NYCastings – DirectSubmit

“You are as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fears; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.” – Samuel Ullman

Age for actors can often be a touchy subject. We are by nature vain creatures; after all we adore being looked at, and you want what people are looking at to appear its best.

But we have to force ourselves to face reality when it comes to age. We’ve all probably witnessed the tragic spectacle of a play where the role of the ingenue or leading man was played by a board member or theater company founder who is somewhere north of 50, a long way from youthful folly, to say the least.

But that’s an obvious error (obvious to everyone except the person trying to hang on to youthful roles, apparently). One big mistake that is more subtle that many actors make is using headshots that don’t reflect their age or the types of roles for which they are best suited. Here’s a few ways to make sure that your headshots match the true you.

1. Due Diligence

A headshot doesn’t exist to feed your vanity. It’s a marketing tool, and as such it’s vital that we are brutally honest with ourselves when it comes to headshots. And in order to do that we have to understand the ocean into which we are going to be swimming. Get on IMdB and check out some other actors near your age who play the type of roles you see yourself in. There is a distinct difference between headshots designed to land comedy roles and those for actors who work in dramas, for instance. And by studying the way big-time actors market themselves – marketing which often involves a highly-paid and highly-skilled team of professionals – you can benefit from their expertise without spending a dime. That’s not to say you should mimic them exactly, just that it’s important to note that there are ever-changing trends in the business, and the people who market highly-paid actors are in the loop.

2. Color Inside the Lines

While you are doing your research, take note of the headshots that are used on, say a police procedural versus a family sitcom. The facial expressions of the actors is not the only thing selling the particular type of show – so is the color palette. You’ll start to notice that the serious dramas favor dark, sober colors, lots of blacks and grays, whereas the comedies are awash in bright, happy pastels. So when you     go to get your headshots taken, be sure to confer with your photographer on what types of roles you are interested in, so he or she can find appropriate locations. If you’re reading for a kid’s show, a dour headshot featuring a glowering scowl while wearing all black isn’t doing you any favors.

3. Dress It Up

In keeping with the above note, make sure your color palette in terms of your wardrobe is in keeping with the kinds of roles you see yourself reading for. But beyond that, it’s important to be aware of the image you are presenting with the kinds of clothes you wear. If you are hoping for roles in serious dramas, dressing like a 12-year-old skater kid won’t help. Conversely, if you are in your early 20s and hoping to land television comedy roles, wearing a dark suit for your headshots is probably not a good idea. In addition to color, keep in mind that high-necked dresses for women and high neckline shirts for men come across as more severe and serious, whereas t-shirts and more open tops present as more open and friendly. You want to make the job of the casting team as easy as possible — don’t force them to work in order to imagine you in the role; paint the picture for them.

4. Do Your ‘Do

They say the camera adds ten pounds; a hairstyle can add or subtract ten years. Ladies, if you take your headshots with your hair tied back in a bun, you will come across as more serious. And guys, if you gel your hair up in a series of spiky angles, it comes across as youthful – but sometimes not in a good way. Have you ever seen one of those older guys who has a complicated, gelled-out ‘do that would look more appropriate in a fraternity rather than in an office? It looks desperate, and it looks weird. Here’s where that honesty has to come into play again. You may love your kick-ass new haircut, but it’s also possible that it is limiting your castability. There’s no right or wrong answer, but just be aware that you are telling a story in your headshot, a story that people take in a matter of seconds, so every millimeter of that 8 x 10 picture is important.

5. Personality

In keeping with the above, remember that not only are you telling a story with your headshot; you ARE the story. Who are you in this headshot? Are you fun, engaging, open, and friendly? If you are angling for a role as a detective on a police drama, that’s probably not the look you want. Taking the perfect headshot is so much more than simply propping yourself up in front of a camera and managing not to fall over while the shutter clicks. You should treat a headshot session as if it were any other acting job: take the time to warm up and get into character. Who are you and what is your objective? Give yourself some direction. Before you get in front of the camera, you might even run some lines from a role you’ve played previously that fits with the type of image you are trying to project to get yourself in the proper head space.

The headshot is one of the most basic tools of the acting trade, but it’s also one of the most important. Think of it like currency: you wouldn’t go around casually leaving your wallet on the seat next to you on the train or on the counter in a public restroom. Be just as careful and thoughtful with your headshots and you will land the roles you want!

