Facing a Challenging Role

While playing Brenda, the headstrong detective on the hit series The Closer, Emmy and Golden Globe winning actress Kyra Sedgwick discussed the stresses of having played a challenging character for six seasons.

“[Brenda’s] a bundle of contradictions, and she’s dealing with at least ten very intense emotions in every episode. It’s a little hard to shake off. I find myself having darker dreams,” said Sedgwick. “I think sometimes when I’m home, I’m not 100% there, maybe, because I’m always thinking about her and the show…It does definitely rub off in areas that I probably wish that it wouldn’t.”

All actors experience the stresses of a demanding part. How do we show up everyday on stage and play a harrowing role and not feel emotionally drained by it in our personal lives?  Or how do we get type cast as The Villain again and again and not have it affect our self-perception just a little bit?

As performers, we are trained to put our hearts and souls into our performances. Yet how do we do that and not lose ourselves in the process?

In my Inner Stage™ workshop, Facing a Challenging Role, participants will explore how our own histories impact which roles challenge us emotionally and how to play a role without it playing us.

© 2013 Valerie Simon, LCSW, PAT