What If You Could Explore
Intense Emotions Without Using Your Own Pain?
Watch The EDP Experience
Discover the Emotional Distancing Phenomenon — a body-based approach to creating emotionally truthful characters while maintaining a clear distinction between actor and role.
What is EDP?
EDP is a body-based approach that helps actors access authentic emotion without deliberately mining personal pain. Through physical transformation and imagery, emotion can emerge from the character’s constructed body rather than the actor’s autobiographical experience.
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BUT WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO THE ACTOR?
The character feels.
The actor observes.
WHAT IF THE EMOTION BELONGED
TO THE CHARACTER — NOT TO YOU?
EDP guides the actor through physical transformation and imagery, so emotions arise from the character rather than personal memory.
FIRST-TIME ACTOR. 30+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE.
ONE SCENE. SAME EMOTIONAL FREEDOM.
CAN THE CHARACTER BE IN PAIN
WHILE THE ACTOR IS IN BLISS?
The character lives the emotion.
The actor experiences the joy of creating it.
WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE
WHEN YOU STOP CHASING EMOTION?
More freedom. More spontaneity. More presence.
Without forcing yourself to feel.
BE PRESENT
Respond to your partner instead of managing your emotions.
BE FREE
Let emotion emerge without forcing, manufacturing, or reliving it.
BE AVAILABLE
Stay open to what happens in the scene — differently, every time.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO REACH FOR EMOTION.
YOU HAVE TO MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE TO IT
EDP ENTERS THE LAB
After more than three decades of observation in actors, EDP is moving from the rehearsal room into scientific investigation.
CAN THE BODY CREATE THE CHARACTER’S SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE?
THE HYPOTHESIS
IMAGERY → BODY → EMOTION
Structured mental imagery reorganizes the actor’s body.
The altered body changes the information available to the brain.
Emotional experience may then emerge from the character’s embodied state.
What began as an acting technique evolved into a hypothesis that drew the interest of neuroscientist António Damásio.
ANTÓNIO DAMÁSIO
Neuroscientist · Brain and Creativity Institute
GULU MONTEIRO
Creator of Emotional Distancing Phenomenon (EDP)
AND IT CAN BE TESTED
BRAIN
fMRI · EEG
BODY
Heart rate · Skin conductance · Respiratio
EXPERIENCE
Movement analysis · Structured subjective reports
FROM AN ACTING TECHNIQUE TO A QUESTION ABOUT HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
WHAT IF YOU COULD EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF?
EDP isn’t something you understand intellectually.
It’s something you experience in your body.
IMAGINE → TRANSFORM → DISCOVER
A glimpse inside the EDP process
DON’T TRY TO FEEL THE CHARACTER.
CREATE THE CONDITIONS — AND LET THE EXPERIENCE EMERGE.
THE EDP WORKSHOP
EXPERIENCE EDP IN PRACTICE
A hands-on workshop where actors explore character transformation through imagery, physical organization, perception and play — without forcing emotion or relying on personal emotional memory.
WHAT YOU’LL EXPLORE
IMAGERY
Character construction
through imagery
BODY
Physical
transformation
PERCEPTION
Character-based
perception
EMOTION
Emotional
emergence
PLAY
Improvisation
SCENE
Scene work
and interaction
WHO IT’S FOR
From actors beginning their training to experienced professionals.
READY TO EXPERIENCE EDP?
EDP training is currently offered exclusively online, making it possible to work together wherever you are.
ONLINE GROUP WORKSHOPS
Experience the EDP process with other actors through guided physical exploration, character work and scene practice.
PRIVATE ONLINE SESSIONS
Work one-on-one with Gulu, with the process tailored to your training, a specific character, or your individual needs.
ROLE PREPARATION
For Film, Television & Theatre
Individual coaching for actors preparing a specific role — using EDP to explore the character’s body, perception, behavior and emotional life while responding to the particular demands of the script and production.
Private sessions are offered in English, French and Portuguese. Group workshops are currently held in English.
FIND THE RIGHT FORMAT FOR YOU
Complete the form to receive information about available programs, schedules and pricing. There’s no commitment — just tell us what you’re interested in, and we’ll send you the options.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
GULU MONTEIRO
Director. Educator. Creator of EDP.
Gulu Monteiro is an award-winning theatre, opera and film director, acting professor, and the creator of the Emotional Distancing Phenomenon (EDP).
For more than four decades, his work with actors has explored a fundamental question: How can an actor experience the emotional life of a character fully — without having to use their own personal emotional history to create it?
That question became a lifelong investigation — developed in rehearsal rooms, classrooms and productions across the United States, Europe and Brazil — and ultimately evolved into EDP.
FROM THE STAGE TO THE CLASSROOM
Gulu’s directing work has been presented by institutions including the Getty Villa, LA Opera, The Broad Stage and the Centre Pompidou, with productions receiving Ovation Award, LA Weekly Award and Maddy Award honors.
40+ YEARS
Working with actors
USC
School of Dramatic Arts
UCLA
8 years · School of Theater, Film and Television
PARIS
L’École du Jeu
A LIFELONG INVESTIGATION
EDP was not conceived as a theory and then applied to actors.
It emerged from actors themselves
Through decades of observation, experimentation and practice, Gulu began to recognize a recurring phenomenon: when the actor’s physical organization changed through carefully structured imagery, perception changed with it — and thoughts, impulses and emotions could begin to emerge without being deliberately manufactured.
The actor could experience the character intensely while remaining aware:
This belongs to the character.
It does not have to belong to me.
That discovery became the foundation of Emotional Distancing Phenomenon.
TODAY, THE INVESTIGATION CONTINUES
From professional productions and conservatory classrooms to the emerging scientific investigation of EDP, the question remains the same:
WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE WHEN THE ACTOR STOPS TRYING TO FEEL — AND ALLOWS THE CHARACTER TO LIVE?
WHAT ACTORS EXPERIENCE
EDP is not only something actors learn.
It is something they discover through experience.
American Actors
French Actors
Brazilians Actors
Industry Testimonials
"Gulu uses the actors in a wondrful way... The commitment to the characters’ intentions is so high, and the stakes are so high, that the actors are just busy doing.”
— Larry Moss (Acting Coach)
"Amazing how the cast could play two roles at the same time and commit fully to both characters... completely transform themselves and become a completely unrecognizable person."
— Kathryn Morris (American Film Star)
"Gulu works by encouraging the actor to stimulate their creativity, discovering the character through the body and not letting the rational interfere in the process. It is a valuable immersion experience conducted with great sensitivity."
— Rodrigo Santoro (International Film Star)
"Gulu's work is amazing. At each stage of his work, the actor experiences, as in life, a constantly renewed creation of his actions and feelings, while being aware that he is still playing."
— Brigitte Fossey (International Film Star)
"This kind of movement theatre that Gulu does, I haven't seen before. It's really, really good"
— Jacqueline Bisset (International Film Star)
“It provides a lot of freedom as an actor to really explore, go beyond what you might do if you're just there as yourself.”
Tobey Maguire (Film Star and Producer)
“FEELINGS ARE THE RESULT OF ACTIVE DOING.”
— Sanford Meisner