When actors should give up and quit their dreams of becoming an actor?
Acting is tough. Who ever tells you that making it as an actor is easy, is lying to you and you should really reevaluate any other tips this person provides.
In any job, dream or career aspiration, it is important to keep in mind that no one has more interest in your success than you do and the only way only way to become a successful working actor is by taking full responsibility and work hard toward your goals.
That is why you should never give up and work on getting a tough skin to protect yourself from the thousands of rejections you are going to face on a daily basis. Every actor will experience the wordno millions of times through out their career, but only those actors who continue working on gaining new fans, creating new content, working on their craft will eventually hear that first yes. And over time you will hear a lot more people telling you yes.
As an actor, you deal with rejection almost every day of your career, especially in the earlier stages. To have a sustainable career as an actor, you’ll need to be able to handle this emotionally, not let it affect your confidence, and build off of it. As a #talent manager, I used to remind my clients that for each audition for each role, everyone is told “no” by at least one person.
DECISION MAKING
It is often said that there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. By the time you make it to the final round of auditions, there are producers, a director, studio or network executives and the casting directors, each of whom has his/her own opinion. So you may win over the casting director, but then you have to get the rest of the decision makers to sign off. A lot of times, the producers change direction with the role at the 11th hour. Additionally, there can be politics involved in the decision of who gets cast in a role. These are aspects over which you have no control. What you do have control over is your performance and preparation, so focus on that.
FEEDBACK
An important aspect of the casting process is getting feedback from your audition. A casting director’s job includes providing feedback for the actors, and a good manager or agent will always follow up with casting to get feedback for their clients. This is how you build off of your audition and become a better actor. Maybe you need to work on your comedic timing, or maybe you need to be off book next time, or maybe you have a habit of biting your lip in a dramatic scene. Whatever it is, feedback is worth its weight in gold for you as an actor. Take the feedback from your auditions to your acting coach, and work through the suggestions in order to improve.
THE NEXT ROLE
Another way to deal with rejection is to realize that every audition is not only an audition for that part itself, but for future projects that casting director works on. Casting directors have incredible memories, and if you do a nice job in an audition, they will bring you back for the next project, or maybe even for a different role in their current project. Sometimes a good agent will get you in to read for an important casting director, even if you aren’t quite right for the role, just to audition for him or her. They also keep all of their auditions in their Casting Workbook accounts, so they can access your previous auditions at any time. Remember, only ONE person gets told “yes,” but in the meantime, you are making an impression on casting, producers, and whomever is in the room for their next project.
BE A PRO
Lastly, if you go into the room with a respectful, friendly and professional presence, this will leave an impression on casting directors. I had a client once who walked into a room and gave the casting director a couple of playful gun salutes and said, “Am i reading with you, pretty lady?” They were offended, and would never bring him in again, moreover, no one cared about his actual audition once he set the tone with his attitude. Make sure you act like a pro, and are not cocky or rude. Just go in there and show them your acting chops. If you don’t get this role, you’re already auditioning for the next one.
Put yourself in the casting director’s chair: it’s the end of the day, and you’ve seen a character interpreted two dozen times. What actors will you remember, the ones that deliver lines directly off paper, or those that improvise and challenge the idea of the character? Being imaginative with your characters is key to getting your casting director’s attention.
FLEX YOUR ACTING
Getting creative is usually a good thing. When you imagine how you would become a character, think of what could ‘wake up’ a casting director. The trick is to be memorable, yet appropriate. Want to use a football in the scene? Mime it. Just be sure not to get in your CD’s space, or bring along inappropriate props.
Success is about striking a balance. If you go too far into left field, a casting director may interpret that as you may be unable to take direction, or see that as an inability to decipher subtlety of a character. Challenge yourself, and ask for feedback. This could involve an acting class, running lines with actor friends, or performing in a mirror. The point is to be able to reflect upon your delivery, and give yourself the time to adjust your technique, if necessary.
FIND YOUR CHARACTER’S TRIGGERS
How you interpret your character is key to effectively using imagination to your advantage. What would bother your character, or excite them? By finding out who they are as people (or the idea of a person), you can get to know the aspects of the character that may speak to your casting director.
Imagine your character is an army veteran from the first World War. What would happen to them if you were playing them in a scene with a car backfiring, or fireworks going off on the Fourth of July? These things may not happen during your audition scene, but they would affect the personality you deliver in your audition.
If your character is the friend of an army veteran, your outlook and personality would be incredibly different. Do they feel frustration at your character? Perhaps they don’t recognize the person that returned from fighting overseas, and are struggling to reach out to an old friend that they now feel is a stranger. Character development allows you to develop empathy and consider performance as a matter of angles, which allows you to be creative and adapt in the moment when required.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LEAD UP
Most of the time, the main action in your scene isn’t the most interesting part of the performance. If you’re a casting director watching an audition that leads up to a fight, you don’t skip the suspense and get right to the fisticuffs. What’s interesting is the emotion that develops the calm towards the storm.
Use that imagination to find stressors, triggers and work that into your scenes. Getting creative in your auditions may not yield results the first time, but once you start to develop your techniques, you’ll likely be seeing results. Stir the character inside you, and use that to impress casting directors.
