In the acting business, actors must have confidence in their talents and themselves in order to deal with the challenges and always be able to bring their best game to their meetings, auditions and work. Confidence is an essential “personal tool” for everyone but especially for actors and performers.
For many actors, confidence is innate. For some, it may be cultivated by family and friend support and/or life experiences. For most, confidence needs to be nurtured and developed. If the later is you then consider this theory that I believe works:
- * Experience creates confidence.
- * Confidence produces freedom.
- * Freedom generates courage.
- * Courage frees up you and your talent.
The more you do anything, the more experienced and skillful you become. So the more you properly study, rehearse, audition and work, the better actor you are going to be.
Actors gain confidence when they have successes and “wins”: when they get auditions, secure representation, receive good feedback or reviews, get callbacks and book jobs, etc. Unfortunately, these successes are dependent on the acceptance of others thus it is unreliable and a shortage of achievements can undermine it.
Confidence in your talent is powerful and depends mainly on your willingness to take chances, fail, learn, get up and do it again AND always be supportive of yourself. (A great class that helps build confidence is a professional Improvization workshop.) With confidence developed through challenging experiences, you are not dependent on anyone else to feel successful.
Do what it takes to build your confidence. It should have a powerful affect on your ability to feel good about yourself, thus do your best auditions and your best acting work.
