Disempowering Rejection

Rejection is an inevitable part of our job. It’s hard not to take it personally, they are after all saying they don’t want you, you the person, and what you bring. It’s the pain of being both artist and instrument and the feeling doesn’t diminish with age.

Sometimes are lucky, we don’t experience rejection too early in our careers, it goes right, very right, maybe we get a decent film role, a tv series, or a small show that explodes. But eventually luck will run out. Until we become secure, like Brad Pitt, rejection is all around us.

The trick is to take it personally.

No, you didn’t read that incorrectly.

Asking you to toughen up is to ask you to stop being skinless, one of your major selling points.

Take it personally but don’t go out and change yourself, you cannot second guess what casting people want.

Take it personally and use it as a chance to take your head out of the sand and move forward.

Rejection hurts because we invest in the dream before it becomes a reality. If you want to invest in something try yourself. Stop investing in fantasy, you will only hurt yourself.

What you can change is:

* How you present yourself
* Your head shots
* Audition Pieces
* How You Prepare
* Line Security
* Your Show Reel

Be honest with yourself about these things. Change only those things over which you have power. You have no control over the outcome so don’t invest the outcome with the power to hurt you.

And keep going, “the race is long but in the end, it’s only with yourself.”

Mark Westbrook is the Senior Acting Coach at Acting Coach Scotland, a writer, director, and artistic associate with Delirium Productions, Glasgow, Scotland and Little Spoon Theatre Company, Sydney, Australia.