You need to know that you're enough

A few years ago, I had just signed with a new manager, and the first audition he sent me out on was for a recurring on "Lost."

I had never read for April Webster (legendary CD), and this was the first time my new rep would get feedback on me, so to say I was nervous is an understatement.

I go into the room, exchange pleasantries, and begin the scene. April stops me.

"Go back, start over, and let's do it again."

My mind is racing..."Um, ok -- is there an adjustment?"

"Just take a breath, and start again," she says.

I start again. She stops me.

She then tells me that when I walk in the door I am vibrant and engaging, and then I start the scene and I become a "shrinking violet." (Oh, shit.)

I must have looked like a deer in headlights. How could she see through all of my false bravado? The breakdown said, "confident, sexy, an Angelina Jolie type"...and by God, that's what I was embodying (smoky eyes and all). Evidently, not so much.

She then said this to me (words that changed my entire career):

"You need to know that you're enough."

That's all she said. And there I stood, with too much bronzer on, knowing she was right. I needed to know that I was enough. That if I was going to book this role, it was because of what I naturally brought to the role (not because of what I thought they wanted to see). Unforced, uncontrived. What they feel from me when I walk in the door.

Now I didn't end up booking that part (though April did end up putting me in a project down the road), but her words never left my mind, and two weeks later, I booked a series regular in my very first pilot (#1 on the callsheet, and a big fruit basket in my trailer to boot! I don;t know what it is, but I still get so tickled by those fruit baskets).

It was a turning point, and to this day (even on my lowest of lows), I always remind myself that I am enough.