The Journal | 21 October 2025

I got very close to my biggest role to date recently. Zoom recall with Netflix in America. Showrunners, executive producers, producers, writer, director, casting were all on the call. I was incredibly excited and nervous. All of those old, young upstart actor feelings came rushing back. I put everything in place and did my absolute best. Didn’t even mind that despite telling them at the start of the call my name was pronounced ‘Mah-jid’, they all proceeded to call me ‘Mah-jeed’ (interesting in itself – are we more willing to let things go when dealing with ‘higher status’ people?). The director called it a ‘wonderful casting’. I was buzzing.

And then, of course, the waiting game. Horrendous. Every spare minute my mind went to my phone. When will I get the call? The call came and it was a no. My stomach dropped. I was gutted. Most gutted I’ve been about a job in a long time. As actors, we are all too familiar with that feeling. It makes you kind of question everything when the game you love so much can make you feel like that. Knocks the wind right out of your sails. So how do we deal with it? How do we keep going? Why do we continually place our creative lives into the hands of other people? 

Rejection never goes away in this industry. But how we meet it can change everything. 

Here are five ways to handle rejection and still love acting.

Feel It, Don’t Feed It

It is completely natural to be gutted when a job doesn’t go your way. Especially when you feel like you were so close. Don’t push that feeling away. Feel it, notice it, acknowledge it, without judgement. 

‘I am noticing how I feel. I feel this in my chest, my gut. And that’s ok. All I am doing is noticing it’.

Feel the disappointment but don’t feed the story of failure. Let the emotion pass through, don’t build a home for it. That ache you are feeling isn’t failure. It’s an ache of the climb. You are getting closer. It’s painful but the pain is progress. Suffering for success.

Control the Controllable

Make sure that you put everything in place to be the best you can be. Walk away from the self-tape or audition knowing you couldn’t have done anymore. Formulate your own process and follow it. Do your prep, nail the technical elements, fully commit. Reframe your mindset when a tape comes in.

‘Someone wants to see my work. Someone wants to see my take on this character. I get to play this role, even if just for a few minutes. How cool is that?’

You can’t control who books the job. You can control how well you do the work.

Reframe the No

Every ‘no’ you get proves there was a chance of a ‘yes’. It is proof that you were seen. And being seen is half the work. If you’ve managed to get a recall and then got the ‘no’, that isn’t rejection. It is recognition. Recognition that you are getting closer. They wouldn’t have recalled you if they didn’t think you could play the role. It is then that the variables come in. You just have to accept that the reason you didn’t get it is almost certainly nothing to do with how talented you are. That’s the game. Learn to love it.

Gratitude and Perspective

This is the most important tip. Remind yourself always: I am not saving lives. Zoom out and look at the world. How fucking fortunate are you that you get to be an actor? You get to be creative. There are millions of people out there that would trade places with you in an instant.

I’d trade every single audition and job I’ve ever had for the health of my two children and my wife.

Gratitude doesn’t dull your ambition. It grounds it. 

Define Success by the Work 

Write this down and stick it somewhere you can see it. 

‘I measure my success by the quality of my work, not the outcome of the casting.’

The only competition you are in is with yourself. Challenge yourself to get better every single time. This email to an agent is going to be even more specific and succinct. This scene for my reel is going to show an even bigger range to my work. This self-tape is going to incorporate the new screen acting technique I’ve learned. In this audition I’m going to take even more risks. 

Stop defining your life by the decisions of other people. 

‘If I get this job, everything will fall into place. I’ll have finally arrived.’

Stop waiting to ‘finally arrive’.  You arrived the day you were born. Live in alignment with your values and stop waiting.

Nobody can beat you at being you.

Thanks for reading,

— Majid