The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Be Like A Poodle Performing Tricks”

The Great Acting Blog: “Don’t Be Like A Poodle Performing Tricks”

When we first start out as actors, praise can seem important to us because we view it as validation, as evidence that we should continue. We draw confidence from it. However, nobody can rely on praise to fuel their entire career, or as a means of gaining confidence over the long term. Praise is a transient thing, it rarely resides in the same place for long. If we continually work to win praise, then we become like a poodle performing tricks, it’s demeaning. Also, it bastardises our efforts, for we no longer work towards aesthetic truth, but towards receiving a pat on the head and the two are rarely concurrent.

Praise is not something within our control, and therefore should not concern us. Certainly we cannot derive our sense self-worth from it. After all, when that favour is taken away from us or is not forthcoming, when the attention moves onto someone else, what are we left with?

Focus on doing your work as well as you can, not on trying to win praise.

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