“You are a ghost driving a meat-coated skeleton made of stardust. What do you have to be afraid of?”

–Reddit post

This quote has been making the rounds on Reddit for a while now, and for some reason I fell in love with it. It speaks of not only the impermanence of our existence, it also touches on how we are all, in a very concrete way, part of something billions of years old, in the form of the “stardust” which makes up the elements that makes up us.

We are ephemeral and permanent; gossamer and unimaginably ancient all at once – a perfect contradiction for an actor to contemplate.

It also points out how separated most of us are from our bodies. But as actors it’s vital that we work to be in closer contact with the entirety of the machine that makes us up, that we not succumb to being mere “ghosts” behind the wheel of a meat machine, if you will.

So when we talk about preparing for the big day of the audition, or your first day on set for your dream role, we talk a lot about a certain kind of preparation that is mostly mental: learning lines, doing the background research and scene work, developing an action and separating out the beats within the text. And while all of these mental preparations are important, they leave out one important factor: your body is just as important as your mind.

That lovely brain of yours, the one that works so hard to connect you with a given role and get you in a mental state conducive to learning and emotional openness is not some free-floating futuristic alien brain-creature. It’s being chauffeured around in a vehicle that’s also rather important to your well-being. All the mental and emotional training in the world isn’t going to matter a damn if your body isn’t up to the task. So here’s a few ways to ensure that you’re ready for the long days of shooting, or the long run of performing in a play eight times a week, or just for the stress of the big audition—physically as well as mentally.

1.Be Ready For Your Close-Up

They say the camera adds ten pounds, and that’s pretty much true. But you know what else adds apparent weight to your face in those tight close-ups? Water. The dreaded bloating that comes from a bad diet or too much alcohol the night before. If you have a big shoot or audition day coming up, try to stay away from salty, fatty snacks, highly-processed and packaged foods–and the booze. Sorry guys, you might think its a good idea to just have one or two “just to relax,” but it will work against you on the day. Big restaurant meals are also a no-no, as they often contain mucho hidden sugar and sodium, and salt bloats you, especially around the face and eyes. Even if you aren’t any kind Anthony Bourdain around the kitchen, take some time to learn how to prepare a couple of simple dishes that aren’t terribly difficult and do yourself a favor for the last few nights before a big audition or shoot: dine in. Work your lines with your headphones as you cook, or have a friend over to help with dinner and run lines with you. (Just no booze! You can celebrate after the shoot!) High protein, low-carb diets heavy on the fresh veggies and fruit, and low on salt, sugar and refined carbs will leave you feeling so much more sharp and active – not only physically, but mentally as well. And skip the late night snacks. That’s when most people who are trying to eat healthier fall off the wagon; there’s kind of an “if it happens in the middle of the night, it doesn’t count” mentality that can lead to giving in to temptation to snack on unhealthy foods. And any kind of foods that can lead to a “food coma” are a no-no because that feeling doesn’t just disappear after you sleep. Your body is still processing what you did to it the next morning.

2. Hydrate 

Water is life, as they say, and that’s certainly true when it comes to keeping your very own “meat-covered skeleton” in tip-top shape. Hydration keeps your skin healthy, helps to keep your mental acuity sharp, it fends off headaches, and it aids in digestion. Another thing about water many people don’t realize is that you are often slightly dehydrated without even knowing it, and your body frequently registers this as hunger. Your hypothalamus regulates both hunger and thirst, and the signals from your body indicating whichever one it is get crossed up in the hypothalamus. So, many times when you feel a little peckish for no good reason, you’re really just in need of some hydration. Health experts suggest that when you feel like a snack, try grabbing some water instead and waiting 15 or 20 minutes before you dig in. You might just forget you were “hungry.” And an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; stay on top of your water intake and you won’t have to worry about it at all. Another highly recommended adjustment everyone can make is to down a big glass of water just after you wake up in the morning. We’re always, always going to be dehydrated after sleeping, and drinking water right away can prevent the error of eating too much of the wrong kinds of food for breakfast.

