Talent Jug - Casting Calls and Auditions

Audition Tips for Pesky Nerves

Are you the greatest actor but your nerves hold the winning ticket?  Are you Brando in your living room but as soon as you walk into the audition room your hands shake so badly that the copy makes noise as it flaps side to side?  Don’t despair, no really don’t do it!  Here are some tips.  For years I had the audition jitters and everyone would tell me to do breathing exercises and center myself. The only problem was that I would be so ‘falsely’ relaxed prior to my appointment, that when I walked into the room my heart would immediately spike up to 120 beats per minute.  The recognition of this reaction would make me freak out even worse.  Nothing worked.  One time I was even provided Beta Blockers by a doctor and still nothing.

Then I discovered a little trick delivered to me by a life coach, a very expensive life coach — I told you it was a big problem!  She told me don’t try to fight your nerves, tell yourself just as you feel your heart begin to race , right as you enter the room, “Oh there’s that thing I do.”   And she said that the jitters would go away.  I tried it and it did work the first few times.  But nerves are pesky little critters, kind of like cockroaches.  If you find one, you can bet there are ten more lurking somewhere else.

Suppress your nerves one way and they just creep up in the strangest new places. The shakes did indeed go away, my jitters decreased, heart-rate went back to normal but instead, I would choke, go completely flat in the audition room, yes you guessed it, because of those doggone nerves.

I was running out of excuses. Then I found an amazing acting teacher, Amy Lyndon, who told me, ” Fill your mind with all the things that are going on in the world of the character and you won’t have time to worry about your nerves.”  I thought it sounded too simple, but it worked.  Now I have to actually get myself amped up before auditions because I’m so calm.

So don’t despair, nerves are just annoying reminders that this is exciting stuff — you care!  Incidentally, different exercises work for different people. But there’s always hope –  choking at auditions does not have to be your legacy as an actor.

By the way once you start booking, confidence is a great nerve exterminator!

Out damn pests, out!

– Heather Langone

Article Courtesy of: http://backstage.blogs.com/blogstage/2008/12/pesky-nerves.html

Tags: Audition Tips, Casting Calls

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