There’s enormous pressure on actors to project self-assurance on and off the screen because acting is difficult, stressful, and highly competitive, and decision makers in the industry are looking for actors that will be able to survive and thrive under the pressure, and deliver believable, interesting, and marketable performances.
BUT. It is not necessary to *feel* confident at all times in order to work professionally.
Acting is a career with a huge amount of uncertainty. You’re being asked to be an artist, to use your own inner life to take words off a page and portray real living breathing people that audiences believe and care about. Art is uncertain. Real people are uncertain. That’s what makes them unpredictable and interesting and alive, and acting has to have that.
So you can’t avoid *feeling* uncertain, or you can’t do your best work. And you can’t broadcast your uncertainty to decision makers, or you aren’t likely to get work.
How do actors navigate this contradiction? Some of them puff up. They “perform” the behaviours of confidence, they swagger and brag, or pretend that they know everything and everything is fine, and even if it fools people they feel hollow. Some of them hustle for approval. They become insane perfectionists, constantly trying to get their acting “right” and blaming themselves for every job that doesn’t go their way until they burn out. And some collapse. They give up before they’ve even started, deciding that because they don’t feel confident all the time that means they’re not “cut out” for work as a professional actor.
Terrible options, right?
I think that it is possible for actors to thread the needle, and embrace the vulnerability that is a necessary part of being an artist. The only way out is through, and it requires awareness, acceptance, and authenticity.
Awareness: Can you notice what’s happening in your body, in your voice, and in your internal life? What are the feelings? What are the sensations? What are the stories that you’re making out of the experience?
Acceptance: Once you’ve noticed what’s happening, can you allow everything that is present to be there, without making a story that there’s something wrong with it, without fighting it, hiding it, or tensing up about it? Acceptance brings ease into your body and voice, and makes you more expressive.
Authenticity: Once there’s a foundation of awareness and acceptance, it’s possible to be completely honest and still be experienced as very confident. An authentic actor can say “I feel nervous” or “I’m not sure” with ease, without puffing up, hustling for approval, or collapsing.
That’s what real confidence looks like.
And to get there takes a supportive environment, and practice, practice, practice. It’s not always going to feel good, and it’s not going to be perfect, but if you stick with it then you get to feel more authentic, and do some great acting in the process.
Michael Bean
@confidenceoncamera