We’ve all been in that moment before an audition with our heart pounding, cheeks flushing and mind racing. Whether you call it stage fright, performance anxiety, or just plain audition nerves… it can be an uncomfortable experience. But auditions are a part of life for every actor, and learning how to quell the panic is essential to giving your best performance!
The key steps to calming your nerves before an audition are to understand the root cause of your audition anxiety, to ensure you’re sufficiently prepared, and to shift your attention and focus to helpful behaviours that unlock the best performance.
Ultimately, audition nerves are something that you can learn to embrace and process, rather than something that you constantly run away from. In this article we’ll be looking at the actual science behind those pre-audition jitters, and specific techniques to help you go from fully freaking out to feeling fine!
What Are Audition Nerves?
First we have to address the root cause of audition nerves. That heart-racing, cheeks flushed, hands shaking body response doesn’t come from nowhere! Audition nerves are the result of a physical process that your body is undergoing. Nerves are a highly human and completely natural response. This is a fantastic video that explains the science of stage fright.
If you don’t have time to watch the video, here are the key takeaways:
- Audition nerves (or stage fright) are caused by the body’s ancient fight-or-flight response.
- This caveman era evolutionary response was how we survived threats on the savannah plain, like sabre-tooth tigers. We evolved this response in order to stay alive.
- The only thing is: your body doesn’t know the difference between an audition panel and a tiger. It views them both as threats.
- In response to the threat, the brain floods the body with hormones that activate the physical responses that make your heart beat faster, palms sweat, and knees go weak (hey, Eminem!)
The final takeaway from this is that there are practical steps we can take to help us regulate this natural biological response. We can learn specific techniques that change our body’s physiology and help us calm those nerves! Phew.
How Can I Stop Being Anxious Before an Audition?
A lot of actors want to know how they can stop feeling nervous before auditioning. But the answer might not be what you think. Fully eradicating performance anxiety is unrealistic for most people. The first mistake that most people make is thinking that they shouldn’t be nervous at all.
When you focus on getting rid of the audition nerves, “I shouldn’t feel this way…” you actually create extra stress on top of what’s already there. When you tell yourself that you should feel differently than you do, it doesn’t dispel the nerves! It only adds stress to an already stressful experience, prolonging and increasing the discomfort.
In psychology, there’s a famous saying: ‘what you resist, persists.’
Think about it: when you focus intensely on the problem (the nerves themselves), you signal to your brain that they’re important and worth monitoring. This trains your mind to notice every flicker of anxiety, which often makes the feeling stronger rather than weaker. Trying to eliminate the nerves then becomes nearly impossible.
What to Do Instead: Accepting Nerves Without Shame or Judgment
Instead, you have to acknowledge that you’re nervous. Sometimes this can be hard to do for actors. Acknowledging nerves can feel like admitting defeat or weakness. Especially when they’re trying to present a confident and calm exterior. But being nervous doesn’t mean that you’re not a confident actor, or that you’re unprepared. It’s totally natural to feel nervous before an audition. Nerves are just your brain responding to what it perceives to be a threatening situation.
Once you’ve acknowledged the feeling of nervousness, the next step is to accept that feeling without judgment. You’re not broken or wrong for having audition nerves. It’s completely normal. In the immortal words of Bill Nighy… “You’re supposed to be scared!”
When we can acknowledge the nerves and accept them without judgment, we start to experience a sense of relief. Only then can we start to use strategies to help focus our energy and attention elsewhere.
Get Curious About the Cause of Your Nerves
Next, you need to get to know your nerves. We’ve talked about the feeling and physical experience of nervousness, but now we need to dig deeper into the root cause. Get curious about why you’re feeling the way you do.
If you’re feeling fear about the outcome of the audition or the panel’s perception of you, it’s likely the nerves have their root in something related to your mindset. If the nerves are about not feeling ready, then that is likely a preparation related issue. If you discover that this is the cause of your nerves, it might be worth reviewing how to prepare for an audition.
Mindset Related Nerves
If you suspect that your nerves may be related to your mindset, there are a few questions you can ask yourself. Are you feeling nervous because:
- Am I afraid the panel will judge me, not just my work?
- Am I scared of giving my best and still being rejected?
- Do I believe anything less than perfect is a failure?
- Am I tying my self worth to how this audition goes?
- Are past negative experiences still colouring this one?
- Does this opportunity feel high stakes or life changing?
- Am I anxious because I don’t know what to expect or what they want?
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, it’s likely a mindset issue. It is worth reminding yourself:
You don’t need to prove your worth to the panel. You can’t control how they perceive you. What you can control is showing up and delivering the work you’ve prepared, as fully and honestly as you can. Trust that what you have to give is enough and check out our tips on the actor’s mindset.
Practical Strategies for Calming Audition Nerves
Now that we’ve gotten to the root cause and fully understood our nerves, it’s time to implement some strategies to help us calm them down. There are scientifically proven breathing and relaxation techniques that help us to move our nervous systems out of fight-or-flight (also called the sympathetic nervous system) and activate our rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) nervous system.
Breathing Exercises for Audition Nerves
There are a few different types of breathing exercises that are very helpful regulating our nervous system. This is not an exhaustive list, but a great place to start. Versions of all of these breathing exercises are available online if you prefer to follow along. Simply Google the exercise for guided demonstrations!
Box Breathing
Also used by Navy SEALs, this technique helps reduce anxiety.
- Breath in for a count of 4.
- Hold for a count of 4.
- Exhale for a count of 4.
- Hold for a count of 4.
Physiological Sigh
A quick, science back technique to reset the nervous system.
- Inhale quickly once.
- Hold and inhale again quickly again.
- Long exhale sigh out.
4-7-8 Breathing
A natural calming breath developed from ancient yogic practices like pranayama.
- Breathe in for 4 seconds.
- Hold for 7 seconds.
- Breathe out for 8 seconds.
Use Sensory Stimulus to Redirect Your Focus
Focusing on physical sensations or external stimulus can help to redirect your attention from the perceived threat. Looking at pictures of your family, listening to music you enjoy, tasting something intense, or smelling a perfume or other calming scent can help ride out the overwhelming emotion.
Focus On Your Purpose
Finally, after going through these practical exercises, it can be helpful to affirm your purpose. Ask yourself, ‘Why am I here, and why does this matter to me?’
Think about the positive reasons you became an actor or said yes to this audition: ‘I am here to entertain an audience and touch their hearts. This performance isn’t about me; it’s about telling this amazing story and giving a powerful gift to humanity.’
Final Thoughts About Dealing with Audition Nerves
Audition nerves are something that every actor deals with. Often they can stem from fears that that people will judge us as a person from the way that we perform. But we want to act because it’s beautiful and powerful, and in order to share that with the world we have to get out of our own way.
If our nerves are obstructing our ability to fulfil our purpose, there are strategies that we can take to help reduce their power. By labelling and accepting our nerves, we can begin to calm their influence over us. Practicing relaxation techniques helps us change our fight or flight response to our calm and relaxed state.
Continuing to pursue our purpose regardless of the presence of nerves helps us learn that they are not the enemy. They’re a natural part of the process, but they can also be reduced and something that we live peacefully alongside.
