Latest / The Aligned Actor / EVEN More Actor Yapping! Days 15-21, coming at ya!
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to The Aligned Actor Podcast.
- 0:03SPEAKER_00: I'm Amy Schloerb, your friendly fellow actor and mindfulness and mindset coach.
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: And this is the podcast where I offer practical mindfulness tools
- 0:11SPEAKER_00: and mindset shifts designed to help us all thrive in our full actor lives.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: Because actor life, as we all know, is a roller coaster.
- 0:20SPEAKER_00: It's full of ups and downs, twists and turns.
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: We never know what's coming next.
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: And the only way that we are going to survive long term in this profession is
- 0:28SPEAKER_00: if we are taking care of ourselves,
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: Managing our nervous systems, feeling the feelings, but continuing onward.
- 0:36SPEAKER_00: And that's what this podcast is designed to help us do,
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: is to help us keep going,
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: take care of ourselves,
- 0:43SPEAKER_00: and stick in it so that we can have long and happy careers as actors.
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: So let's do that.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: So it is time for your weekly roundup of 100 days of actor yapping or 100 days
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: of yapping,
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: those videos that I'm doing,
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: which I'm also calling Amy Yaps About Actor Mindset stuff on Instagram.
- 1:05SPEAKER_00: So it's been a lot of fun.
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: I'm having a lot of fun.
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you're still having a lot of fun too.
- 1:12SPEAKER_00: You know, I realize unless people start like writing in hateful comments, I just won't know.
- 1:19SPEAKER_00: And that's fine.
- 1:21SPEAKER_00: I'm just going to assume that you're having a good time here because I am.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: So yeah,
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: so I have for you today days 15 through 21,
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: which is a big milestone because after we hit 20,
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: that means I'm a fifth of the way through.
- 1:36SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty exciting.
- 1:38SPEAKER_00: Only 79 left.
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: There we go.
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: Hooray!
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: Go me!
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: Yay!
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: You know, like I like to say, always be celebrating.
- 1:48SPEAKER_00: So yes, that's what we have today.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: So in these videos today, I talk about becoming SAG eligible, which was very fun.
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: And I got that within a month of coming to Los Angeles.
- 2:00SPEAKER_00: And that just goes to show you anything is possible in our business, which is fun.
- 2:04SPEAKER_00: I also talk about the importance of living your full human life.
- 2:10SPEAKER_00: And how that will really help you as an actor.
- 2:13SPEAKER_00: And I think we talked some about that last week.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: That, like, you're always an actor.
- 2:16SPEAKER_00: So also you can live your life.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: Because you never have, you don't have to prove to anybody that you're an actor.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: You can ingrain that identity so strongly that,
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: you know, you go live your life and you have to live your life as a human.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: And that that's how you keep from burning out.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: And, yeah.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Stuff like that.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: So anyway, living your life as a human is only going to help you as an actor.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: That's really what that video is about.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: Then we talk about viewing our careers through the lens of mindfulness,
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: which I think is really cool.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: And it's an idea that sort of came to me on the fly.
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, I think this could be really important.
- 2:54SPEAKER_00: But basically, it's the idea that we can view our careers with more kindness and curiosity.
- 3:00SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us look at our careers with judgment, myself included.
- 3:05SPEAKER_00: And I judge where I am, how far along I am, why am I not farther?
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: And instead, when I look at my career with kindness, then I feel more proud of myself.
- 3:15SPEAKER_00: I feel excited about what I've done.
- 3:17SPEAKER_00: I feel happy about what I've done.
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: And I feel excited for what's coming next.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: And that's a totally different energy to be viewing my career with.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: And I think that's really, really important.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: So we're probably going to end up talking a lot more about that,
- 3:29SPEAKER_00: a lot more about applying mindful
- 3:33SPEAKER_00: A mindfulness lens to how we view our acting career and how
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: that can help us actually stay motivated and inspired to keep moving forward.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: So anyway, there's a video about that.
