A character in the movie “Broadcast News” (by James L. Brooks) has the line, “Wouldn’t this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive?” But, it isn’t that world, and it doesn’t. We are all fine-tuned to pick up fear in others because it means there’s a possibility there’s a danger in the environment we don’t want to be around. In other words, it makes you repellent—not a quality you typically want in a performer. With acting especially, looking like you’re having a good time doing the job is part of the job.
It’s both true for when you’re taking your meeting before the audition, where you want to radiate that confident, can-do spirit, and it’s true for your approach to the acting process itself. Creativity is inhibited by tension. As an actor you participate in many fictional situations where your character is unhappy and frightened, but you should build that performance on a predisposition that where you work is a positive place. Your acting context will produce deeper, more connected work if the foundation is an emotional state that is relaxed and assured.
There’s no substitute for the poise that
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