You may think that Julliard, one of the most competitive and famous acting schools in the world, would be an amazing experience for any aspiring actor. But that isn not how it worked out for Netflix “Love” star Gillian Jacobs.
“Juilliard f—ed me up, and it took me years afterwards to realize what was worthy at all about myself,” Jacobs said Tuesday at TheWrap’s Emmy comedic actors panel.
Fellow actors in the comedic actors panel also discussed acting insecurities but, Julliard explained that acting classes messed with her mind because she was discouraged from doing what she considered her best.
“Juilliard beat the love of acting out of me,” Jacobs said. “Juilliard when I was there did not value comedy at all. I remember I brought in one scene that was funny my sophomore year, and no one in my class thought I was particularly good, but they all really liked me in the scene, and it was the most positive response I ever got from my classmates. But at the end of it, my teacher said, ‘Well you can clearly do that. Never bring in a scene like that again.’ It was not until I was cast on ‘Community’ that I ever got to explore being funny.”
Jacobs explained therapy helped her rediscover her love for acting.
“It really forced me to question why I actually wanted to be an actor because I didn’t really like it anymore. I had to discover that there was something beyond people telling me I was good at it that was driving me to pursue acting,” Jacobs said.
“I was a child who dragged my family to the George Bernard Shaw Festival in Canada for five years. I loved the theater in the way you love things when you’re a kid, but I didn’t have a lot of technique. I didn’t quite know what I was doing. So [Juilliard] took away the joy and gave me technique, so there were a couple of years out of college where I had to find the joy again.”