- 3:43SPEAKER_00: Then we have a potentially Tricky video for people?
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
- 3:50SPEAKER_00: I'm making it sound like it's awful.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: No.
- 3:53SPEAKER_00: But I tell the story about passing on a Ryan Murphy project and why I did that.
- 3:58SPEAKER_00: And it was a hard decision to make.
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: Actually,
- 4:01SPEAKER_00: it was an easy decision to make,
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: but it was hard to then accept the fact that,
- 4:06SPEAKER_00: like, okay, I'm choosing to give this up.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: But it was absolutely the right decision at the time.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: The video will explain why.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: And everybody can make their own decisions on these things and that is totally fine.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: But ultimately where I land in that video is on that idea about like I'm,
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: my actor identity is so secure that even passing on work,
- 4:29SPEAKER_00: even passing on something that,
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: you know, it was definitely not going to be a life changing thing.
- 4:34SPEAKER_00: Type of role by any means, but even passing on work doesn't threaten my identity as an actor.
- 4:40SPEAKER_00: I don't feel any less of an actor.
- 4:42SPEAKER_00: I just made a choice.
- 4:43SPEAKER_00: I'm a human being and I made a choice.
- 4:46SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I tell that story.
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: I talk about how hard it is to send self-tapes off into the void,
- 4:54SPEAKER_00: as it's referred to by actors, by us, you know, and never hear anything back.
- 5:02SPEAKER_00: And that that is really, really hard.
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: But that mindfulness has really helped me let go and move on like nothing else.
- 5:10SPEAKER_00: So even when I catch myself obsessively checking my email,
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: wanting to hear something, I am able to refocus myself.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: And that really has come through my daily practice of mindfulness and being able
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: to refocus my mind where I want it to be.
- 5:27SPEAKER_00: So there's that video.
- 5:28SPEAKER_00: And then finally,
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: there's a video about a super,
- 5:32SPEAKER_00: super simple mindfulness practice that can help soothe
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: and fortify your nervous system so that you can handle anything that
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: the entertainment industry throws your way.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's one more though, because that one is, I'm now thinking back.
- 5:50SPEAKER_00: No, maybe I did that one later.
- 5:52SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I didn't.
- 5:54SPEAKER_00: What was it?
- 5:56SPEAKER_00: Might have done that one later.
- 5:58SPEAKER_00: I will figure this out on my own, friends.
- 6:00SPEAKER_00: Let me just count really fast.
- 6:01SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
- 6:05SPEAKER_00: So I've worked a little bit ahead.
- 6:08SPEAKER_00: So there's other stuff coming too.
- 6:11SPEAKER_00: Wait, no.
- 6:14SPEAKER_00: I know I skipped one on here.
- 6:17SPEAKER_00: That's where we got confused.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: So I have in here, cause I knew there were two about mindfulness and mindfulness practices.
- 6:24SPEAKER_00: So I have a very simple way in the videos.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: I have a very simple way to calm your nerves before an audition.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: And that's something we're like, you're about to do a self tape.
- 6:33SPEAKER_00: You can go through this short,
- 6:35SPEAKER_00: really simple little process and it'll just help you ground in your body.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: And calm your whole nervous system down so that then you can be present in your work.
- 6:45SPEAKER_00: So I have that video.
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: Hopefully I didn't already talk about that in this whole preamble thing.
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
- 6:51SPEAKER_00: You'll live.
- 6:52SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
- 6:54SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 6:55SPEAKER_00: And then I share,
- 6:56SPEAKER_00: then the last video is about a very simple mindfulness practice
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: that I use constantly throughout my day to sort of keep my nervous system regulated
- 7:06SPEAKER_00: and...
- 7:08SPEAKER_00: Not as reactive to things.
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: And just, yeah,
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: it just helps to soothe and fortify my nervous system in general so
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: that I can handle then anything that comes up in my career,
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: anything that comes up with the entertainment industry and what mergers and things
- 7:26SPEAKER_00: and all the stuff that goes on that can feel a little like, ah, what's going on?
