You may have learned your lines, rehearsed a lot, made your choices, and worked really hard for an audition. You may enter the audition room with a proposition. And yet, the casting director may have told you: “Just be YOU.” At first, you may not understand what he or she means since you have worked on a specific character. Therefore, you may not know what to do. That can make you feel confused and frustrated.
As a consequence of this, you may have considered working harder, taking another camera class, reading another acting book, or rehearsing more. And yet, that little place where people tell you to “just BE YOU” still may feel like a very challenging thing to understand.
When you watch my training below you will discover that the root cause is not that you need more acting classes or that you need to improve as an actor. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU. You are perfect. However, when you were a child, you were asked to behave, think, and be a certain way. First, you were asked by your parents not to cry, not to get angry, not to be scared, not to yell or talk too loud, etc. Otherwise, they could withdraw their love and attention. Then, at school, you were asked to sit down, be quiet, and behave properly. If not, you could face the consequences, punishment, or humiliation. Finally, you were asked to please others so you could fit into society.
In short, you were encouraged not to be YOU. Inevitably, you put on a mask so you could make everyone happy and guarantee their love and attention. So the smartest thing to do as a child was to suppress your feelings and impulses in order to be taken care of appropriately.
However, the problem arises now that you are an adult and an artist. If you are not able to be you, there is no art. When the casting director tells you to be YOU, you have no access to yourself because from the very first day as a human being you were asked not to be you, to feel you, or to behave as you. So how could you possibly be you? You no longer have access to yourself.
Therefore, when you go to an audition, you fabricate a performance from your social mask that you have evolved with.
The work to do is to unlearn your people-pleasing habit and conditioning and awaken your instinct so that you can return to who you truly are.
Watch my training below to hear all my thoughts on this topic.
After you watch the training, I'd love for you to join in the conversation happening in our private Facebook Group THE INSTINCTIVE ACTORS' SOCIETY. You can get answers for your specific situation directly from me and connect with THOUSANDS of like-minded actors across the globe, so we can move things forward faster together.
If you're not already a member, be sure to request to join ASAP here.
See you there!
Jo Kelly
Creator, The Reset Journey From Resistance to Freedom
P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are three ways I can help you:
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