Margot Bingham
Actress and singer-songwriter Margot Bingham discusses her career, including her role in "Boardwalk Empire" and "The Family," and how she manages stress and anxiety through meditation, diet changes, and maintaining a grounded support system.
Deep Dive Analysis
19 Topic Outline
Dan Harris's Favorite TV Shows and New Year's Eve
Margot Bingham's Introduction and Current Acting Role
Margot's Journey to Meditation and Holistic Health
Exploring the 'Eat Right for Your Blood Type' Diet
Margot's Experience with Oprah and Deepak Chopra's Meditation Challenge
The Role of Intention and Mantra in Meditation
Meditation Apps: Headspace and 10% Happier
Margot's Early Acting Career: High School and College
Breaking into Theater: Auditioning for 'Rent'
Landing the Role of Daughter Maitland in 'Boardwalk Empire'
The Unexpected Growth and Complexity of the 'Boardwalk Empire' Role
Managing Anxiety and Demands of a Major Acting Role
Lessons Learned from Co-star Michael K. Williams
Separating Character Trauma from Personal Life
Emulating Louis Gossett Jr.'s Humble and Elevating Acting Style
Staying Grounded Amidst Career Success and Early Challenges
Margot's Role in 'Barbershop: The Next Cut'
Margot's Current Show 'The Family' on ABC
Future Projects and Career Aspirations
3 Key Concepts
Eat Right for Your Blood Type Diet
A dietary approach where food choices are based on an individual's blood type, with the belief that certain blood types (like A-positive) are better suited for specific diets (e.g., vegetarian for A-positive) to avoid lethargy and improve health.
Mantra Meditation
A meditation technique involving silently repeating a chosen word (mantra) to oneself on the in-breath and out-breath, which helps to quiet distracting thoughts and achieve a state of calm.
Actor's Objective
In acting, an objective is the simplest, most pure intention an actor brings into a scene or room, guiding their actions and helping them achieve their character's goals without a roundabout approach.
8 Questions Answered
Margot Bingham started meditating about three years ago as part of a holistic approach to health, seeking to manage stress and anxiety from her acting career.
It's a diet where food choices are determined by one's blood type; for example, A-positive blood types are considered 'gardeners' and are advised against heavy meat consumption.
Oprah introduces a theme or personal story, then Deepak provides an intention and a mantra word (e.g., 'love' or 'beauty') for participants to silently repeat during the meditation.
The intention sets the mind's focus, and the mantra (a repeated word) helps to concentrate the mind, quiet distracting thoughts, and provide a break for the brain.
After leaving college, she moved to New York City and landed a role in the off-Broadway revival of 'Rent' through an open call, being number 719 among hundreds of hopefuls.
She initially auditioned for a background jazz singer role, enduring eight or nine callbacks, and the role unexpectedly grew into a significant character over time.
She consciously practiced leaving the character's drama and trauma at the studio, though some aspects of the character's personality would occasionally influence her off-screen.
'The Family' is a show about a child who went missing 10 years ago and reappears, leading to the detective (played by Margot Bingham as Nina Meyer) who solved the original case realizing the wrong person was imprisoned.
17 Actionable Insights
1. Embrace Meditation for Stress
Practice meditation and cultivate patience to effectively manage stress and anxiety, especially when dealing with various personalities and egos in demanding environments. This helps maintain a clear and positive mind frame.
2. Avoid Meditation Expectations
Do not approach meditation with expectations of ‘winning’ or achieving immediate calm, as this can hinder the practice. Instead, understand that meditation is about the continuous process of noticing distractions and gently returning to your focus.
3. Recognize Distraction as Success
Reframe your understanding of meditation: getting distracted is not a failure, but rather the opportunity to notice the distraction and gently return to your practice, which is the true success. This mindset helps manage frustration, especially for goal-oriented individuals.
4. Practice Simple Meditation Intentions
When meditating, strive to set intentions that are simplistic, pure, and very clear. This helps prevent the mind from feeling overwhelmed or trying to address too many issues at once, leading to a more focused practice.
