Do Less, Better
When I graduated from drama school
I tried to distill everything I had learned into one single word document
As simple and clear as I could make it
I had a list of approximately 200 “important” points
Two hundred
Which meant anytime I had an audition or job
I felt my duty was to tick every single one of those 200 boxes
In order to build a good character
So I could feel like a good actor
And get my gold star for the fridge
Now
When I actually got an audition or job
I would block out every day I had available in order to prepare
Buy a case of red bull (I was 21)
Lock myself away in the garage
And apart from bathroom or sleep
Refuse to come out until I felt like I had done everything I needed to do
Can you guess what kept happening?
No surprises here
I would get to the 3rd or 4th day
My adrenaline dump from getting the role would have worn off
And my lack of sleep, rest, nutrition would have caught up to me
Dreams would meet reality
And I would fall over
“Body says no”
But
I would’ve only done about 5 - 10 of my 200 “important” tasks!
What followed was the valley of despair
I would spend the rest of my prep time feeling like a failure
I should be working harder
I should be all out obsessive
I should be doing everything to make this work extraordinary
I would eventually rock up to set feeling tired and scared
And spend the majority of time thinking about the other 190 things I didn’t do
Thinking about how I should be more prepared than I actually was
Thus
I stayed in the zone of “not good enough”
Now
When I look back at this time
I see a beautiful intention
I really wanted to give great work
And feel validated in an industry I loved
Pretty normal desires for a hungry young amateur one would think
I just needed a bit of guidance with my approach
An adjustment of the “how”
I had a little think
Got some really great external accountability
And commenced an experiment
I started watching actors
And what I noticed from watching them
Frustrated the living heck out of me
It seemed the better the actor
The less work they did
The actors who wanted to rehearse over and over
Who wanted to ask a hundred questions on set
Who had clearly spent the last week killing themselves with preparation
Seemed to be a bit poo
And by that I mean they carried an underlying insecurity into their work
Which came through on the screen
And the actors who rocked up with an Oscar or huge resume of work behind them
Did less
Way less
They had a kind of ease
Or grace
They knew their lines enough
They hit their mark
And they asked a question if it was actually necessary and helpful for the scene to work
And if they made a mistake
They shrugged and did another take without getting flustered or beating themselves up
I thought this wasn’t fair
It looked too easy
I scoffed
“But look at all the work I’m doing”
Hard work equals success right?
Oh?
No!?
I think I might have been telling myself a story based off my belief systems I acquired growing up
Belief Systems
B.S.
Time for another experiment
What if a did less?
I don’t mean from 200 down to 20
I mean 200 down to 2
Two things
What if I experimented with only allowing myself to do two things in order to prep for an audition or job?
Okay
Obviously I need to learn my lines
Hang on
What about that time I apologised to the director in that call-back for not knowing my lines perfectly
And he replied with
“Mate, shut up, no-one ever got the role because they knew the bloody lines”
Maybe that’s just my B.S. too!?
Ugh
Alright
Start agin
Clean slate
I know nothing
Now
From this place…
What do I actually need to do?
In order to get where I actually need to get?
So I can give what I actually need to give?
Do. Get. Give.
Since graduating from drama school
The jobs I am proudest of
I have done the least amount of work on
I still read that sentence and think “how does that make sense?”
I’m guessing a huge part of it
Is based around the idea that the key to not caring
Is being very clear and honest about what you do truly care about
So… the key to doing less work
Is being very clear and honest about the work that is actually worth doing
Which allows for work to become far more sustainable
I feel safe and strong in knowing that what I actually need to do is taken care of
Which opens me up to play
Something else I have noticed…
Giving up on trying to do everything
And only doing one single thing really well
Builds a muscle
Your body gets to feel what it’s like to experience good work
Even if its just one tiny, minuscule moment
But that experience compounds
And if you can learn to do one tiny thing very well
You can learn to replicate the formula
It will bleed into other areas of your performance
And life
So
Lets play “would you rather”…
Looking at your acting process
Would you rather do 10 things averagely?
Or do 2 things bloody well?
Quantity vs quality
Amateurs do lots
Pros do less
But the few things they actually do
They. Do. Well.
My point?
Do less
And do it better
Hope this helps
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