The Great Acting Blog: “Look At Yourself In The Mirror”

The Great Acting Blog: “Look At Yourself In The Mirror”

Actors are dreamers and as such we have a propensity for flights of fancy. We want to believe, make believe that is. This imaginative energy is the motor for our work, it’s important to us. The downside to this however, is the tendency to not face up to reality. Sometimes we prefer to dwell in an imagined world rather than the actual one.

This commonly manifests itself in actors when they haven’t worked for a while. They wheel out all sorts of self-help mantras, they retweet Nietzsche quotes on Twitter, they site something that happened to Laurence Olivier which was similar to their own situation, they find endless ways to rationalise what is happening to them. The harsh reality however, is that none of this is in the least bit useful. At best it is wishful thinking but more usually it is self-deception.

The only way to proceed is to examine the situation truthfully, come up with an analysis and take action. Some may feel that things are so calamitous it doesn’t bear thinking about, that it’s much better to sup coffee and talk phony analysis. That’s all fine but it will get you precisely nowhere.  If you’re unable to look at yourself in the mirror, if you simply lack the strength, there is no shame in that. But do stop with the idle chatter and let the real actors get on with their work.

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