Episode 179: Vulnerability, Your Greatest Asset and Liability

Vulnerability is an actor's greatest asset in their work, but it's also the greatest liability outside of their work and in their business. My own journey with vulnerability. I felt that as an actor, I wore my heart on my sleeve. And although that really helped me in my work, I found it to be a real problem was when wasn’t getting a callback or I wasn't getting the job, and that it made it very, very difficult for me to live my own life. The emotions must live in the work, and you have your own life. CORE WORK: Go to the core work episodes, listen once, then go to a coffee shop, listen, pause and journal. You must feel safe going to those emotional places, then leave it in the work. Understand that the work is not yours. Once you do it, it is the world’s. From The Language of Letting Go: “So being vulnerable and quoting kind of little bits from melody, body and language of letting go is about learning to share ourselves with other people and learning to admit our mistakes and expose our imperfections, not so that others can fix us or rescue us or feel sorry for us, but so that we can love and accept ourselves. So that we can love and accept ourselves.” When we are auditioning, we are putting forth our imperfections. And then when we're putting that into work and then passed over, that can hurt. But again, I ask you to give it that separation, and if you have a hard time giving it separation from work to who you are. “Many of us are fearful of sharing our imperfections or our vulnerability because it makes us feel so vulnerable, overvulnerable. Some of us have tried being vulnerable in the past, past, and people have tried to control, manipulate or exploit us or they made us feel ashamed.” If that is true for you, think about how difficult that would be for you as an actor. The importance of understanding how you tick and who you are. Feelings aren’t facts. They are energy, not facts. It’s only a thought, and a thought can be changed. “Some people have been hurt by being vulnerable. They have shared things with people who didn't respect our confidence or may have told someone something at the wrong time. And that scared them away.” Some of the best actors have had immense pain in their life. And they know to use that pain in their work, but not indulge in it in their life.