No Proof For Confidence
Confidence is a rational response to past experience
A rational response
To past experience
For example
I am extremely confident that the sun will rise tomorrow
Because every day of my life
It has
Easy to be confident about that one
I have almost no confidence that this evening
I won’t have to clean up the farm yard mess in the kitchen
Because every day for the last two and a half years
My daughter has proven otherwise
Not to say it won’t happen
But my confidence is low on that one
Makes sense
But
What about actors
Confidence
(Originating from the word “confidere” in Latin)
Means
“to have full trust”
And we hear this word in the world of acting all the time
“Trust
Trust yourself
You just have to trust that things will work out”
But what if you don’t have the past experiences
To help you rationally predict that things will work out in the way you want them to?
We know it’s not always wise to keep using previous results to predict future ones
But there’s a stuck point here
If an actor wants new results
They have to create a new normal
A normal in which they have “full trust” in the process
But
What if there’s no results?
No past proof to make rational predictions from?
So it’s not logical for us to have confidence?
Stuck
We do not want to stay in the same spot
But we don’t have the confidence to progress
Somethings gotta give
Someone has to go first
If I have learnt anything from the incredible Angie Ford
It’s to go first
Go first with the new processes
Go first in building new normals
Go first with the story I’m telling myself
Go first with what I’m choosing to believe
Often times
When there is no proof
It might feel like in order to make progress
We have to jump off a cliff
Surrender to things we cant control
A bloody vulnerable thing to do!
I need to get something across here
And bear with me as I give some gory details
I got into NIDA at 18 the very first time I auditioned
I had no proof to say I should be confident
I vomited in the bathroom at the call back and still walked into the room to give my work
During the filming of the Nightingale
There was a scene in which I had to leave the room for a few minutes
To be consoled by the voice coach because of how afraid I was of
Before going back in and filming
What’s my point?
If you have no proof
Start building it.
Confidence will come
From putting your body in the arena
Over and over again
But what about the fear!?
Confidence is not the eradication of fear
Please
Do waste precious time or energy wishing your fears away
Your body is doing it’s job
Let it
But just because you’re afraid
As most professional actors are
Doesn’t mean you can’t still jump off that ledge
In fact
It seems like going first
Jumping off that cliff
When you have almost no proof things will work out
Is sometimes the most important thing to do
Hope this helps
X