Self-Confidence

Whether you’re performing before an audience or you’re working with a backstage technical team, self-confidence is a staple for your theatre success. Some people seem to be naturally confident. They can appear before an audience, and the audience will feel their presence immediately. They can ask for what they want without hesitation, and when they speak, the crowd listens. And yet, any theatre professionals will tell you that they are not as outgoing as we think. As they say, there is a sad soul behind a painted-on clown face. This old adage tends to be true to some extent, that is. So, can confidence be learned? Can you regain it once you lose it?

People are not born confident, not the greatest film stars like Morgan Freeman, and if there is one person who is born with self-confidence, then they are one a million. Now self-confidence is an essential tool for any actor, and it could make all the difference between failure and success in one’s acting career. It is a quality that can be learnt over time. One of the best ways to gain self-confidence as an actor is to perform confidence. This involves making your audience believe that you’re confident even when it is not the case. You can also gain self-confidence by crafting a confident character. Identify a movie star that portrays confidence- the one you admire. Picture your idol in action and try to describe him or her using adjectives such as brave, calm, generous, assertive, etc. Try to perform these attributes.

As you can see, self-confidence is a big asset in acting, and it is the basis of survival. It brings love and acceptance. Remember, your viewers have no time sitting glued on their screens to watch a mediocre performance. You must demonstrate to them that you know what you’re doing by oozing confidence.