Mastering Your Audition Nerves: How to Feel Better In Your Auditions

Spencer Glass, actor and career coach for actors, shares tips for actors to shine under pressure in their auditions. Check back monthly for more actor wisdom from Spencer. 

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Before we get into some ways to calm your nerves and have stronger auditions, can we just ground ourselves for a second? Audition nerves are good. Yes, I said "good". Nerves means you care. Caring means you take your career seriously. Don't beat yourself when you're nervous. Nerves become frustrating when you let them control your audition, instead of handling them with great care. Nerves also the potential of giving you adrenaline that skyrockets your auditions. But yes, nerves also have the potential to cause anxiety and mess with your breath, hence feeling off balanced when you present material. Let's chat about some ways to combat all of this.

1. Reframe: 

You might be looking at auditions like you're walking the plank. "If I mess up, I'll be embarrassed", "what if they don't like me?", "what if I'm awkward', "there's so many people auditioning for this, why would I ever get it?" We tend to raise the stakes, and immediately put ourselves at the bottom of the "totem pole", which then automatically brings our energy down in the room/tape. Think of auditioning as a brainstorming meeting. You have a few ideas, and you're simply there to share your take and see if it clicks. Remember, they're auditioning folks for a reason- they need ideas. Stop dehumanizing people behind the audition table, and remember they're also people. Work as a team. 

2. Name 'Em: 

Name your nerves. This really helps, and allows you to have contact with your nervous energy. Name every feeling you're dealing with, and where you're feeling it in the body. "I'm feeling numb in my cheeks", "I'm feeling jelly in my thighs", "I'm feeling distant and shameful", "my eyes are flickering a lot". Get in front of your nerves, and outloud, speak on them. We bottle this up and just cross our fingers it will go away, but I want you to voice them as soon as you're feeling tense. 

3. The "What IS" Game: 

We spend a lot of time imagining what could go wrong in our auditions, but what if you played a game where you visualize and fantasize what IS going to go right? Be the architect of your audition before you walk into the room or start your tape. A meditation teacher taught me this when I was working at a yoga studio and found myself extremely nervous before an audition. They told me to visualize my entire audition from leaving my apartment, to exiting the audition building. They wanted me to feel what every inch of the audition felt like. This works wonders, because it puts your mind and body in a positive space. The statement "what IS going to happen" puts you in charge, and not your mind. 

4. Pat Down: 

Pat your body down before an audition. I do this AT the audition building. Every bit of my body I pat. I especially love patting the back of my neck, forehead, and behind the ear (it especially loosens me up). This promotes relaxation, and unlocks your body. Go feel some freedom in your auditions!

5. Mantras: 

Find your audition mantra. Take everything you fear, and flip it into a mantra before you enter the room. Some affirmations I love are I'm a rare find, and today people get to find me, I'm not only deserving to be here, I have a duty to be here, I'm just here to introduce my gifts and that's really it, it's not my business what the team thinks. 

Auditioning is our job as actors. That's why nerves feel overwhelming, because sometimes they're so intrusive, and literally distract us at work. The theme here is to jump ahead of them. If you find yourself being plagued by nerves, please know this is temporary. It's going to get better, but it does start with training your body to respond differently. You got this- you're too talented to let the fear take over.