When you first decided to become a professional actor, what did you set out for?
Was it the fame, fortune and fanfare or did you really just want to be a working actor who gets to be a part of interesting project?
If you are reading this, then you are a part of the Boost My Star tribe, and you know that I interact with tons of actors and industry decision makers every day.
What I find out from them is sometimes difficult to comprehend, because it is not always aligned with what we feel on a surface level.
Fair warning: we’re going to go deep with this report because it’s that important!
See, you can’t achieve your ideal career until you know exactly what that it is and have a plan to make it happen.
Most actors, nearly all of them actually, just float from one audition to the next. Every now and then they land a part with a few lines, spend a day or two on set and then, go back to audition grind.
The most successful actors, don’t do this.
Here’s why...
They realize that, if they are going to build a successful career, filled with interesting work and opportunities, it is important to have a definite vision.
I’m not talking about goal setting or law of attraction stuff. That’s a topic for another time. For now, let’s keep things on the practical side.
The most successful actors clearly define the roles they want to play and build their entire career around that, rather than trying to build a career out of whatever comes your way.
To be clear, this goes way beyond simply the look you portray, though that is a part of it.
What’s more important however, is to create a character set that is synonymous with you.
A few things happen when you do this.
You completely eliminate the competition for this type of role, which means that you can basically pick and choose your projects. You will have way more to choose from than you could ever handle.
And that’s not an understatement.
Take Danny Trejo for example. You would instantly recognize his face because he hands more credits to his name, than most actors will ever even audition for.
He also plays the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s Machete franchise.
Danny has a very specific look. He’s very well suited for dark and gritty roles and not a casting meeting goes by that his name doesn’t come up in conversation, when CDs are casting for this type of role.
In fact, he has appeared in as many as 5 feature films in a single year, which is completely unheard of.
The reason for this is that he is the obvious choice for this type of role, so he is always top of mind for these projects.
By his own admission, he never set out to be a celebrity and by just about any measure of “celebrity” he really isn’t one.
He doesn’t have to dodge the paparazzi and over his decades long career, he’s only been on the red carpet a handful of times.
Yet, his acting work is plentiful and fulfilling.
See, there is an all too common misconception in the industry that has most actors believing that they need to go after the celebrity factor to have a career like this.
That’s simply not true and through my countless interactions with actors, most of them (quietly) don’t want this.
So, there is a misalignment between what they truly want from their careers and the career they are trying to build. This is what has so many actors taking a random approach to building a career.
They take anything and everything that comes their way rather than having a laser focus on the type of career they want.
Not having a focused approach to what you want your career to look like is also what could get you lost in the shuffle of all the other actors who are doing the exact same thing as you.
Taking the “anything and everything-will act for food” route is a long and hard struggle and it’s nearly impossible to differentiate yourself from everyone else.
While it may seem like you are limiting yourself and your opportunities by doing this, you are actually doing the opposite.
Rather than being a small fish in a giant pond, you become the only fish in the pond.
This doesn’t mean that you will get locked into only playing this type of role for the rest of your career. Over time, you will unlock new opportunities and dimension to your career.
For example, think of it like Dwayne Johnson who isn’t limited to just playing the touch guy anymore. It’s still a huge part of his career, but he now gets to play comedic and dramatic roles with a softer side as well.
However, his career would never have taken off if he started with this “shotgun” approach.
Once you have focused in on the type of career you want to have, then it’s just a matter of making yourself visible to the industry.
If they have no idea who you are, then they can’t hire you so make sure you put yourself in the best position to be found. Here’s a great place to start.
What you have discovered here is an easy and practical way to make it in the industry.
The old ways of doing things are quickly dying away and the industry is moving faster than ever before. So, the time to carve out your space is now.
After you have conquered your corner of the industry and mastered the type of roles we’ve been talking about, you can then move on to conquer the industry as a whole and become a household name and marquee actor if you choose.
It all starts with creating opportunities for yourself. Even if you have an agent, you still have to both be on the same page with where your career is going.
Most agents will put you on the path to taking anything and everything, unless you instruct them to do otherwise.
Learn from other actors that have achieved the success you are after and follow in their footsteps to get there.
Take things to the next level by leveraging things like social media. Again, you don’t need to have a huge celebrity-level presence.
In fact, I can even help you get the ball rolling. Here are the details on that.
The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of roles you truly love to play. Sit down for a few minutes and make a list. Think of all the roles you loved to play and also about the ones that you would have loved to play.
Then go to work on building your career around that idea.
Remember, if you want someone to bounce ideas off of, I’m always only an email or a comment away because my goal is to...
See you at the top,
Scott