Why Playing it Safe is the Biggest Risk of All

Advice
Written By Denise Simon

A student’s parent contacted me this week and said something that really stuck with me: “Please push my child to be as great as she can be—adding life and energy to each role. I feel like sometimes she shoots for just not being bad because she’s scared of going over the top, but that can also lead to tapes that don’t stand out.”

That fear is incredibly common for many people, especially actors. I was an actor who liked to play it safe and therefore that got in my way of pursuing acting as a long-term career.

 Do you avoid bold choices because you’re afraid of overdoing it? Afraid of being “too much,” too loud, too emotional, too strange? The truth is you need to fail. If you haven’t failed, you haven’t taken a real risk. And if you haven’t taken a real risk, you’re not on the path to greatness. The real risk is playing it safe. Many actors aim for one thing: not being bad. They deliver clean, controlled, technically correct performance that disappear completely.

Casting doesn’t remember “fine.” They remember alive. They remember the actor who made a strong choice, even if it didn’t land perfectly. Strong choices can be adjusted. Safe choices can’t.

There is no right or wrong. This is where actors get stuck. They’re searching for the correct way to play a scene. But acting isn’t math. There isn’t one right answer. Ask yourself if you are making clear choices? Are those choices specific? Are the stakes high enough?

Interesting work comes from commitment, not perfection. Failure is the feedback you need. It’s proof you are not bad. When you go too far, that’s not failure, that’s information. Now you know where the edge is. Great actors don’t avoid the edge. They explore it. They would rather pull something back than try to inflate something lifeless later.

If you want to stand out, you have to risk standing out. Sometimes you may be too big and sometimes a choice won’t work. That means you are doing the work. Because the actors who book aren’t the ones who never fail. They are the ones who are brave enough to be seen trying.

So stop aiming for “not bad,” and start aiming for BOLD, SPECIFIC  and ALIVE. Fail forward. That’s where great work lives.

Denise Simon

Denise has a gift for speaking the language of young actors , communicating in a way that instills confidence and builds skill sets. Her classes and industry workshops attract both established and emerging talent. She has coached hundreds of children and young adults, privately and on-set, who appear regularly on Broadway, TV and film.

A veteran of the industry as an actress, teacher, director, casting director and personal talent manager, Denise has expertise not only with coaching performers in the craft through private lessons, but also through weekly classes, group workshops, summer productions, industry showcases and college teleseminars. Denise provides private consulting to guide young actors and their parents through the challenges inherent to show business. She works with high school students on their college auditions and guides them through the performing arts college admission process.

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Preparing for College Theatre Auditions Without Feeling Overwhelmed