The Number 1 Mistake Actors Make: A blog about the number one mistake actors make and how it can destroy your career.
If you’re a working actor, chances are you’ve heard your fair share of advice from fellow actors, casting directors, and teachers. Most of this advice is helpful, but some is not. In fact, there’s one particular piece of advice I hear all the time that I’m convinced is terrible for actors. It’s so widely accepted as gospel that I feel like I’m swimming against the current when I try to convince people otherwise. Sometimes I feel like the only person in the world who thinks this way.
But every now and then, someone else will come along with a similar viewpoint, which is always validation to me that my perspective isn’t completely delusional! Today someone posted a link to an article on Facebook by writer Jeff Goins called “The Number One Reason You’re Not Happy” (I don’t recommend reading it unless you want to get depressed). Here’s an excerpt from his article:
“This is what we do when we compare ourselves to others: We miss out on the opportunity to enjoy our lives for what they really are.”
If you are an actor and you make the number one mistake actors make, it can destroy your career.
The number one mistake actors make is to not have a website.
You may think that this isn’t true of you. You may have a nice website with clips and headshots and a resume. But if you’re an actor, I can almost guarantee that it’s wrong.
Actors are under a lot of pressure to spend money, but there are three things that are absolutely essential: an agent, a headshot photographer, and a website.
If you don’t have any of these things, you don’t have a career. And yet actors routinely go for years without having all three.
The Number 1 Mistake Actors Make
When we’re first starting out as actors, it’s easy to focus on the wrong things. We worry about what to wear to our first monologue class. Or how to get a headshot that will land us an audition.
The
As I was teaching Art of Acting class last night, I was really struck by the number one mistake that actors make. It is a simple, yet very common error that can, and often does, destroy an actors career.
The Number One Mistake Actors Make is: They forget to act.
Seriously, it is that simple. The reason actors are not working is because they don’t want to work. Or worse yet, they don’t know how to work.
In my opinion there are two kinds of actors: Actors and Emoters.
Actors are people who go out and get the job done regardless of how they feel or what the circumstance are. They can be sick as a dog, but still be able to go out and give a great performance because they have trained themselves to do so. They get the job done without fail, usually without drama or complaining or excuses.
Emitters are people who just cannot seem to get it together to do the work because things aren’t perfect for them or because they don’t feel like it or whatever excuse comes up at any given moment in time. They are limited by their excuses and their lack of training and discipline when it comes time to deliver results.
It doesn’t matter how much training
The number one mistake actors make is not having enough headshots. For example, if you have only 6 headshots and your agent has 200 clients, that means that each of your headshots has to be sent out to 33 agents. Obviously this is difficult to do, so the best solution is to have more than 6 headshots.
Another mistake actors make is not smiling enough in their headshots. The typical actor thinks this will make them look more serious about their careers and also make them appear younger. They are absolutely wrong. A smoldering pout may look great on-camera, but agents don’t care about that; they want to see a big smile because it makes it easier for them to remember a client’s name and phone number.
A third mistake is not working out enough. It’s true that some acting roles require overweight or even obese actors, but these jobs are becoming fewer and fewer as Hollywood struggles with an obesity epidemic of its own making (i.e., by feeding us cheap fatty foods). Plus you’ll feel better about yourself if you’re in shape!
These three mistakes can easily be avoided by doing the following: have more than six headshots; smile really big when taking those headshots; lose weight. Good luck with everything
I have been a working actor for over 15 years now. I’ve worked on stage, film and television. I am also a teacher of acting at one of the top drama schools in the country.
I started this blog because I’m tired of seeing so many actors make the same mistake over and over again. It is by far the most common mistake I see from my students, actors in auditions and from other teachers.
So, what’s the number one mistake?
It is…
The actor doesn’t understand what a monologue is for. The actor believes that a monologue is about expressing feelings or emotions to an audience. They don’t understand that the purpose of a monologue is to show (not tell) what kind of character they would be in a play or film or television show.
The Monologue is an Audition Piece Not an Expression Piece
When an actor steps out on stage to do their monologue they are auditioning for a role in a play or film. It isn’t about them, it’s about the character they’re playing and how they fit into that story world. The audience doesn’t care about your feelings, they don’t give a toss if you’re sad, happy or angry – all they want to know is
