What Are Some Qualities of Successful Working Actors?

One of the most pervasive qualities of successful working actors is that they play well with others and they’re able to make genuine connections with everyone on set. They’re truly good people. They handle themselves with grace and decorum at all times and they have the courage to bring their personalities to every role. This is a business that attracts a lot of difficult people, and sometimes rewards people for being difficult. Those rewards have a very short shelf life. Be one of the actors who is a joy to be around and you’re setting yourself up to win. 

The second quality is a combination of optimism and tenacity. These actors understand that this business has an ebb and flow. They are able to ride the highs and lows without having their faith and confidence in themselves shaken. This is staying power. 

The final quality is talent. These actors who work consistently are talented; they know how to make the fun and impactful choices that consistently win them the role. We help actors launch their careers by empowering them to use their personalities to book every role for which they’re right.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

5 Reasons You Must Stop Listening To Other Actors

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, there is never a one-size-fits-all path to a successful acting career. The same can be said about most acting techniques: There isn’t a single method that works for everyone. The best acting coaches are those who empower their clients to ultimately be the creators of their own techniques. 

One of the issues with being an actor is that you are often surrounded by other actors. It’s very akin to being in the trenches with other soldiers who all have limited intelligence of the situation at hand and are relying on ancient strategies of warfare along with lore and anecdotes of battle. Listening uncritically to the “advice” that other actors give is akin to giving up your power—something that is easy to do if you’re new to L.A. or NYC and are trying to get your start or tap into the larger acting community. Here’s why you should stop doing it.

1. It keeps you at the murky bottom. The murky bottom of the acting world is analogous to the celebrated ballet scene, “The Kingdom of the Shades.” This is a place where one’s very shadow can pose a threat to moving forward as this is often a fear-based environment and so much of the advice given actor-to-actor reflects this dynamic. The more aware you are, the more you can spot the baggage, insecurities, and uncertainties that taint their “guidance.” These fear fortified shackles can be contagious and can do a remarkable job of keeping your progress stalled—at best. 

2. Residing in the murky bottom prevents your career from moving forward. I’ve heard actors spout all varieties of this form of “advice” and it ranges from not great to terrible. For example, I’ve heard actors say that it’s good for an acting to teacher to “break students down” because it creates thick skin—that’s just an excuse for abusive and subpar teaching. I’ve heard actors say that “casting director workshops are the best way to get ahead.” That’s just another manifestation of what I describe as “the herd mentality.” I’ve heard actors say that they just need to “be patient and my turn will come.” That attitude can too acutely set one up for a lifelong lethargic career where one expects opportunities to be presented on a silver platter.

3. It can make you believe in a narrow existence and even narrower possibilities. The main problem of all this fear-based, actor-to-actor advice is seen in its trite quality: Nearly all of it is tired, overused, and markedly lacking courage. Listen for the fear. If you hear any fear in their advice, it’s probably not advice worth taking. Much of this advice believes in constraints and narrowness rather than a wide range of possibilities. For example, actors will say: 

• You can’t compete for major film and TV roles because you don’t have enough credits or the “right” credits.
• You can’t be signed by a top-tier agent or manager if you’re not SAG-AFTRA.
• Casting directors have the final say in casting.

Statements like these are false and serve only to prevent you from getting anywhere in this business. 

4. If you’re living in the murky bottom, you can’t ever reach the club. The club is the polar opposite of the murky bottom. If you conduct your career with the “I’m a member of the club mentality,”you’ll notice big changes in how you think, what you believe to be possible, and what you are able to achieve. Members of the club aren’t afraid to take daring steps into the red mist in an attempt to get noticed, assert themselves as artists, turn down exploitative parts, and leave nasty, sadistic or damaging acting teachers. 

Roles are won over lunch.

I help actors launch their careers by empowering them to pitch themselves for every role for which they’re right! You can compete for major film and TV roles even though you may not have a lot of credits. You can compete for SAG-AFTRA roles via “Taft Hartley” even though you may still be nonunion. The acclaimed TV director and producer, David Semel (“Homeland,” “American Horror Story,” “Code Black”) was a recent industry guest at my studio. One of my students asked him if he would consider casting an actor in a major role if they only had a few credits. His response was “Absolutely, of course I would.”

None of these realities are possible from the perspective of the murky bottom of the lake and the creatures that reside there. 

5. It’s your job as a professional to screen all advice given. As actors, we are programmed to be direct-able. A good actor is one who takes direction. Stop taking notes from all your friends and colleagues. In other words: Don’t be that direct-able. Don’t water yourself down with everyone else’s opinions. Limit your list to only a few people who you trust—those who genuinely have your back—and when in doubt, defer to them. If you open yourself up to opinions from other actors, friends, and family, you begin to dilute your own vision and pick up on everyone else’s insecurities, etc. 