- 7:31SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah,
- 7:31SPEAKER_00: this is just,
- 7:32SPEAKER_00: it's a very simple way to get started with mindfulness in general so
- 7:36SPEAKER_00: that everything feels just that much easier in your career.
- 7:42SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 7:42SPEAKER_00: So that's, those are the videos for this week and I hope that you enjoy.
- 7:48SPEAKER_00: I became SAG eligible within about a month of moving to Los Angeles.
- 7:52SPEAKER_00: I went down with a friend to Central Casting.
- 7:54SPEAKER_00: We signed up.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: They were all saying, You're gonna have to call in.
- 7:58SPEAKER_00: We will never call you.
- 7:59SPEAKER_00: And getting SAG vouchers is kind of difficult.
- 8:01SPEAKER_00: But then there I was,
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: unpacking some dishes that my grandmother had sent me for my new apartment,
- 8:06SPEAKER_00: and all of a sudden I got a call from Central saying,
- 8:09SPEAKER_00: hey, would you like three guaranteed days of SAG background work?
- 8:13SPEAKER_00: You'll get all your vouchers.
- 8:14SPEAKER_00: And I was like, yeah, that sounds cool.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden I was in a film called Superbad and I took a shot next
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: to Jonah Hill, which was pretty awesome and fun.
- 8:24SPEAKER_00: So yeah, actor uncertainty.
- 8:26SPEAKER_00: We never know what's going to happen.
- 8:28SPEAKER_00: We never know what's coming next.
- 8:29SPEAKER_00: We never know when or even if something will break our way.
- 8:33SPEAKER_00: But the flip side of that is anything is possible.
- 8:37SPEAKER_00: Take trips.
- 8:38SPEAKER_00: Live your life.
- 8:40SPEAKER_00: Rest.
- 8:41SPEAKER_00: You need to be a full human being if you're going to portray full human beings as an actor.
- 8:47SPEAKER_00: Additionally, if you don't take breaks and rest and relax, you will risk burning out.
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: If you are not taking care of yourself as a whole human, you will risk burning out as an actor.
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: You will have no energy for your career.
- 9:00SPEAKER_00: You will have no energy for self-tapes.
- 9:02SPEAKER_00: You will resent everything.
- 9:05SPEAKER_00: Everything is going to become a slog.
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: And I don't want that for you.
- 9:08SPEAKER_00: So take care of yourself as a whole human so that then that human can show up as
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: the talented, brilliant, amazing actor that you are.
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: Mindfulness is a special way of paying attention to the present moment with kindness
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: and curiosity.
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you a question though.
- 9:25SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you looked at your acting career with kindness and curiosity?
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: If you're anything like me,
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: I bet you spend a lot of time looking at your acting career with judgment
- 9:36SPEAKER_00: and maybe some shame.
- 9:39SPEAKER_00: Why is it so slow?
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: What's wrong with me that I'm not farther ahead in my career?
- 9:44SPEAKER_00: Why can't I book anything?
- 9:45SPEAKER_00: But focusing on my career in that way makes me feel sad and defeated and unmotivated.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: But when I look at my acting career with kindness and with curiosity, I feel more motivated.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: I feel more inspired.
- 9:57SPEAKER_00: I can see how much I've grown as an actor.
- 10:00SPEAKER_00: I can see how far I've come.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: And that excites me genuinely to keep going.
- 10:05SPEAKER_00: So take a tip from mindfulness and try looking at your acting career with kindness
- 10:11SPEAKER_00: and curiosity.
- 10:13SPEAKER_00: If you're feeling really amped up before a self-tape, try this.
- 10:16SPEAKER_00: You're going to trace lightly from your wrist out to each finger.
- 10:20SPEAKER_00: Very, very gently.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: And as you go out to the finger, you're going to breathe in.
