Am I making the “RIGHT” choices in my acting?
“I don’t know if I did it how they wanted.” “I’m not sure if I made the right choice.” “I hope they liked me”.
If this is your headspace after an audition it’s time to stop giving your power away.
What if you could shift away from the idea of getting it right or getting it wrong and instead approach your work with curiosity, playfulness and OWNERSHIP?
You bring your own, unique life experience to every role you will ever play which means nobody can do it quite like you. And while, of course, you will still make choices that come from the text, every impulse you have, every decision you make, comes from your own lived experience.
And sure, this might mean that sometimes your interpretation of a moment will be different from how the casting director or director initially envisioned it but this doesn’t mean it’s wrong! And there’s nothing more exciting in an audition than an actor who pulls off a confident and bold choice that is supported by the text. It will jolt them to attention.
Instead of giving your power over and needing to be picked, begin your work on an audition as if you already have the part– as a collaborator with a whole loved experience to offer. Forget about “the right way”. Listen to your impulses. Bring you.
CLASS CLIP TRANSCRIPTION
Sarah: Here’s some possibilities, I’ll put these in your head so you can see if it gets you on the right track. Again, these are possibilities, these come from my brain, and I know that once you get this, you’re gonna put all this through your own experience and life experience and come up with stuff that’s even better, because it’s you. That’s what’s so cool about acting, is that no one’s going to ever act a part like you because you’re going to put it through your own life experience. So no one will ever do it like Trevor will do it.
Hugues: I hope I did what I was supposed to do in the tape. I can look at it, we can look at it now…
Sarah: You know what, there’s no “supposed to,” either, so I just want you to be clear about that, you know, there’s so many possibilities. But I know what you mean, I know what you mean in terms of the things that we’ve been working on, and…I know what you mean.
Hugues: Yeah, I gotta look at it broad, like you just said. Cuz sometimes I look at it like there’s only two ways!
Sarah: No, no, and that’s when we get into the headspace of like trying to give them what they want versus put my own spin on it. You know, I’ve worked on stuff with actors before where they’ve gone in and blown them away with ideas that they never even thought of! Right, so they may have an idea of what they think it is, and then they may be surprised by what you bring, you know.
