Because I work with so many actors on a daily basis, I have a unique perspective on what’s going on in the industry.
Seeing the kinds of projects they are reading for is a big clue about the trend of the projects that are moving through the production pipeline.
Right now, there are a lot of projects about historical figures in the works. For some actors, that’s the best news ever! They love playing these types of roles and will always jump at the chance to be involved in the projects.
Other actors don’t really care about those projects one way or the other. Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, there’s something I’ve noticed over the years that could help take your career to the next level.
It is something that professional actors do, while just about everyone else is completely in the dark about it.
If you want to be a professional actor, you should be doing it too. Here’s what it is and what it has to do with the coming wave of historical projects that is about to hit the industry...
It’s about the way you build a character. Professional actors are able to deliver incredibly powerful performances because of the way they build a character.
They have a unique ability to get into their head and get to know what drives them to do what they do.
Their process is powerful, but incredibly simple. When building a character, you have to get to intimately know their backstory and how the events in their past influence your on screen actions.
Doing this is pretty much Acting 101, but even seasoned actors do it wrong... They focus on things that don't matter.
When actors do this, they have a tendency to focus on the smallest details, instead of working to get to the root of what drives them.
They do it because it’s easy. Understanding what drives someone requires you to dig deep. You pretty much have to embody the character you are playing and do some deep mental work.
When you are building a character, what you had for breakfast probably doesn’t fit into that category.
So what does?
There isn’t one single answer to this, because every character will be a little bit different, but there is a way to make things simpler.
This is where the historical characters come in...
Even if you don’t really have an interest in portraying historical figures, it is still important for you to master how to build characters that have a historical significance.
Learning how to play this kind of character can improve your acting skills immensely, even if you never go anywhere near this type of role.
Here’s why...
Regardless of the role you are playing, it all comes down to character building and preparation. The difference with historical characters is that you get “feedback” because you can look at what actions the person took and what drove those actions.
As you build your character and make your choices, you can run through what the real person did, when presented with a similar situation, and you can gauge the emotions behind their actions.
If they were prominent enough for a project to be made about them, there is going to be a lot of information about them available. That’s how you will be able to reverse engineer their decision making and get feedback as to whether or not you are on the right track with your character choices.
It’s as simple as finding a pattern. For example, when your character is faced with tough decisions, does she get introspective and shut out the world or does she seek out the advice of people around her?
Let’s say that she gets introspective. You then want to identify why she prefers that over the opposite.
Is it because of something in her past that led her to be wary of the council of others? Was it because she never had a support system growing up, so shutting out the world when things get tough just comes natural to her?
Those two things might seem very similar but they can actually lead to very different character choices on set.
Typically, when you are building a traditional character, from scratch , you are making an educated guess on things like this because you are filling in the blanks on most of it.
That’s why some of the most respected actors base their characters around historical figures or prominent present day figures.
People are people, so don’t feel like you have to build your characters starting with a blank slate.
Follow what successful actors are doing and you will avoid many of the mistakes that aspiring actors make.
There’s a difference in building a character when you are someone who acts as a hobby and in doing it as a professional actor. If what you want is to be a professional actor, this could be a big help...
It won’t take care of the character building for you, but it will take something off your plate so that you can better focus on it and the other, more fun parts of the industry.
There’s a ton of stuff that goes into building your acting career. Actors tend to shy away from a good portion of it and pass it off to an agent or just ignore it all together.
People who act as a hobby are perfectly ok with “winging it.” Professional actors know that preparation leads to a quality performance, but they don’t stop there. They also make preparations off-set, so they can build an acting career on a solid foundation. That’s why I built this...
Now that we’ve discussed the significance of building characters based on historical figures, I have a question for you...
Do you want to make history in the industry, or is acting something you just do for fun? When I ask actors this question, most of them say that their goals are somewhere in between.
Remember, Boost My Star is all about bringing you what’s working right now to make it in the industry. I know how frustrating it can be when you have a question about how something might pertain to your specific situation, so know that I’m always only a comment or an email away.
Feel free to get in touch anytime and let me know what’s on your mind. I’ll do whatever I can because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott