The art of caring less
“Please clap” Jed Bush said to the live-TV audience as he could feel the Republican leadership fall from his grasp into the hands of Donald Trump. Jed’s plea for applause was ridiculed at the time and he never recovered...the rest as they say, is history.
In a recent podcast interview with Rick Rubin, the film-director Francis Ford Coppola recalled a piece of advice Marlon Brando gave him about acting. Brando said, “You can’t care or they’ll see it on your face.“
Now, you can take not caring too far, and Brando was justifiably accused of being careless with his craft, his relationships, and his money, oh and more or less anything else you can think of. And yet, there’s something to his advice: Nothing is less appealing than neediness.
Brando’s advice about not caring extends way beyond acting to politics and to sales. In many ways, whether we like it or not, we’re all in sales. I’ve never found it a particularly comfortable place as I am really bad at looking like I don't care.
I remember when I worked in a writer-director partnership and while pitching a new show idea to a big shot TV commissioner, the commissioner stopped to comment on how much he liked my new suede shoes. My writing partner told me afterwards that it took all his willpower not to blurt out, “You like his shoes?! Take them! They’re yours!” Anything that might help him like us and our ideas that little bit more. We were that needy.
Very often creatives are the very worst people to sell themselves because we want to make the show, the series, the movie, the game, the whatever, so we are terrible at driving a hard bargain, this is why Agents are so critical. Agents are practised at looking like they don’t care(or at least care less, than the creative). For most creatives, you really can see how much we care on our faces.
Now for the disclaimer - Like most things, "not-caring" is a question of balance. I.E It isn't advisable to not-care about providing a good service or maintaining a relationship - business or personal. That would be a bad idea. It's more a case of not caring what people think, that your own sense of self worth shouldn't depend on the approval of others.
We Create Handcrafted Media
1 周Perhaps it's more a question of not taking it too personally, rather than not caring (if that makes sense?)
Scottish Director/Freelance Editor
1 周Meditation (& medication!) definitely help. The older I get the less I care about things I can't control & tbh I just can't be arsed pretending to be or feel anything that's false.
Professor at Universidad LCI Veritas | Animation Production & Education | I seek to inspire and empower animation professionals to excel in their careers.
1 周This was an interesting read, Andrew. Thank you! However, perhaps it's important to caveat that this "not-caring" attitude applies to sales and negotiations, but would be ill-advised in other spaces (e.g. dealing with personnel or clients)
Author, speaker & communications consultant
1 周I'm not sure exactly where on the 'Brando-to-Bush' scale that he sits but I think Adam Sandler personifies this perfectly. He's doing well professionally, creatively and financially - so he obviously cares. But he seems unencumbered by how the work is received. How you maintain that balance when it comes to getting a work made, I wish I knew!