Photo Credit: Andrew Schwegler via cc
It always shocks me how naive about the business side of the profession new and recently graduated actors are.
All of the acting training, tips and techniques that you learn at drama school will be powerful and useful once you are in the rehearsal room. To get yourself into that rehearsal room you need to book the job and booking the job takes more than training, technique and tips. You need to start behaving like you are a business, behave like a professional.
5 Tips for Newbie Actors
These are five tips which I have learnt from twenty years experience as a professional actor, and also from my time working as a theatre director in the audition room.
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Don’t Socialise in the Waiting RoomWhen you get to any casting you will have to wait in a ‘holding room’ with other actors. Get used to castings running late – especially commercial castings where you might have to wait about thirty minutes or so with a room packed full of people all up for the same job as you!
This isn’t your chance to catch up with another actor who you might not have seen for ages! Do that afterwards in a pub! The casting office waiting room isn’t a social club or a networking opportunity, it is a business. Your time and energy will be much better spent in quiet reflection and preparation.
Actors can be quite wily – is that person chatting to you because they genuinely want to know how you are, or could they be sussing you out and trying to put you off? You are all there for the same goal after all.
Don’t fall into a trap – just allow yourself to be you. Allow yourself time to focus on you and calm your nerves, be as ready as you possibly can for when they call your name and you go in. -
Be available for work and castings.Your agent needs to know you are 100% available for castings and for jobs – their job is to sell you and get you through the door for castings. The number one thing you can do to p*ss off your agent is to be unavailable without their prior knowledge – and that is the important bit – without their prior knowledge!!
If you know that you have a commitment which you will not be able to get out of then you have to let them know. They are a business and they completely understand that you might not be available all the time. They are human beings and understand that you are too – although it might not always feel like it!
You need an open and honest relationship with your agent and most importantly don’t be scared to be honest with them about your availability. If you can give them as much notice as possible of your unavailability, then you won’t ever put them in an awkward position with a casting director.
It is also very important that you are contactable during office hours. Make sure you are in a position to check your phone and emails every hour so when your agent wants to get in touch with you – they can. And again, just like your availability, if there is a day when you won’t be able to check your phone – let them know. -
Be Honest With ThemLets face it, when it comes to your CV you could pretty much write whatever you want. You are the author of it, so make sure you are the author of a work of non fiction – not a work of fiction!
If you wanted to put down that you played Hamlet, then what’s stopping you?
Well, the problem is that I promise you will be found out! As soon as you get into that casting room the director or casting director will see through any bullsh*t on your CV. They might ask questions about anything on your CV and if you don’t have the answers you are going to look SO bad!
Don’t be known as the actor who lied on his or her CV! It is a label that I promise will stick around for years! -
Be Honest With YouIt is vital for you to understand your ‘type’ if you are to succeed as an actor.
At Drama School you get to play a variety of roles, you get to play around with ‘acting out of type’ and this is very important for your development as an actor – however in the ‘real world’ it is very unlikely that you will be cast out of your type, especially at the start of your career.
You need to learn how others see you, and understand what kind of roles you can honestly play – which is often different from the type of roles you want to play. Consider your weight, height, age, appearance, accent and experience. Ask others to be honest about how they see you. The answers might be quite eye opening but once you know your place then you can begin to embrace it.
For a useful guide to find out your ‘type’ visit this article -
Be Mr (or Ms.) Nice Guy!No matter how talented you are, if you behave like a diva (or another four letter word that begins with di…!) then people quite simply will not want to work with you.
A theatre director is not just looking for talent when they are casting a project. They want to create a team who will work together, they want a team who it will be fun being in the rehearsal room with. Quite often they might already have some diva-ish behaviour from a more experienced actor …. do you think they would really want to work with a young new actor who is already behaving in a cocky or entitled manner?
When a film director is casting a TV or film project they want to find an actor who will get on with the job with a minimum of fuss and also get on with a crew. On a TV job the director doesn’t have time to pamper an actor who is full for questions, quite often you need to be full of answers so you are able to very quickly adapt and try something new for a different take. They want talent who won’t moan about waiting around on set or in a trailer, who won’t mind standing around take after take, and who will work professionally with a minimum of ‘acting’ direction.
Be a nice guy, be the type of person you would want to hire and you will find that people start wanting to hire you!
Watch this video to see how NOT to behave in the Casting or Audition Waiting Room!