This week the open letter from
Sinead O’Connor to Miley Cyrus has been highly publicised. The Irish pop star in her late 40’s tried to
offer advice to the wrecking ball-swinging young popstress; suggesting that
half naked ‘twerking’ isn’t conducive to a long career and suggesting she look
after herself as no record company has her best interests at heart. We all know that when you’re young, the
advice from those older, wiser folk falls upon hard ears, or at least bounces
off of the Apple earphones. Miley Cyrus
responded to Sinead’s motherly words with a metaphorical middle finger. Nice.
One of life’s ironies seems to be
that only the young know everything (or really think they do,) only to become
less sure and more open to learning with each passing year. But should young people be warned about the
pitfalls of life?
Isn’t the point that we’re meant to
make mistakes to become the wise and battered version of ourselves filled with
hindsight? Isn’t that what makes life interesting?
I was chatting with some aspiring
performing arts students last week answering their questions about the
profession that drama school lessons don’t have time to address. Things like, is it possible to sustain a
relationship through college? Do actors
really cheat when away on tour? Will
they ever make any money from this job and be able to have a family and house? Suddenly
at 32, I was advising very much through the power of hindsight but with an awareness
that I shouldn’t crush their dreams with too much reality. It’s not my place to take away the mystery of
the journey by dousing their fires of passion with bitter old recriminations. That’s not advice, just self-indulgent bile!
But both these events got me
thinking about what advice I’d give to myself – don’t worry I am not going to
join the bandwagon of writing an open letter to myself! Merely a few yellow post-it notes of “shoulda-woulda-couldas!”
Stretch – 8
year old Daniella managed to do the splits once in a French caravan park. Yes, ONCE.
If I had listened to my dance teachers and actually done a few regular
stretches in the ad-breaks of Home and Away then I wouldn’t have found myself
in the disaster, that was my audition for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”,
23 years later. The audition dance
required the auditionee to jump into the splits for the final position, not
tentatively slide but JUMP. I suspected
that some of the 50 girls in the dance call would be equally nervous as I, by
this insurmountable feat. But no,
everybody leapt without a care in the world and fell into a comfy, leg ripping
final pose. Everyone but me, who was
left standing, only to pathetically creak into a jazz split in an attempt to
join in. Mortified! Young Daniella - do stretch; or you will end
like that one-legged Barbie doll at the bottom of the toy box who no-one wants
to play with.
Don’t eat that – I spent much of my early years thinking I hated pizza
and so my mum improvised with my favourite condiment to make me eat them. I ate peanut butter pizza topped with chicken
and sweetcorn for years. If only I could
run back in time and rip it out of my hands, telling my younger self that those
carb-laden, heart-attack inducing dinners will stay on my hips forever and no
amount of low-GI eating in the future will shift it!
Remove the blinkers – Now this is a new addition but it comes from a place of hindsight
and not regret. I would advise my
younger self to go to university and follow any academic potential I had. I know it’s a bit “Sliding Doors” to wish I had
taken a different path and perhaps I would still end up in the same destination
but from this viewpoint, I would advise myself to shun a musical theatre
course. You need to have blinkered determination
to pursue our wonderful profession and mine were securely in place from a young age
- so perhaps like Miley and Sinead, the 32 year old me wouldn’t have a hope
in hell of getting through to myself! 
I don’t think it’s healthy to keep
looking back, trying to re-think the past.
Writing this has helped me see that open letters have no place in my
little world. I appreciate any advice
people can, and will, offer me and love to learn from others, but to advise my 20
year old self? I try to learn from my mistakes
(peanut butter pizza bases, anyone?) but I think it’s a good idea to look
forwards and forge ahead; happy to make new mistakes but safe in the knowledge
that I will never swing nude on a wrecking ball!