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna slowly exhale as you come back down to your wrist.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: This is a wonderfully soothing technique that will help to calm your nervous system.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: It combines slow breathing with light,
- 10:41SPEAKER_00: soothing touch,
- 10:43SPEAKER_00: and it will really help you just get more grounded before you hit record.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: And I have way more tips and tricks like this in my book,
- 10:51SPEAKER_00: The Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit, which you can go find on my website.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: A few years ago, I passed on a Ryan Murphy project.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: I know.
- 11:00SPEAKER_00: Let me explain.
- 11:02SPEAKER_00: See, when I did the original audition, the dates were totally fine with me.
- 11:07SPEAKER_00: But then when they booked me,
- 11:08SPEAKER_00: the dates had changed and they happened to conflict with my grandfather's funeral.
- 11:13SPEAKER_00: I made a choice.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: And maybe some people would have made a different choice, and that's totally fine.
- 11:18SPEAKER_00: Everybody's allowed to do what they want to do.
- 11:21SPEAKER_00: It was hard to turn down that booking.
- 11:24SPEAKER_00: But the identity of actor is so ingrained within me that even passing
- 11:30SPEAKER_00: on something can't shake that.
- 11:32SPEAKER_00: I trust that there will always be another opportunity because I am an actor and I am
- 11:38SPEAKER_00: in this for the long haul.
- 11:41SPEAKER_00: It is so hard to send self-tape after self-tape off into the void and never hear anything back.
- 11:48SPEAKER_00: It's frustrating.
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: It's irritating.
- 11:50SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes it.
- 11:51SPEAKER_00: It's an uncertainty and rejection, two for one, from the industry.
- 11:56SPEAKER_00: But my regular practice of mindfulness,
- 11:58SPEAKER_00: being able to refocus my mind gently,
- 12:02SPEAKER_00: has helped me let go and move on after self-tapes like nothing else.
- 12:07SPEAKER_00: Now when I catch myself like obsessively checking my email or wondering if
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: the tape was good enough or picturing casting like just hating the tape altogether
- 12:15SPEAKER_00: and like throwing it in the pile of horrible actor tapes,
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: I instead take a breath and I refocus my mind on more supportive things.
- 12:24SPEAKER_00: I picture casting enjoying my tape and I affirm for myself
- 12:29SPEAKER_00: that every single self-tape that I send out strengthens my reputation in
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: the entertainment industry.
- 12:37SPEAKER_00: The entertainment industry wreaks absolute havoc on actor nervous systems.
- 12:41SPEAKER_00: Fortunately,
- 12:42SPEAKER_00: a very simple mindfulness practice can help you soothe
- 12:46SPEAKER_00: and fortify your nervous system so you can be ready for anything that
- 12:50SPEAKER_00: the industry throws your way.
- 12:51SPEAKER_00: Here's what you're gonna do.
- 12:52SPEAKER_00: You're gonna count your inhales and your exhales up to 10.
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: You're gonna count one as you inhale,
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: two as you exhale,
- 13:01SPEAKER_00: three as you inhale,
- 13:03SPEAKER_00: Four as you exhale, and so on and so forth, all the way up to ten.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: Pretty simple, right?
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: Feels too simple to actually be doing anything of benefit.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: But trust me, benefits add up.
- 13:16SPEAKER_00: Small daily habits add up.
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: Practice that a couple of times today,
- 13:21SPEAKER_00: and you're going to be well on your way to having a mindfulness practice.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: You're going to feel a difference and a shift in your overall nervous system
- 13:28SPEAKER_00: and just how you're feeling in general.
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: Give it a try.
- 13:32SPEAKER_00: Those were the videos.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: That was really fun.
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: Thank you for watching all of them.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: And I'm realizing now that in a...
- 13:42SPEAKER_00: I've recorded two of these today.
- 13:45SPEAKER_00: And I'm realizing in the outro of the other one, I didn't credit the sound effect.
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna credit the sound effect that I use as the little like whoosh between the videos.
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: So the credit for that sound effect is, so it's called Woosh Long Cinematic by JW Sound Design.
- 14:10SPEAKER_00: And then I got it from freesound.org and there's a license attribution 4.0.
