Motivation, mental well-being and creative resilience: Advice from a young actor on how to stay connected to your craft and identity during work lulls and personal struggles.
I was sitting with my therapist discussing some frustrations I’d had about a recent self-tape I’d done when suddenly, they stopped me and said something that changed the trajectory of my career: “Aaron, over the year or so that we’ve been meeting, this is the first time since you introduced yourself to me, that you’ve talked about being an actor.”
A whole year without discussing my passion? A passion that makes me feel more alive than anything else? Surely not.
At first, I thought it couldn’t possibly be true. I’ve always thought of myself as slightly arrogant regarding how I talk about my career but apparently, it’s the opposite.
I’d gotten so caught up in the annoyances and responsibilities of adult life that I’d almost completely forgotten that I was an actor. And so, I started my journey towards reidentifying myself as ’the actor’.
When you’re a young actor, it’s no surprise that most of your time is spent working day jobs to make the rent and pay bills, as opposed to acting. For the most part, this work is usually hospitality, retail, or freelance-based. If you’re lucky, this day job also involves some aspect of creativity. But for many of us, it doesn’t.
Society has changed in such a way since the new millennium that creatives, especially working-class creatives, aren’t given as much free time to hone or explore their craft. This can leave you feeling hopeless, stuck in a generation and industry that seemingly doesn’t accommodate your schedule or class.
After several months of revealing these thoughts to myself, I found that I was really burying my head in layers of sand that this rhetoric can accumulate. It’s the easier option to work these day jobs, wait for auditions to come to you and grumble on your days off about not being able to operate in this forever-evolving industry.
Although it’s important to understand these aspects of a working actor’s life in today’s age, it will not motivate or inspire you to accept these things as immovable facts. Once I realised this, I gave myself two options – keep grumbling alone in my room or let this inspire me to be an actor who devotes themselves to their craft against the odds.
Acting against odds is something that consistently throughout history breeds movements of unbridled creativity. There’d be no punk movement, no theatre of the absurd, no ‘in-yer-face theatre’ if writers and actors simply accepted their odds and fumed at their circumstances.
The constant movement of culture and art is a fast and bumpy train that the actor must jump aboard whilst realising that the ride has never been smooth. The bumpy nature of the journey must become a sensation that you thrive off of, taking pleasure in the quest to find new tracks for the train to move along on.
Having once again found the beauty and excitement within this creative devotion, I want to share some advice for other actors who may find themselves in my position.
How to consistently identify as an actor – even when you’re not ‘working’:
You return home exhausted after a nine-hour shift, you have no self-tapes to film and no work of your own to continue with. How then, do you remind yourself of your responsibilities and constant process as a creative? It’s difficult, but it is possible.
Remind yourself of your passion throughout daily life. It’s a matter of how you divert your attention and where you divert it to.
Exhausted at the end of a shift? Watch a film, new or old, it will show you aspects of creativity that you can learn from and build upon. Watching modern TV shows and films is a great way to observe the industry that you’re now a part of. You can make note of producers, directors and writers who create the kind of work you want to be involved in.
What kind of stories are being told at the moment? What stories aren’t being told that you feel you could tell in your own work?
Film, TV and theatre, it’s what we will be a vital part of as we keep working. Take the free time you have to observe and remind yourself of the parts of the industry that you’d love to be a part of.
How to stay mentally stable in the industry:
To some extent, I’m still slowly working this one out. However, having avenues such as therapy has been vital in my quest for mental stability. The mental health process is a lot for someone to take in and is closely intertwined with the creative process. Instinctively, this job provokes a thorough self-investigation into yourself and having a therapist or some form of therapy to help you balance these emotions and understand them is crucial for an actor (or anyone in the 21st century in my opinion).
Routines and practices that can be repeated each day bring me back to a place of calm and play that I associate with this craft. Physical exercises and warm-ups that I learnt at drama school or was taught in rehearsals bring me back to the headspace of exploration. At the start of each day, I remind myself what I want my mind to be focused on. I find this helps prevent my focus from shifting too much throughout the day.
Is your career slow, or is the industry slow?
Not having any real security around the speed of audition requests you receive is a scary feeling. A brilliant thing you can do is simply ask other actors, creatives and/or your agent, “Is my career slow, or is it the industry?”
You’ll find most people will rejoice in answering this question. Chances are they’ve been nervously holding their tongue, waiting to see if they should ask you the same question.
Everyone’s answer is different but mostly the phrase, “I think it’s slow for everyone at the moment,” will be heard at some point. It’s been a rough few years for upcoming actors and creatives. Complications caused by COVID-19 and the actors/writers’ strike in the US have had a knock-on effect on new work being made, so people have had more time between work.
The trick is to not become obsessed with this question. The industry is constantly fluctuating and throughout your career, you’ll see many trends of growth and slowness as you move along. Our aim is to keep ourselves motivated and inspired throughout it all.
The journey to becoming a mentally stable, inspired and motivated actor is a lifelong non-linear endeavour. There’s no finish line that people are waiting for you to join them at. There’s no finish line at all. Whenever you feel your brain sliding down into the depths of angst, bring yourself back up into the clouds of play and remind yourself why you love this craft as much as you do.
It’s a crazy world in a crazy time, but art and the artist are still vital parts of what makes life worth living. Re-identify as the actor and see what’s possible.
Aaron Hodgetts is a non-binary actor, DJ and writer based in West London. They graduated from Guildford School of Acting in 2022 and won The Spotlight Prize for Best Screen Actor in the same year.
Headshot credit: June Thomas
