“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

“Many actors get anxious about auditions, not getting work etc, issues that are kind of built in to the profession – do you have actor or performer clients that you have helped?”

Here is part of her reply about a non-drug, brief (3′) meditation to deal with anxiety

To listen to the full podcast, see Judith Orloff, MD on Emotional Freedom

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“It’s important to present oneself as relaxed and confident..”

Gabriel Byrne commented that the audition process “is really a most inadequate way to determine if an actor is right or not for a particular role. Unfortunately, it’s a situation that most actors have to accept.

“Work on developing an unshakable trust in yourself and your talent. It’s important to present oneself as relaxed and confident even when you don’t feel it.”

From the book: How to Get the Part… Without Falling Apart! by Margie Haber

Quote from the page Acting3
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Photo from “In Treatment.”

Too much of a good thing

In her LAcasting.com article Relax into acting, Colleen Wainwright notes, “It’s great to have a little fire in your belly. But if you’re reading this, my guess is that your problem, if you have one, lies in the other direction. Because too much ambition, ferocity, gung-ho-ness is death to good acting, bad for the health, and not particularly attractive in an audition situation either.”

She adds, “We’ve all seen it: that high-strung actor who’s so intent on saying his next line, he’s barely listening for his cue. Or maybe (ahem) you’ve actually been that person on stage, having a scene go by you in a blur, kicking yourself for letting the scene play you instead of the other way around.

“For the speed-meisters, the simplest, easiest ‘hack’ to help you regain control of yourself in the moment is literally to stop yourself ever so briefly before responding in a scene. Take a beat and take in your partner, or, if it’s a monologue, the situation; let yourself check in with how you’re feeling and how your partner is feeling before moving on.

See her article for more suggestions.

Intensity vs anxiety

It isn’t that high energy is “wrong” – it is sometimes called intensity or excitability. Giftedness consultant Lesley Sword describes this in her article Overexcitabilities in Gifted Children as “an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual and emotional energy that can result in creative endeavours as well as advanced emotional and ethical development in adulthood. Overexcitabilities feed, enrich, empower and amplify talent.”

But 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.

Creativity coach and author Eric Maisel, PhD comments in our interview Ten Zen Seconds (about his new 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.

“They 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.

Passion without anxiety

“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.

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

From my post To create we need high energy – not anxiety.

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Also see Overcoming Stage Fright and other Anxiety Relief Solutions, and Self-esteem Products / Programs.
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Nervous excitement

“With any film and even theater, you never get over being scared and overwhelmed, because it’s a new character and that brings on a whole new set of circumstances.”

Alison Lohman is talking about one form of anxiety that actors experience, and may try to avoid or stifle.

But there can be value in that kind of energy, she adds: “That’s the exciting part of it – it’s those nerves that bring you to a higher level and makes you more hyper-aware. It makes your performance better.” [Quotes from Hollywood Reporter]

Anticipatory anxiety

Psychologist Eric Maisel notes in his book Performance Anxiety that fear can show up even before an event like an audition, and this anticipatory anxiety may be hidden, so you don’t even recognize it.

You decide, for example, not to go to the audition, telling yourself, “Oh, I’m not right for that role,” or “I’m sure that part’s pre-cast,” or “That director’s never liked me.”

You’re as worthy as they come

As many people point out, acting is not for the faint-hearted.

Author Monroe Mann [book: The Theatrical Juggernaut: The Psyche of the Star] says, “If you want to succeed in this business where the supply for actors is high and the demand is low, you better get any trace of negativity or pessimism out of your system from the outset…

“If you don’t think you are just as good, and just as worthy of success, as the stars, then you are doing yourself a grave disservice.”

Varieties of treatments

Anxiety can show up in various ways; it is not just a matter of stage fright, and it can undermine your self-concept, self assurance and drive.

If it is too strong, maybe you should look into getting help: cognitive behavioral therapy, medication, or nutritional supplements can all be helpful.

Related pages:
Anxiety relief products/programs
Anxiety relief books
Supplements
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Escape into comedy

Amanda Bynes began professionally acting at the age of seven, and at age thirteen became the star of her own tv series The Amanda Show.

Bynes says she understands the feeling of being an outsider, one of the themes of the film “Hairspray” – in which she plays Penny [photo].

“I grew up having terrible acne and feeling insecure,” she once told an interviewer. “I was tall and skinny. I didn’t feel pretty at all, and guys didn’t even like me. That’s why I got into comedy.”

[Interview mag., July 2007; photo from "Hairspray"]

Highly self-critical

Many talented comedians and comic actors acknowledge there is a dark side to being funny.

“Deep, deep depression is the flip side of comedy. Casting agents don’t realize it but in order to be funny you have to have that other side.” Parker Posey [From the page: Comedy]

Many talented people – even highly gifted and accomplished, with Academy Awards etc – often have insecurities, impostor feelings and other anxieties, maybe in part because of high sensitivity.

Lesley Sword, director of Gifted and Creative Services [in Australia] finds that gifted children are “highly self critical and over reactive to the criticism of others. They express dissatisfaction with themselves; they see what ‘ought to be’ in themselves… They have a vision of perfectionism that they measure themselves against and they can become despondent sometimes even depressed, at their perceived failure.”

[From my post Anxious thinking about our abilities, and article Being Creative and Self-critical.]

Fortunately, there are many ways to deal with anxiety, including self-help programs: see
Anxiety Relief Products / Programs

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Many people, maybe most, want to avoid anxiety, fear and other “stressful” feelings. Except for the occasional roller coaster ride.

But talented actors (and other artists) often use those kinds of feelings to guide and energize their work.

Julia Stiles [left] says she chooses projects based on “ways I need to be stretched as an actor. I wouldn’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over again, which is one reason I wanted to do this play [Fran's Bed].

“I wanted go back onstage in a way that’s different from anything I’ve ever experienced before. That’s the way I look at movies, too. I think you can get into a comfort zone as an actor and I try to break out of that.” [broadway.com interview]

Fear can be energizing

Sandra Bullock has said, “I don’t do anything anymore that feels safe. If it doesn’t scare the crap out of you, then you’re not doing the right thing.”

Audra McDonald thinks “The most important thing for me as an actress is to be fearless and to challenge myself. Acting in TV and film forces me outside of my comfort zone.”

Choreographer Twyla Tharp thinks “terror, loathsome as it is, is very energizing. To channel that, to call it excitement, enthusiasm, curiosity, maybe that’s not a bad thing.”

When fear is disabling

Sometimes, of course, fear or anxiety such as stage fright can be disrupting or disabling if it gets too extreme. It may be a matter of perspective, of how you label and think about your inner experiences.

But creativity coach Eric Maisel, PhD notes in his article “The way that we say things…” that we have “our little linguistic tricks” that can hide anxiety that we really would be better off dealing with – “tricks” like saying, “I can’t see the point in auditioning for that – I’m just not the type.”

Related book: The Performance Anxiety Workbook – by Eric Maisel

Also see Anxiety Relief Products / Programs.

Also see Self-esteem Products / Programs.

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