Have you ever wondered how some actors come out of nowhere and take the industry by storm, seemingly overnight?
One day they’re just another actor no one’s ever heard of and the next, they are literally everywhere.
You can probably think of more than a few examples.
This is something that has always fascinated me and when I talk about it with other actors, they usually have no idea what leads to that type of “overnight success.”
It’s actually a lot more common than you might think.
When you look at how successfully actors build their careers, they almost always pop up out of nowhere.
Sure, many of them spend years and years in the industry spinning their wheels just like everyone else, but the point at which they make the transition from struggling actor to professional actor is almost always instantaneous.
The reason is that they figure out something that makes the difference. They find the key that helps them differentiate themselves and practically forces the industry to take them seriously.
If you want to take your career to the next level this is something you have to figure out too...
Let me be clear, there’s no magic pill, no secret handshake, and there’s not even a powerful connection that makes the difference.
It happens a little bit differently for everyone but they all figure out some way to put themselves front and center of a casting director's attention.
Most actors go about it the wrong way. They spend their days hoping that someone will find them and put them on the map, but professional actors proactively try to be seen.
Here’s what I mean...
When you remain in the shadows, trying to build your acting career like everyone else, it becomes way too easy to get stuck in your career.
Even if you are getting auditions consistently, they probably never really go anywhere and CDs constantly pass you up for other actors that can seemingly bring more to the table.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that those other actors delivered a better audition than you did. It means that something about them made the casting director want to see more.
After all, that’s what leads to callbacks.
So what makes those actors stand out to CDs and how can you stand out instead?
Before we go further, I want to point out something I see happen way too often. When actors get stuck like this, they tend to think that just having more auditions will fix it.
Surely, after going on a number of auditions, someone is bound to cast them, or so they think.
What’s really happening is that they are just continuing to spin their wheels, since they’re not fixing the problem.
They’re just doing the same things over and over again.
There can be many reasons that you’re not getting a call back but the one that I see most often is that you’re not standing out to Casting Directors.
Just delivering a great audition is not enough.
You also have to make sure they don’t forget about you as soon as your audition is over.
Even when you seem like you would be the perfect fit for something, you still have to give CDs something to remember you by.
If they remember you, that means they noticed you and that’s the position you want to be in to give yourself the best chance to get a callback.
So how do you do it?
First, you have to realize that CDs can end up in a pretty monotonous spot. When they are casting for something they are seeing actors back to back for hours and hours.
Not only do most of them look similar, since they all have to fit a certain profile, they also tend to deliver auditions that are similar.
It doesn’t take very long for things to start running together.
So CDs are hoping that the next person they see will be one they can add to the callback list, so all you really have to do is give them a reason to add you to the list.
One way to do that is through your talent, but that’s incredibly difficult. We’ll get into why another time because it’s kind of counterintuitive and it's a topic of its own.
For now let’s talk about the easier way to do it instead...
Fair warning, the “easier” way won’t replace talent altogether. You still have to be able to deliver an audition that is good enough. The last thing you want to have happen is finish reading only to see a blank faced CD staring back at you.
If you get zero reaction from them, don’t wait for your phone to ring.
So assuming you are able to deliver an audition that piques their interest, CDs will then take a closer look at you.
What happens at that point is crucial.
That’s when something about you has to grab their attention and make them put you on the callback list.
That “something” could be an extensive list of related and impressive credits or it could even be a special skill that you can add to the character.
Whatever it is it has to make casting directors notice you. I built this to help with that...
What sets professional actors apart is that they are really good at putting themselves at the center of casting conversations.
If you leave the room and there is nothing noteworthy for CDs to hold onto, it’s much more likely that you’ll end up being forgotten.
Professional actors don’t leave that to chance, when they are building their career. They have multiple ways of being memorable.
You can have multiple ways too. We’ll go over some other ones another time. For now, this can be the distinguishing factor that makes CDs notice you.
Some actors will try different things and usually end up wasting a lot of time.
For example, many try social media, but fail to make it work for them. It’s not that it doesn’t work as your distinguishing factor, it can work very well, but it’s incredibly complicated to get it right.
Instead of making things harder on yourself just focus on showing up in the places CDs and industry decision makers are already looking for talent. I built this to help.
It’s incredibly powerful because if you are on a CDs radar before you even walk in the room, the dynamics change completely.
So get started on what we talked about today and remember I’m always only a comment or an email away if you want to bounce ideas. I’ll do whatever I can to help because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott