some actors like me to be close by all the time; (Jerry Seinfeld, Olivia d'Abo and Jennifer Grey) others prefer to work mostly on their own and ask me to run lines with them occasionally. Still others may like to just sit down and go over a difficult scene or some may just want to go over the line changes.