You can take over the industry starting tomorrow...
Seriously! It happens all the time. Think about any marquee actor and you will see that one day, they were suddenly everywhere. They showed up and took the industry by storm.
Something that most actors don’t quite understand is that success in the industry can happen very quickly.
They tend to believe that you have to “pay your dues” before you can succeed as an actor, but that’s just not the case.
Of course, there are actors that spend years stuck in a career that doesn’t ever get off the ground. However, if they are able to take their career to the next level, it almost always happens quickly and then it’s just a matter of keeping the momentum going.
The industry needs successful actors, so it is better for everyone if you succeed sooner rather than later.
Actors that build their career the traditional way, will almost always get stuck in, believing that they are just “paying your dues” when in reality, they’re just spinning their wheels.
If you would rather do what successful actors do, and build your career quickly, here’s where to start...
First, you have to understand that building your career happens when you do a few things right and you do those things consistently.
If you don’t, then it doesn’t matter if you have a powerful agent and tons of industry connections with the “right people.” None of it will substitute for having the building blocks of your career in place and building on them consistently.
One of those building blocks is having a differentiating factor that Casting Directors and industry decision makers cannot ignore.
When you are in an audition situation, your goal is to catch the CDs attention and make them want to see more of you. That’s what your differentiating factor is all about.
If even you don’t deliver a stellar performance, but you come across differently than everyone else, Casting Directors will still be inclined to give you a callback audition.
That builds familiarity and gives you more “face time” with CDs, which is an important part of building an acting career. We’ll come back to that in a bit...
Most actors are overly concerned with building the right character, so they end up building the same character as everyone else.
Put yourself in the Casting Director’s shoes. How would you feel if you sat through 50 auditions, that were largely all the same character, just paced a little bit differently or with slight changes in vocal inflection?
How refreshing would it be if audition 51 broke the mold and did things differently?
Even if their interpretation of the character was somewhat different from what production had in mind, wouldn’t you at least be curious enough to give them some feedback and then have them come back in again?
Of course you would!
As an actor, that’s what you want to accomplish during the initial audition. Little else matters.
If you are in a place in your acting career where you are not getting very many callbacks, chances are, you’re blending in with everyone else, and CDs don’t have a compelling reason to see more.
It won’t happen every single time, but you don’t need it to.
A few good bookings can completely change the trajectory of your career. Think of your current booking ratio.
Let’s keep things simple and say that for every 10 auditions you go on, you get a callback. I know it’s much, much lower than that for most actors but let’s keep things as simple as possible.
What if you could increase that ratio by 1. Now, for every 5 auditions you go on, you can expect to get a callback.
Your career would then be moving twice as fast.
If you increased your callback ratio by 2, your career would be moving 3 times as fast.
That’s why successful actors come out of nowhere and take the industry by storm overnight. They figure out how to quickly build on their success and the most impactful way to do that is determining your differentiator.
So put some thought into what that can be for you.
It might be something physical, like Dwayne Johnson’s muscular physique or it could be a special talent that few others can bring to the table.
Whatever you decide is right for you, stick with it for a while and see the difference it makes in your career.
If you don’t see much improvement, try something else. You might try out a few things before landing on the one that works.
However, something that will never fail you is having a stellar industry reputation.
Most actors don’t give it much thought but CDs often look to your industry reputation when deciding whether to move forward with you in the casting process. Here’s how you can make sure yours is always in top shape.
Put yourself in a CD’s shoes again.
If you come across an actor that reads well for a role you are casting, and they also have a stellar industry reputation, why wouldn’t you want to see more of them?
There wouldn’t be a reason not to see them again.
Your reputation can play a role in casting decisions but it can also be a factor when it comes to getting audition opportunities.
It can set you apart from other actors, before you even get in the room. That’s why it’s so important for you to show up where Casting Directors and industry decision makers are already looking for talent. Here’s how I can help with that.
Combining that kind of visibility with a stellar industry reputation can be a complete game changer for your career.
Things like this are what help successful actors build careers quickly.
It can make a huge impact so this truly is one of the building blocks of your acting career.
We’ll talk about the other building blocks over the next few weeks. For now, start with what we talked about today, because it is the cornerstone.
If you want to bounce ideas about it, feel free to get in touch. Leave me a comment below or shoot me an email.
I’ll be happy to help however I can because I truly want to...
See you at the top, Scott