Chelsea Green may be building a career outside the wrestling ring, but she admits every trip onto a movie set comes with the same thought running through her head: “What am I doing here?”
Speaking with NerdSpin, the former WWE Women’s United States Champion revealed she’s been dealing with imposter syndrome while making the transition into acting, admitting she constantly worries about letting people down after being given an opportunity.
The conversation began after the interviewer talked about the feeling of not believing you’ve earned your place, which immediately reminded Green of what she’s been experiencing.
“There’s a phrase… yeah, there’s a phrase for it and now I’m blanking on it. But I feel like, you know, if someone’s going to hand me a script and say I want you to read for this, I need to make sure that I do the proper preparation. I don’t ever want to show up and make them regret their decision to ask me to read for something.”
Instead of simply showing up, Green said she throws herself into every audition, studying scripts, asking questions and making sure she can adapt whenever directors want something different.
“I just make sure that I study as much as I can and I dissect the script. I ask the questions that need to be asked… I just want to make sure that I take those changes, that I adjust accordingly the same way that anyone else in my acting class would, even though I might have a little less knowledge of what I’m doing.”
A few moments later, the phrase she had been searching for finally came back to her.
“Yes, and I remember the phrase… it’s imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome. That’s what it is. That was going to kill me.”
Green admitted those feelings aren’t completely unfamiliar. She experienced the same uncertainty when she first entered professional wrestling, but starting over in an entirely new industry has brought those emotions back in a different way.
“I felt imposter syndrome, and I felt all those feelings when I started wrestling. So this isn’t new to me… but it’s new in this world, and I’m just trying to be open and honest with everyone around me and make sure that they know, like, I’m new. If there’s something that I’m doing that’s incorrect, or if you don’t like the way that I’m doing something, or if there’s proper etiquette, I just need to be taught because you don’t know what you don’t know.”
Despite those doubts, Green said the people she’s worked with so far have made the transition much easier. From director Gary Wheeler on Blue Ridge to the crew behind the horror film she recently wrapped, she said everyone has been patient, supportive and willing to help her learn the ropes of an entirely different profession.
“And so, I’ve had… I mean, just this introduction to acting with Gary and with Blue Ridge, and moving on to the horror movie that I just filmed, like they… everyone has been so kind in teaching me what I need to know.”
Acting may have pushed Chelsea Green back outside her comfort zone, but it’s also become the next challenge she’s determined to conquer. Just as she had to earn her place inside a wrestling ring years ago, she’s now trying to do the same on a film set—one audition and one role at a time.
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