PROMOTING (MARKETING) YOURSELF AS AN ACTOR

PROMOTING (MARKETING) YOURSELF AS AN ACTOR

1. Acting Classes

Take acting classes. Develop your talent. Develop your confidence. Get references and recommendations from your instructors. Most of the instructors for your classes will likely have some success on stage and film, so they would be a viable source for information in this regard Even if you have no actual stage or film experience, acting classes are useful on your resume.

2. Plays

Audition for as many plays as you can. There are community and high school theatre productions which you can audition for. Get as much experience as you can playing in front of audiences. Even the worst actor will improve by being in front of audiences. When Jim Carey was 15, he was booed off the stage at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto. That taught him he had to be better.

3. Film

Strange as it sounds, when you're starting out, film is much easier to get into than theatre. Many independent film makers do not have theatre backgrounds so they don't know any actors. Most good film actors come from live performance backgrounds, whether it be music, theatre or stand-up comedy. We are contacted at least once per week by indie producers looking for 'qualified' talent for their production. These are rarely SAG/AFTRA projects because they don't have the budget required.

We are working on a film right now that falls quite nicely into this category, and virtually every single actor in the film came from our office. Mostly all principal (speaking) roles.

Don't start your fledgling career by screwing up right off the bat, by thinking your ready when you have actually done very little to prepare yourself.

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