As a young girl growing up in Arkansas, Julie Adams longed to be an actress. Even though the odds were against her, she believed in the inner voice that encouraged her toward her dream — and it ultimately helped her find success in movies and television.

“I’ve come to realize that whatever part of myself forced me to strike out rather haphazardly for Hollywood is the only real wisdom I possess.

“That part of me seemed to know that no matter how difficult achieving my goal might be, or even if I never achieved it, I would be happier striving toward my dream than if I tried to find security in a life I was unsuited for.”

~ ~

Julie Adams is 82 and has been acting since 1949. Publicity photo from Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).

Related: Intuition articles and Intuition quotes

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology, acting careers

I want us all to look at our beliefs and thoughts about acting and the business (they are two entirely different subjects, you know!).

The purpose of this is to bring to our consciousness any conflicting intentions or beliefs we may be holding that are sabotaging our success.

You can’t JUDGE the “business” or the “jerks who won’t let you audition” and expect to successfully get in a room to do that very thing!

And you really, really want to want to act because if you are conflicted, you will create sabotage around what you think you want!

Some examples of this look like the following: 1. I really want to act BUT I can’t make enough to support my family/am too old, fat, or the wrong type. I don’t have an agent. I don’t know how to get started. It’s a horrible time to begin blah, blah, blah.”

She continues with more helpful examples of self-limiting beliefs and thinking, and also reminds actors:

The business can shift your focus to it being “a job”, and lose the creative essence that is the core of acting. Remember the joy of sharing your heart that made you want to act in the first place. Celebrate yourself and your gift. Ultimately, you stay in joy and create what you want.

Quotes and photo from Official Dee Wallace Blog.

Also hear podcast interview with Dee Wallace by host Brad Swift of the Life on Purpose Institute.

Dee Wallace is author of the book Conscious Creation

Hear new podcast interview with Dee at Inner Talent Interviews.

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology, acting careers

Those who do become household names? They’re talented. Yes. That’s a given. Being even moderately successful in this industry requires a baseline of talent. Done.

These folks are also filled with charisma. They ooze it from every pore. You can’t take your eyes off them when they enter a room and you never will be able to figure out exactly why.

They’re charming in interviews, they’re quick-witted or smart or so goofy that you forgive that they’re neither quick-witted nor smart. And they love what they’re doing.

They are enchanted and mystified by the road they’re following.

They simply love getting to work. They have a blast just being who they are, every minute. Or at least that’s how it looks most of the time. They’re almost never in it for the fame. That fame thing is just something that happens because of how talented, how good-looking, how charismatic, and how lucky they are.

But when an actor comes to Los Angeles with his or her eyes on the prize of fame, of “household name” status, of being stopped on the street for autographs and stalked on Robertson for photographs, I want to ask that actor to redefine success.

For his or her own sanity.

Because success–when it’s measured in autographs and red carpets and stalkers and paparazzi and private jets–is too far away.

When, instead, it’s measured in “straight offers” and “straight to producers” or meetings to strategize which project will be next of the many from which you’re choosing, and handlers who tell you at which mics to stop as you navigate the red carpet (not as the film’s mega-watt-star but as one of the many wonderful, working actors whose work everyone loves), well, then you’re getting warmer.

And even better, when success is defined as you, being happy, pursuing the work that you love in the place that you love surrounded by people that you love and who love you, seeing measurable progress over the years, as your name moves up casting lists in more and more offices, while you remain gratified and fulfilled by the work you’re doing, well, that’s the bullseye.

That’s success you can attain.

~~~~

Bonnie Gillespie specializes in casting SAG indie feature films and provides career consulting services to actors.

Her books include Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors
and Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business.

~~~

Photo: Charlize Theron on the red carpet.

Related post: Shia LaBeouf on fame and meaning and insecurity

Related pages:
Fame and celebrity
Identity
Self-esteem / self concept

Also see my article: The Dark Side of Fame.

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, developing creativity, creative expression, acting self esteem, acting passion, entertainment psychology

She comments about her audition: “I just really didn’t think I was any good on TV,” she says, despite a short resume that also includes a part last year on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU.

“I just knew I wasn’t going to get it, so I was so relaxed about the audition that I got it. The same thing happened with my audition for Juilliard . . . if I don’t take it seriously, I tend to do better.”

About tv acting, she says, “I know it sounds silly, but it takes some time getting used to all the cameras in your face. I think it’s like playing jazz.

“After I learn the rules, I can have fun and play a little bit.”

From article St. Petersburg native, ‘Lie To Me’ co-star Monica Raymund ready to put in the work, By Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times

acting talent, acting performance, training as actor, acting self esteem, acting passion, audition success

She thinks, “that kind of anxiety in me, that obsession, was helpful. I use it in my acting. It’s something I don’t want to give up feeling, because it gives me an edge.” [Allure magazine, September 2009.]

But maybe it’s a matter of how we label our feelings. Many talented actors or singers like Seyfried may want to keep an “edge” to feel they are working at their best.

A positive “edge” may be high energy, plus excitement mixed with some fear – but not really anxiety.

In my post To create we need high energy – not anxiety, I note that there seems to be an enduring mythology about creative inspiration and performing – as an actor, for example – that it benefits from an “edge” of nervous tension or even anxiety.

For example, Nathan Fillion (who played a doctor in “Waitress”) performed in high school musicals to beat shyness.

“I remember being on stage, and that stage fright, that excitement — I get a real high off of that,” he says.

But creativity coach and writer Eric Maisel, PhD comments in our interview Ten Zen Seconds (about his book) that this really is a false and distorting idea: “It isn’t at all clear that tension or anxiety is what’s needed for peak performance and lifelong creativity.”

