NAVIGATING MY ACTING CAREER AND NURTURING MY DEEN
As an actor, rejection is inevitable.
Rejection, disappointment, and uncertainty are guaranteed regardless of your credit or success.
Part of finding peace as an actor is learning how to find joy and contentment through the journey, not just with the outcome. Knowing how to take each ‘no’ (or lack of reply) in a way that does not result in crying in bed whilst listening to acoustic sad playlists on Spotify, is crucial.
Back when I graduated from drama school, this was a lesson I desperately needed to learn.
Unless I was balancing at least three creative projects, achieving offers weekly and auditioning every other day, I felt like a failure. When I received my first proper rejection, I didn’t know how to cope.
I remember staring at the email on my laptop and blinking back tears. Thoughts like: maybe this means I’ll never book anything, raced through my mind.
I was too embarrassed to tell my family that I hadn’t booked the job and to this day I pretended I never heard back.
What could I do? I didn’t want to wait for someone else to kick start my career when the kicks weren’t even coming.
My whole life I’d been taught that if I worked hard enough, I could achieve – but what could I do when that wasn’t enough?
Any actor knows this all too well: it comes down to more than talent and hard work; sometimes it just isn’t meant to be. The acting industry is not a meritocracy, and I struggled to accept this truth. Despite doing my best, it still may not be enough.
