Actors and Self Esteem - Boosting Self Confidence

For example: if an gymnastics squad is about to compete in a tournament, you had better believe that each individual member of the squad is going to warm-up both mentally and physically in preparation for the tournament. They need to fine tune their bodily "instruments" in order to be prepared for the difficult task ahead of them. But for the sake of argument, what could happen if one member of the squad did not?

• This gymnast's routine may suffer because their body was not adequately prepared to perform the necessary moves, and their score might drag down the overall score of the squad.

• The gymnast may be unprepared mentally, physically, or (most likely) both. Once the tournament starts, they may perform poorly because of a lack of mental focus and physical preparation.

This is just one obvious analogy. But the fact remains, an actor needs to warm-up just like an athlete would. Seems logical, right?

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Self-centered, vain, conceited, egocentric - these are some of the variations on the idea of being narcissistic. We need a healthy degree of positive self-regard, of course, but when it becomes distorted, it is considered narcissism, a personality disorder in its extreme form.

A number of actors have talked about some of the problems with being too self-obsessed, and how it interferes with creative expression.

Ben Affleck thinks narcissism is "the one quality that unites everybody in the film industry, whether you're an actor, a producer, a director, or a studio executive."

But, he adds, "It's a nightmare. Narcissism is the part of my personality that I am the least proud of."

Kristen Bell says that for her film "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" she "just looked into the depths of the most hard-to-admit or vulnerable or bad characteristics of my own personality and what an actress can become if given that kind of self indulgence or that amount of vanity."

She also thinks actors and especially actresses tend to be self-obsessed, because that's part of the nature of their career.

But what is narcissism? The basic idea is being obsessively self-absorbed, always putting your own needs first, having poor empathy or appreciation for other people's needs etc. But what is behind someone operating that way?

Alice Miller writes in her book The Drama of the Gifted Child about childhood harm leading to compromised emotional life as an adult, including those kinds of behaviors and thinking.

She writes in the book about "how inconceivable it is really to love others (not merely to need them), if one cannot love oneself as one really is."

For an actor, it may be difficult to maintain contact with and love of your authentic self, if you are continually portraying "other people" and getting notice or even fame for those personalities.

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"Mustering up enough self-esteem to say, 'I want to be an actor,' was a big turning point." Julia Roberts

Many talented and creative people report feeling incompetent, inadequate and having low self esteem at times. But there are ways to shift those feelings and build self confidence.

A number of film actors report they don't even watch their own movies. greeksubs