Aaron Marcus, a professional actor with 38+ years of experience, shares techniques to calm on-set nerves: practice your lines in the actual shooting environment, rehearse blocking and props, and arrive early to get comfortable with the space.
Have you ever felt nervous on a set? I have. So watch this video. I'm going to share with you one simple technique that has absolutely made me much calmer when walking onto a set. And if you watch this until the end, I've got a special bonus video for you. It's 5 stories that I want to share with you while working with Tom Hanks. On his feature film A Man Called Otto. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I share information with you from my 38-plus years of working as a full-time actor. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you always know when I upload a new video. And if you like the video, Please give it a thumbs up and share, share this video with others so we can all learn from each other. I don't know about you, but a lot of people will feel anxiety. They feel self-doubt. They start sweating. They start forgetting their lines, get incredibly nervous when they walk onto a set. So what I want to do here is just share with you a little bit about what the realities are, when you first arrive on a set and then share with you a technique that I use sometimes prior to getting onto a set and while I'm on the set. So if you are fortunate enough to get booked as a, as a principal on a project, whether it's a TV show, could be a commercial or, or a feature film, you know, you walk in, you sign in With production, they give you forms you have to fill out, contracts. Typically there will be a trailer— not so much for a TV commercial, but for film and TV you'll have a trailer. They might have your wardrobe in there already. Typically a PA, production assistant, will come over, ask you if you would like anything to eat, if you need anything, and then you sit in your trailer until it's time for you to shoot, and then a PA will knock on your door and say, we're ready to start the scene. Now, I don't like sitting in trailers. I just don't. I feel like I'm, I'm in a cage, and I will spend some time in the trailer, but as long as the weather's okay And by the way, you also will go to hair and makeup prior to that, and then you'll get into your wardrobe. But, and fill out the form, give it to a production assistant or somebody in production. I just don't like the feeling. I feel, because you just sit in the trailer and then somebody just knocks on the door, and you're going from this enclosed environment to all of a sudden being surrounded by dozens and dozens and dozens of people. So One of the things that I like to do, and this is what I find so helpful, and I'm going to tell you 2 different things. One is prior to showing up for the shoot, when I'm going over my lines, one of the things I'm certainly very aware of is where is this scene taking place. So like, for instance, I had a shoot where I was a cranky older guy, and I am on a soccer field and I'm screaming at kids. It was actually— it was very funny. And so I made sure that while I was doing my lines, I would walk over to a soccer field. Now, there weren't kids there and I wasn't screaming at them, but I was screaming my lines out at the Imaginary kids on the soccer field. Doing, doing your lines in a place where the scene is going to happen will be really helpful to you. Let's say you're walking down the street in the scene. Walk down the street and do your lines. That's a great— once you have them down, it's a great place to practice so you get the feel of it. If you are pointing to a map or you were pointing to a whiteboard or something like that, Practice doing that. That will be really helpful. Here's the other thing, and this is something that I always ask. I can't always do it, but I always ask. So I had a scene on a TV show where I was pleading a case to the judge, and my client is sitting next to me. So now I can't get into a courtroom to practice my lines, but here's what I do. I always ask someone, hey, would it be okay? Can I get onto the set now? Is it okay to walk onto the set early? As a matter of fact, just another great example, I was a preacher in an independent film, and so I— and I had a pretty long sermon to give, and I was addressing everybody in the congregation. So what I did was I asked and they said, yeah, sure, that's no problem. As they were just setting up the scene and the cameras were being moved in and the lights were being set up, I walked into the church. And at first I was just kind of sitting on the side and I wanted to just get the feel of the church. And I'm looking around at all, you know, the benches. And then at one point I actually got up. And gave, gave my sermon. Actually, I did it a few times as people were just setting up. And being able to do my lines in the exact spot where we're shooting, it's just really helpful. I was able to get the feel of the place. It relaxed me. It's not like I was sitting in a trailer and then all of a sudden thrown into this environment. With, you know, probably 90, 100 people in the room. It was really helpful to me, and I highly recommend you do that. For this TV show, I asked, could I get into the courtroom ahead of time? And they said no. And the reason was they weren't just being nasty, they were shooting other scenes in there, so it's not like I could just walk in. And I, and I said to them, I said, well, just do me a favor, just try to get me in as soon as As soon as possible. And they did. And so when they were finishing up one scene and they were about ready to start my scene, I was able to get in, in there early. And at first I stood a little bit on the side. I'm looking to where the judge would be seated and I'm doing my lines. And then I was actually able to rehearse a couple of times with the judge, and this is while they're still setting things up, and just Getting into the environment, being in the spot, being able to do your lines in the area where the shoot is taking place. I'm telling you, it will help you tremendously. It will calm you down. It will help you feel more relaxed. So always ask if you can get in there. And if they say no, then just let them know, please just bring me in as soon as possible. So anyhow, I hope that's helpful to you. If you have any suggestions, on how to calm yourself down on a set, please share it in the comments section so we can all learn from each other. The bonus video, you can see it up here. Now, you also might see an image of one of the playlists as well, because I also like to post that in case you want to see some other videos. But yeah, just look up there and you'll see the bonus video of some 5 really great stories I want to share with you from working with Tom Hanks on the film A Man Called Otto. Once again, if you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up, that's always helpful. And once again, share this with fellow actors so we can build a community of actors who are helping each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
