The last twelve months have been an absolute whirlwind. Some actors took the opportunity todo things differently than they had been doing before the event of the last year and they have made incredible career progress.
Other actors hit the pause button for a little while and have been struggling to get their careers back on track ever since.
Regardless of everything, the industry has seen incredible growth and the actors that were ready for the changes, have been doing great things.
So, if you are behind on your goals as an actor and you haven’t been accomplishing what you were hoping to accomplish this year, what should you do now?
When this happens to top tier actors (trust me it happens to them too) there is something they do and if you want to be a professional actor, you have to do this too...
If you are not making meaningful progress to your goals, consider what the problem could be. Don’t just continue to do the same things over and over again.
Something has to change if you want to get different results.
Take a step back and take an honest look at what’s been going on in your career, so you can identify what you need to work on.
Are you going on a lot of auditions but you’re not getting booked?
Or, are you not getting to audition very often? Those are two completely different problems and you have to treat them differently.
If you are going on a lot of auditions but you’re not getting booked maybe it’s time that you look at your representation and consider whether they are truly the best fit.
Think about the auditions you have had recently. Were they truly a good fit for you or is your agent just submitting you to anything that comes up and hoping you book something?
Are they only submitting you for auditions or are they actively working to get you into them?
For things to work out, you need to have an agent that is working for you. Just submitting you to things isn’t going to cut it. They have to actively pursue opportunities on your behalf also.
When this happens, most actors think the best thing to do is to bring someone else in.
Instead of fixing the situation with their agent, they bring in a manager.
If you already have a manager you have to evaluate them the same way as your agent. Are they actively working for you or are they just kind of sitting back and waiting to see what develops?
There is a time when bringing in someone to help manage your career makes sense. If you evaluate your agent and determine that’s not the problem, then it may be time to bring a manager in.
They can help guide your career and make sure that you are being considered for everything that you are a fit for and even for things that don’t make sense, but that could be changed for you.
This happens all the time, even for actors that are fairly new to the new industry. More on that in a bit...
First, let’s talk about what to do if you are going on a lot of auditions but you’re not booking often.
Where is the issue?
Could it be that you are completely dropping the ball in the room?
Everyone has bad auditions, but if you find yourself constantly thinking you could have done much better, you have to narrow down what the problem could be.
You have to record yourself auditioning, but since you can’t do this in a real audition you will have to do the next best thing.
Hold an audition for yourself. It might help if you ask a friend to play the part of the casting director.
Whether you are doing this by yourself or with a friend, go through the entire process and act as if you were really auditioning for your dream role in a great production.
Record it a few times.
If you had a friend help you with this, ask them for their feedback after you have finished. Don’t ask them for their feedback in between “takes.” You want it to be as real as possible so you can identify where things could be going wrong in an actual audition.
When you get their feedback ask them to be brutally honest with you.
If you come off as rude or egotistical, it’s better to find out from them now than to keep spinning your wheels in auditions.
After you have done it a few times, put everything away for a while, ideally for a day or two. Then, play the recordings and watch yourself.
If you had a friend help with filming, make sure that you do this part by yourself, so you can be 100% honest with yourself about what you are watching.
Do you come off as an inexperienced actor? A lot of actors let their nerves get the best of them and their training and preparation go out the window in auditions.
You might go through this process and determine that your auditions are fantastic.
In that case, is the problem more about what happens afterwards, when casting starts looking into you and determining what you bring to the table? Here’s how I can help with that.
A lot of actors find that they just get looked over because CDs can’t find much about them. They look to social media and find a bunch of selfies and random posts that don’t really speak much to who you are, and that’s about the extent of it.
Casting Directors do more than just find talented actors. They have to build a cast and when they look into you, they determine how you will fit into the bigger picture. Your industry reputation is a big part of that so make sure your reputation matches your goals.
Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking more about how to take your career to the next level. Get started on what we went over today, so you can be ready to put everything to good use.
If you have any questions or even if you just want to bounce ideas, shoot me an email or leave a comment below. I’m happy to help because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott