Total Honesty, an ACTING APPROACH

I just came off a great week of auditions!!!!

In the past my approach to auditions could only be
classified as "SELF DESTRUCTIVE". To describe
it in a way so you can fully understand the
magnitude of what I mean by "SELF DESTRUCTIVE"
I will simply say that, in the past, I looked at
auditions as an illness that I desperately needed
to find a CURE for.

You must be saying to yourself "why were you doing that?"
Well, I wasn't doing this consciously - BUT I have made the
conscious decision to change this and now I see each
Audition as a journey, a journey with no destination.

In the past I had a destination in mind - the destination being
GETTING THE JOB, BOOKING IT, BEING HIRED,
getting paid to act the part. Its THIS mindset that would
lead me to get "TIGHT" in auditions and then I will begin to OVER ACT to compensate...and then well...it'd go downhill fast.

I now see Auditioning as a mirror, a mirror that I use
as a tool to lead myself to an honest experience in the
audition room. It's THIS honesty that allows
my creativity to flow.

Obviously I can not MAKE producers or
directors hire me - with out the use of BLACK MAIL
of course - but I CAN create an enjoyable atmosphere for
myself in the audition room and THAT has
made a MAJOR difference.

How do I know?????

I've been booking the MOST work
of my career, so I AM doing something right :)

Oh the irony - the moment I stopped TRYING to
BOOK the job I begin to BOOK. Holla!!!!
The accomplishments you can achieve when
you live a fully present life.

On a somewhat related subject,
today I came across an interview that I found
interesting - Jonathan Rhys Myers
talking about SELF DOUBT and how he approaches
creating characters:

JRM:

Being in this industry can put a lot of pressure on you.
You can either wallow in the pressure or you can rise
above it. To rise above it you have to think to yourself,
It doesn’t matter if people don’t like this performance
or if I don’t get another job. What matters is I
did something for me. So I thought, if I make a
fool out of myself, so be it, but
I’m not going to be afraid and not do it in
case I screw up or something.

What happens to you as an actor when you start working on a role?

JRM:

As opposed to being romantic and poetic
about it, I start walking hand in hand with
my own honesty about myself. I would never
sit down and study a character. The character
is in me and all I have to do is bring it to
the surface, so I look really truthfully at
myself and what I am. If you’re giving an
honest emotion and you’re not trying to fake
anything, it’s going to be beautiful because
honesty is what people feel, essentially, and
it can turn into art. Every character I play
is just an aspect of who I am. Everybody has
every emotion in the world. Some people aren’t
able to surface them and I’m lucky enough
that I can.

xo
THERE ARE ONLY FUN TIMES AHEAD!!!!
DM