Building identity – Brooke Smith on not being like everybody else

Brooke Smith plays heart surgeon Dr. Erica Hahn on “Grey’s Anatomy,” and her extensive filmography includes the series “Weeds” and movies Vanya on 42nd Street and The Silence of the Lambs.

In an interview, she was asked if she has any advice for actors who “would love to have a career even half as fruitful as her own.”

She replied, “How about the fact that the reasons you don’t work are quite possibly the reasons you will work? The fact that I’m not like everybody else is hopefully what got me here. I think the danger is trying to figure out what everybody else wants you to be.

“Even when you’re at an audition, the kiss of death is the second you try to do what you think they want you to do. Just keep being authentic to yourself.”

[From Playing Doctor, by Jenelle Riley, BackStage.]

Related Talent Development Resources pages:
Eccentricity, Identity and Self Concept.
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