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What should I put on my Acting CV?
Your acting CV is not like a regular CV – it is a whole different monster! It really is a marketing tool which needs to work alongside your headshot and get your foot in the door so you are able to prove to the casting director or director that you are as good as your CV says you are!
Here are the Actor Hub three rules to consider when you are building your acting CV.
Actors/Acting CV – the three rules
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You do not have to list everything you have ever doneI see so many actor’s fall at this first hurdle – their CV is crammed full of everything they have ever done and quite honestly what this shows the casting industry is that you are just desperate to work!Your CV is a marketing tool and you need to treat it as such.The most confident actors I know, and the ones who seem to get seen the most, are the ones who are confident with their CVs. Go simple with your credits and your skills and use your CV as a way to teach the casting director how to cast you. Use your CV to show them where you are headed not where you have been. -
Your credits do not need to be in chronological orderSome point in the annals of acting history some muppet decided that it was a strict rule that you need to list your credits in order from most recent first. Why not break the rules!Yes, in the corporate world this is how CVs are organised – but we chose acting because it is anything but corporate!Put your strongest credits first – the first credits a casting director looks at should be the ones with the lead roles, the best directors, the best venues. Lets call these your ‘Power Credits’. use your power at the start of your list of credits and trim from the bottom.
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Stop being emotionally attached to the pastDon’t be sentimental over your old credits because a casting director sure as hell won’t be!Think about what it is like to watch someone’s home movies – it can be interesting but as you weren’t there you don’t really have an emotional connection to it.It is exactly the same with your CV!You might have had a blast working on that fringe show and made great mates – the casting director doesn’t know that, all they see is a show they have never heard of in a room above a pub!You might have got some brilliant reviews and won a fringe first for that show at Edinburgh ten years ago – the casting director doesn’t know that, all they see is a play with a ‘quirky title’ which never went anywhere but the fringe.You might have loved playing Horatio on that tour and got some great praise – the casting director doesn’t know that, all they see is a type that you would never be cast as nowadays!You get the picture – Let It Go! Show the casting directors how you are cast today not yesterday.
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