SECTION THREE

WORKING AS AN ACTOR
GENERATING ACTING WORK

To download Sections 3 & 4 as a PDF file (shows the actual book format), click HERE .

• Section Three is about creating acting opportunities for yourself. You have been training, you’ve figured out your type, how you see yourself being cast. You have your 8x10 color or black and white photos that look like you and you have your resume. Now you need more experience. Maybe at this point on your resume, you only have plays you did in college, high school or community theaters in your hometown. Perhaps the only experience on your resume are a few workshop scenes. This section is all about helping you build up that resume.

• Through your training, you know that you can understand a script and you’ve learned how to breathe life into the dialogue using your unique personality. You have delivered good performances in your workshops. Your teachers and the other actors look at you with awe and say, “You moved me; you are good.” There is a voice inside that says, “Maybe I can get a director to cast me in a project and I can deliver a performance on stage or in film.”

• Many actors want to look for an agent at this point. Agents are in business to make 10 percent from the fees you generate. When you are earning money from acting, then it is time to put your team together. But now is the time to gain experience and get your career tools in place for this long career ahead of you. See the Career Team Section.

• Billy Bob Thornton arrived in Los Angeles struggling and broke. He took a job as a waiter. First night on the job, as he worked a Beverly Hills banquet, director Billy Wilder, a many time Oscar-winner, walked up to him and said, “So you wanna be an actor? Look, I hate to disillusion you. You don’t have the looks for a leading man. Learn to write. Then write your own movie—and write yourself a good part in it.” Years later, after Billy Bob had learned to write, he wrote Sling Blade and was nominated for best actor and won the Oscar for best writer. He had been kicking around for years but with Sling Blade, he became an “overnight success.”

• Amanda Peet, talking to a group, said, “No matter how many acting classes you take, how many times you stand alone in front of your mirror at home rehearsing, no matter how many Katharine Hepburn movies you watch, the only way to learn your craft is by acting—on stage or in front of the camera. And I’m of the school that work sparks more work, which all actors hunger for.”

• Mars Callahan, at 31, co-wrote, directed and starred in the feature film Poolhall Junkies. It took him ten years to get it made and then another two years to get its theatrical release. Mars says, “I guess I just never gave up. If anything, that’s it: Never, ever give up.” He and a poolhall friend wrote the script when he was 19. They did get options over the years because the script was good but it just didn’t go. Mars kept working on his acting, landing small roles and started studying directing. He directed a film short, which even got him a small directing job. Finally, when the opportunity came he was ready to direct and old enough to play the lead. Originally, he wrote it to play the younger brother.

• Mars went on to advise actors in an interview in Back Stage West, “You’ve got to be out there doing something all the time. An actor acts. How many monologues do you have memorized? Can you do something from Tennessee Williams? Can you do something from Shakespeare? How many accents can you do? Can you sing and dance? Work at it. Write a one-man show. Do a play. Work begets work.”