There’s something that most actors get lost in when they first start building their career. In fact, over the years, I’ve seen that most of them don’t evolve past a certain point, regardless of how much time they eventually spend in the industry.
They dedicate themselves almost entirely to perfecting their craft.
This is because acting is an art form that requires skill and talent, unlike almost anything else and it’s not an inherently subjective art form.
Whether you have been in the industry for some time or if you are in the early stages of building your acting career, it’s important to work on perfecting your craft.
However, it’s also important that you don’t get stuck in that process.
Professional actors learn how to balance the things necessary to build their acting career, with perfecting their craft.
If you want to build your career as a professional actor, you need to learn that balance as well. Here’s where to start...
Every actor knows that there are several different techniques and everyone gravitates towards a philosophy they most resonate with.
In order to find what works best for you, it’s important to study a variety of different acting techniques.
Even if you are at a point where you think you have already found what works for you, it may be beneficial to continue to study other techniques.
It can help you expand your range and develop a deeper understanding of your characters, as you will have multiple ways to approach building them.
Once you have thoroughly studied multiple techniques, and settled on what you most resonate with, then it is time to attend acting classes.
If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that I am a big proponent of acting classes, as long as they are relevant and targeted to what you need to work on or targeted to the techniques you are trying to develop.
They are an excellent way to study and perfect your craft, but don’t allow yourself to get in a cycle of attending them.
Many actors attend acting classes because it helps them feel as if they are being productive.
However, focusing solely on attending acting classes can only do so much to help you build your career. If you find that you are booking another class just because you don’t know what else to do to feel productive, it’s time to change things up.
That is another reason why it’s important to vary the ways in which you try to perfect your craft.
If the only thing you ever do in that regard is attend acting class, that is likely to be what you resort to.
So, try other things as well because they may be just as effective. Doing this will also help you keep from making acting classes your default routine...
Studying and learning from other actors can be key to your development.
Whenever you watch anything of entertainment value, watch it with the goal of learning from the actors on screen.
Try to discern why they made certain character choices over others. Observe how they use body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice to bring their characters to life.
This will give you a list of things you can incorporate into your own characters.
When you have a good grasp of why professional actors make certain character choices, you can then read scripts from a much different perspective.
You can analyze a script and discern the character’s motivations from an entirely different level, long before you ever get on set.
Practice doing that...
Read a script and practice building your character as you read. I know that this seems like something actors do everyday, but when you do it after you have spent time studying other actors, the process is completely different.
Doing this and everything else we talked about today is an excellent way to help you develop your acting skills, but you still have to work on the other parts of building your career.
Here’s what I mean...
If you are currently going on a lot of auditions but you are having trouble booking, then training and studying may be the right thing for you to focus on.
But there may also be other factors involved.
However, if you are struggling to get enough opportunities to audition, focusing on something else first is likely to be more beneficial.
Over the years, I have seen that many actors simply are not very visible to the industry. That’s why I created Boost My Star, to help actors be more visible where Casting Directors and industry decision makers are looking for talent.
If the industry doesn’t know you, they can’t hire you so it’s important to make sure you are highly visible to the industry.
If you are already highly visible but you are still struggling to get enough opportunities to audition, then you may be in a situation where something else is incongruent.
Remember that the industry is driven by reputation.
Those are a few other factors that may affect how you are building your acting career. We will continue talking about the others over the coming weeks.
For now, get started on what we talked about today and feel free to get in touch, if you are unsure about any of it. I am always happy to help however I can because I’m truly happy to...
See you at the top,
Scott