Inside The Actors Studio: Advanced Rationalization Theory
Nearly every actor who has found success in Hollywood has endured enough professional humiliation to have developed mental strategies to deal with the psychic distress associated with the near-constant stream of rejection experienced during their "dues paying" phase. For example, when confronted with the upsetting circumstance of being booed during the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Marie Antoinette, star Kirsten Dunst merely deflected the criticism with a culturally based rationalization:
"I didn't take it to heart," Dunst says in an interview in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. "How would we feel about the French doing a movie about George Washington with French actors?"
Thanks to this relatively advanced coping technique, Dunst was spared a potentially self-esteem-damaging moment of reflection in which she may have questioned her choices for the execution of a difficult role. Instead, she was able to block out the French-inflected shower of boos by calming herself with the quiet, repeated recitation of her ego-shielding mantra, "The Frogs just hate American actors." Eventually, the hisses subsided, and she was once again left to enjoy her time among the overly possessive, xenophoic festival attendees.