If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that keeping up with projects that are under development is crucial.
The industry has to match the audience’s preferences when it comes to the type of content they produce and audience’s tastes change over time.
The early 2000s were the age of slasher-horror movies. That time then subsided and ushered in the age of romantic comedies, which ultimately led to studio slates filled with action comedies.
Everything is cyclical and the industry is on the cusp of moving into a cycle with a lot of period pieces under development.
Most people use that term differently than I do, referring to period pieces as projects that take place in the past, usually long ago.
However, I consider anything that takes place in any time other than present day to be a period piece, with exception to a few years in either direction.
This is because culture and mannerisms change constantly and those changes become very evident about every 2 to 3 years.
Most actors make a critical mistake that immediately throws up a red flag to casting directors. They audition for everything as if it were taking place in the present time.
Professional actors don’t.
They are keenly aware of how things change over time and they bring those subtleties to their characters.
That’s a sign of a seasoned actor and casting directors love it! So, if you want to become a professional actor, this is something you have to master. Here’s where to start...
The first thing to do is identify what time the project takes place in and then immerse yourself in high quality material from that time and notice the subtleties in physical mannerisms, style, and manner of speaking.
If you can accurately embody those 3 things, your audition will make CDs want to see more of you because it will just feel right.
While you may not want to show up to an audition, or do a self taped one, in full colonial costume if you’re auditioning for something from that time period, you also wouldn’t want to dress too modern.
That would detract from your character.
However, if you were auditioning for an 80s project, high waisted stone washed denim with slick back hair or tight curls is a pretty safe bet.
As for physical mannerisms, look for things that are common across different projects of that time period.
For example, we’ve talked about a very peculiar trait that Jeremy Irons added to one of his characters.
In the movie Margin Call, he plays a Wall Street executive. The movie is set during the 2008 real estate crash.
If you were preparing to audition for this character, you would build his backstory to determine how he achieved his position as one of the most powerful CEOs of one of the largest investment banks in the world.
In doing so, you would discover that he would have entered the workforce in the mid 80s when cocaine use was rampant on Wall Street.
A little research would reveal just how prevalent it was. Top performing brokers who didn’t use it were the exception and there were few.
Having climbed the corporate ranks, he would have been a top performer and you can reasonably draw the conclusion that he was a user.
So how does this translate on screen?
Throughout the film you notice that Jeremy Irons continually wipes his nose, not as if he’s sick but more like a “tick.”
That mannerism would be a remnant from his drug fueled days on the trading floor in the 80s and early 90s.
That’s why I put projects that take place in any time period, other than the present, in the period piece category.
Doing so, forces you to build your character in a way that other actors simply won’t. Things like the mannerism we just talked about immediately set you apart from every other actor.
Now that we have covered style and physical mannerisms, let’s talk about vocal mannerisms. Just like everything else they change over time.
In the late 80s California was on everyone’s mind and the laid back SoCal culture permeated the entire country.
The 90s were marked by the dot com boom and with it came a more east coast manner of speaking.
That lasted until the early 2000s when the reality show era came around. Many of them were based in California, so West Coast verbiage and vocal mannerisms once again took hold.
I could literally write a book on this topic alone but let’s go over the most important pieces because they will get you eighty percent of the way there.
Depending on when the project you are auditioning for takes place your character might have vocal mannerisms that are a little bit different than today, or they might have ones that are a lot different than today.
John F Kennedy’s famous speech about going to the moon is a terrific, bite sized example of how speech can change quickly. When you listen to it, you can hear him pronouncing many of the tell tale signs of the Transatlantic accent.
This was a way of speaking that was taught to the American upper class, to distinguish them from everyone else.
Because it was seen as the way “proper people” spoke, everyone else tried to emulate it, until it fell out of favor in the late 60s and early 70s, as society gave way to the peace and love crowd.
So, if you are auditioning for something that takes place in the 50s and you don’t have at least some traces of “Transatlantic” in the way you speak, you will blend in with everyone else.
Because this manner of speaking is still based on what we would consider a contemporary, American manner of speaking, it’s not difficult to pull it off.
If all you did was mimic Kennedy’s pronunciation, you would be 80 percent of the way there.
For example, the Transatlantic accent emphasizes the R sound. You can hear it distinctly when he says “we choose to do these things, not because they are easy but because they are hard.”
Today, we would put a regular amount of emphasis on the R sound, pronouncing the words as “a-rr” and “hard” whereas he pronounced them as “ahhr” and “hah-rd.”
Some would describe this way of speaking as a mix of Christopher Walken with a member of the English aristocracy.
The A sound remains distinctly americanized.
This is evident in the way Kennedy pronounced “decade.” Today, we would pronounce the word, just as it is spelled, but he pronounced it as “de-cay-d” more in line with the way we pronounce the word “decayed.”
This was because the Transatlantic accent also called for impeccable and punctuated pronunciation, whereas contemporary American English is littered with “lazy” pronunciation.
For example, today, unless you have some context on the subject it is almost impossible to distinguish between the words “there” and “their” when people are talking.
It wasn’t so, when speaking in the Transatlantic accent.
Kennedy’s way of pronouncing the word “there” is more like “thaire.” This was done to punctuate the different syllables and it also had the added benefit of being distinctly different from the word “their.”
It had a softer sound, as if there was an added H like “the-hr.”
If you have experience with British accents, you are familiar with making that sound. If you’re not, then simply removing emphasis from the R sound by extending the tongue rather than pulling it back and towards the roof of your mouth, gets you close enough.
Practice by saying the words “mother” and “other.”
Try it out for yourself and you’ll quickly see that it’s not incredibly difficult.
Most changes in vocal mannerisms over time are more subtle than this but they are still very obvious to an observant casting director.
What we went over today is how successful actors are able to stand out, and build successful careers.
Of course, this only matters if you have auditions to prepare for and characters to build.
If you don’t have enough auditions right now, start with this.
You need to have enough opportunities to showcase your talent.
If the industry doesn’t know you they can’t hire you. That’s why I created this, to increase your visibility where casting directors and industry executives are already looking for talent.
When you have enough opportunities to get in front of CDs and you can stand out, using what we talked about today, your chance of getting callbacks and bookings could increase dramatically.
Even if you are able to “wow” them with your talent and the complexities of the characters you build, CDs will still typically do some research on you before deciding to move forward so make sure that your industry reputation always matches your goals. Here’s how I can help...
As you’re putting this into practice, remember I’m always only a comment or an email away. I’m always happy to help so feel free to get in touch and let me know if you have any questions.
I’ll lend a hand however I can because I truly want...
See you at the top,
Scott