How To Not Be Nervous For An Acting Audition

The question is how not to be nervous for an acting audition? In this video, you will learn the answer to that question. Well let's begin with this. Are you excited or are you nervous, right? It's really important. Actors will say, "I'm so nervous", and after I talk to them for a little while I figure out that you know they're just nervous about everything. Not they're just using this as the latest thing they're nervous about. They might be nervous about getting hit with a tomato ripped from today's headlights. So, this is all about transforming nervousness into intense excitement. Now, if you think about anything think about the first time you ever kissed somebody. Well, you were probably pretty nervous, I was. I used to take notes looking at movies. Does the guy turn his head to the left or the right? Because I don't want to bump a nose that would be really awkward. I used to think about such things. Probably tells you a little too much about me, little OCD in that department. But that's okay because anybody who's any good at anything has a bit or at least two tablespoons of OCD. So, anything that you practice you achieve relaxation with and it's really challenging. You know I talk about this with my colleagues all the time that acting looks invisible it just looks like behavior. So, everybody thinks they can do it and then they get up there and suddenly their mouth is tight and their little finger is sticking out and their toes are curled in their shoes or they're clenching their butt and they're going well right because you haven't gotten up in front of a bunch of people yet. I mean, when you that's why it really takes a community of people that you perform for back and forth. I mean, think about it. I'm always amazed when actors aren't currently training and suddenly they have an audition. Why would you think that would go well, really? I mean, it always goes to the person who's been continually doing their work because they walk in the door relaxed and you know they express themselves fully and we respond to it. The people that come in like, "Hi", we go, "Hi", and I'm thinking, "Do you think he has a gun? He looks really tight, right. You know we're nervous and when you come in confident go, "Hi, how's everybody?", "Hey, hi, who am I reading with? You? I'm ready, you ready? We're busy right, let's go". I'm going, "Who's this guy, right?", because you're relaxed. But guys it's not fake it till you make it. There's tools to get to relaxation. So, remember, relaxation is your job isn't that good and also joy is your job. How about that? Isn't that great? I love that. I love that. The question how not to be nervous? Your subconscious doesn't recognize the word not. So, whatever I'm focused on. I had somebody not so long ago who's a very strong actor and the work was not nearly as strong as it usually is and I went, "Well, what happened?", he said, "You know, all I wanted and I focused on was not to screw it up", and I went, "Well, let me tell you how your subconscious works, it works like this. Don't screw it up...Screw it up... I screwed it up. I don't know how I screwed it up" because you focused on not screwing it up. You have to focus on the positive. When you're playing the positive folks and the negatives are written in texts, negatives are written in life. We're all on a timer this clock in the left side of our chest. We're all equal in that way. But who plays the positive? Who makes the positive choice? Because the positive like your pen always opens you up to the world of possibility. Actors will argue with me to make negative choices and I go, "In the world that we're in currently or 50 years ago or a hundred years ago. Why would anybody pay money and take time to see your negative version of the story?". I don't know... why and as an actor you know you are the purveyor of positivity. That's your job to play the positive and play the love and once again, write it down again, charming is disarming. Funny is money.

So, play the love. So, what we're fighting is self criticism and self-judgment. Now, this is a good thing to identify and remember you must label everything folks because you can't modify what you haven't identified. A lot of us grew up in very critical households and I meet people actors who invite their invisible critic whether it's a parent or a past teacher or a sibling and they put them right in the front row and they're looking at them with crossed arms. You're bringing people here who are very critical of you even though they're physically not here. Why are you doing that? Because self-criticism, self-judgment, will lock everything up. Babies are not self-critical. You will change their diaper and they will pee in your face and giggle and they don't go, God, that was really I was a bad person. I shouldn't have done that, right. So, it's all about fighting self-criticism but how do we do that? By playing something positive. In the next section foolproof techniques to save yourself in the audition. But first, if you're enjoying this video subscribe below and click here. So, what to do even though we prepare, even though we do all of our work, sometimes self-judgment comes in and we're frozen what to do in that moment? Two choices, play love or blame immediately. This is what to do if that nervousness kicks in which sometimes just locks everything up even if it makes no sense. If this person thinks you're going to shove them. If this person thinks you're going to shove them, grab them, and kiss them hard on both cheeks. I get you', I'll put you back in your body and get you out of your head. So, remember folks, I go back to this thing a lot because this thing... For actors, you know its head candy. You've got to counteract that stuff and balance it with a whole lot of physical work and a whole lot of vocal work and it'll always bring you back to yourself or play blame. Even if it seemingly doesn't make logical sense. Hitchcock said logic is dull. Now, you said, nobody goes to see movies for logic, right. They go for fantasy, right? So, you can suddenly say, "I love you", right and even though the line says, "I love you", but maybe you just blame them, right? I love you and I hate... I hate that I love you because it means a certain loss of control. Now, you know in another version might you do that maybe not but just do it don't think about it. Play love or blame. Why? They're both really strong actions and they'll bring you back to the now of now. But again folks, I can't say enough about zoom auditions and the amount of good control versus bad control that you have in the situation. Before you're walking into foreign territory. Again, I go back to being a sports fan particularly football. There's a lot to be said for home field advantage. We did get to go to the super bowl this year and took my 86 year old dad. But you know it was very exciting to be in the presence of the rams winning on their home field. Will I ever see that in my life in a Super Bowl? Probably not. The odds of that ever happening it happened in Tampa Bay not so long ago but that's a really really rare occurrence.  There is something as home field advantage. With zoom you always have the home field advantage, always. So, many people to walk in and there's a bunch of people sitting behind a table in a very stark space it's not conducive to self-expression and to creativity. So, make your home theater, your home studio, your home rehearsal space, make it as tailored to what feels good for you as possible. And ask yourself, why are you acting? Because it's really a vehicle for self-expression. Some of the most remarkable work I've ever seen didn't start as a play or a film. Still to date after almost 4,000 plays seen my favorite one is The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was 8 hours long. They rehearsed it for half a year. It played in the UK and you saw it in numerous pieces. You could see it all in one day which I did. So, it's two hours intermission, two hours an hour for dinner, two hours intermission, two hours over.  But folks, it wasn't even a play. It was a Dickens novel that's not a very well known one. much more so now we think of David Copperfield. We think of A Christmas Carol. We think of Great Expectations. We think of Oliver Twist, but they cared about that text. So, the work that you do make sure you care about it. Because if you care about it and you've got something to say through that work we're going to love your work too. But why are you doing it? Never for approval. Never for approval. Yeah, so do it to express yourself. Make your life a work of your own heart. Make your life a work of art and remember folks, be in a constant state of preparation, right. Don't be the reactive actor that's like, "I have an audition", don't be that person. Don't be the actor who goes into trauma time. Keep the drama on the stage, right. Don't go into trauma time because you have an audition. When you're in a constant state of preparation right, you will be excited when you have auditions because you're in touch with your voice and your speech and your body and the like. So, prepare, prepare, prepare. Mr. Hamlet said, readiness is all, readiness is all. You want to see a bunch of people work out come and be one of them. Come to our Saturday class. It's an intergalactic international community. See, if it's a fit for you. You got the stuff. Click the link below.