Joel Edgerton experiences self-doubt every time he gears up to direct a film.

The Australian actor put off his feature directorial debut, 2015’s The Gift, for more than a year because he was so “terrified”.

“I delayed directing my first film for a good year and a half, two years, because I was finding any excuse to procrastinate. It’s because I was terrified of doing it,” he revealed on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast.

“By the end of the first week, I’d seen a few scenes cut together and I had faith I was making my days and I was enjoying myself. But the fear in that year and half leading up to it…”

Despite having one film under his belt, Edgerton felt the same self-doubt when he came to direct his second film, 2018’s Boy Erased.

“Then I get close to making my second film and exactly same fears were there, maybe even amplified. ‘Am I gonna be able to do this?'” he admitted. “I’m like, ‘I’ve done it before! I’ve made a movie before!’ Surely, I should have felt the confidence to go, ‘I’ve been through this experience.'”

Edgerton, who also acted in both of his features, added that he is planning to direct a film from his own script late next year. Despite being his third movie as a director, that sense of doubt is already creeping in.

“I’m already filling my head with the doubt of that. Already,” he said.

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