Mark Evans Studio

Every actor knows what it feels like to doubt. You walk into a room, open your mouth, and for a split second wonder if you even belong there. It’s a quiet, invisible battle that can completely derail your craft if you let it. We spend years working on technique, text, imagination, and truth, but none of it lands if the nervous system underneath it is wired in fear or self-criticism. Self-esteem isn’t a luxury in this business. It’s fuel. It’s the grounding force that allows you to risk, to stay open, and to truly listen. Without it, you start performing from the outside in, trying to please rather than connect. You can feel the difference right away. When you’re acting from a place of insecurity, your choices shrink. You grip. You protect yourself. The moment-to-moment life drains away. And yet, this loss of self-belief doesn’t happen because actors are weak. It happens because the work demands vulnerability. I’m literally in preview performances of an Off-Broadway play myself right no...

Acting asks a lot of us, right?! It asks us to be open, curious, imaginative, and brave enough to show who we really are. But when you don’t believe in yourself, that becomes almost impossible. Low self-esteem doesn’t just make you doubt your talent. It quietly shapes the way you approach your work and also life outside of the work. You start worrying about what people think, (you should look into Mel Robbin’s ‘Let Them Theory’)  about being good enough, about how you compare to everyone else. And before you know it, acting stops feeling alive. It starts feeling heavy. When you don’t have a solid sense of self-worth, you begin chasing validation instead of truth. Every note from a teacher or reaction from a scene partner becomes something you read into. You stop taking chances in your work because you’re afraid of being wrong - I think we’ve all felt that at times.  The joy that used to come from discovery and play gets replaced by anxiety and control. You can end up trying t...