Every actor knows that audition skills are extremely important and play a central role in whether or not they will succeed in building a career as a professional actor.

I’ve seen actors dedicate several years to learning “the proper audition procedures” just to end up stuck in their careers like everyone else.

I’ve also seen other actors skip that step almost entirely and build incredibly successful careers, consistently being booked over actors that focused on “the proper audition procedures.”

Why does that happen?

Common sense would tell you that, all things being equal, it should be the other way around. The truth is that many actors don’t truly understand the audition process.

I’m not talking about it in a technical sense. By and large, most actors know how to audition or they figure it out very quickly.

I’m talking about it on a strategic level. Not many actors really understand the overall purpose behind the audition process, so it’s almost impossible for them to truly grasp how they fit into it.

If you want to build your career as a professional actor, this is something you have to master quickly. Here’s where to start...

As of the time of this writing, there are roughly 7 weeks left in the year. What are you going to do with them?

The truth is that most of your colleagues have already mentally checked out. In fact most of the industry has been in holiday mode since the first.

If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you already know what I’m going to say next...

Doing what everyone else does in the industry is usually a recipe for getting stuck in your career, just like everyone else.

See, “most of the industry” doesn’t include the top tier of the industry.

They never stop working towards their goals and neither should you. That’s something professional actors learn very early on in their career and it’s a big reason for why they are able to make progress so quickly.

This time of year can yield some of the biggest opportunities for actors that are ready to take advantage of them.

If you want to be one of them, here’s where to start...

Most actors misunderstand what directors want from them on set, and that has a huge impact on how they build their career.

When you know what directors want, and you are able to deliver it, they want to work with you again.

That’s why many of the most successful actors have built their career alongside some of the most successful directors.

It happens because they make a good team, so they are able to deliver excellent results together.

The opposite is also true.

If you don’t deliver what they want, directors will remember that too and that can impact whether you get to work with them again.

Finding a director that likes to work with you is one of the most impactful things you can do for your acting career.

Otherwise, it’s almost like building your career from scratch every time.
Professional actors know that, so they put a lot of effort into maximizing every opportunity.

Working well with directors goes way beyond just memorizing your lines and delivering a good performance.

Most actors don’t have a clue about what directors really want, but if you want to build your career as a professional actor this is something you have to figure out quickly...

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...

Fair warning...this one might hurt a little bit.

Most actors try to build their acting career in the most inefficient and ineffective way possible.

They spend their time going from one thing to the next, never really stopping to think about whether what they are doing will have an effect on their acting career.

What most of them end up doing is taking acting classes haphazardly, redoing their headshots without being strategic about it, and basically securing their place on the audition hamster wheel.

That’s usually a best case scenario...

You might think that this is something you would never do, but I challenge you to be honest about how strategic you have been with the way you build your career.

Look, most actors don’t succeed. They usually don’t come anywhere close to accomplishing the goals they set when they first got into the industry.

So, at some point you have to decide whether you will follow the crowd or whether you will figure out how successful actors are able to make it.

The actors that do succeed do things differently and I have broken down what they do into a step by step path you can follow, regardless of where you are in your career. Here’s where to start...

Building your acting career is not a linear journey. There are ups, there are downs and sometimes your career just kind of spins around in circles.

There will be many unexpected events throughout your career and what makes a big difference in how your acting career turns out is what you do when the unexpected happens.

Most actors freeze and rely on the counsel of their agents and industry friends to figure out what to do.

While that sounds like a good idea, it only works if you are surrounded by people that are much farther along in their career than you are.

It also only applies if they happen to be with you at the time, which is highly unlikely.

Because professional actors have learned to expect the unexpected, they have a way of turning what others would perceive as setbacks, into something that can actually move their acting career forward.

They don’t rely on others because they develop an ability to turn those proverbial lemons into lemonade.

If you want to be a professional actor, and finally start making progress towards building the career you always envisioned, this is something you have to get really good at too.

First I want to be clear about something that most actors don’t quite get...

There is a type of character that can help you take your career to the next level, like nothing else.

They are an integral part of nearly every successful project, so there is a huge demand for actors that play the character type well.

Unfortunately, most actors overlook this type because it's a little bit tricky to pull it off convincingly.

However, it doesn't have to be and making just a few character adjustments can make a world of difference in how well the character is played.

And, that's incredibly important...

See, not all characters are created equally and most actors are so busy just trying to book whatever comes their way, that they don't often think of how different characters can affect their career.

Professional actors don't do that. They create their careers on purpose and a certain type of character is often at the forefront.

If you want to be a professional actor too, playing this character type really well is something that can make things easier on you.

Here's where to start...

The best actors don’t want to be seen as actors at all.

Here’s what I mean by that...

If you are watching something and you think to yourself “that’s a pretty good actor” they have missed the mark.

Maybe they haven’t missed it by much but they have missed something that didn’t allow you to be fully present.

As an actor you want the audience to laugh with you. You want them to cry with you.

You want them to be fully present and you want them to feel your character's pain, frustration, and whatever else your character is experiencing.

That's what makes watching you worthwhile to the audience.

World class actors don’t seem to be actors at all. They have an incredible ability to bring characters to life.

If you want to have a long career as a successful actor, this is something you have to master The good news is that it’s not as difficult as you might think...