Shy since childhood Clea DuVall has referred to herself as “an only child and I’m just a real loner kind of person, and yeah, kinda dark. But I’m happy. Not sad. I’m just shy and nervous.” [imdb.com] Like many other talented actors, she considers herself shy. Maybe acting – playing other people – is a [...]
In a CNN interview in 2002, Edie Falco said she had not experienced anxiety attacks in “many, many years, but everybody I know and love has gone through periods of anxiety. “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 [...]
Energy psychiatrist Judith Orloff, MD works with many creative people to help with issues such as stage fright. In our podcast interview about her new book Emotional Freedom, I asked her: “Many actors get anxious about auditions, not getting work etc, issues that are kind of built in to the profession – do you have [...]
Gabriel Byrne on auditions “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 [...]
“I always have a deep-seated fear that it can all go away, and it can. You can not get work very easily,” Rose Byrne says, recounting how she’d recently read an interview with Julianne Moore, who admitted to panicking about never working again at the end of each film. “I mean, it’s Julianne Moore,” Byrne [...]
Jenna Gavigan’s role in the William Inge play “Come Back, Little Sheba” is the “vixen” Marie. Gavigan is on academic leave from Columbia University to pursue acting. A recent newspaper interview [Shedding the wings, by Amy Kaufman, Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2007; photo: Myung J. Chun] notes that “she wants to major in something [...]
In the new Interview magazine, Director James Mangold and Liv Tyler have a stimulating conversation on many aspects of excellence in acting, especially being vulnerable and authentic. James Mangold: “There are some actors who, when they feel insecure in a scene, will just turn up the volume or the energy to try to electrocute themselves. [...]
Kate Bosworth – always learning Kate Bosworth [photo from "Superman Returns"] thinks “all actors are insecure.. I certainly am… I think almost all artists are insecure. I don’t ever watch myself and think, ‘That was great, I hit it out of the park!’ Never… “One of the things I love most about this job is [...]
Out of the comfort zone 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 [...]
Cherry Jones Cherry Jones [left], earned a Tony nomination for her acting in a stage production of A Moon for the Misbegotten [2002] but was “nearly paralyzed by a profound case of stage fright” according to a Time Out New York article. She said it was from “Living up to the greatest performance I have [...]
The enemy of art Commenting about her feelings this morning and her best-actress Oscar nomination for “Transamerica,” Felicity Huffman [left, as Bree in the film] said, “I woke up in fear and anxiety – which I know is the enemy of art, and in general.” [CNN Showbiz Tonight Feb 13 2006] Nicole Kidman admits, “Every [...]
A state of gratitude “I love to act because it’s the only aspect of my life beside God and family that I am truly passionate about on a daily basis.” Michael Ealy [currently in the Showtime series “Sleeper Cell”] continues, “I thank God for not only the gift of creative expression but also surrounding me [...]
Imagination is our essence Getting caught up in the more “serious” aspects of a career, you may lose contact with that child part of being an actor. As psychologist Robert Maurer noted in an interview that children are “playacting from the time they have words and the ability to move. They begin fantasizing, playing, imagining, [...]
Whether you get cast or not is dependent upon things that are totally out of your control. For example, the way an actor may have experienced this is, they were running late for an audition, or just got there in the nick of time and just does it. Or you get into an audition and [...]