Research Paper: How Coaching and the Coaching Process can support Actresses to Feel Good Enough?

Research Paper By Galit Lazar
(Film Industry Coach, CANADA)

Subject:

How coaching and the coaching process can support actresses to feel “good enough” in their career and in their life. To help them excel in what they do by becoming a high-achiever rather than a perfectionist so they can be successful stress free.

Introduction

This research paper will discuss how the coach can support and guide clients to a better self, a  feeling of excellence and confidence in everything they do in their career and in their lives. The purpose of coaching is not to reach perfection, but to help client get to a place where the negative talk diminishes. Some negative talk will still be present, but for example come less often and client will learn effective tools to deal with these feelings in a more calm, effective and authentic way as well as form a more self-accepting perspective of himself/herself.

In our era, most actresses suffer from low self-confidence and most are perfectionists.

Many talented and creative people report feeling incompetent, inadequate…

A number of film actors report they don’t even watch their own movies. When you can be seen in close-ups on twenty foot high theater screens, it may be especially hard not to criticize your appearance and performance, and opposed faults. Douglas Eby

When we watch movies, theatre and TV shows we expect actresses to act their character as naturally as possible and  therefore movies need to be made as close to reality as possible in order to entertain the audience.  As a consequence, what happens to actresses is that there is a lot of pressure on actresses to perform as naturally as possible. But the industry is also looking at more aspects than just talent. They look for personality, and charisma.

Larry Moss-it’s not enough to have talent.

He also commented, ‘Stella Adler, a teacher I had in New York, said it’s not enough to have talent, you have to have talent for the talent. I think that means going to classes, working on your voice and body, reading great plays, movies, history…you have to have the ability to understand people, and understand life. (Douglas Eby)

In addition, the movie industry also requires actresses to physically look like the character portrayed in the movie as well as have a matched personality.

casting a show is an extremely difficult process. Directors have to consider many aspects of auditioning actors besides talent, such as height, weight, the overall look  and chemistry with other potential cast members. The most talented singer in the world could audition for the part of Johanna in ‘Sweeny Todd’, but if the director thinks she’s too old or too tall, or if she doesn’t look right next to the person cast as Anthony, chances are someone else will get the role. (Angela Dalecki)

Every movement, voice, gesture etc. counts. That is why it is difficult for many actresses to find work in the industry, especially the film industry.

When these actresses go to auditions, they get a lot of criticism and they recieve many rejections.

The life of a performer can be exciting, rewarding and encouraging; it can also be chock full of rejection, which is hardly what anyone would call pleasant.

Many casting directors are looking for a particular ‘type’ of role. Tough they might be willing to cast  someone who is not their ideal, they often have a picture in their mind of the perfect candidate. (Angelique Cafrey)

In turn, these factors affect their self-confidence. What happens is that they feel they are not good enough in their work and in life including how they see their self-image.

Janet Jackson says:

I don’t see myself as a sexy person…For a long time, I had a hard time finding things I liked about myself physically. I’d never look in the mirror…cause I didn’t really like what I saw.

One day I looked in the mirror because I wanted to find something that I liked about myself——-and I started crying. I didn’t see anything. (Douglas Eby)

This is not the only reason. They also have unlimited beliefs from the past. Many of them didn’t have a great childhood. Many of them had parents or people in their lives who made them feel not good enough. What happens is they pass their lives internalizing what was told to them and live their lives feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled. They are tough on themselves and never feel happy. They are also tough on others around them.

Now that we know more about actresses lives lets look how a coach can assist these women. The coaching objective is to help actresses discover themselves, love who they are and help them become softer with themselves and get closer to their authentic self. In order to do that the coach has to reframe their perception of failure by eliciting from them thorough questioning on  how to excel without being afraid to make mistakes and help them see mistakes as opportunities for self-growth and success. Assist them to discover their greatest potential and be proud of it.