By Anthony Meindl | Posted April 23, 2014, 10 a.m.

I had a student I was teaching in Australia recently who had a watershed moment in his acting. And it did create a watershed. Being vulnerable might do that to you.

He realized that hes been actingmeaning self-generatingrather than simply being, and allowing, himself to be affected in the work. He realized that its safer to put on a characterif even ever so subtlythan to face the truth that if you allow yourself to be in the work totally, it might mean that you yourself can be rejected for it.

In other words, theres no hiding.

So he tried to protect himself by pretending. But all that does is create artificiality in his work.

Light bulb: You will be rejected. For sure, lots of times, for being who you are. Thats the risk you take being fully invested in your own lifein love, in acting, in dancing, in putting yourself out there, in painting. in singing, in all forms of creating.

You are constantly revealing who you are and giving a part of yourself away in everything you do, and that might mean that some people just wont get you or like you or be interested in you or respond to you.

So what? Youre not doing it for them. Youre doing it for yourself. And when you really start to live in that truth, you wont care what other people think because theres no greater gift than giving of yourself, with the risk that in doing so you might be rejected. Thats called life, and its why were here.

It also leads to another conversation I had with a New York actor. He said he was scared of failure. No, hes not. We fail every day. Our lives are littered with failures. So were not really scared to fail. Were afraid of being seen, because being seenjust as this Aussie actor realizedcarries with it the risk of rejection and not doing it right, and being imperfect and showing people who we really are, and consequently, having people not liking us.

What were really scared of is our success. How powerful we can be, and also how magnificent and beautiful and competent and talented we already are.

See the article here:
The 1 Thing Actors Are Really Afraid Of