ENVY

Are you envious of my super cute sweater? Today I want to talk to you about envy, jealousy, the green monster, looking at other people's success and thinking, why not me? I want what they have. So, it's a really common experience. When we used to have in-person auditions, oftentimes you would see the same people at the auditions as you, your competition. Oh, no, my competition. I find that that can be a really negative way of looking at things and it doesn't help you. It's not a positive sometimes for some people, whatever works. But I don't like to see fellow actors as my enemy, as my competition. If somebody else has got a career that's banging, I'm happy for them. Unless they're an a-hole, but yeah, karma is real. It's going to happen to them. Anyway, if you find somebody who's got the career you want, notice what it is that they're doing. Are they putting in more time and energy? How are they dressed at the auditions? Are they taking risks that maybe you're not taking? But people aren't your competition. This is what I tell my students. Not everybody's a fan of it, but I like it. So, if if it if it resonates for you, take it. If it doesn't, leave it behind. I like to think about auditions sometimes as like dog shows. When you see the winner of a major dog show, how can you have a poodle, a little toy poodle comparing it against a mastiff or a Great Dane? Like, which one should get it? Which one is going to be best in show? Well, because you're not comparing the two against each other. You're comparing them against the standard of what it should be. Are you being the best that you can be? Are you doing everything that you can do? If you have and somebody else gets it, it wasn't your job. It wasn't your role to have. If you got lazy, if you didn't do the things that you needed to do, if you threw the audition together without really preparing. If you didn't take your time to think about what you would wear, if you didn't, did you do what you needed to do? Is it the best version of yourself? That's what I want you to get good at. Always getting better, always putting a 100% into everything that you do. If there's a person that spurs you to be better, certainly in the sports world, you always want to be trying to be the best version of yourself, bettering yourself so you can be better than you were before. Always using that as your benchmark. Not looking at what somebody else is doing, not trying to be better than somebody else. Trying to be the best you can be. Stop worrying about somebody else. There is always somebody in your rear view who wants the roles that you want. There is always somebody who's going to be there ready to step in. Don't spend your time and your energy focused on them. Focus on you. Focus on what you can do. If there's a I know in the world of sports oftentimes people need a competitor. The solo I want that person to race against. I want that that team to beat. If that's what you need, whatever works for you. But really, you're your own competition. You're going to be putting the obstacles in the way that I cannot remove if you've decided that you're not right for a part. I can't convince you that you are. So, stop looking at what other people are doing. And take your focus on yourself. What can I do better? if you realize that you might need to change something. Very funny that I had I used to call it my spelling hair. I don't know if you've seen old videos of me, but I had a lot of hair. And when I cut it, I booked a spelling show. Shorter hair got me at the show. Who knows? And maybe it wasn't the hair at all. It was that I was ready. I wasn't worried about what other people were doing. I was focused on my job. You will see people at callbacks or in person or even in the room. Oh, oh, that person. Oh, I'm such a fan of theirs. They're so good. They're amazing. You are a colleague of theirs. This part could also be yours. You will break through. Everybody that you see at one point couldn't get a job. I've known huge stars who couldn't get a job, got turned down multiple times for certain television shows and then became huge movie stars. It's not about you when you're not booking. Sometimes it the only person you have any control over is you. But maybe somebody else was just a better fit. You keep turning in great auditions, making fans of casting directors and then other people will be envious of your career and they will say why them why not me and if you want to give them the advice worry about yourself don't worry about me one of the things that I love about acting and about working with actors is the variety Everybody is different. No two people are the same. If there is another person that's in your type or your category, your age range, they're not you. You are unique. You are different. Celebrate what you are. Of course, if there's something that you, your agent, somebody says you might want to change, I had a an actor who went and learned another language, went overseas, lived there to learn another language to be more fluent and more castable. Fantastic. He is bettering himself. He's getting a new skill that he didn't have before. Don't be jealous because somebody's booking something. Don't be envious. How can I make myself the best? How can I make those casting directors think I just really hoping? And I've heard that so many times from casting, the actors that they love, they're just looking for the right role for them. So sometimes you'll be in a million times and maybe somebody else is always getting it. It doesn't mean that they're better than you. They're just better for that role than you. I do believe in the idea, as hippie-dippy as this sounds, the idea of abundance. There is enough for everybody. Nobody took your part. And you're not taking anyone else's part. There's a part for you and there's a part for them. And don't worry about squabbling and and who's going to get it. There's enough. There is enough to go around. I've been told that there's other acting studios, too. I don't know why you'd go there, but there's enough to go around. You find your right role. You find your way of working and you will have a career that is very special and unique to you. This is easy to say and hard to do. I know that. I know that it is difficult when you see somebody, maybe it's somebody who's been in class with you and you know you've worked just as hard as they have. But I'm telling you, it will be okay. You will find your way. Way back early in my career, I was up for the movie The Devil's Advocate. I was lucky working. I wasn't available. And there is a fantastic actress named Charlies Theron who got that part. I think if I had auditioned, she still would have gotten that part. I look at her career and it is fantastic. But it's not my career. It is her career. So I do understand though. I do look and go, "Wow, wish I had that." But you know what? There's other people who are going to look at what you have and say, "Wow, I wish I had that." Appreciate what you have and keep working. Envious that some people get to study with me? Well, you can too. When you are ready to do what you came here for? I want you to see me in person or online. No excuses. So, like, comment, subscribe, and I will see you next week. I teach people to talk for a living. Talk show.