In this YouTube video, veteran actor Aaron Marcus shares practical strategies to reduce stress for actors. He explains why trying to book every audition creates pressure and instead recommends making fun the primary goal, which also signals confidence to casting directors. Marcus recounts a personal setback when an NBC role was cancelled after four episodes, illustrating how reframing the experience as a fortunate opportunity lowers anxiety. He identifies financial insecurity as a major stressor, advising actors to diversify income streams and adopt a proactive hustle mindset. The video stresses the importance of separating self‑worth from career outcomes, emphasizing that decisions in the industry are not personal judgments. Marcus also discusses the mental health risks of acting, urging viewers to seek professional help when needed. Throughout, he invites audience interaction, promotes a bonus video on imposter syndrome, and encourages subscription and sharing.
Chapters
In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how to lower your stress with acting. And if you watch this to the end, I've got a great bonus video for you. It's, have you ever felt imposter syndrome while acting? I have, and if so, I'm going to share with you a powerful solution. 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 that I've learned from my nearly 40 years of working as a full-time actor. This one is all about if you want to learn how to reduce your stress while acting. And I've gotten a lot of questions over the years about stress, about acting. Actually, I wrote some of them down so I can answer them for you. But, you know, one of the things that come up is, is acting really a stressful occupation? Yeah, it can be. It can be unbelievably stressful. So here is one thing that I do that helps me reduce my stress level with acting. When I go to an audition I never— at least now, it took me years to figure this out— I never try to book the job. And I find that if I'm not trying to get the job, that takes a lot of stress out of me because I don't have any specific job-related goals in there. And, and I feel like when you do It puts more pressure on yourself because I want to get this job, I've got to get this job. The other thing too is casting directors, they can smell it. They, they can sense the desperation and the neediness. And when you go in there— and this is what I do— my number one goal for every audition is to have fun. That's it. That's my only goal. And when I do that It just takes all the pressure off of me. And that's what the casting directors want to see as well. They want somebody who is exuding confidence. You know, if I book the job, great. If I don't book the job, that's great too. I'll book something else. So don't try to book the job. That's one thing that will be really helpful to you. Another is a different way of viewing things. Look, this is a number of years ago. There was an NBC show. And I booked a role, and it was a great role. It was the administrator of a hospital, and the 2 stars of the show work in the hospital. The very first scene that I'm in, I'm with the actor Phylicia Rashad. Just— she's a great actor. I mean, you might have known her from The Cosby Show, but she's done a million things and lots of theater. And I'm thinking, wow, this is great. This is going to be a game-changing role for me. I mean, this is going to be a regular on an NBC TV show. Well, as it turned out— as I can laugh now— but as it turns out, the show got canceled after 4 episodes. So was that stressful? Yeah, but you know what? Here's what I did to help really make myself feel a lot better. Instead of moping around and feeling how horrible things are and it's not fair, and, you know, here I've got this opportunity and the carpet is just, you know, tugged underneath me and I'm falling. And I thought, you know what? I got booked on a show. I got booked on an NBC TV show. Regardless of how many episodes it lasted, I booked the part out of anybody in the world. I got it. And did I lose a chance of having a recurring role? Yep, I did. But you know what? I am so incredibly fortunate to have been given the opportunity to audition and incredibly fortunate to have booked the job. And that's how I started to view it, and it made the stress level go down. It just calmed me down tremendously. So Once again, if you don't book the job, just think about how fortunate you were to have the opportunity, and that will really, really help. Here's another question that came in. What is the most stressful part? Most stressful part is, look, if you are doing it full-time, and that's different than if you're doing it part-time, and both ways are great, but if you have another income source, Besides acting takes a lot of the stress out. So for me, I would have to say that probably the most stressful part was being able to make a living. And when work is slow and you're thinking, oh, I've got a family and rent's due and we've got to buy food, that can add a lot of stress to your life. But here's something else that I did that I found very helpful, and I want to share it with you. Instead of just getting stressed out and thinking, uh-oh, you know, I got to start bringing in some more income, what I did was I used that as a way to fuel my energy and to start marketing more and to start figuring out other ways of making things happen and not just sit, sit by my phone waiting to get text messages or emails about things. I was much more proactive. And, and look, I'm going to be very honest with you, I'm not the most talented actor in the world. I think I've got some skills. I mean, I wouldn't have booked almost 1,300 jobs if I didn't have anything to put on the table. But I know that there are people out there who are much, much, much more talented than me. Now, one of the reasons why I think I've worked as much as I have is because I hustle. I work really hard at generating work, work really hard at staying in touch with people who I've worked with in the past or auditioned with. And, and I think that that has been really helpful. And while you're in the Act of doing, it also takes a lot of the stress out. Can acting be bad for mental health? That was another question. That's the last question that I just wanted to cover. Absolutely, it can, it can really be very damaging. And that's why sometimes you hear about well-known actors or anybody in the entertainment industry who has tremendous success. They're making tons of money. They are well known. They get treated so nicely out in the world, and they have some really serious mental issues. So here's something that I also learned that you, you really need to hear this. You can't base Any of your success or failure on who you are as a person. And I know that that can be a hard thing for people. When things are going well and everybody loves them and everybody recognizes them and want to do selfies and get autographs, you feel great about yourself. And then at some point, which typically happens for most people, at some point Some of that fan base starts to fade away. You're not as big of a deal as you used to be, and people take that personally, and they start feeling that they aren't as good. Their self-worth just plummets because now they start feeling bad about themselves. So I found that it was crucial for me not to base anything about who I am on my success or failures in the industry. And, and I think that's a really, really important takeaway for everyone to know about. Just, just remember, in our business, decisions aren't personal. You audition for something and you don't book it, It's not any statement about whether you're a good person or not. You just weren't the perfect fit for this particular job. And, and I, and I've mentioned this before, but I want to share it again because I think it's this important. When, when I was auditioning for the Netflix show House of Cards, which was the first streaming television show ever, and It— the first— I thought the first 4 seasons were phenomenal. And I auditioned 14 times for that show, never booked it. And it would be easy to start feeling bad and angry and bitter and feeling like the casting directors don't like me and they have something in on me. I— who knows? Look, even at that time period, I recognized that You don't get called in a second time unless they really liked what you did. And it was the 15th audition where I booked a recurring role. And so it's so important not to take it personally. For whatever reason, those 14 other auditions, I just wasn't the right person. I wasn't the perfect fit. That's all. I still think I'm a nice person. I still do things to help other people. I think I'm kind. I'm not saying I'm an angel and that I'm perfect, but I think I'm a good, good guy. And it's really important to understand whether I book jobs or don't book jobs, I still think I'm a good human being. So anyhow, those are just some of the things that I wanted to share with you that I really hope are helpful. If you have any questions or you're struggling with stress, Please share what's going on with you in the comments section. And look, if it's a really serious issue, please go and seek help. There's nothing bad about seeing a good therapist and getting help. I think that's a great thing, an important thing for some people to do. So, but, but if you do have some comments about things that you went through, ways that you were able to calm yourself down, please share it in the comments section so we can learn from you. I did promise, and you'll see the little link up there, about a great video if you've ever felt like you had imposter syndrome. And I'm going to teach you a great solution to this. Please click on that. Don't forget, if you haven't done this yet, subscribe, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. And if you like it, give it a thumbs up because that's very helpful. And share, share this link with fellow actors so we can continue to build this community of actors helping each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
