How Dwayne Johnson Became a Successful Actor and How You Can Too
Succeeding in the industry doesn’t take what most people think it does.
Most actors think it takes a ton of connections with “the right people,” world class training from the top instructors, and a ton of time devoted to paying your dues.
In reality...
It’s not about the training one actor has, that others don’t have.
It’s not about the credits, and in some cases it’s not even about the talent.
That’s why even incredibly talented actors can have careers that are as different as night and day, when on paper they should be experiencing the same levels of success.
We’ve all looked at a cast list and wondered why a particular actor was booked.
Take someone like Dwayne Johnson, for example. Anyone would be absolutely delighted to perform alongside him today, but it wasn’t always that way.
He’s made incredible progress in terms of his acting skills, but if you watch some of his earlier projects, you might wonder why he continued to book, and it was almost unimaginable that he would go on to become one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.
His performances didn’t leap off the screen and he wasn’t a once in a generation type of talent.
So, what kept his career moving forward when anyone else would have been passed over and forgotten by the industry in a heartbeat?
If you want to be a professional actor. This is something that could make a huge impact on your career too...
Many of his costars, considered to be more talented actors, had much shorter and much less rewarding careers.
Today, Dwayne Johnson is an incredibly talented actor. His performances are smooth, and how far he’s come should be inspiring to anyone in the industry.
In the grand scheme, it wasn’t very long ago that his performances were choppy, inorganic, and they would often take the viewer out of the scene, reminding them they were watching a work of fiction.
So why did the industry keep giving him chances, and what does it have to do with your acting career?
He brought several things to the table that few other actors could. For starters, he had immense popularity from his time as a professional wrestler.
That’s not to say that his career flourished only because of his popularity. That only gave him a foot in the door, and in all honesty, it gave him a second (perhaps even a third) shot but he still had to build a career much like anyone else.
What made the difference in his career was that, when things weren’t going his way, he didn’t just continue doing the same things over and over again.
He tells the story of how, after a few flops and about to be dropped by his agency, he changed things up completely.
He took an objective look at what was going on in his career and did something about it.
See, most actors fail to make the kind of progress they should, because they never really stop to think about what the issue could be when things aren’t going their way.
Even when they do, they don’t typically have a full concept of all the different factors that could be affecting their progress.
The industry is complicated, so it always helps to have an industry insider help with this. We’ll talk more about that another time...
For now, let’s keep things simple. If you are going on enough auditions but you’re not booking enough of them. It could be a couple of things.
To narrow it down, look at how many of your auditions turn into call backs and follow ups. If you’re not getting very many callbacks or follow ups, then it means that casting isn’t exactly satisfied with what they’re seeing from you.
Taking a workshop on auditioning could help with that.
Auditioning is actually quite different from performing but just about everyone treats it the same.
Most actors are never taught how to get into “audition mode” so they go into auditions and read the same way they would perform on screen.
That’s why just taking another acting class wouldn’t help with this issue, and it’s why I’m a big believer in targeted training.
Next week, we’ll get into the differences between those two and we’ll talk about how to dominate every audition whether it’s in person, self taped, or even virtual.
Starting there, is kind of backwards because what most actors struggle with is just getting in the room. They don’t book enough auditions to begin with, which makes building a career difficult.
if that’s something you are struggling with and if you could use more auditions, this could be a big help.
See, the reason many actors can’t get in the room is that casting doesn’t see a reason to bring them in.
Think of it from their perspective. When they come across your headshot and resume, it is only 1 of hundreds (sometimes more). If there’s nothing that sets yours apart from the others, the odds that they will select yours are pretty slim.
Literally!
If your headshot is 1 in a stack of 500, you have a .2% chance of being called in to read. You can only improve your chances by giving CDs a reason to call you in.
For Dwayne Johnson, the reason was “The Rock.” He came with a following of loyal fans that were sure to show up at the box office for him. More than that, he had already demonstrated that he could carry projects successfully.
His wrestling matches broke attendance and pay per view records. That gave him a level of credibility when he transitioned to the industry.
That’s something you need to have as well, if you want to build a professional acting career.
To build your industry credibility, you can have an extensive body of work to point to (the Dwayne Johnson way) and it needs to be filled with successful projects.
That takes a lot of time and it requires that you get lucky enough to be involved in successful projects, without the backing of industry credibility.
That’s the hard way and it’s what most actors do every single day, to try to build their careers.
The other way is to make sure that your industry reputation is in top shape and that you are visible to industry decision makers and casting directors. That’s why I built this...
If you already have a ton of industry credibility and an extensive body of work, filled with successful projects to point to, this probably isn’t for you.
It will help you create the differentiating factor we talked about earlier.
Whether or not you choose to let us help you with that, remember I’m always only a comment or an email away. Get in touch and let me know what’s going on in your career. I’m happy to give you another perspective because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott