Auditioning Advice: Stop Judging Yourself!

Hacktor Question:

When I don’t get something I think I truly deserve I feel like a failure but I know I was just overthinking after I didn’t get the part. After watching some of my fav actors opinions on auditioning I felt better. I just don’t like losing. If I could get some more advice on auditioning that would be great.

David’s Answer:

I’m noticing that you are doing a lot of judging of yourself. You are judging your auditions. You are judging yourself compared to other actors. You are judging whether you should get a role or not get a role.

If you are judging yourself then how can you possibly be involved and focused on what you are supposed to be focused on which is doing the thing that you’re supposed to be doing.

In the case of acting, you cannot possibly know if you are doing a good audition if you are in fact doing a good audition… because doing a good audition involves focusing on what is happening within the circumstances of the scene.

If you are doing anything in life with 100% of your effort then you should have no effort left for observing and judging yourself.

And in whose eyes exactly could you possibly be judging yourself?

Since you are not the producer or the director and you are not the one making the hiring decisions how do you know how good you are being through their eyes? It would be impossible to know what they thought of you while you are performing so you are literally firing yourself by having all of these judgmental thoughts about yourself.

The only failure that is occurring during these moments is your failure to serve yourself in the best way possible.

The best you can do for yourself is to focus entirely on what you were doing and leave the judging and deciding to the people whose job that is.

That certainly is not your job unless you decide to become a producer and then you have the luxury of deciding who is right or wrong for a part.

Since you haven’t seen all the other actors performances then how could you possibly know whether you were the best choice for the role or not?

Obviously you can’t, so don’t worry about it. That’s not your job and it’s none of your business.

Your job and your business is to give it everything you’ve got and then that is what you should congratulate or not congratulate yourself on.

Did you give it all you could?

That’s the only thing that matters and the only thing you have control over.

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