A Day In The Life Of an Actor: A blog about what happens in a day of an actor. This is one day out of the life of my friend, Tom. Tom is a professional actor and this blog shows you what he gets up to in one average day.
Tom is currently filming a big budget blockbuster in the south of England called “The Rise Of The It Clown”. It’s a remake of a classic 80s horror movie and Tom plays the role of the It Clown. Tom was very excited when he found out he got the part because it’s his first leading role in a film.
His character, The It Clown, is one of the most terrifying clowns ever created for film. The whole purpose of his character is to terrify children but only at night time, never during the day. During the day he just looks like your average clown with his red nose and rainbow coloured hair but at night he turns into something else entirely!
What is it like to be an actor?
Each day actors work very hard at their craft. Most actors have a lot of extra curricular activities outside of acting such as working a regular job. Some actors do have agents that help them find work, but sometimes actors have to go out and look for work themselves.
Actors are constantly working on the craft, learning new skills and researching jobs they may want in the future. Acting is very hard work because it can be very difficult to get steady work. There are many actors, but not enough jobs for them all.
So what does an actor do during the day? Well let’s take a look at one day in the life of an actor.
I decided to write up a day in my life as an actor, so that it would give you a little insight into what it is I do all day. The specific details of course will change from day to day and week to week, but this represents a general idea of what my life is like and the kind of activities I spend my time on.
So here it goes:
Wake up at 7am. Put on some coffee and turn on the computer. Check email, facebook, news sites, etc…
Make breakfast for myself and my boyfriend. I usually have a bowl of cereal with some fruit and he usually has bacon, eggs, and toast.
Read over sides (the scenes you will be auditioning for) – this varies depending upon if I have an audition that day or not. Will discuss this later.
Breakfast dishes in sink – wash them later when we finish eating or just before dinner time.
Turn on the Tivo and watch The Today Show while my boyfriend finishes getting ready for work (he leaves around 8am). I am still in my PJs at this point!
A few years ago, I moved to NYC. I had an agent and was determined to make it as an actor. I took acting classes and workshops, went on auditions, and became involved in show after show. But I wasn’t making any money from acting. I had a full time job at the time, but that didn’t stop me from trying to make it big.
I wish I could tell you that I had the perfect balance between my job, acting classes and workshops, networking events, and auditions. But the truth is that my day job was not flexible so I couldn’t wait around for auditions or go to networking events during the day. And going out at night was hard because of my commute home.
You are a very busy person. You wake up and you have to go to work. But what kind of work do you do? You don’t know, but it’s always fun. So then you get up and put on your makeup and costume, which today is a clown costume. Then you get into character, which today is an evil clown named Pennywise.
So you then get in the car and drive to the studio or on location. On set you meet with the director and talk about how you want the scene to go. Then you shoot the scene, take after take. After that, it’s lunch time.
You eat lunch with everyone in the cast and crew, then go back to work. More scenes follow until finally it’s time for wrap! You change out of your costume, remove your makeup, and head home.
After a long days work of being a clown actor, it feels good when you walk through that front door knowing you did a job well done.”
3:15 I don’t know why but I woke up early. I tried to sleep for a few more minutes but it didn’t work.
4:30-5:00 Breakfast
I ate cereal. I like cereal because it is easy to eat and it is so cheap.
6:30-7:45 Bus stop
I waited at the bus stop because my car doesn’t work right now. The bus was late and I got to the audition at 8 o’clock instead of 7:45.
8:00-9:00 Audition
I had an audition for “It” in downtown Toronto. My friend Matt told me about this audition and he said that it would be a good start for me because they are looking for unknown actors and actresses. It was really fun and I had a great time there but I don’t think that I will get this role because there were so many people who attended this audition and they were all very talented. They asked me to do some improvisation, some interviews with other actors, some scenes from the movie, some dancing, etc.
9:30-10:00 Casting call for McDonalds commercial
This was a surprise for me because my agent texted me yesterday that she
It is 7:00 AM. You wake up to the sound of your alarm clock and get ready for your day. At 7:30 you are out of the door and at school by 8:00 AM. You have a test today in math, so you study for it during free period. After the test, you come back to your locker and grab your book bag, lunch, and a few other books for after school classes. During lunch, you eat with your friends and talk about how awful the test was.
When the bell rings, you walk to class with your friends and take notes during the lecture. After school, you go to dance class. You do warm ups and learn new dances in preparation for your upcoming recital. After that, you go home and relax for a bit before eating dinner with your parents. After dinner, you do homework or watch TV before going to bed at 10:30 PM
