Film Courage: What are your best tips for boosting confidence?
Michael Laskin, Actor, Acting Coach, Author: Confidence is this thing that you have to maintain
in a business that is designed to undermine your confidence at alter at every turn
was actually talking to somebody yesterday who's having a crisis is too strong a word but she's at
a Crossroads about something and I said here's your pro here's the problem we're talking about
I said you need to do something about that problem The Dilemma every day
do something every day even if it's 20 minutes even if you feel like you're not
making progress you're repeating yourself you're digging yourself a hole do something to get at
that issue every day because confidence is so fragile there are people who are confident for
no apparent reason there are they just have it and they can't be dissuaded and God that's a gift
that's a fantastic gift most of us who are mere mortals are not like that and so back in the day
when we used to go in for in-person auditions which I don't know if that's ever coming back
but you you'd arrive at the audition you pull up to the gate of the studio and you'd say I'm
gonna meet so and so in this building and here's my appointment they say oh you're not on the list
okay so they got to call the office so that's confidence number one going down the tubes I'm
not on the list then you get on the list oh yeah yeah they've got you so you got to park
in that structure it's like four blocks away so you got to go park in that structure and you're
wearing a suit because it's a role that requires that and it's like 100 degrees out and you got
to walk the four blocks in the blazing sun and then you get there and by the time you get there
you're a mess it's so it is designed it's like a Minefield to undermine your confidence and so
I'll tell you the best story that ever happened to me and it has to do with this issue
I was getting out of the shower one morning I got a call from my agent and they said can you be in
Century City at 10 o'clock and it was or whenever it was it was I literally just stepped out of the
shower and it wasn't I live in the valley I live in Studio City it's rush hour in the morning
I said he said it's a movie somebody must have fallen out you're next on the
list I don't even know what it is just go there'll be sides for you there to look at
so I'm like ready I'm getting in the car and I'm trying to get through traffic and park
and talk about coffee I don't know what's going on right so I get there I see my sides I look
at them I read through it once and the casting judges Michael are you ready I want sure said
yes that's a big part of confidence said yes I'm ready I wasn't ready I wasn't even remotely ready
but I said yes so I went into this room and again another big room I didn't know anything about this
project first person I see is Robert Duvall oh wow yeah so I was like okay this is what what is this
I don't even know what this is I have this long scene and in those days they didn't expect you to
be off book you could still have the script with you now everyone has to be off book letter perfect
and all that stuff but I had the script and I literally had just gotten it so I get through
to the I get to the end it's very quiet in the room and the director his name was Billy Graham
by the way oh William Graham a fantastic guy he looked at me said that was perfect
I said really I said that's not a word we hear too often in rooms like this he said no that was
perfect great I said well okay thanks guys and I left and thinking what the heck just happened
I didn't have time to have my confidence shaken had to get it done I said yes and
I did it and the instincts we talked about earlier just kicked in I had a
take on it oh but the other thing was it was an Israeli character so I had to have an accent
happened to be that my kids at the time when they were young had an Israeli Nanny and so I was very
familiar with you and I'm good with accents I was very familiar with it so I did it and they called
back I don't know a week or so later they want to have you back a call back and I'm thinking oh man
if I go back I'm going to probably blow it so no I'm not going to go back I I was a crazy decision
I said to my agent make up something lie say I'm working I'm available for the job but not for the
Callback I don't know what possessed me and I got it it was a job it was a it was a Showtime movie
with Robert Duvall we shot in South America an incredible project movie wasn't that great but
it was a great experience and working with him was a great experience but it was that level of
not knowing enough to be scared to be frightened to let it get in your head we
all get in our heads actors get it but people do human beings do it's it's it's so actors
will get in their heads about something and we feel we have to be perfect we have to be I'm
working with somebody now who's who's kind of new at this but she's really extraordinary and
I've had to sort of cure her of being a perfectionist I said I'm not I'm not interested
if you missed that one where it doesn't matter if the take is great if you like it if we like
it that's what we're going to go with and so once you free yourself of perfectionism
that let's opens the door for a little bit more confidence when I work with I've worked with a
lot of people who are dancers and athletes in particular who are fantastically good for acting
