Spoiler alert, actors! This is as likely to crush your dreams as it is to set you on the path to greatness.
I get this question all the time: “How do I audition for film and TV when I don’t really have professional experience? What can I do to get noticed?”
READ: How to Become an Actor
If you shifted this question to any other job sector, it would be apparent that you are approaching your job search all wrong. For instance, “How do I perform heart surgery when I don’t have any professional experience? How can I get picked for surgery?” Or, “How do I fly an airliner with 400 passengers when I don’t have any experience flying planes? How do I get chosen to do that?” Sounds ridiculous, right? Depending on the circumstances, it’s pretty scary to think that someone would think they could do something without the proper training and practice.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book “Outliers: The Story of Success,” he posits that for a person to be successful in their chosen endeavor, they need to acquire 10,000 hours of practicing and pursuing the endeavor. When you think of this in terms of being an actor, you realize that you need to have a lot of time and hard work under your belt before you start to book auditions.
If you do get an audition with little or no training or acting experience, you haven’t been properly taught how to make the most of your time in the room. You could very easily burn bridges with the casting directors and others for whom you’re auditioning by not knowing proper audition room etiquette. Skill set aside, you’ve effectively shot yourself in the foot! Professional experience should start with acting classes before auditions.
READ: How to Choose an Acting Class
The second part of the question, “What can I do to get noticed?,” is also premature. You shouldn’t try to “get noticed” until you’re ready to be noticed. Not to beat a dead horse here, but if you have no professional experience, you are not ready to get noticed!
Once you have a strong foundation in acting through watching the masters at work, reading the quintessential texts, and training in a college program, acting classes, intensives, improv groups, movement and voice classes, and more, that’s when you can put your toe in the water and start going out on auditions, which becomes a training ground in itself.
When you’re ready, throw yourself into the pool with gusto. Get some good headshots and put together your résumé. Don’t fret that it has a lot of white space. The most important thing I always look for is the training; I look for which acting teachers people have studied with and what theater companies they’ve worked with. I even look for special skills that I can use in my projects. I can immediately tell when I’m looking at an actor new to the field, and I encourage them to keep up with their hard work. (Pro tip: One way to start fleshing out that résumé is to send your materials to local colleges and film schools. Acting in their short films can be a great way to get experience on set.)
So, if your dreams haven’t been crushed by this dose of reality, buckle up, and good luck out there.
This story originally appeared in the Nov. 21 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
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