“Fear is the number one emotion we’re spending tremendous amounts of brainpower to cover up.”
– Jodie Foster
ACTORS AND PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
Many actors getting started in acting classes think that performance anxiety should belong only to insecure actors and shy people. These beginner actors often start out thinking they need to repress all their anxiety and fear in order to give a stellar performance. The general opinion they gather from public perception is that actors are pure extroverts who love being in the limelight 24/7. It’s understandable that a new acting student will often come to my Toronto acting classes trying to get rid of their nerves. However, what I’ve learned after 25 years of teaching acting, is that without nerves and fear, an actor could lack the heightened energy required to make a performance fully alive and memorable.
HOW DOES AN ACTOR CHANNEL ANXIETY INTO THEIR PERFORMANCE?
Fear in the jungle alerts an animal to be alert and fully present. Nerves are our body’s way of telling us we have something at stake that requires our focus and heightened attention. We can think of our nerves as energy that we can channel into our performance. Nerves can make your performance come to life in a way that it might not without the nerves. The key is for an actor to befriend the nerves. Your nerves are your supporting player. Think of them as a part of you that is really your champion. They don’t need you to attend to them. They are there, ready for ‘Action’. Your mind may begin thinking they are the enemy and they are going to ruin your performance. But that’s not true. This part of you has a good intention for you. It wants you to get out there and be your best possible self in your acting role. When you hear your mind’s negative thoughts towards your nerves, you can simply and gently release the thought, reassuring it that all will be ok. Your mind will trust you more as it begins to see you are navigating your ship from what I call ‘Capital A Actor’. I talk about the capital A Actor in my article “How a beginner actor can learn to channel character.”
THE FLOW STATE IN ACTING
What you resist persists. It was the renowned Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung (1875–1961), who taught us that whatever you resist persists. What he meant by that is the more you resist anything, the more you bring it towards you. It is the thoughts that we attach to any feeling in our acting that makes the feeling grow in intensity. If we ‘think’ a particular feeling such as ‘fear’ is wrong, it takes a great deal of brainpower to repress that particular feeling – Jodie Foster knows something about it! The key is to think of your fear as good – to recognize it when it appears and to integrate the excess energy into your acting performance. A conscious awareness of your fear allows you to be in direct relationship to it, rather than being unconsciously tossed around by it – at its mercy. The often stated: “Let your butterflies fly in formation”, is a positive way of reframing your relationship to feelings of anxiety.
MINDFULNESS AND ACTING
You don’t need to be overwhelmed by your nerves as an actor. Practicing mindfulness will help you release your negative mind chatter and live more fully in the body. In mindfulness, one does not fight with the nerves when they are arising, but instead, simply bears witness to what is occurring in the moment. This is a non judgemental stance that allows you to surrender to the ebb and flow of your bodily energies. The thinking mind likes to take you into the future and into the past, often worrying about what may happen or judging what has occurred. The body however, can only exist in the here and now. In my acting classes in Toronto, actors learn to identify their mental fears and ‘work with’, not against them in performance. See my actor’s Instrument article for a better understanding of working with the actor’s body: https://cindytanas.com/the-actors-instrument-introduction/
An acting student in our Toronto Acting Classes practices a
‘Mindfulness Exercise’ prior to his scene study performance
Nerves and excitement are two sides of the same coin. You can’t have one without the other. It’s the thoughts you attach to it that makes the energy useful or not. Learning to reframe your thoughts in acting classes, allows you to live in harmony with both sides of the equation.
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio teaches acting classes for Theatre and Film in Toronto and the GTA, Collingwood and Southern Georgian Bay.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Acting Teacher / Mentor / Life Coach Cindy Tanas, has run a highly reputable and successful Toronto acting school for over 25 years. She teaches Acting Classes for beginners and experienced actors. Cindy is a member of ACTRA, former Chair and member of TAAS (Toronto Association of Acting Studios) and member of Theatre Ontario.
Cindy Tanas Actors Studio offers a holistic approach to acting in Toronto since 1995. Both in person and online acting classes are available.
www.torontoactingstudios.com
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www.theatreontario.org