He says those feelings “may be unavoidable by-products of the difficulties that we face as we try to do large things and connected to our fear of failing, fear of making messes and mistakes, and so on, but they are not beneficial per se.

“You want enthusiasm, passion, love, curiosity, interest, and so on to inform your work and to exist right in the moment, in the performance moment or the creative moment, while at the same reducing (or eliminating) your fears, worries, anxieties, and so on.”

He adds, “Creating is not an energy-neutral state: it is a high energy state, with, at its healthiest, enthusiasm and not anxiety driving its engine.”

Amanda Seyfried (pronounced “sigh-frid”) also admits she suffers from anxiety attacks. “Like, the other day, I had an attack in the middle of a relaxing massage: My head was just spinning, and I felt nauseous! I was saying to myself, Just don’t make a scene! Finish this massage, or you’re going to be really annoyed with yourself.”

In his article  Anxiety and Panic Attacks Can Strike Anyone!, Bertil Hjert notes that millions of men and women struggle with anxiety or panic attack problems that affect their daily life. Some of the effects are small or simply inconveniences and some of the effects are more significant and life limiting.

“Anxiety is a real condition that can affect anyone.”

This video clip with Eric Bana and Leslie Mann is from the trailer for their new movie Funny People.

In a BackStage magazine interview, Mann says she is terrible at auditioning. “I get so scared, and I can’t seem to get out of my head,” she admits.

She appreciates casting directors who are patient with her, and notes there were many who were rude. “The people who responded to me were the people I respected,” she says.

“I remember the people who were rude and dismissive; I would watch the TV show or movie they cast, and it was always a piece of shit. Always. And the people who responded to me or were kind to actors, they always made the good stuff. So when people are being assholes, you might as well not waste your time and walk away..”

Good advice. Many actors get anxious about auditions, about not getting work, dealing with difficult people, and other issues that are kind of built in to the profession.

Energy psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D. works with many actors to help them overcome anxiety.

She says one approach is using beta blockers or Inderal, a medication to reduce stage fright by decreasing the fight or flight response.

But she thinks a better way is a three minute mini-meditation she teaches her clients, and includes in her book Emotional Freedom.

It helps people “learn how to breathe, center themselves, let their thoughts flow by, and focus on something really nurturing and positive for three minutes, which is a better way to shift your anxiety and really own the moment.”

Dr. Orloff also writes about how to deal with energy vampires, like some casting directors, acting coaches and, really, people in any field.

BackStage interview article: Isle of Mann

Audio interview with Judith Orloff, M.D.

Book: Emotional Freedom, by Judith Orloff.

Non-drug help for stage fright etc: Anxiety Relief Solutions

Acting articles

Talent Development Resources

“Everybody I know who has been pursuing a career in the arts. It’s a very difficult life to have chosen.”

From article Actors and Anxiety – Get Help For Your Stage Fright

I am an aspiring actor and singer and am also the host and creator of Dramatic Impact: Acting and Theatre in Alberta.

Dramatic Impact is a podcast that through video and audio recordings of interviews, forums, and performances, reveals how rich and vibrant the theatre scene is in Alberta, Canada.

Although the podcast is of special interest to Albertans, I also believe that each episode contains insights and ideas that are of interest to theatre and acting enthusiasts everywhere. This is confirmed by the fact that the podcast has a small but loyal audience that includes listeners from 20 different countries.

As an actor and host of a theatre podcast, I am fascinated by how my development as a person is influenced by my development as an actor and also by the role that actors play in society.

These are themes that fit in very well with the focus of The Inner Actor. So when I discovered Douglas’ site, I wrote to him about my “Secrets of the Actor” episodes.

“Secrets of the Actor” Parts 1 and 2 contain a series of interviews with six different actors. During the interviews, I asked each actor what insights they had gained about other aspects of their life through their acting, and I got some fascinating answers.

You can download or listen to these episodes on the Dramatic Impact web site:
Episode 7: Secrets of the Actor, Part 1 and Episode 8: Secrets of the Actor, Part 2.

And now, you can listen to Secrets of the Actor, Part 3, which is being released for the first time here on The Inner Actor. You can listen right here on the site or download the .mp3 file.

In Part 3, I talk about some of my own ideas. Specifically, I focus on two ways that the pursuit of acting can give us insight into our own lives and can influence our personal development.

I also briefly discuss how this relates to an actor`s ability to touch the minds and hearts of an audience.

I hope you enjoy these three audio episodes of Dramatic Impact.

Please use the comments to let me know how you think the pursuit of acting has affected your development as a person and enriched your life.

[Text and audio copyright Elaine Elrod. Published here by permission.]

[Interviewer:] People do end up isolated on set.

It is a very isolative environment. It forces a sense of autonomy, and I suppose, I think, I may thrive on that kind of loneliness!

That’s the creature I am.

Do you have any hobbies?

I do spend quite a bit of time thinking. I do have hobbies! I’ve never really referred to them as hobbies. I have absolutely not a moment through the day where I allow the word “bored” to be even muttered under one’s breath in the household.

So I find that if I’m not interacting with one or all of the children or arguing.. with an ex-husband, then I’m painting, writing, riding, tending to a garden, trying to figure out what’s wrong with my composter, building a new fence.

I have a tool kit that is enviable to most men, and I just very seldomly sit still.

So I do enjoy keep my mind lubed. Well lubed!

From Sunday Conversation: Gabrielle Anwar, By Choire Sicha, LATimes.com June 28, 2009

Related posts:

Nurturing creativity in solitude

Pumping our teeming brain