BonBlogs…a work in progress

The Actors Voice
by Bonnie Gillespie
week of August 29, 2011

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001390.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive and new columns are available each Monday at Showfax.

Your Youness

Do you celebrate your youness? You know, that stuff that makes you uniquely you. Or do you show up for an audition and immediately start angling, based on what you think they’re looking for?

One of these choices makes you an actor. The other puts you in the psychic business, and that’s not anywhere close to what they’re looking for! I get that it’s tempting. You are a chameleon, based on years of actor training. You can change up your choices, based on years of practice doing so. You are an intuitive critter and you do want to please others — especially if pleasing someone gets you this gig right now!

But I’ll recommend that you get out of the habit of trying to read the room — or worse, hustling for info in the waiting room, or taking seriously whatever other auditioning actors are saying as The Truth about what they believe they’re looking for in the room — with the goal of changing up your read to please anyone. Get information, sure. But don’t let anything throw off the hard work you’ve done in prep for your time in the room.

Beyond the auditioning room, this advice goes for selecting headshots or putting together your demo reel! By trying to be everything to everyone, you successfully accomplish only one thing: Not being yourself to anyone.

I like to use the analogy of a dartboard, with the bullseye being your ultimate youness. It’s where you are, at your core, when you work on a role. Sure, you may play the creepy bad guy and not truly be a bad guy, but that bad guy is your bullseye and a trusted clergyman is somewhere in the outer rings of the dartboard. Doesn’t mean you can’t hit that role — of course you can, you’re an actor — but it means it’s a bit off the mark of who you are, effortlessly.

More importantly, it’s someone else’s bullseye.

And in a town like Los Angeles in particular, specializing in hitting your bullseye is the smartest use of your time, your effort, and your focus.

Sure, you can walk in, read the room, figure they’re looking for someone younger and try and come off younger in your read. But someone else is going to walk in younger, be younger, bullseye younger. Why compete with that? Instead, chalk it up to one of those auditions where you got to show ‘em your take on the role (even if it’s going to go to someone younger, creepier, quirkier, whatever) and, most importantly, you got to show them your youness, so that they can call you in “better” next time.

Next time, they call you in at your bullseye, because you showed them what that place looks like, with your audition.

Never obsess about getting one particular role. Book the Room, stay Professional at Any Level, and always celebrate your youness. There will be a day when that’s exactly what they need. Good thing you showed them what that bullseye looks like, huh?

And so much easier than trying to be anything other than what you truly are!

What’s Your Youness? Do you have a clear picture of your bullseye? Let’s talk about it in the comments section, below! Can’t wait to hear from you.

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna know more about Bon? Check here. Thanks!

I’m tired.

I’m overworked.

I’m launching a new business that is, frankly, exhausting me.

I’m scared.

I’m deep in my resistance.

But I had a dream in the wee hours that has been my motivation all day long.

I dreamed that the next location for our ongoing Self-Management for Actors Seminars has a huge picture window that looks out upon a red carpet complete with step-and-repeat and loads of eager photographers, snapping away.

On that red carpet?

A parade of Class Rules! alumni, all smiling at their adoring public, basking in the dream-come-true-ness of it all.

And occasionally a Class Rules!-er on the red carpet waves at us, on the other side of the window, in SMFA class, building the next generation destined for that walk.

Bliss.

It felt so good to be a part of that ride somehow… and that’s what’s keeping me going today, while my resistance would rather I not get my work done for this new venture.

Thank you for that!

So, in the Self-Management for Actors Seminar (Master Class version) last week, Sarah shared a tip that had been shared with her, while on the train to Comic-Con the week before that.

No more RED in the iCal!

Seems simple enough. Psychologically, we associate red with corrections, marks on our schoolwork, deficits on financial ledgers… URGENCY.

And seeing as I’m all about focusing on the important (not the urgent) these days, this intrigued me.

I tend to have a lot of “urgent” in my life, and that’s been a block to my own prosperity and fulfillment. All of this became crystal clear when I read The War of Art a couple of months ago. Everything is different now. I regularly talk about the “pre-DDA me” and the “post-DDA me” (where DDA is “done dickin’ around,” my new mantra). The War of Art is my guide to DDA.

There’s nowhere in that book that “banish red from your iCal” is advised, but when Sarah shared that tip in the Master Class last week, it resonated with me. So, I changed the red items (which, of course, were my most urgent to-do list items) to yellow. Nope. That didn’t work. Then a different purple than the one I already use. Nope. A slightly greener blue than the blue I already use? But not as green as the green I use? Ack. Too many colors already in place on the iCal.

Ah… steel. Silver. Slate. Cool, confident, important but not urgent.

And amazingly, I’ve gotten more important to-do list items resolved this week than in a good long time (all while launching a major give-back campaign for members of Team Cricket Feet). Keith and I have started getting really clear on “Do it. Do it now” around here. Rather than thinking of a to-do, noting it, and continuing on with whatever we’re doing, we now — about 85% of the time — actually just stop whatever we’re doing and DO THE DAMN THING so it doesn’t become another to-do list item. It doesn’t wear on our psychic energy. It doesn’t become a dread or another bit of mental clutter. It just gets done.

Done Dickin’ Around!

Whatever hack you need to try to make your life more productive, more connected, more lovely, just try it. And try it long enough to be sure it’s working.

So… what’s working? Got a tip to share? Please do. You never know how great an impact a silly little mind trick may have.