because they are disciplined they know they have to have training they know they have to know what
they're doing they can't just wing it and just oh I'm feeling it this way they have to they actually
know that they need coaching and all that stuff and so but they are perfectionists dancers and
athletes are perfectionists when they transition into acting and it's just getting them confident
enough to know that they can be imperfect and it's cool sometimes when an actor drops the line
like right now you go oh what just happened that's interesting sometimes when you think oh What's My
Line what's my name what's my next line but you've had a pause it lets us in we go oh what's going on
that's cool but so it's I do think confidence is directly related to a sense of perfectionism
and if you have to be perfect your confidence is going to be undermined at all times if you
accept the fact that imperfection as long as it shows fidelity to the story to the script into
your character is fine it's much easier and it's kind of what we're after anyway we talked about
Tom Cruise earlier and sort of this this composite of someone that has unshakable confidence and is
going to get the job done but then you think about a character like a Paul Giamatti or Ileana Douglas
who they they show in facial expressions micro like a little bit of doubt and then we like them
even more of course yeah because they're like oh I see me in that character exactly yeah I mean Paul
Giamatti is a great example because he's just got that face he's got that face that is only and the
voice and he's very good he's very very good but as I said earlier I do think that faces and worlds
I was telling the young woman yesterday who I'm working with who's got some confidence issues
I said if you think about it that way like what world do you fit in you don't fit in every world I
don't fit in every world what world do you fit in and I didn't get you didn't get that role because
there's a lot of reasons you don't get it wrong you maybe you didn't do a good audition maybe your
agent isn't significant enough to really fight for you maybe you're too old for that character
because he or she has to be matched to another person who's a little too young a little young
there's all kinds of reasons and most of them are optical most of them are like how you look
and so again we get back to that blink of an eye thing so particularly with self tapes now
I say you've gotta you have to somehow be there present and right at the first frame
absolutely the first 10 seconds are the most important I had a a woman who is a
I won't name her she's but she's a very significant casting person head of casting at a
network who came to my class she was great she was and somebody asked and so like if there's a lead
role in a television series I don't know how many people are submitted it's thousands probably and
then they get down they window it went down and then maybe she sees the last 50 that have gotten
through the Callback process maybe it's even a smaller number than that I don't know and somebody
asked how do you like what's the process after that and she literally took out her phone she went
and everybody gasped because at that point she knows everybody's good who's the right fit who
looks right it's kind of that cast this pilot that I produced and it was like we had people because
we had a very good casting director so we didn't see people who weren't good we all everybody we
saw it for the major parts was very good so it wasn't about that it was about like oh she's great
doesn't fit it doesn't work for this reason or that reason so it's a lot of that it's a lot of
that and that sort of uncertainty and that capriciousness that's very capricious as a
profession and it's kind of borderline abusive as some profession to be perfectly honest
particularly now when an actor gets a a 12-page three scene self tape with 24 hours to turn around
and he or she has a work shift that night and they have to memorize it and they have to film it and
they have to upload it and it has to be great come on that's crazy it's crazy but it is what that's
the new normal that is actually the normal now they're trying to they've changed that a little
bit in the UK and it's smart they've given people they they send all these these tapes out that are
it's impossible to do what they're asking for some people 12 13 pages when a show itself is 60 pages
you're asking people to film a quarter of the show that overnight and it has to be great
in in the UK they're doing a thing they four page maximum with a four day minimum and then if it's a
six then it's a six page they have a whole formula so it's not otherwise it just gets to be crazy
and it's a good point you set a work shift most actors have flexible jobs that they're doing at
night and things yeah and so yeah you can't be totally it's become that aspect of it has
become harder because it's not personal anymore you're not walking into the room and developing
a maybe a relationship with that office that you've been in six seven times they like you
they keep bringing you back there's an energy in the room there's a person-to-person energy
that simply can't be replicated on Zoom but that's what it is right now that's that's the
world we're living in and it is what it is I'm glad to be on the 17th hole with that.