How to Deal with Nerves During an Audition

On behalf of TVLesson.com, I'm Lori Wyman with Lori Wyman Casting and I'm going
to be bringing you audition tips today from my new book The Organic Actor.

Let’s talk a little bit about nerves and how they inhibit your audition.

Nerves are one of the biggest audition inhibitors that I have found. When I conduct
casting sessions, the one consistent detriment to everybody’s audition is that they’re so
nervous they can’t perform. If you weren’t nervous, you’d be dead but it’s how you
worked with the nerves and how you let them affect you or not affect you on your
audition that’s important.

There are so many ways to combat nerves when you come into an audition. One of the
ways is breathing. Nice deep breathes, slowly let it out. It sends oxygen to the brain. It
opens up the brain cells. It allows you to think more clearly when you come into an
audition. Breathe and focus.

Many years ago, I had an actress that every time she came in and she got nervous, she
would begin to laugh uncontrollably. And one day I said to her, “Focus on one point. I
don’t care where you focus. Focus on the red light in front of the camera. Focus on the
spot on the wall behind the camera. Focus on one spot and everything else disappears.”

And she started to do that and she realized, “Hey, if I just focus on one point and I keep
breathing, it will really help me when it comes to nerves.”