5. Dedicate Daily Personal Time
Commit to taking 10 to 15 minutes for yourself daily, whether for formal meditation or just a moment of silence. This practice is crucial for mental well-being, especially for those working long hours who struggle to disconnect from phones and computers at night.
6. Separate Work and Personal Life
Consciously leave the emotional intensity and drama of your work at the workplace, particularly when dealing with demanding roles or professions. This practice is essential for maintaining mental health and preventing work-related stress from negatively impacting your home life.
7. Don’t Sleep with Work Stress
If your work is emotionally intense, make a promise to yourself to take extra time alone or stay up longer to process and release work-related thoughts before falling asleep. This prevents carrying negative mental baggage into your rest.
8. Cultivate Grounded Relationships
Maintain a small, close circle of grounded friends and strong family ties. These relationships serve as a crucial support system to keep you humble and balanced, preventing you from becoming ‘a diva’ amidst professional success or challenges.
9. Focus on Artistry & Quality Work
Stay rooted in your core artistry and the continuous pursuit of doing better work that you are genuinely proud of. This mindset helps maintain focus and grounding amidst the external pressures and new aspects of a successful career.
10. Emulate Gracious Professionals
Strive to embody qualities such as graciousness, respect, and humility in your professional interactions, aiming to elevate the performance of those around you. This approach fosters a positive environment and enhances overall collaboration.
11. Use Headphones to Zone Out
In overwhelming or stressful work environments, use headphones to listen to music or simply create a personal space to ‘zone out.’ This serves as a practical coping mechanism to block distractions and manage stress.
12. Adjust Diet by Blood Type
Consult an endocrinologist to get your blood type tested and explore dietary recommendations based on your blood type, such as those found in the ‘Eat Right for Your Blood Type’ book. This can help address issues like post-meal lethargy and improve overall well-being.
13. Incorporate Yoga and Acupuncture
Integrate practices like yoga and acupuncture into your routine, alongside maintaining a generally clean lifestyle. These holistic approaches can contribute to feeling lighter, better, and improving overall health.
14. Listen to Relaxing Music for Sleep
Adopt a nightly regimen of listening to relaxing music, such as meditation, spa, Reiki, or chakra music, to help your mind open up and release stress. This practice can lead to deep relaxation and significantly improve sleep quality.
15. Utilize Guided Meditation Apps
Explore guided meditation apps like Headspace, Oprah/Deepak’s 21-day challenges, or 10% Happier. These tools provide structured guidance, help set intentions, and offer a library of meditations for various needs like stress, anxiety, and sleep.
16. Mantra Meditation Word Hack
If you struggle with a prescribed mantra word in meditation, feel free to choose any word you prefer to repeat silently with your breath. The specific word is less important than the concentration on the breath and the chosen word, which helps quiet the mind.
17. Simplify Actor’s Objective
For actors, break down your objective for a scene or role to its simplest, purest form, ideally a single word. This clarity allows for a more direct and focused performance, avoiding convoluted approaches.
5 Key Quotes
The worst thing you can bring to the meditation party is expectations. It will screw everything up.
Dan Harris
You don't, you can't, you shouldn't go into meditation thinking you're going to win. It's really about the failure, which is getting distracted and then starting over that is success.
Dan Harris
He makes other people look amazing to be an actor that can really highlight and elevate everyone else's performance just because of their own. What an incredible talent.
Margot Bingham
I just think that it's important to do regardless. And I, I try to practice it as much as I can. I'm definitely not good at it. So I, I won't, I won't go on about how amazing I am.
Margot Bingham
I really made it a promise to myself not to fall asleep with that in my, in my mind.
Margot Bingham
2 Protocols
Michael K. Williams' Method for Managing On-Set Overwhelm
Margot Bingham (describing Michael K. Williams' practice)- Put on large headphones.
- Zone out from the surrounding noise and demands.
- Use this as a way to create personal space and calm amidst chaos.
Actor's Practice for Separating Work and Personal Life
Margot Bingham (taught by her high school instructor Billy Hartung)- Leave personal issues at home before going to work.
- Leave the drama and intense emotions of the character at the studio after filming.
- Make a promise to oneself not to fall asleep with character-related trauma or stress in mind.