“The audition was simple and easy due to Backstage,” Sammy Cantu says about nabbing a recent part in a commercial for nonprofit United Way Worldwide.
In the spot, Cantu portrays a teacher who helps a young student struggling to read. “I help him as a third grader all the way up until he’s at his high school graduation and is now an honor student and makes a speech in front of his graduating class,” Cantu tells Backstage. “I’m a big fan of helping out the youth and giving back to kids, so it was really easy for me to get into character for this.”
Cantu began reading Backstage and using its casting notices three months ago. He’s now a keen user. “I try to use it every day,” he says. “But what’s nice about Backstage is that if I do miss a couple days, I can come back and there’s [still] a lot of opportunities to be found.”
Cantu doesn’t doubt that he will continue using Backstage in order to book the roles he strives for. “It’s simple, really: You book here, and once you do book, you get to network and market yourself out there to great people,” he explains. “What makes this industry so great [is] you can be anything you want. Just prepare, make strong choices, and have fun with it.”
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