The Tale of Spam and Gaga
I’m on a mailing list for an online acting coach’s webinars, and normally I end up deleting the emails. Headlines screaming “What am I doing wrong at auditions?!?!” tend to get a little tiresome. But I read this one. I don’t know what made me read it, but I’m SO glad I did. It ended up being an answer to prayers. And it went a little something like this:
“Before you can have the acting career that you are pursuing, you first have to see it in your mind’s eye very clearly and you have to BELIEVE it’s possible for you. But that doesn’t mean you decide you’ll only be happy when that dream becomes your reality. Find a way to love your life NOW. That love and joy you experience in the present moment will help you be able to BELIEVE that your future as a consistently working actor is possible for you. Like what Best Actress winner Olivia Colman said last night (this email arrived the day after the Oscars): ‘…And to any little girl who’s practicing her speech in the mirror - you never know. I used to work as a cleaner and I loved that job, but I did spend quite a lot of my time imagining this.’
When it comes to pursuing your passion of being a full-time working actor, it takes WORK - targeted, smart, inspiring, consistent actions over time. Lady Gaga said the following in her acceptance speech last night: ‘I’ve worked hard for a long time, and it’s not about winning. But what it’s about is NOT giving up. If you have a dream, fight for it. There’s a discipline for passion. And it’s not about how many times you fall or get rejected - it’s about how many times you stand up and are brave and you keep on going.’
Every serious actor knows you need to keep going in the face of rejection, but the discipline for passion is CRUCIAL. It is:
The discipline of creating a life full of joy NOW
The discipline to keep going in the face of rejection
The discipline to consistently focus on the training you KNOW will make you better
Make a decision right here, right now, to create a newfound discipline for your passion.”
…That was pretty incredible, and admittedly, exactly what I needed to hear. Regardless of the opportunities I don’t get, acting, singing and performing needs to be about the love you have for creating. The passion CANNOT be contingent upon results, otherwise it fizzles and dies pretty quickly. You have to do what makes YOU happy and hope that someday the rest of the world catches up.