Do What Ya Gotta Do
Principle #7: Do what you need to do, to get where you need to get, so you can give what you need to give
Phone rings…
“Hey, you got the job”
AWESOME
Goes to corner store
Buys an ice cream
20 minutes later
Oh crap…
Now what?
How do I translate the short audition experience into weeks or months of being on set or stage?
Okay
We got two points
Point A: Receiving the news you got the job
Point B: The night before the first day of shooting
Everything we do between these two points…
This is our Game Plan
Sometimes, we have months to prepare
(For Shakespeare’s Henry V, I had 9 months)
Sometimes, we only have a few days to prepare
(I was driving through the Utah Desert and got a call saying…“Hey, that BBC job you auditioned for 6 months ago? Yeah, you got that, so you need to be in New Zealand with a Scottish accent in 6 days time… Okay? … Mike? … Michael?”)
On many occasions, I have experienced huge overwhelm when it’s come to preparing for a gig
And overwhelm = inaction
When I left drama school
I had a list of around 200 things I told myself I needed to do in order to prepare like a good boy
I would do about 10 before falling over from exhaustion and not know how to move forward
I would then rock up to set and only think about all the stuff I didn’t get done in time
Every moment would be filled with the anxiety that I hadn’t done enough
And thus, the whole thing was a fairly miserable experience
It took me a little while to see things in a different way
What did I figured out from watching Oscar winners prepare?
Firstly
Do a few things only… but do them fucking well
Secondly
Real pros practice self care
They know how to get stuff done whilst being kind to themselves
(Nobody wins from you beating the shit out of yourself)
So lets make a simple Game Plan
Do it well
And go play
:)
Exercise: Game Plan
Requirements: Paper & pencil, some focussed private time, maybe some music, tea/water etc etc
Step 1. Set the timer for 15 minutes: Journal the most energising experiences you’ve had preparing for a job & explore what you did that made them energising.
Step 2. Set the timer for 10 minutes: Notice the commonalities between those experiences. What are the shared underlying principles or actions you took?
Step 3. Set the timer for 2 minutes: Clarify how you would like to feel putting your head on the pillow the night before you start the job.
Step 4. Set the timer for 3 minutes: Write down your dream Game Plan process for you to experiment with. Try keep it between 3-7 clear, doable points. Then repeat the 3 minute process. And finally, repeat the 3 minute a third time. See how it morphs and grows with each iteration. Build something which you feel energised about.
One last thing
Please
Take that goddamn moment to celebrate getting a job in this industry
Share it with people you love
Give yourself permission to enjoy the journey
A dear friend called me on Saturday to tell me she just got a US series
It made my bloody weekend
Nothin better than seeing someone you love work well toward a goal
And getting to share the joy along the way
x