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People told me that Black Swan was an artistic risk, a scary challenge to try to portray a professional ballet dancer.

But it didn’t feel like courage or daring that drew me to it.

I was so oblivious to my own limits that I did things I was woefully unprepared to do.

And so the very inexperience that in college had made me insecure and made me want to play by other’s rules now was making me actually take risks.

I didn’t even realize were risks.

When Darren asked me if I could do ballet, I told him that I was basically a ballerina which, by the way, I wholeheartedly believed.

But the point is, if I had known my own limitations, I never would have taken the risk.

And the risk led to one of my greatest artistic and personal experiences, and that I not only felt completely free, I also met my husband during the filming.

Similarly, I just directed my first film, A Tale of love in Darkness and was quite blind to the challenges ahead of me.

The film is a period film, completely in Hebrew, in which I also act with an eight-year-old child as a co-star.

All of these are challenges I should have been terrified of as I was completely unprepared for them.

But my complete ignorances to my own limitations looked like confidence and got me into the director’s chair.

Once here, I had to figure it all out, and my belief that I could handle these things, contrary to all evidence of my ability to do so, was half the battle.

The other half was very hard work.

The experience was the deepest and most meaningful one of my career.

Now clearly I’m not urging you to go perform heart surgery without the knowledge to do so.

Making movies admittedly has less drastic consequences than most professions and allows for a lot of effects that make up for mistakes.

The thing I’m saying is, make use of the fact that you don’t doubt yourself too much right now.

As we get older, we get more realistic, and that includes about our own abilities or lack thereof, and that realism does us no favors.

People always talk about diving into things you’re afraid of.

That never worked for me. If I am afraid, I run away.

And I would probably urge my child to do the same.

Fear protects us in many ways.

Well, it can be a good thing if it makes you try things you never might have tried.

Your inexperience is an asset, and will allow you to think in original and unconventional ways.

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