Are you showing up for your talent?
There’s a myth that gets thrown around when it comes to acting that you’ve surely encountered: actors either have talent or they don’t. I’d like to suggest a different dichotomy: actors either show up or they don’t.
How do you show up? You take classes, read plays, sharpen your technique, do the work to break through the emotional blocks that stop you from being both your best self and a powerful actor. An actor could be born with the most innate talent in the world, but if they don’t want to show up, they won’t be able to use that talent. Focus on the aspects of your career you can control like the effort you put into it. Check out this clip from class on why showing up for your talent is more important than anything else.
CLASS CLIP TRANSCRIPTION
Sarah: It will get better. And of course, I think this is also worth saying because it’s true — yes, there are people who come to class or people who get cast in things that have an ability that is uncanny, right? People who have these abilities who are born with these abilities — we can’t all totally understand. And I also believe that those people still, like Stella Adler said, they need the talent for their talent, as we all do.
But I’ve seen so many examples of people who came to class at the other end of the spectrum, and became so great at what they did because they showed up and did the work and did the work and did the work and did the work and did the work. And it’s so — I’ve seen it with singers, as well. There’s a lovely actress I coached for years who does a lot of Broadway tours now. And she started out with a good singing voice, and now she has an incredible singing voice. So I really believe in this work, and I know what is possible, and I do believe, and I know — that if you keep showing up and showing up and showing up and doing all the work to heal the inner stuff and doing the inner work that you’re also doing, to heal the emotional problems which prevent us from being the great artists we wanna be, if you keep showing up and doing that, you will be unstoppable.
