I have been professionally acting for a little more than a year now. I am far from being an expert as an actor or in the knowledge of the industry/business. However, in the past year I have learned a lot of things. Through observation, through trial and error, and by the experience.
Acting may seem like this very glamorous job and lifestyle, but the truth is, for the masses of working actors it is work and the lifestyle is nowhere near the glitz and glamour portrayed. Here are just a handful of those lessons.
You will not get the job more often than "booking it". Acting is "living truthfully". One has to "be in the moment", open and vulnerable. At the same time an actor has to be "thick skinned", because until you have elevated yourself in the industry to the point that you are offered roles outright, you are going to have to audition, or at the very least have your head shot and resume submitted for consideration. Like a baseball player, you are not going to hit a home run or even get a simple hit every time your are submitted or audition for a job. Looking at my success rate of booking jobs in the past year, I had about a .250 batting average. I booked approximately 1-in-4 jobs, that's a 25% success rate, which in turns means I had a 75% failure rate. Still, as a rookie, I think I did pretty good.
A good head shot is critical. Not a selfie, not a school picture, not a corporate professional portrait. What I am talking about are head shots, taken by a photographer that knows how to take head shots. I was fortunate. I was guided to an amazing photographer named Melissa Blue . There are several good head shot photographers here in the Hampton Roads area, but Melissa is IMO the best. She has an incredible eye and a knows how to bring out various aspects of her subject's personalities. That, and she is just a very pleasant and professional person to work with. The importance of a good head shot was driven home when in less than 24 hours after getting my head shots to an agent, the agent was able to book me for one project and get me an audition for another. Good head shots will not guarantee getting a job, but they will definitely help at possibly getting you "in the room" to be seen by the casting directors, producers, director, etc.
Be prepared. At the professional level whether on set or on stage, time is of the essence. The time to learn your lines is NOT when you show up on set or in the rehearsal studio. On set you might get a chance to rehearse the scene, but don't count on it. You character has to be ready. For the stage, rehearsals are for rehearsing, letting the Director try different things, not for to still be memorizing your lines. Getting "off book" as soon as possible will make the rehearsal process/performance more spontaneous and enjoyable. I like to tell the story about the time I showed up for the very first rehearsal for a musical I was cast in and the gentleman who had the lead role showed up 95% off book..AT THE FIRST REHEARSAL! I was amazed and terrified. Since then I have made it a personal goal to memorize/learn what I need to as quickly as possible, even for auditions. It makes a difference. I had a producer once tell me in an audition that he couldn't believe I managed to have two scenes (two different characters) worth of lines memorized...I booked the job.
You start to watch people more, view movies and TV with a different eye. Because acting is about relationships, about listening and reacting, as an actor looking to refine his/her craft you begin watching everyone more closely. Trying to read them. Noticing subtle facial expressions, body language and movements. Someone once said that to be a good actor you have to convince your audience that you're not acting. As an actor with that in mind you start watching other actors and how they accomplish this feat. I had the pleasure working on the House of Cards set and getting what I considered to be a free acting master class. Just watching two actors do take after take of a particular scene (different camera angles, lighting configurations, or because the director or the actors wanted to try something different). I caught myself totally mesmerized in watching these two actors work. It was worth the exhausting day and minimal pay.
Just a couple of lessons, so many more that could be discussed, so many more to be learned. I am off to a rehearsal, to learn lines, or possibly to an audition...such is the life of an actor.
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