In a conversation with writer and comedian Jen Statsky for Interview magazine, the Scream Queens star opened up about experiencing self-doubt.
“I feel like I’ve had more self-doubt now in my thirties than I ever had,” Emma, 33, said. “When I was nine years old I would literally go into an audition and be like, ‘Mom, please don’t embarrass me.’ I envy that confidence I had before.”
The American Horror Story star added that the rise of social media has contributed to her feelings of self-doubt.
“I feel like this is twofold where it’s like you get older and you get more aware, but also back then there wasn’t the internet in the way it is now, so you didn’t have this constant feedback loop,” she explained. “You wouldn’t instantaneously know if everybody hated something about you.”
Emma continued, “I feel like I’ve had the reverse experience where I was living my dream and now I have a lot of doubt that I have to reckon with. It’s weird.”
The Wild Child star noted that she thought once she got further along in her career, the doubt would go away.
“It’s like you do make these milestones for yourself, and then you realise there will always be another mountain to climb,” she told Jen. “So I try to at least lean into that and use that then for certain roles, because it is good to have some self-doubt. You never want to think you’re the best in the room because if you do, then you’re probably not.”
Emma added that she doesn’t read reviews of her work or look at comments on Instagram.
