Acting Lessons I Learnt From 'Let It Go'

Photo Credit: adpated from chris.alcoran via cc

It has been hard to escape the song Let It Go from the Disney movie Frozen – everywhere I go someone seems to be singing it or humming it.

It deservedly won the Oscar in 2014 for best original song and was memorably sung by Idina Menzel at those academy awards (or Adele Dazeem as John Travolta famously introduced her!!)

However, it isn’t just a uber-catchy song with a terrific belt! If you look into the lyrics and the meaning of the song then you will find some very honest and very true life lessons which you should start putting into play at every audition you attend.

The movie Frozen follows two sisters Elsa and Anna who drift apart because of the magical powers which Elsa has kept secret to protect Anna. When these powers have been revealed to the kingdom Elsa has fled and disappeared up into the mountains – where she is able to realise who she really is and exactly what she is capable of.

How often have you left an audition and thought to yourself ‘I know I could have done better’ – you are holding yourself back, and your intuition knows this. Your intuition knows that what you really need to be doing is to ‘Let It Go’ and trust in yourself, don’t second guess yourself and don’t hold yourself back.

Holding back comes from a place of protection, it is a place which is trying to keep you safe, protecting you from rejection or from ‘making a fool of yourself’ – however by holding back and protecting yourself you are actually settling for good and not great.

If you truly want to ‘let it go’ then you must stop looking before you leap. Give yourself permission to leap, give yourself the freedom to fail.

Letting Go is what great acting is all about. Letting Go allows you the freedom to be totally alive during a performance.

No right, no wrong, no rules for me I’m free!

Fear is very often an unnecessary limitation which you are imposing on yourself. Elsa locked herself up for fear of hurting her sister, all that did was drive them apart.

By feeding your fear of failure you are in fact losing opportunities and if you give in totally to your fear of rejection then your fears will have won and you will end up with nothing.
Here I stand and Here I’ll stay

The decisions which you make are the right decisions for you. Once you stop trying to please others then you will find your auditions are actually empowering opportunities.

By trying to ‘please’ a casting director you are showing them nothing new and your desire to please will be all that is coming across. A casting director has called you in because they know you are right for the role, you have already ‘pleased’ them. At the audition they want to be thrilled and shocked and enlightened. Make your choice and stand by it.

I know you already have the guts to do this because you decided to ‘let the storm rage on’ when you became an actor and started to walk the bumpy path of this profession.
The past is in the past

Mistakes are sometimes best left in the past. When you finish an audition you need to ‘let it go’ and leave it behind you.

There is reason why things do not work out and you need to learn from that and then move on.

Stop re-living what went wrong, stop wondering why you didn’t do better, don’t dwell on what might have been. What happened happened and as long as you were true to yourself and did not let fear limit you then you need to move forward.
That perfect girl is gone!

One of the major reasons that I see actors holding back is that they are afraid to show people who they truly are.

If you are afraid of disappointing people by showing them the ‘real you’ then you will be wasting opportunities.

Let go of those inhibitions and reservations and you will find yourself so much more open to exploring true emotion and you will discover opportunity which are on your true path.
Let it go and I’ll rise like the break of dawn

Samuel Beckett famously said ‘Fail. Fail Again. Fail Better’ and one of my favourite drag queens Latrice Royale once said ‘it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to fall down. Get up, look sickening, and Make Them Eat It’ – both are the same message – move on from your mistakes by getting back on your feet.

Every failure be it a rejection, a bad review or a failed attempt should be seen as a rung on the ladder of building yourself for the next opportunity. Prove to everyone and especially to yourself that you are resilient and ready for every opportunity which this adventure has for you.

I know that it sounds cheesy but I really believe that there is an Elsa in everyone of us, there is a part of us which is afraid of standing out and showing the world who we really are. Now is the time for you to accept YOU. The results will be awesome.

After all, deep down you honestly know that ‘the cold never bothered you anyway’!

Acting Lessons I Learnt From ‘Let It Go’