Just as you had the courage to choose the difficult and beautiful path of being an actor, so you must adhere to that courage when it comes to turning a deaf ear to fear-based advice. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

What’s One Thing I Wish All Actors Knew

Photo Source: Jesse Balgley

Actors are fed a lot of utter nonsense when it comes to developing their careers. The one thing that I desperately want all actors to know is that their personalities are their secret weapons and are that truly special sauce they can add to their scene work, character work, and auditions in order to create performances that are truly memorable. Too often, I see actors being sold the same tiresome (and just plain wrong) ideas that they need to strip away their personalities and build a character upon a blank canvas. Without actors being fearless and gracious enough to dig into their personalities to develop and enhance characters, we would never have some of the more memorable roles that Nicholson, Dunaway, Hackman, and Hepburn generously gave the screen. I constantly see actors getting suckered into someone selling them their “niche” or “type.” Get in the habit of rejecting those archaic concepts, as they only serve to box you in and suffocate your originality.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

Understanding the Importance of Flexibility.

There are a range of factors which can be unexpected or adjusted in the room which you can’t control, and which could potentially throw you from how you felt when rehearsing the scene on the phone with your Mom—whether they have you sitting down or standing up, whether the reader is close or far or male or female. If you aren’t malleable, you’re not going to be able to survive.

This article was originally posted on Backstage

Photo Source: Shutterstock

What Belongs on an Actor’s Résumé

Photo Source: Jesse Balgley

Your résumé is simply a document which shows your credits, training, and special skills in a professional manner. If you don’t have a lot of recognizable credits, there are still ways to enhance the overall presentation. For example, if you acted in indie films which played at festivals or won awards, you can denote that on your résumé with an asterisk and a note at the bottom. If you’ve just done student films, list the name of the director rather than the name of the university, unless it’s a prestigious film school, such as AFI or NYU. Highlight your training and make sure the résumé demonstrates that you have studied with reputable teachers. Use the special skills section to list abilities that could add to a production, such as firing a pistol, gymnastics, and foreign language skills. Have fun with the special skills section! Add an offbeat special skill such as “dropping electronic equipment” or “catches every Seinfeld reference no matter how obscure.” Often that can be an organic and fun talking point during an audition. In our Career Coaching Program, we help actors launch their careers and construct résumés for maximum impact. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage

What ‘Jurassic Park’ Can Teach Us About Winning The Role

Most of us remember the scene in “Jurassic Park” when Jeff Goldblum illustrates chaos theory by placing a drop of water on Laura Dern’s hand. The presentation serves to give a clear example of the fallibility of prediction. Each time Goldblum placed a drop of water on the same spot on Dern’s hand, he asked her which direction she thought it would roll. Each time she was wrong. It’s the same with auditioning. Though your starting point might be the same, don’t expect your audition is going to feel like what you did at home, in the car, or in your acting class.

Here are some things I hear actors say: 

• “I had it memorized in the car.”
• “I nailed it at home with my boyfriend.”
• “I nailed it in my class.”

As one should anticipate, the audition is simply going to feel differently in the audition room. This is, in part, by virtue of the fact that you’re in a foreign environment, and partly because nothing is ever the same—as Goldblum’s character so memorably demonstrated. There are a range of factors which can be unexpected or adjusted in the room which you can’t control, and which could potentially throw you from how you felt when rehearsing the scene on the phone with your Mom—whether they have you sitting down or standing up, whether the reader is close or far or male or female. If you aren’t malleable, you’re not going to be able to survive—much like the dinosaurs, to continue the analogy. 

But more importantly, as an artist there’s going to be a sense of disappointment that you experience along with a stunting of development by virtue of the fact that you’re not constantly creating something, but rather reciting something. 

This is a problem because it strips your audition of any danger or real dynamism. Every time you act a scene, you should be living through it in a completely different way each time. 

In my opinion, the only thing you have control over is your start—a really specific, fun and impactful choice (hook)—and the structure you created in preparation. Essentially, this start is akin to Goldblum placing the drop of water on Dern’s hand. You need to hit the proverbial mark that you prepared, but you should honestly have no idea where it’s going to roll. After the start, the rest of the scene shouldn’t really feel like a comfortable pair of shoes. In fact, the more off balance it is, the more it resembles the dangerous uncertainty of life.  

If you don’t have that about-to-fall feeling, I think you’re just playing it safe.  

This leads us back to the “Jurassic Park” scene. If you’ll all remember, the conversation about water droplets and chaos theory took place in one of the Jeeps. But shortly after, all the main characters leapt out of the cars and started exploring past the fenced in borders of the park, where the danger (and adventure) lurked. You need to have that mentality of starting from a strong place of structure (and comfort), such as in the seat of a Jeep, and the willingness to rip off your seatbelt, throw open that door, and head into the uncharted territory, where you don’t know what you will encounter. 

I coach my clients to 110 percent so they can go into the audition room at 100 percent and book the role, seeing it as an adventure and an exploration—not a place to regurgitate prepared material, but a place to take their bombproof preparation, jump off it, and not look back. 

This article was originally posted on Backstage