I’m an actor. I’ve been acting since I was three years old. I started in theater and then moved to film, but my love is still on the stage. I like being a character in a play and sharing a story with an audience. Over the last few years, I have really developed a deep love for teaching acting. It’s so much fun to watch the growth of an actor as they develop their craft.
I have a lot of experience with auditions. I’ve had thousands in my life, and I have booked most of them! What’s my secret? Preparation!! Nothing can replace preparation. Sure there are times when you are not prepared, but if you make it a habit to prepare well for auditions, then you will feel more confident in the room and get even better results! Be brilliant in your next audition!
This is a blog post. It is intended to be funny. It may not be funny, but we’ll see how it goes.
The thing that’s hard about blogging is that there are so many brilliant people out there, and I feel like I’m competing with them. There’s Paul Graham, for one, who has this amazing writing style and writes these incredible essays. I’ve read every essay he’s ever written, over and over again. And then there are all these other people who have blogs where they just put up interesting links or funny pictures of cats or whatever. And I just feel like I can’t compete with that.
So instead of competing directly with all these smart people, what I’m going to do is talk about something that I know a lot about: auditions! No matter how much you love acting, auditioning sucks.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced actor or someone who has never set foot on the stage before in their life; the entire audition process is nerve-wracking and filled with self-doubt. So how can you get past all of those feelings of insecurity? How can you walk into your next audition feeling confident and ready to impress?
In my last post I talked about how being confident in an audition can be developed from your experiences and skills. But what if you haven’t had much experience? That’s why this post is about the second part of being more confident, which is having a solid auditing technique.
To create an audition technique that works for you, you need to take two things into consideration:
1. What kind of person are you?
2. What do you want to do in the audition room?
Let’s talk first about who you are as a person. Are you shy or outgoing? Do you like to work on your own or with others? What kind of things make you feel nervous or stressed? If you like working in groups and being around other people, it will be easier to have confidence in an audition room because it’s a social situation where everyone is there to help each other out. You don’t have to worry about competing with anyone. However, if you are shy, then being social might not come naturally to you and could cause some anxiety – but that’s okay! Just because it doesn’t come naturally doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else.”
Auditioning can be one of the most exciting and difficult times in an actor’s life.
I’m sure you’ve heard the words “be yourself” a million times before, but in an audition room, it’s often times easier said than done.
That’s why I’m here to tell you that you can have a great audition every time.
You may not get the job, but you will have done your best work, and that is something to be proud of.
First and foremost, I want to encourage you to practice. Practice what? Everything! Practice your sides, monologues, cold reads and improv skills. Practice being comfortable with your body and face in front of a camera or mirror. Practice the way you walk into an audition room and how you greet people with a smile or handshake. All of these things prepare you for the real thing because they make all of these actions second nature once you’re in the audition room.
Of course there are things that can go wrong in any situation, but when you feel prepared, nothing will phase you. You’ll be able to take whatever happens and continue to be 100% committed to your character no matter what!
There are some actors who just seem to know what they are doing. They look effortless when they walk on stage or in front of a movie camera. They never seem to be nervous, and their confidence is tangible. Then there is the rest of us.
We stumble, we freeze and we say things that make no sense at all. We fumble through our lines with our eyes glued to the script as though it were written in another language. We sweat, we shake and we forget how to breathe. All while pretending not to be nervous.
If you’re like me you can’t even remember your lines or where you are supposed to be standing half the time, let alone concentrate on acting. It seems like everyone else can pull it off with ease and here you are looking like a fool.
The difference between these two types of actors is practice and preparation. Most of the actors who look like they know exactly what they are doing have put in countless hours of work and have made many mistakes along the way. They have also had more than their fair share of success which gives them greater confidence going into auditions.
Introducing: The Brilliant Actor’s Blog
Welcome to the first edition of “The Brilliant Actor’s Blog.” My name is Michael Schreiber and I am really excited to be writing for you! In the coming weeks and months, I will be bringing you articles about many different aspects of the acting business and craft. As a professional actor, with almost 20 years of experience, as well as an acting teacher/coach, who has been teaching for over 10 years, I will share my experiences, as well as offering useful tips and advice from other working actors.
So let’s get started. For those of you who don’t know me or have never read my books, I want to take a moment to tell you a little bit about myself and why I think it is important that we all try to get better at this thing we call acting.
I believe that getting better at acting means becoming more brilliant in our auditions. By brilliant I mean being able to present yourself in your best light at every audition. Being brilliant can mean many things and it changes depending on each individual situation. But it always means being prepared, confident and present in the room at all times. I also believe that being brilliant is
What kind of actor are you? My first acting teacher asked this question on the very first day of class. He didn’t want a list of all the roles I’d played, or types I thought I could play. He was asking about my personality, and how that would affect my acting. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it made sense. Some actors were more spontaneous than others, some seemed to know themselves better, others were more intellectual.
Later in class, my teacher took us through a series of acting exercises. We had to guess each other’s sign based on his or her astrological chart (which we filled out at the beginning of class). At first it was hard to tell everyone apart, but as we went through the exercises, certain patterns started to emerge. The Aries students had more energy than the Capricorns; Geminis tended to be more playful; Leos were more charismatic (no surprise there).
It’s not that these traits weren’t present in everyone—just that they showed up stronger in certain people. And as an actor you need to know what those qualities are so you can use them in your work … or hide them if they get in the way.
