Today let’s talk about discomfort.
I spent a lot of time watching interviews of celebrities (actors, singers mostly) and I like to analyse their behavior. I try to see how they move, smile, interact, all these kinds of things. And I realized something about a specific person.
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Léa Seydoux is a very famous and talented French actress who played in a lot of French but also foreign movies. Some movies had a super huge budget and others not so much. She played different characters over her career and was able to fit them very wisely. I admire this person because I think she is talented.
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But I also admire her before she is doing interviews while being not very great at it. And let me tell you : it’s freaking scary to be in front of a large number of people and being asked questions and trying our best to look cool and interesting while inside boiling with anxiety.
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Indeed, Lea Seydoux seems to be uncomfortable in interviews. I noticed that. I don’t know if many people noticed but as a very reserved and anxious person I can tell. I can feel it. And I know that every time I see her on talk shows I’m like « I feel you ».
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So here are some things I would like to say about this topic :
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1. Being an actor is one thing. Promoting something you worked on is another thing. Most of the time actors love their jobs. They are good at it. They try their best. They embody somebody else and forget themselves.
To promote movies/series/books or whatever you have to « be yourself » (but at the same time you need to present perfectly, speak perfectly, tell perfect jokes etc) and that’s a lot of stress. Because you speak in front of a crowd and in front of many cameras (meaning in front of millions of people behind their TVs at home). It’s stressful. You can’t mess up. And you can see that Léa doesn’t want to mess it up. But sometimes she does. Because she is a human being, you know.
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2. Some actors are very introverted and shy. That’s why they are doing the job they do. It feels like freedom to forget ourselves and become someone else. But doing interviews is another job. But the whole job of being an actor / artist is… to create something and… most of the time to make publicity around it so people discover what you do and… buy it.
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3. Actors/artists are often coached by.. specific coaches. Some had to lose weight, so had to learn how to smile, others how to move their bodies. I am sure that most artists also have coaches for interviews. They need to learn how to behave a certain way in certain situations and events. And that’s.. again.. stressful as heck. Because people watching you expect you to be perfect. And it’s so much pressure.
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That’s all I have to say about this.
So please let me know if you have something to add, I would be more than glad to read it. 🙂
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Warm regards,
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Alice