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Little Habits Can Say A Lot
Posted by Ali Sweeney on Sep 10, 2010

ali in old promo postcard

Hi Everyone,
 
Having been on camera for more than half my life, I've had a lot of time to examine all my nervous habits. Physical quirks, funny speech patterns…things other people know you do but that you might not even be aware of.  These habits can be completely lovable, or they might be irritating and off-putting. And it can be strange to realize what your own quirks are.
 
I’ll forget never one time when I had lunch with a group of my closest friends. I don't even remember how it came up, but one friend teased another about how every time she laughed, at the very end she would let out this little sigh.  It was such a cute idiosyncrasy, but once she was made aware of it, she never did it again!  I was so sad that she stopped, and of course our friend had no idea that calling attention to it would have that result. 
 
Anyway, when you’re an actor you are hyper-aware of hand gestures and other or nervous tics that appear on camera. It's up to you to control them, and only use them if they help communicate a feeling the character is having. In real life, it might be helpful to be aware of your little habits, too—not because you need to get rid of them, necessarily, but so you can decide if you like what they say about you.
 
Do you chew your nails in public? How often do you play with your hair?  (I'm certainly guilty of that one…if my hair hasn't been “done” by a professional, which means lots and lots of hair spray, I tend to run my fingers through it a lot. I decided to try to control this habit, so my favorite new accessories are cute hair bands! I keep one on my wrist so if I start to play with my hair, I can sweep it back and remove the temptation—and a pretty hair band makes the look seem polished, instead of a desperate attempt to control myself!)
 
Anyway, we all have some little habits like this, but if you think about what they are, you can choose to regulate the unspoken messages you might be giving off—and make sure they are the signals you WANT to be sending!
 
What quirky habits do you have? Do you want to break any of them? If so, how are you going to do that?

Have a great weekend everyone - see you right back here on Monday!

xo

Ali

Whenever I talk, especially giving directions to someone, my hands are always moving.  I also have that weird half smile thing going on.  Little quirks but I'm happy being me! 

I’m not quite aware of little habits I have but I’ll tell you what I do a lot, I sleep on  the train to and from work. LOL I cannot keep my eyes open while on the train for a long period of time. My friends / family get annoyed that I always close my eyes when I am on the train. I find myself a comfy corner seat and away I go. LOL smiley-laughing.gif

 

Terri, I used to sigh a lot too.  My husband thought I was annoyed with him! I looked it up online cause I kept saying, 'well, no, I wasn't annoyed until you just asked me that!" lol.  Anyway, sometimes, they say, you're sighing cause you just haven't been breathing deeply.  When I became aware of that, I totally don't do it as much anymore. (I think.) :)

Miss T - that is totally an acting exercise.  When your arms are crossed it makes you seem defensive, even if it's just on an unconscious level.  Too bad, cause it can be such a comfortable stance! right?! ;)

I have had a stranger comment that I always look mad when I pass by him at school.  Its not that I'm mad.  I'm normally in a hurry or concentrating on the next thing I need to do.

I'm trying to pay more attention to my surrondings and my expressions:)

My bad habit is  when I'm talking to someone new  my mouth can't keep up with my brain and I get nervous and all the words I try to say come out wrong  and tongue tied and then I get even more nervous and then I stick my tongue out.  ugh!!   I know it's awful when I first meet people and they must think I'm "special".  Then I take a deep breath and start all over and think of what I'm going to say.  It's really annoying to me! 

  Another one is when I'm on the phone with someone and I'm ready to get off I just start saying, "ooohhh kayyyy".  Unfortunately I've picked that up from my mom and don't even realize I'm saying it most of the time.

I say the word "anyway" alot on the phone.  I twirl my hair...at least I don't chew on it like I apparently used to when I was little.  I chew my nails...not in public though.  I guess I am a closet chewer. lol  I am always tugging on my shirts, because they are never long enough.  I have a long torso, so I have problems with finding longer shirts.  I guess I am just a mess of quirks.  Oh well! 

I'm with Julie, I have people tell me I look mad at work. I'm not mad, I'm usually concentrating on something or thinking about something and just don't have a happy look on my face.

To Terry Lewis- Sighing is actually a good thing. It helps you relieve stress. 

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