Professional Acting Tips - Eliminating Your Internal and Emotional Inhibitions

Inhibitions - this very word strikes anger and discontent amongst the hearts of all acting coaches, casting directors and other professionals in charge of assisting an actor throughout his performance. While having inhibitions in life may serve you well, this personality trait will do nothing but inhibit your ability to deliver an honest, clear and realistic character.

Take a moment to think about the great actors of our time. Review their performances, and ask yourself if this actor showcased an ounce of inhibition throughout his/her performance? The answer will be a resounding no! As an actor, inhibitions will deteriorate your performance by holding you back emotionally as well as striking an immense amount of fear into your very being.

When I talk about inhibitions, I'm not referring to what you're comfortable saying or what actions you don't want to perform, but rather, I'm mainly hinting at your inhibitions to let go, make mistakes and "roll with the punches." The greatest actors in the world are not afraid to stand in front of thousands of people on a bright stage and recite a lengthy monologue, even though there is a chance of forgetting your lines.

While eliminating inhibitions is a very personalized process and requires months, if not years, of facing your "fears" and coaching yourself into true confidence, I have cultivated a few tips to help guide you through this journey.

Acknowledge Your Fears

As an actor, you must be extremely self-aware; much more so than the average person. The reason for this is because you are required to engage in being another human, and this task requires a full understanding of yourself.

To help eliminate your inhibitions, you must first understand where they come from. This is done by physically acknowledging them. In a notepad, write all of your fears in regards to acting in front of a stage or camera. Describe these fears, explain why they are there, and how intense these fears are.

After the list is compiled, study it. Acknowledge this as your truth - for the moment. Understand that you will need to face these written fears in order to truly overcome your inhibitions of acting, and only move on once you feel ready to tackle this mice-size giant.

Purposefully Engage in Your Inhibitions

One of my personal inhibitions when I was first starting out as an actor was being afraid of forgetting my lines on stage. This fear was so real, it would dramatically alter my performance and significantly lower my confidence levels.

With an understanding that I must change this, I set out to help rectify this fear by enrolling in an improvisational class. There were two reasons I did this - the first was to become more comfortable acting outside of a script, and the second (and most important) was to prepare myself in the event I forget my lines. Improvisational classes taught me how to effectively ad-lib within a scene until I can catch back up to the scripted dialogue. It is with this newfound confidence, this primary inhibition was demolished, and I am a much more confidence and uninhibited performer.

You must engage in your inhibitions, or fears, in order to truly get over them. Are you afraid of speaking in front of a large crowd? Sign up for the debate team at your school. Afraid of working on stage? Audition for a community theater production - even the audition will help you concur your inhibitions. Afraid to dance? Take up dance classes or visit a nightclub.

Prepare Yourself for Failure

This is a topic that has been preached to me from my very first acting coach. We as actors want to be successful. We enjoy imagining ourselves delivering an award-winning performance; however, while you may be extremely talented, you must prepare yourself for failure. The fear of failure is one of the biggest inhibitions among actors, and the only way to overtake this inhibition is to strive for greatness, but welcome failure.

This is not to say you should not try your hardest, but sometimes even your hardest effort cannot save you. It is in these circumstances that you must embrace and acknowledge you are only human, and all humans fail at one point or another. Never let this fear stop you or hold you back from making character choices or auditioning for a specific role.