The Great Acting Blog: “Get Rid Of The Excuses – Be An Artist”

The Great Acting Blog: “Get Rid Of The Excuses – Be An Artist”

The strange thing about driving instructors is that the object of their work is to effectively make themselves redundant. They teach us the driving skills necessary for us to pass our test, and if we do pass, then we will no longer require their services, we stop giving them our money. We are no longer dependent on them.

They used to say that 20 driving lessons was normal before your instructor put you forward for your test. I once knew a girl who was up to her seventieth lesson and her instructor had still not put her forward. She was a highly intelligent, A-grade student, and certainly didn’t seem to me to be lacking the common sense needed to learn how to drive competently. And anyway, learning to drive isn’t that difficult.

There was clearly a problem. She knew that the number of lessons she’d had was excessive, not to mention expensive. She could have switched instructors to get a second opinion on her driving skills. She could have done any number of things to move the situation forward. But she did nothing. She continued to hand over her hard earned cash to this so-called instructor. Why didn’t she do anything? Because she didn’t want to. As expensive and time-consuming as taking lessons was, it closeted her from ever having to face up to a potentially uncomfortable moment of truth in her test: she might fail.

This got me thinking about other aspects of our lives which we spend engaged in apparently productive effort, but which in fact help us to avoid facing up to the truth of our own work. For example, endless training and workshops and classes, when that time and money could be spent setting up our own productions. Or draft after draft after draft of a play-script, striving for an unattainable perfection so that we never have to get it up on it’s feet and in front of an audience. Then there is the actor who can’t possibly do anything until he’s had new headshots done…..

The flip-side is to keep finding excuses. Perhaps you think you can’t face up to the proper demands of being an actor until your personal life is in order. Or perhaps you’ve been drinking heavily and that’s the reason you haven’t accomplished as much as you want to. Or, you’ll only give it proper focus when you’ve got a certain amount of money in the bank. Maybe you’re going to posit an unattainable goal before you get serious about facing up to the demands of being an actor: waiting until you sign with that high flying agent, or until you get that big shot casting director to notice you. There’s always something. I once knew an actor who wouldn’t give it his all unless he was working with certain theatre companies on his list (he’s no longer an actor at all now).

If you’re constantly finding excuses for why you’re not the actor you want to be today, it’s because you’re too afraid  to undertake the journey necessary to become that actor, you’re terrified of finding out who you really are. The excuses enable you to come up woefully short, while simultaneously cling on to the idea of yourself as an actor. The alternative of course, is to venture down the path of the artist, and sooner or later you’ll come face to face with yourself.

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