1. Understand your “type”
In school one learns how to play any role—to
stretch, to challenge, to grow, to learn, to adapt.Out in the real world, it’s
very important to have a clear sense of what is their strength when one walks
into a room to audition for a role.
This takes a lot
of hard -work, soul-searching, and asking friends, teachers, agents, and
casting directors to give one some hard opinions about their type, and their
headshot should reflect that person. One may very well be capable of playing
many other kinds of roles, but one doesn’t get them unless they first get the
jobs they’re right for.
2. Initial years are very important
Acting is not for the faint of heart. It
takes a lot of hard work, sacrifices, dedication, devotion and belief in
yourself to even feel like you’ve got a hold of the bottom rung of the ladder.
It is very important to be patient and wait for the right
opportunity for you to turn your skills to work.
Sometimes there can be a lot of disappointment but do not give up on your
passion.
3. Work on
it everyday
If one wants to get through the first difficult years, one
has to work at it every day. If one leaves it to chance, they’ll always be able
to convince themselves that they have time to do those mailings, make those
calls, and read those trades “soon.”
One has to start by scheduling at least an hour every day
that they’re working on developing their network and scheduling their plans.
Any day that you’ve done at least one thing for your
career is a good day. This includes auditioning, doing mailings, etc., but it
also includes working out, eating healthy, seeing plays, movies, new TV shows,
etc. Your job is to learn the business. It’s “learnable,” but you do have to
learn it.
4. Agents, casting directors,
producers, and directors are here to help
Yes, the whole manager, agent, casting director system is
set up so that many, many people have vetted you before you get in front of the
person who will actually decide to hire you: the director, producer, or both.
Remember it is always important that you nail it in the audition, then everyone
in that system looks good.
The director will trust the casting director to present new talent. The casting director will trust your agent to pitch new actors. Your agent will look to the school where you trained for new talent next year. There is truly nothing more exciting in an audition room than when someone you’ve never met before comes in and knocks it out of the park. Your job is to be that person. It takes a while to really believe this, and keep reminding yourself.
Also it takes some time to practice all
these things.
5. Being a good person is just as important as being a good actor.
At a certain level, any one who has auditioned for the
part could do a good job in the role. It takes time to build a reputation. The
way you do that is by treating everyone with respect and trying your best to do
good work.
It takes persistence to have a life in this business. If
you really are going to spend your life as an actor, then the fact that the
first year or two was hard is a drop in the bucket.
Be on time. Be professional. Be thankful.
To learn the fine art of acting,
explore the Film Acting programs offered at Annapurna
College.
