It’s a common question: “How do I break into acting?”
It’s not easy. Only about 1% of professional actors make a living doing it. The rest do other things for money, then take acting jobs when they can get them.
Being an actor is being a freelance worker in the entertainment industry. Just like any other freelancer – musicians, writers, programmers – you need to get paid work to pay your bills. In order to do that, you need a portfolio of work that shows what you can do and gives people a reason to hire you. Just like any other freelancer, you have to have something people want.
The thing is, if you’re new at this, you don’t have anything people want yet. If you’ve never acted before and have no training or experience in acting or performing arts (or any other kind of related job), it’s hard to get work as an actor. On top of that, compared with musicians and writers and programmers, there are way more actors than jobs available in acting. People who want to be actors are competing with each other for a very small number of jobs – so the competition is fierce.
If you want to be an actor, how do you get into acting?
First, it’s important to know that there is no “right” way to break into acting. There are several different paths you can take, but ultimately there is no one path that will work for every actor, or even most actors. You need to find your own path.
But let me back up a minute and talk about how I broke in. I am by no means an expert at breaking into acting, or even a highly successful actor. But I have been working pretty consistently in the industry for over a decade now, and I feel like I’ve had enough success that my advice may be of some value to others just starting out.
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. My parents both worked full time, so as a child I spent most of my time at home alone with nothing to do but watch TV. As you might imagine, this exposure led to a great interest in show business and acting. At the age of 12 I was enrolled in drama class as an after school activity at my local junior high school, where I learned all about acting skills such as voice projection, improvisation and stage movement.
After the first few weeks of class I was hooked! From then on it was all I could think about!
The reason for this is that, although there are few real pros and plenty of pretenders, most actors are not working. They’re between jobs. So a casting director might get hundreds of people to audition for a role. There aren’t hundreds of great actors out there. But there are hundreds of people who have the skills to act well, and who also have flexibility in their schedules, which is necessary to take acting jobs on short notice.
So if you want to get into acting as a career, you’ll probably want to live in New York or Los Angeles. In other words, if you want to be an actor as opposed to just enjoying acting as a hobby or as part of another job, you’ll need to be serious about it. And being serious about acting means being able to meet casting directors at short notice.
As with most jobs that require talent and hard work but not much upfront investment, the main barrier to entry is psychological: you have to believe you can do it enough that you’re willing to go through the relatively modest hassle of moving your life somewhere more convenient.
Being an actor is a dream job for many people. It’s not easy, but if you put in the work, it can happen.
If you want to become an actor, begin by taking classes at your school or community center in order to gain experience and learn about the craft. Alternatively, join a local theatre group and sign up for auditions so you can get used to performing in front of an audience. As you build your skills, shoot a short video reel of yourself acting and attending an acting class so that you have something to show casting directors when you audition for roles. Additionally, work on your appearance and style by eating healthy and exercising regularly to ensure that your body is camera-ready! For more advice from our Acting co-author, like how to find an agent when you’re ready for bigger roles, scroll down!
Becoming an actor requires a mix of talent and training, as well as persistence, organization, and networking skills. If you think you have what it takes to be a professional actor, consider taking these steps.
1. Begin by developing your acting skills. This can be done through coaching, classes, or workshops. As a beginner, you may want to take classes from a local community college or university extension program.
2. Understand the different types of acting techniques and find the one that works best for you. Some popular techniques include: The Method; Meisner Technique; Stanislavski’s System; Stella Adler Technique; Michael Chekhov Technique; Uta Hagen Technique; Suzuki Method; Laban Movement Analysis
3. Join an actors union or association related to your area of interest. These groups are often filled with people from every level of experience and can help you stay current with the latest news in the industry.
4. Enjoy the process of becoming an actor and try not to focus on success or failure too much. Good luck!
To get into any profession, you need to know someone. But if you want to be an actor, you really, really have to know someone. This is for two reasons. First, actors work in a field that’s very subjective. It’s not like medicine, where people can tell whether or not you’re good at your job just by looking at you. In acting, it’s all about your “look,” and some people don’t think you have the look they’re going for.
But let’s say you do get a shot at auditioning for a part. Your chances of getting that part are even worse: They’re around 0.1 percent. Let’s say there are 100 actors auditioning for a role. Only one of them will get it–the other 99 will go home empty-handed. And it won’t matter how good their audition was; the director is just looking for the person who fits his or her vision of the character best–it could be because he wants someone with dark hair, or because she wants someone who seems more innocent than the other candidates.
