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What if the biggest thing hurting your

auditions

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isn't your acting.

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What if it's your thinking?

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Today we're discussing how actors

quietly sabotage themselves before the

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audition even begins.

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And trust me, this happens consistently.

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This is casting actor's cast.

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Well, hello, and welcome to casting

actor's Cass.

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I'm Jeff drives back.

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And today we're discussing one of the

biggest hidden audition problems that

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actors face

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overthinking.

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Now, actors hate hearing this because

many actors secretly believe

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overthinking means they're being,

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I don't know, serious professionals?

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No,

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sometimes it just means your brain is

doing interpretative dance while your

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instincts are trapped in the trunk of

the car.

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And honestly,

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actors can overthink themselves

directly out of truthful work.

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We're going to jump into all of that.

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But first, this is that moment of the

conversation where I get to just simply

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thank you for joining me.

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I invite you to check out the webside

cassing actors cast dot com.

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There's a form there.

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This is dive into the talent pool.

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And if you do that that's going to open

up some freebies.

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It's a website that has information

about my new book.

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That's out.

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My audio book there's all kinds of,

though there's jeff's jots, by the way.

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And that's corresponding show notes to

each of the episodes so that you can

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literally have a copy of the bulleted

script that I use to do these podcasts.

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I find that to be.

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A lot of folks have told me that this

seems to be really, really helpful for

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them, especially if something strikes

the right kind of nerve in terms of information

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and listen.

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The only reason I'm doing these

podcasts is a sincere

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desire to help actors feel more

comfortable and more confident in the

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world of acting that's, it, it's the

show business thing, but it's also

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the internal work that actors can do to

make themselves feel more alive,

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more appreciated.

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And guess what?

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Book more that's kind of it, right?

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Wouldn't you like to book more?

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Listen, stay tuned.

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That's why I'm here.

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Also, please do check out that website.

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But also

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there's the course that's available

there.

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Mean, there's just all kinds of stuff

there as well.

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Also, you can leave me an email,

casting actors cast a Gmail, dot com

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and if you want to just

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write me a question or a comment, that

would be awesome.

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Finally, if you could think about

giving me a like and a subscribe,

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that would help me so much.

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That's what keeps me motivated to do

this work.

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And I would appreciate any

consideration along those lines.

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Maybe even, I don't know, a review

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on iTunes perhaps.

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All right, I'm not going to start

begging now, although I really, really

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want to.

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All right, now let's jump back into

this subject.

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We're going to call this

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approval trap

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one of the biggest mindset problems

actors face, in my opinion, is this.

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Having done a lot of auditions lately,

I can tell you this firsthand,

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they walk into auditions wanting

approval

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instead of connection.

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That subtle difference absolutely

changes everything.

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Approval energy

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sounds like,

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oh, please like me.

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Please think I'm talented.

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Please tell me I belong here.

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And when actors need approval,

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guess what happens?

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They become careful.

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Careful acting

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is usually dead.

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Acting.

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Suddenly,

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actors begin,

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oh, the first thing.

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They start monitoring themselves.

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They start editing their impulses,

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they start presenting

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emotion,

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trying to look

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good.

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And the performance

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itself starts feeling

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quite manufactured.

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Here's a real casting truth.

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The actors who often feel most alive in

auditions

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are usually the least concerned with

appearing, impressive.

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They are engaged,

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present, connected, specific,

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while the actor desperately trying to

prove themselves

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often feels tense

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and tension reads

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immediately on camera.

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Now next, I just have to share this,

what I call the self monitoring

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disaster.

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Actors sometimes perform while

simultaneously

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watching themselves internally.

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It's like acting while also being your

own nervous stage manager.

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Things that you say to yourself while

you're doing the scene are like,

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did that sound emotional?

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Was that believable?

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Should I pause more?

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Do I look weird?

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Meanwhile, the scene has emotionally

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left the building.

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I've said this in a recent episode.

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I just honestly think it bears

repeating.

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And that is, if you've ever had a

teacher of whether or a director,

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who ever said to you, after a scene,

whether it's a scene study, or whether

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it's an actual scene that you're doing,

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after they give you a note,

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do they ever say to you, oh, how did

that feel?

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You know, I think I've heard that

almost all my life as an actor.

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How did that feel?

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Not realizing that when that question

gets asked, what is happening?

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What is happening is that it is

reinforcing

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you, watching yourself,

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in other words, while you're doing the

scene, trying to incorporate the note

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the director has given you,

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you are now monitoring yourself.

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And then when you hear, how did that

feel?

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You go back into your catalogue of

emotional experiences and expressions

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and self doubt thoughts.

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And oftentimes you say, oh, that was

great.

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It is.