- 14:19SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there's a link there in the Substack and in the show notes where you can go
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: and find that sound.
- 14:24SPEAKER_00: Freesound is an awesome website,
- 14:25SPEAKER_00: by the way,
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: that you can get all kinds of sounds for free for various projects
- 14:31SPEAKER_00: and different things if you're doing YouTube videos or short films,
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: things like that.
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: It's a great website to use, but you do have to credit people.
- 14:39SPEAKER_00: And I'm realizing I didn't do that in my previous episodes,
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: so I'm going to have to figure out a way to put that credit in retroactively.
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: So hopefully by the time you see both of these episodes,
- 14:49SPEAKER_00: You won't even know that that happened except for the fact that I just told you.
- 14:53SPEAKER_00: Fun times.
- 14:55SPEAKER_00: It's fun to put all these things together.
- 14:57SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 14:59SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for joining me.
- 15:01SPEAKER_00: I hope that you found that content helpful and inspiring.
- 15:05SPEAKER_00: And I'd be honored if you'd leave a comment,
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: share it with your actor pals, check out my offerings below.
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: Once again, really quickly, I'll take you through them in case you're just listening.
- 15:16SPEAKER_00: So I have a free...
- 15:19SPEAKER_00: Free, free, free, free,
- 15:20SPEAKER_00: free guided meditation that will help you get out of your head
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: and rock your next audition.
- 15:26SPEAKER_00: So it is basically a way to calm your nerves,
- 15:29SPEAKER_00: let go of distracting thoughts like, how can I book this?
- 15:32SPEAKER_00: What do they want?
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: How do I, how do I get to do, am I doing this right?
- 15:37SPEAKER_00: You let go of those thoughts,
- 15:39SPEAKER_00: and you focus in on what your character wants,
- 15:41SPEAKER_00: what's going on in the scene,
- 15:43SPEAKER_00: and that way you can stay present and do your best work.
- 15:46SPEAKER_00: So that is a free guided meditation.
- 15:49SPEAKER_00: You can go get that on my website.
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: You can get it on the Substack if you scroll down,
- 15:54SPEAKER_00: and that's just available for you.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: So have fun with that.
- 15:58SPEAKER_00: And then I have also my Aligned Actor Mindfulness Toolkit,
- 16:02SPEAKER_00: which is basically an e-book It's a short little ebook.
- 16:06SPEAKER_00: It's a collection of tools,
- 16:08SPEAKER_00: mindfulness tools,
- 16:10SPEAKER_00: that will help you soothe and fortify your nervous system and help you deal with
- 16:15SPEAKER_00: the rollercoaster of actor life more smoothly.
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: And they're just very simple, easy little tools.
- 16:21SPEAKER_00: Some of them I shared in this week's videos.
- 16:24SPEAKER_00: You know,
- 16:24SPEAKER_00: whether you're dealing with audition nerves
- 16:26SPEAKER_00: or you're obsessively checking your email after submitting a self-tape
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: or you just learned that your series has been canceled, I'm so sorry.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: There's something here that will help you access presence again,
- 16:39SPEAKER_00: help you calm your nervous system,
- 16:41SPEAKER_00: help you feel any feelings you might need to feel.
- 16:44SPEAKER_00: But just sort of feel grounded again and not so activated by everything.
- 16:51SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you can pick that up.
- 16:52SPEAKER_00: And then as always, you can pick that up on my website.
- 16:56SPEAKER_00: And speaking of my website,
- 16:58SPEAKER_00: my website is thealignedactor.com and that's where you can find out everything
- 17:02SPEAKER_00: about me, about my work, about all the stuff.
- 17:06SPEAKER_00: You can get the free meditation there.
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: You can get the e-book there.
- 17:11SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so it's like the hub of me, Amy Schloerb, and The Aligned Actor.
- 17:16SPEAKER_00: So yeah, go check that out.
- 17:18SPEAKER_00: And I will see you next time.
- 17:20SPEAKER_00: Bye!