Imposter Syndrome in actors can be a crippling issue, often leading to self-doubt and various audition pitfalls.
Your agent calls. You’ve got a casting. Maybe it’s a commercial. Maybe it’s a new Netflix series.
It should feel exciting. Shouldn’t it?
Except—what shows up first isn’t joy. It’s anxiety.
Before you’ve even begun preparing, you’re already doubting yourself and your chances.
Worse still, that inner voice starts whispering: “They’ll see through you. You’re not good enough. This will be the end of your acting career.”
That voice has a name. It’s imposter syndrome. And for actors, it can sneak in quietly, but affect everything—from how you prep to how you perform.
Here are five ways it might be stopping you from doing your best work.
1. You don’t believe you’ll be chosen—even though they called you in
Your inner impostor is working against you from the get-go. Almost as soon as you hear from your agent, it starts whispering that you don’t stand a chance.
But here’s the thing—casting directors are busy people, and their job is to find the right person for the role they’re casting. If they’ve called you in, it’s because in your headshot you look right for the part. Your CV shows you could be a good fit. Or they’re familiar with your work and already know you’re the right actor for the job.
The outcome of this thinking error is that, before you’ve even started preparing, you’re already beginning with a defeated attitude.
2. You delay learning your lines or filming your self-tape
Whether it’s a self-tape or an in-person casting, more often than not you’ll be sent sides to work with. Sometimes the casting director will say, “ no need to learn the lines.” But if you’ve got a day or two—why wouldn’t you?
And yet, you hold back. Maybe you think there’s no point putting in the effort for a job you won’t get anyway. Or perhaps you tell yourself you’re no good at learning lines. Perhaps you even think that if you wing it, you’ll do something more spontaneous or impressive on the day. Whatever the reason, you hesitate. You wait. You stall.
A recent extension of this pitfall is leaving it until the last moment to film a self-tape. During the pandemic, self-tapes became the only way to audition—and they’ve stuck around. They’re now a vital part of an actor’s toolkit. Avoiding them, or rushing them, is another way your impostor holds you back.
3. You avoid getting feedback from trusted friends or coaches
Another way we sabotage ourselves is by working alone. Sometimes we have no choice—time doesn’t allow for a second pair of eyes. But more often than not, we’re listening to the “solo impostor,” telling us we must go it alone. Telling us that if a friend sees our work, they’ll see our lack of talent and it’ll all be over.
One of the impostor’s chief tools is perfectionism. It tells you that any feedback is a sign of failure. That if someone has something to say, they’ve “found you out”—and there’s no recovering from the shame.
Once again, this is entirely imaginary.
Getting feedback is invaluable. Your friends—the ones you trust—are committed to helping you. An outside eye, a second opinion, can help you reach places in a script that you might not otherwise find.
4. You lose confidence when you see confident people in the waiting room
Have you ever noticed there’s always someone in the waiting room who knows everyone? The receptionist. The casting assistants. They bump into someone they haven’t seen for ten years, since they did a fabulous national tour—and then they talk loudly about all the fabulous projects they’ve been working on lately.
As an actor struggling with imposter syndrome it can really knock your confidence. Makes you feel like Billy-no-mates. That you don’t belong.
Do they do it on purpose? Is it psychological warfare? Who knows. Maybe it’s just their impostor, compensating loudly. I guarantee they have one too.
At every stage, your impostor tries to knock you off balance. Now it really starts working overtime. Sitting in that waiting room, it will tell you you’ve forgotten your lines. That you’re wearing the wrong clothes. That you’re not right for the part. That everyone can tell.
This is why preparation matters. It grounds you.
5. You bring the impostor into the audition room with you
By the time you walk into the room, you may already feel like a fraud—your inner imposter is fully in charge.
You start to see yourself not as an actor, but as someone pretending to be one, a talentless ham.
You try to hide your vulnerability. The result? You play small. You fumble, you forget your lines even though five minutes ago they were rock solid in your mind.
Worse still, when the director gives you a note, instead of seeing it as them being interested in you and how you respond to direction, you start castigating yourself about the bad choices you made
It doesn’t stop, even when the audition finishes. Even if the audition went well, your impostor taps its watch and says: “Everyone else was in there for ages. You were only in ther a few minutes. They can’t possibly be interested in you!”
And all the way home the imposter holds an autopsy, running every breath, pause and stumble over and over. With the end result you associate auditions with a form of purgatory that you just have to get through in the hope that one day your talent will shine through.
Hypnotherapy for Imposter Syndrome in actors
Many strategies can help combat Imposter Syndrome in actors effectively.
Here’s the good news—you are not alone. These are common traps. Most actors experience them in one form or another.
But just because the impostor has been running the show doesn’t mean it always will. Imposter Syndrome in actors can be tackled with the right mindset and tools.
Hypnotherapy can help you change how you approach auditions and tame your inner impostor. It does this by helping you to:
- Recognise the thought patterns and beliefs that drive this behaviour
- Understand your triggers and notice when they come into effect
- Rehearse new, more empowering responses
As you read this, it’s possible your inner impostor is already dismissing everything I’ve said. It’s the master of denial—denying there’s even an issue to resolve.
One of the five types of impostor is the Soloist. Earlier, I described how it shows up when you delay learning your lines. But it also stops you from seeking help—even when something deep down tells you you need it.
Together, we can leave the impostor outside, give you your voice back—so you can walk into the audition room ready, present, and confident.
Ready to take back control from your inner impostor?
If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not the only one—and you don’t have to keep battling it alone.
I offer one-to-one sessions that combine hypnotherapy and performance coaching to help actors quiet the noise, rebuild confidence, and walk into auditions with presence.
Book a free 20-minute consultation to talk about how we can work together:
Let’s get you back to doing your best work.
