You know I auditioned for the ABC showcase 5 times?! Crazy, right? When I first moved out to Los Angeles, I auditioned for it two years in a row. Then there was a few years where I didn’t even get a call to come read for it. Talk about the voices in my head? “You were so bad last year they won’t even see you again.” or the zinger, “your mom was right, this acting thing is just a hobby.” I have to be honest, there was a part of me that just started to believe it wasn’t going to happen. The showcase that is…I think.
FOCUS
I’ll skip all the lead up of how I finally landed a spot in the 2014 showcase and just tell you this memory. I recall being at the final stage of the process. It was CRAZY intense. Callback number 4 consisted of 40 actors being paired up; the mix & match they called it. The ABC executives, about 20 people in the room, were throwing different cold reading scenes at you every five minutes. Sometimes, we would walk in the room to do our scene, get two lines out and they would stop you, say “no, that scene isn’t good on you,” and give you another cold read. Intense.
PREPARTION
I was so focused that day that none of this shook me. I’d come too far to let my thoughts get the best of me here. After one of those intense moments, my partner for one of the scenes started crying as we walked out of the room. It was all too much. She said, “It’s just so much pressure. How do we know what they want?” I said to her, in the most loving and supportive way, “babe, we don’t have time for crying. They’re going to call us back in there at any moment. We can cry in the car. Let’s do this!” And back in we went.
We know I booked the showcase. But, this message isn’t really about that.
ACTION
A mind shift happened. Days before which helped in that moment.
The Mind shift? I started to really work on my mindset to get my head in the game. Decided to stop taking everything so freaking personal and became determined to get back in that room. Stop making every audition I went into a LIFE OR DEATH moment. Taking that type of energy into the room, even if you think you’re covering it up, will screw you every single time.
SUCCESS
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right!” -Henry Ford
So, often I hear my fellow actors speaking negatively. Telling themselves or agreeing with others – “yeah, I’m not going to book it anyway.” “I really want this bad, but I’m sure it’s already offered out.” or my favorite, ” I just got this last night, I can’t learn all of this.”
FOCUS + PREPARATION + ACTION = SUCCESS
It’s time to get in the game. The game all about changing your mindset.
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