I hate to say it but 99 out of 100 actors are confused about the industry.

I wish that was an understatement but sadly it’s what causes most to not make any kind of meaningful progress in their career and quit before ever getting their careers off the ground.

The ones that do make some progress, and maybe have a few guest starring roles, and a couple one or two liners in big films are the lucky ones.

They are the ones that, despite not really knowing much about the industry and how they really fit into it, caught a few lucky breaks and made the most of it.

But what about the actors that completely take the industry by storm, come out of nowhere and dominate?

They are the ones who actually came up with a plan and executed the plan to build a career.

Those are the actors you need to study. Take a look at their careers and you will quickly find that they all have something in common...

At some point, usually just before hitting their big break, they start to really take the idea of creating their actor’s persona seriously.

I know it sounds a little bit gimmicky, and “serious” actors don’t really want anything to do with the idea but that’s because they have it all wrong.

Your actor’s persona is a key part of building our acting career, so if you want to be a professional actor it’s something you have to take seriously...

Your actor’s persona is often called different things but the idea remains the same. What you want to accomplish with your persona is to create a category in which you are basically the only option that comes to mind.

When you do that, Casting Directors and industry decision makers will always keep you top of mind when casting and discussing projects that fall into your category. That basically eliminates the competition.

Think about it...Who is Chris Pratt competing with? Who is Anne Hathaway competing with?

You can go down the list of A list actors and notice the same thing...

When you watch them perform, it becomes impossible to imagine anyone else in the world playing the role.

When that happens, the entire industry opens up for you, but if you are unable to do that you will continue to compete against all the other actors that will be reading against you.

Creating your persona as an actor really isn’t optional if you want to build a career as a professional.

If you just want to act as a hobby, then it’s completely ok to leave things to chance and continue auditioning over and over again, hoping that one day you book something.,..anything.

One of the most difficult things for actors to do is stand out from everyone else and be memorable to casting directors and industry decision makers.

Your persona as an actor helps with that.

When you build it successfully. CDs will know what you’re about without having to think about it very much.

Here’s what I mean...

You will become synonymous with whatever category you build your persona in and that’s incredibly powerful.

Here’s a simple example...

Think of a soda...

Whether or not you even drink soda, you probably thought of Coke.

Imagine what would be possible in your career if you could stand out in a casting director’s mind the same way?

Think it’s not possible for actors? Think again...

There was a time when every A list actor was synonymous with a particular genre, so much so that projects in that category were practically theirs to turn down.

Regardless of where you want to get to in your acting career, you have to make it so that Casting Directors can easily imagine you in whatever role you are reading for.

That’s ultimately why they call you in to read anyway, but before that even happens, they look at your headshot and try to imagine you as the character.

The less work they have to do to successfully imagine you in a particular role, the more likely you are to book.

That’s why people who act as a hobby, never really book anything. They go out for anything and everything and never build a persona in a particular category, so CDs and decision makers are starting from scratch every time.

Compare that to an actor who has concentrated on a particular category to the point where they create a sort of familiarity with it.

See, casting directors don’t want to start from scratch every time they build a cast. They start by thinking of actors that would be a good fit for the roles being cast and they fill everything they can before opening up auditions to everyone else.

Even when they do, Casting Directors look to find actors through other mediums before opening up to just anybody. That’s why it’s important for you to be visible in places where they are already looking.

If you want to be a professional actor, you have to get into that first group, so building a persona isn’t an option. CDs won’t just pull your name out of thin air and call you in.

There are other things to consider as well and if you aren’t getting as many opportunities as you should be, there could be other things that are keeping your career from moving forward.

I’ve seen incredibly talented actors struggle to make any kind of meaningful progress because their industry reputations were basically nonexistent.

It’s actually one of the most common issues I see and it’s what led me to create this, so you can be sure your industry reputation is always in great standing.

If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that there are really only two ways to build your industry reputation and they are very different from each other.

You can build your reputation the hard and time consuming way by booking many top line projects and leveraging those credits to form new relationships or you can take a shortcut and save years in the process...Here’s how I can help you with that one.

Either way, your persona will only serve to help you make a bigger impact and leave a lasting impression with CDs and decision makers so it will help, regardless of which way you chose to go about the rest,

If you have any questions about which way to go about it, or even if you just want to bounce ideas, shoot me an email or leave a comment below.

I’m always happy to help however I can because I truly want to...

See you at the top,
Scott