WHAT A PROFESSIONAL ACTOR MUST KNOW: (or HOW TO GET THE JOB)Being a good actor -- Being a professional actor requires that you be utterly naked in your performance -- that you hold nothing back.That you hide nothing and let your audience see the full emotional depth of the character you have created. It is not enough that you deliver the words, but that you deliver the words from a character and do so with feeling. Being an actor is a responsibility. It is up to you, the actor, to translate the author's words into a living, breathing real person who portrays to his audience an emotional feeling. You do this to create and receive an emotional or intellectual response. Indeed, it is the job of the actor to bring the audience his or her very special viewpoint, technique, ability and realism in order that the audience may see perhaps something that they have been looking at all their lives and have never seen and hear something that they have been listening to all their lives and have never heard. Acting is like telling a joke over and over to the same listeners. It has to be a little different each time or it will go stale. Acting is REacting when you don't know what is being said until it is said. Don't just wait for your cues. Listen to what the other actor or actors are saying, take it in, react and speak your words simultaneously. The author gives you words that put your character in a situation. You must then get the listener (audience, casting director) to experience, feel and then think about that experience or moment. Some actors may think if they just get the words right they have done the job. NO! It's not just about words - GET PAST THE WORDS: The words are only a guide - it's about the feelings and emotions your character will deliver. You have to make choices. Your character has to make choices. It's not about comfort. It's about discovery and taking risks. S T R E T C H! SOME MORE HINTS FOR AUDITIONS: What will make you feel more powerful in charge of your audition? What will you do to bring the audience (agent, directors etc.) into your world? Sit - stand - what would your character do? How would your character behave? (Notice, I didn't say you.) How will your audition (presumably you are doing the same material as the other actors have), be unique and memorable? CLUE: Put just a little bit of YOU into the character. FOCUS - FOCUS - FOCUS - FOCUS - FOCUS Be inside the character. The character is not outside yourself and you are not playing a role. Make your entrance strong or weak or daring or quiet - what ever is going on in the scene and is appropriate. Don't sneak onto the stage and then get into the emotion. Your life is not separate from your career. They are anchored together. Get a healthy curiosity about life - it will enhance your career. Here are some notes from Hollywood's biggest Casting Directors: The biggest mistake actors make is they don't listen and they don't ask questions. They don't take the time in the waiting room to prepare. They come in expecting to be told everything, even how to act. The reasons actors don't succeed are FEAR and IRRESPONSIBILITY. Keep your financial life together. Don't bring your baggage into the casting session. Your personae should come through your character and not be an artificial attempt at being different. Don't get too far off the character for commercials. For feature, (movies), you have more freedom. When entering a casting session: come in as yourself, find the character and then go for it. We want to find out about you as a person and then.... how you can do the role. If the character you are auditioning for is a deranged killer and you come in as a deranged killer, we will only see that and not, perhaps for another role in the piece. Actors carry desperation and lack of self-esteem into the casting session. When you have done your internal homework, cleared your debris, adopted a less desperate attitude, you have a better chance of being hired. AND... Whatever you do... DON'T GET CAUGHT ACTING - GET CAUGHT BEING!! Contact: JOEL COLMAN AT
310-454-1959
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