Christian Actor Post 5: The Highly Sensitive Actor

A few weeks ago, I found myself on Dr. Elaine Aron's insightful website for the Highly Sensitive Person, or HSP (www.hsperson.com). I really resonated with what she had to say. If you suspect you might be a highly sensitive person, take the short self test on the website. It was very enlightening for me, as if I had been given the decoder key to some previously hard-to-understand episodes in my past.

The world of acting is a uniquely challenging landscape for the sensitive person, and I suspect that the HSP population is higher than normal among performers. In my experience, many actors have experienced rejection and profound pain. This pain is common to all humans, but what seems to bind actors together is their collective unrelenting desire to thrust those painful experiences out into the world, and process them through that expression.

This also leaves actors extremely vulnerable to criticism--hence the stereotype of the high maintenance actor yelling, "I can't work under these conditions!" People might think actors are too sensitive, but I think actors are courageous in boldly going where most people are too afraid to even visit. I mean, think about it.

When you hear the word, "courageous", what first comes to mind? I see a fireman rushing into the flames or saving someone from a car. Or maybe a wilderness explorer, taking on a desert stretch with just a backpack and a steely will. But how comfortable do you think that fireman or that desert dirt runner are when asked about their feelings? Ah, here is where the actors parachute in, willingly journeying to the inner world of emotions and dreams, accessing their own deep wounds, only to fling them out into an audience of strangers, hoping that their sacrifice might better someone else in the deep places where it really counts. This takes a unique kind of courage...

...and makes actors particularly vulnerable to criticism. Which makes the audition room a uniquely hellish situation, as the actor digs deep and is required to be vulnerable, KNOWING that they are being judged for it. I guess I have more questions than answers as I write this post. I just don't think enough attention has been paid to equipping actors to take on these perilous journeys. We are taught technique and craft and how to market ourselves, but what goes in my backpack when I venture into the desert of a character's pain? And how do I safely come back out?

And if good acting means you fully become the character, and many actors are unsure of who they themselves are, then how do you keep from getting lost in the character?


Actors: How have you dealt with this? I'd love to hear feedback. It has been one of my top struggles. Just thought I'd fling my inner pain out there for you guys! So actorly of me.