Do You Try To Forge An Identity?

The actor Jamie Foxx is being interviewed about his performance in a movie ('Sleepless'). He tells how the director, in one sense, does not direct; how at the beginning of the shoot he gives the actor one word that 'governs' the character he's playing, and how, often, he merely gets close to the actor's ear to repeat this one word before the cameras roll.

Which obviously leads you to wonder - just how many people actually do this in real life? After they close the front door and set off for school, or the party, or before going clubbing,  how many people repeat some word, some mini-mantra to themselves once every hour, on the hour?  'Boss' - for instance. Or - 'princess'.  Or - 'flirty girl' (above). I have a horrible feeling that people actually do this. A 'horrible feeling', simply because though the look can be easily achieved, the resultant scripts, the words that actually come out of the mouths, are so weak. Aren't they? If you have to contrive an identity, you've already lost the game, haven't you?