If You Think That Giving A Rotten Audition For A Big Film Role Is Bad…
Or you made a big mistake onstage in front of a packed audience…
Have you seen the photo of Rihanna’s new ink?
It’s Rihanna’s philosophy, and it’s been mine, too. Everything is a lesson. An opportunity to grow. As an artist, an actor. And as a human being.
As an actor, I knew that I could either learn something that accelerated me toward being the kind of actor that I strove to be. Or not.
In auditions, it only made the subsequent ones, easier. If I could get over not doing it as well as I wanted, or worse(!), I had three choices:
- I could beat myself up emotionally, and convince myself that I was not up to par.
- I could devote myself, even more assiduously to my acting craft, so that I could insure that my skills would not let me down, in future auditions.
- I could accept that some auditions just are not going to turn out perfectly. Which had an unexpected outcome, in fact. By that accepting that, I was more relaxed about audition expectations, and more relaxed altogether, in my auditions. Which made my auditions much better, because it allowed my talent to flow. Because I was more relaxed, I had more access to my full acting skill; my ‘acting instrument’ wasn’t stifled, by nerves, to be nearly unusable.
None of my personal auditioning philosophy, that I shared just now, would have happened if I hadn’t experienced some very uncomfortable casting opportunities. Talk is cheap. Experience is huge.
Sometimes, my lessons were that there is a lesson. That, simply that. Like a magic, and uncomfortable, pointer to a certain something that wasn’t being worked on, that needed to be. In my craft, in my attitude, or in my psyche.
Often, it was that I had fallen back into the bad habit of being negative. Or being too hard on myself. Or not enjoying the path, the process, the evolution of becoming a professional. Patience, and gratitude for being involved in something I truly loved with all my might, is pretty big stuff. Yet with a strong focus on a goal, it was easy to forget how lucky I felt, to be in the process of developing myself, and really doing something that I loved so much.
Professional Actors Audition Differently
An experienced, professional actor, walks into an audition much differently than a novice actor. They do the acting part of the audition differently, and they leave the casting room differently at the end. The entire time, a professional actor with some real solid work on their resume, relates to the casting director differently, certainly, than the novice actor. Or someone who has a fresher acting career.
One of the most beautiful things about acting, I believe, is that a professional actor can spend the rest of his or her life growing as an artist. I’m not sure other professions are like that. But, I wouldn’t know, either. Acting is the only real profession I’ve ever had.
Best,
;~Dana
PPS Do share, please, and thanks for paying this forward. Thanks also, for making an actor community in the world, and for being a part of mine!
♣
IMPORTANT NEWS:
I am doing a streaming workshop called the PRO ACTOR WORKSHOP. That’s right. I will teach actors how to be a professional actor…If you are interested, please use the ‘contact’ form to let me know. You can find it at the top of this page.
I will be sharing all the things that I know and learned from being an actor, who was on the inside. The real deal. I haven’t posted most of what I will be teaching, publicly; it hasn’t been here, or anywhere else; for that matter.
I’m not even going public with what my content will be, in this workshop. (Heck if I am going to give some of the fraudulent sites some real topics to hawk to gullible actors.)
I honestly know that you can’t learn this from any other “acting site”. Or live workshop, or class. It may change your life. I believe it will. SIgn up, because I am getting very excited to do this soon…There’s a lot of material, and I can’t promise I’ll want to do this workshop again!
PPS What I haven’t told you in this post is that I once made an onstage, cringemaking-for-life, error, in front of a packed house. Only flat-out begging can get me to tell that tale…
Thank you for this great post and life lesson. Benjamin Franklin once said, “I never failed. I just learned 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb.”. All experiences are opportunities to learn and grow. What you do with your experiences are entirely up to you. Grab the gifts in the lessons that can be learned from even the most seemingly humiliating. This article is definitely one to pass on and on to others!
Uh, Valery…Did they have lightbulbs in Ben Franklin’s day?