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Sometimes the need for approval from

the director

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supersedes

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you

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doing the scene.

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Gosh, I hope that makes sense, right?

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So, listen, I don't want you to ever be

rude,

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not in an audition or when you get an

adjustment from a director,

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because

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they're just trying to help reinforce

those things that are working.

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So I get the motivation.

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But subliminally, ooh, good word.

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I think

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that that is kind of

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telling you to

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be really skilled

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at taking your own temperature,

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so that you can give yourself a thumbs

up or thumbs down.

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And the truth of the matter is that

truthful acting,

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well that requires involvement,

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not surveillance.

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And honestly,

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most human beings are not monitoring

themselves constantly during emotional moments,

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they are trying to

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survive them.

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All right.

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Moving on from there.

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A lot of actors unknowingly bring

school energy into professional auditions.

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Now, you can be of any age.

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So I'm not pointing out any particular

group, right?

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But I see it happening very, very

frequently,

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that actors audition, like their

nervous students, waiting for grades.

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But the professional world does not

work that way.

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Right?

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Casting is not searching for the best

cry,

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the most dramatic pause, the loudest

emotional explosion.

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They are usually searching for truth.

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Are you a good fit for the character?

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Looking for humanity?

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Specificity

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the biggest in my mind, behavior.

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Sometimes the actor who books isn't the

most emotionally theatrical.

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They're simply the most believable.

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And let me tell you, that can

frustrate.

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Actors who were trained to equate

intensity

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with quality.

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Yeah, we're going to have more what's

coming up.

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I have to talk about this over

preparation.

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And we're going to do that right after

this message.

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Welcome back.

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Now let's discuss.

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Another dangerous actor habit that I

see that sabotages so many auditions.

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And that's what I call overbuilding.

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Let me explain.

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Some actors prepare for auditions, like

there, writing a doctorial dissertation

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about sadness.

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Meanwhile, the audition is just three

pages.

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Actors will sometimes create fourteen

page back stories,

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symbolic childhood, trauma maps,

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emotional weather systems,

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color coded, psychological journals.

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I've seen that

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now listen.

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Preparation absolutely matters.

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But preparation

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should support

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spontaneity,

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not suffocated.

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When actors become too locked into

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the plan,

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they stop listening.

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And once listening disappears,

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so does truthful behavior.

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Now there's a fear that we have to talk

about.

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And this is absolutely another problem.

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Actors often think simple

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means weak.

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That is categorically

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not true.

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Simple, truthful behavior is usually

much harder

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than emotional decoration.

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Why?

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Because simplicity,

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we choirs confidence.

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It requires

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trusting your presence,

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your listening,

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your instincts,

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the writing.

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Some actors are terrified that if they

stop performing, nothing interesting

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will happen

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with all due respect.

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I see this happening so often

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with well trained, musical theater

actors trying to do straight acting.

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But guess what?

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Often the opposite occurs.

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The work

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suddenly becomes human.

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When you remove

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the energy of performance,

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the work suddenly comes alive.

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I know it's going to take some time to

really let that absorb, but I promise

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you, that's golden,

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I just made you a lot of money right

now,

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right.

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This, move on.

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I always try to give out an exercise to

you in the hope that you try these exercises,

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just to sort of reinforce the concepts

of each of these podcasts.

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Here's the quick

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episode, here's the quick exercise for

this week.

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I want you to take any self tape that

you've done recently.

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Now I want you to watch it again.

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Preferably, something not so recent,

something that's not still in your, the

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four frontal corquex of your brain,

something that you did a while ago,

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that you may be kind of forgot about a

little bit.

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But that's the one I want you to take a

look at now.

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Listen.

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I want you to watch it with the sound

off.

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Yeah,

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turn off the sound.

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Now ask,

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am I behaving

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or demonstrating?

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I promise you that question alone can

completely change your work if you see

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a clear answer.

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Amazing.

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Right?

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Wrapping this up a little bit, actors

often sabotage themselves, not because

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they lack talent, but because they are

trying too hard to control the outcome.

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Truthful acting usually requires

involvement,

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not perfection.

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And

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the moment actors stop auditioning for

approval.

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Their work often becomes far more

compelling.

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Thank you so much for joining me.

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I'm Jeff drives back.

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This is casting actors cast here's it

here's the deal here's it here's the

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00:13:34,581 --> 00:13:34,748

deal.

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00:13:35,148 --> 00:13:36,16

Keep learning.

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00:13:36,416 --> 00:13:37,450

Keep listening

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00:13:37,851 --> 00:13:43,356

and maybe stop emotionally supervising

yourself like an anxious substitute teacher.

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Your instincts are smarter than you

think.

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See you next