The Great Acting Blog: “The Meaning Of Pressure”
I would not go so far as to say that actors are adrenaline junkies, but certainly the kind of person who goes into acting is the kind of person who enjoys pressure.
This pressure is contained in the life and in the work.
On stage or in front of camera, the pressure is on to deliver the goods. This focusses the mind, the actor attains a heightened sense of awareness, everything is vivid and intense.
In their life, actors struggle near constantly to develop their careers. They cannot just sit back and drift along. This creates a situation similar to that of performance, Â in that they become aware of everything they do, because everything they do counts. This is very different to doing a 9 to 5 job, where there is secure work and secure pay. If anything, this security dulls the individual because they are not under pressure, they can afford to be casual in what they do, they no longer need to improve themselves and they do not live life with the same intensity as someone in the position of an actor. Every decision an actor makes carries significance because they live constantly on a knife-edge.
Pressure gives meaning and purpose to everything we do. It do so on stage and it do so in our lives. That is why we seek it out and continually put ourselves under it .
talya2312/ 14.09.2013
This is something that I have realized. If you want to be a good actor you must work under pressure. There is so much mental work, I think there is more of that than physical work.
James Devereaux actor/ 14.09.2013
Definately. If you can’t handle pressure, very difficult to survive as an actor. But I actually think a lot of actors seek it out.