Welcome back!
And thanks for reading! This is week 9 in the series relating to the psychology of the business, particularly as it relates to auditions and booking work and we will be exploring Control.
REMEMBER:
Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen. What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting.
Before we begin…
The last couple of weeks have been crazy hectic with a LOT going on. As I mentioned last week, we recently bought an RV…which we picked up on Thursday (that experience could be an entire post all by itself, but this blog is not about RVing – it was, as we used to say in the Navy, a “soup sandwich”, but it worked out in the end), drove it for the first time That’s me on the right – Semi for scale. If you are interested it is a Thor Venetian R40
Then Karen’s mom wound up in the hospital (She’s OK now) and on Friday our grandson was born!
It’s been crazy, but all worked out fine and we were delighted to meet Sullivan Rain MacCauley for the first time! I’ve already promised to take him to Disney World in the RV…I doubt he’ll remember it, but I will! Anyway, let’s talk about control!
Life
So many things in life are out of our control. Illness, injuries, death, weather, birth, going into labor (we were sleeping in our new RV two hours away (in a rainstorm from Hurricane Ian of course) when THAT happened a week early) …just so MANY things we cannot control. Acting is no different than life in that respect. The one thing we CAN control in every situation is how we react to the things that are out of our control.
Relinquish control
It’s ironic that we say we need to relinquish control over things we never had control over in the first place. The hard part is both realizing what we can control and what we can’t, and then not trying to control the things we can’t anyway. Many, if not most, if not ALL, of us drive ourselves crazy trying to control things we simply cannot control. We really need to understand that the list of things we can control is very short, and the list of things we cannot control is nearly infinite…in life as well as acting.
It’s freeing
It’s not easy, but once we realize, and I mean REALLY realize, what few things we have control over and then concentrate on controlling them we become free. Free to be creative, free to offer our genuine selves, free to relax and free to understand we are not failures when things don’t go our way. We are also free to react when things take a left when we expected them to take a right in a way that keeps moving us toward our ultimate goal as an actor.
Emotions
Here is the problem: emotions. Emotions get in the way. As humans we tend to let how we feel dictate how we act. I’m here to tell you that is a problem. Oh, feeling is not the problem. We HAVE to feel…an emotionless person is not a satisfied person. We have feelings, and they are valid. Always valid…we feel what we feel. And feeling those emotions lets us translate them to our performance, so feelings are also a tool in our acting toolbox. What is bad is allowing how we feel, our emotions, to make decisions for us. Try to never react based on how you feel…instead, give yourself time to feel things, then step back and react based on the facts of the situation.
Yeah, sometimes it just sucks
Let it suck, feel it. In the military we used to say, “embrace the suck” – which loosely translated means take it in, feel it, then realize that this is just the way it is and then keep going anyway. In spite of the suckiness, look at the situation as it is (not as you would like it to be) and make decisions based on the facts and reality.
Don’t get me wrong
I’m not suggesting that, since most things are out of our control, we just let life whip us around chaotically. I mean, it will anyway, but we still need to plan and set goals and keep moving toward them regardless of what gets thrown at us. You can’t just sit back and let your career “happen” to you.
Goals
Speaking of goals, this is ONE of the few things you control. If you don’t have goals, or your goals are loosely defined (like: my goal is to be famous – what does that even actually MEAN?) then you are letting your career control you rather than the other way around. Having clearly defined goals for your acting career that are realistic and achievable, and updating them regularly, are a key to how we react when life throws us a curve ball.
What we can’t control
The list of things we cannot control in our careers is long. Way too long to list them all here. But a short list of SOME of the things we can’t control that are most pertinent include:
- Whether or not you book a given role
- What the casting team is looking for (you can’t even really KNOW that – and much of the time THEY don’t even know it!)
- Whether you can sign with a particular agent or manager
- Whether you get an audition
The list goes on. And none of the things listed above are necessarily driven by your talent. You can be the best actor who auditions, and not book the job because your scene partner is much shorter (or taller) than you. It could be as simple as that and there is no chance you can control it.
What we can control
This list is much shorter than the things we can’t control. To be perfectly clear, while the above list seems short it is incomplete. In reality, anything NOT on the following list is completely out of our control:
- Setting and managing goals
- Time
- Preparation
- Attitude
That’s it. That’s the entire list.
Time
There are several aspects to this. You control how much time you put into your acting career. How much time you invest in training and preparation. The most important aspect of time, though, is this: BE ON TIME. Time is a precious commodity and each of us has a finite amount. Another military thing we live by is: If you are not 15 minutes early you are late. Make sure you give yourself enough time to arrive a few minutes early to auditions. You won’t feel rushed and you respect the time of the people conducting the auditions.
Preparation
Yeah, I get it…sometimes you have very little time to prepare for your audition. Lately it seems like a lot of jobs send you an audition today and want something back by tomorrow or even just a couple hours later. Sometimes you are given the sides as you walk in the room! But preparation is not just looking at the sides and deciding who the character is and how you will play the role. Preparation includes your training and exercising the muscles to be able to walk into a cold read and nail the part. Make sure you are continuing your training AND preparing from the sides if you get them ahead of time. Be on time and be prepared.
Attitude
This is probably the most important thing you can control. Be personable, be helpful and understand you are presenting an option to the casting team. They want to fill the role; they want you to be great so they can fill the role. Remember that the casting team is on your side – they want to find the right person and fill the role! You want to not only be on time and prepared, you want to be someone they want to work with. Your attitude can make or break the audition.
On top of that
How you react when you don’t get the job is as important as when you do! Remember that there are a million reasons why you may not be cast and don’t let not being selected get you down. Maintaining a positive attitude about auditions and booking (or not booking) a role will manifest itself in your performance. While you may not be right for the role you auditioned for, a friendly helpful person is much more likely to get called in to audition again – and you could be PERFECT for the next role…but you can’t get it of you aren’t called in to audition.
When you get the gig
All of these things still hold true once you’ve booked the gig: Make sure you are on time, prepared and have a great attitude while working!
At the end of the day
The list of things that are out of your control is endless. However, if you concentrate on the few things you CAN control you will dramatically improve your odds of booking a gig. Although, even if you control everything you can perfectly, still…You’re not getting the f*&^ing job!
Tune in next week
When we’ll discuss “This is supposed to be fun!”.
Your deep Gary.. I enjoyed the read.
LOL…thanks Alex…not sure how “deep” I am, but I am glad you enjoyed the read!
Your “what we can’t control” list is a great one. A lot of people mistakenly think those are things they need to get control of somehow – and it can amount to a lot of energy wasted! Energy that could go toward keeping a good attitude or something constructive!
Thank you for another great update!!
Honestly, we can only really control ourselves…and most of us are not very good at THAT!