Lisa Temple Actress Your Senator, Doctor, Teacher, Mom

Right now is U.S. Open Tennis Tournament Time, and I gotta tell you, I LOVE tennis! I’m rooting SO MUCH for Serena Williams to win her 24^thGrand Slam Title. Serena is a tower of Patience, Persistence, and Passion.

Serena is almost 37 years old, and eight months after giving birth, she made it to the finals of Wimbledon. And now her daughter is a year old, and she’s in the finals of the U.S. Open. Amazing. Serena is on the most recent cover of TIME with the quote, “Nothing about me right now is perfect. But I’m perfectly Serena.” Does she mean it’s okay to just relax and live the best we can? What an inspiration!

These last two weeks watching the US Open have been intense. Each day the action has been filled with ups and downs, not to mention the worst heat and humidity levels ever recorded at this event. These athletes have overcome incredible difficulties, and it’s been an honor to watch them.

Years ago I read The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey, but I didn’t really get it. It was about tennis; but it’s not about tennis. It’s about how your thoughts affect your performance. Now with a new commitment to my acting career, I’ve been revisiting that book and have been watching tennis every chance I get. Why you ask?

Tennis is like being onstage, on set, or in an audition. You have no coach, and it often feels like the crowd is rooting for the other player. Like actors, tennis players are out there on their own, finding new and inventive ways to problem solve and perform their best. It’s easy to see the mental and emotional struggles they go through each point. If they miss a point, they have to have short-term memory and forget their mistakes. If they don’t forget, they’ll be focusing on the previous point, which usually causes them to miss the next point, and maybe the next.

That’s how I relate tennis to acting. Each point or game is like an audition. As actors, we must forget any mistakes we make while in the room, and stay focused on the next moment. The truth is, casting directors expect us to make mistakes. We’re human after all so, of course, we are going to make mistakes in each and every audition. No one is perfect. The interesting thing is, it’s not the mistakes we make that matter…it’s how we deal with our mistakes in the room. That’s what they’re looking for: how do we problem solve; how do we think on our feet.

As a perfectionist, I used to let every single mistake I made in auditions completely derail me. I would get so angry, so embarrassed, that I would allow defeat to overtake me. I usually left every audition room feeling deflated and frustrated. Is it any wonder I had trouble booking anything? Wow.

It took me awhile to even see what I was doing, let alone understand it. Once I could see what was missing, I had to figure out how to make the adjustment. That’s when I realized I had to take an on-camera audition class with a casting director. It seemed like the best way I could learn how to improve my auditions. So that’s what I did.

The best advice I got in class was that I HAD to spend more time preparing my sides. I have a good memory, so I deluded myself into thinking I knew my lines better than I actually did. Truth is, I never ran my lines enough to really know them; to really embody them. I simply wasn’t working hard enough on my sides. I created an audition regimen and it has dramatically improved my auditions and bookings.

Now I’m more patient. I’m more persistent. And I’ve discovered that acting is my true passion. My acting career has a purpose. It’s a joy and a privilege to be a performing artist. May you find your inner game of acting, or whatever your passion is!