The following Career Dispatches essay was written by Pia Mechler, star of “Devils” on The CW, premiering Oct. 7.
Growing up, I once heard this saying I’d like to think is an ancient proverb (but chances are I read it off the back of a teabag). It goes roughly like this: A monkey sat in front of a tree and saw a big yummy bug in a small tree hole. He could pass his hand through and grab the bug, but once his hand was a fist, he couldn’t pull it back out again. Yummy bug in his fist, fist stuck in tree, the monkey just sat there and waited.
What’s the moral here, I thought? And then I realized: Sometimes you have to let go and sometimes you have to change your approach. Stop waiting, start thinking.
How to Get Cast on ‘Riverdale’ When we want something badly, persistence is good, but not when it leads to frustration. Sometimes we have to open that fist and take a step back. A big fat maggot might present itself on a branch right next to us instead. We just hadn’t seen it, since we were so deadpanned on that darn bug in the tree hole. Or maybe we hadn’t acquired the right tools yet; a small sharp stick to pick the poor bug out of that hole could perhaps do the trick.
In acting as in life, I realized that sometimes letting go and finding a different route might be a thousand times more successful.
When I had just moved to America and left my career in Germany behind for the big unknown, I thought about different ways to showcase myself. I ended up directing and writing, first on a very low-budget, nonsense scale—then bigger, still low-budget, but less nonsense. Directing and producing an indie feature film requires a lot of tenacity and persistence. But you also need to show flexibility and be able to adapt on the spot. All of this gave me a bigger platform and made me a better actor; I had to tackle this new market from a different angle instead of running into closed doors over and over again.
The same goes for unsolicited advice: As actors, we know how important it is to listen, on-camera and off. We listen to a lot. Everyone has an opinion! In my case: too tall or not tall enough, too blonde or not blonde enough, too European… You get the idea. But instead of trying to change what I couldn’t, I took a step back and thought, How can I turn this into an asset instead of an obstacle? How can I change my (and their) perspective by embracing what is making me stand out?
Listen to others, but also listen to yourself. Find your s(ch)tick—not just for bugs, but for life!
Last but not least: that one big audition, the one where you have to cry and really push yourself to get there. Next time, just let go. Don’t force it. Be it, and always find that s(ch)tick. Bon appetit, may that maggot be tasty!
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!