3. Exercise

With as much as we know about the benefits of exercise these days, and as much as actors are invested in their full “instrument,” it is amazing when you still hear actors who say, “Oh, I don’t really exercise or go to the gym.” There are just so many things in the world of acting for which you need a body that will help you, not hinder you: dance, stage and film combat—hell, simply to survive 12 to 14 hour days on set without getting cranky you need to be in decent shape. And who doesn’t want to look good when you’re on stage or on film?? And keep in mind too, more and more evidence these days points to the need for at least a light weight training program as being the one to prioritize over cardio, even for women who may reluctant to lift weights for fear of bulking up. (It’s a myth.) Yes, you need to do cardio of some kind, at least some walking. But the body burns off more fat the more toned your muscle is. And the other thing about exercise of any sort is that it’s great for endorphin release, that lovely, amazing gift of a natural high our brains give us. There’s nothing like getting ready for a big day of auditioning or shooting with a burst of endorphins and the confidence and sense of well-being they deliver.

4. Sleep

This is a tough one in this world and culture where overwork is not only celebrated, it is downright fetishized. We all like to think of ourselves as tough enough to take it, whatever it may be—a day job followed by a class, followed by a rehearsal, followed by a couple hours of learning lines perhaps. But the thing is all that hard work isn’t going to do you any good if you’re exhausted the next day. Lack of sleep contributes to cognitive problems, depression, memory problems, weight gain, and it ages your skin. That sounds like a set of problems no actor wants to have! So ultimately if you are burning the candle at both ends, you are burning yourself right along with it, and that’s not doing you or your acting any good. You may not need eight full hours of sleep, but you know how much you do need, and you know when you are making decisions that are going to cut it short.

5. Relax

We also have to find time, just in terms of our general health, to relax and do nothing. We’re not talking about surfing the net or watching tv—you’ve got to find a way to take some time to do NOTHING. Meditation works for some, or there’s a great Dutch concept called Niksen that’s worth looking into, roughly defined as “doing something without purpose,” looking out a window, hanging out on a park bench, or listening to music. Give it a try! Here’s to having the best meat-coated skeleton possible to help your actor’s brain succeed!

As independent entrepreneurs marketing the product that is ourselves, it can be tough for actors to manage that most elusive of commodities: time.

We’re busier than most civilians, and we’re also more challenged on the time front, if you think about it. Sorry, but if all you have to worry about is dragging your carcass into the office every day for eight or nine hours, you’ve got it easy.

We actors, on the other hand, have to juggle auditions, classes, rehearsals, marketing, learning lines on our own, and performing – and for many of us, we have a job on top of all that as well! So the next time some smug relative wants to make a snide comment about how easy acting is, you have permission to enlighten them in no uncertain terms. With a baseball bat, if necessary.

That said, there’s a rich vein of experience to be tapped right under most of our noses that many of us overlook: working on student films and indie films. Lots of actors think themselves too good, or indie films to be too amateurish for them to waste their time on them. But the truth is, no matter what stage of your career you are in, you have a lot to gain from acting in a project like this. Here’s why!

1. Just Get Better 

I once worked for this crazy woman who managed a restaurant, one of those people who are completely anal retentive and MUST have everything done their own particular, fussy little way. I remember when I was still training through one busy lunch, probably frantically slopping out soup or sloshing beverages all over the counter in my rush, and in frustration she said, “Kurt, you just…you have to…you just have to do better!” (Someone should have told her about specificity, perhaps…?) The point is that, of course, over time working on the job, I did indeed get better. But that’s the thing about experience – there is no substitute; you get better the more you do something. So any, and I mean ANY opportunity to act is a valuable learning tool if you approach it with the right attitude. You can choose to look down your nose at “the kids making their little film,” but that would be a mistake. A better choice is to throw yourself into it and surrender yourself to the project, to the give and take, to the exchange of ideas, to the spontaneous improv that inevitably comes up – and you will come out the other side a better actor than you were before. Great ideas don’t necessarily come from on high; they can be created by anyone, anytime, if you are open to seeing them.

2. Stretch Them Muscles

Remember that list of all the things we have to keep track of as actor/entrepreneurs? Classes and so forth? What most of them have in common is that they are designed to keep our instrument sharp so that when that big opportunity comes along, we won’t have to shake off any cobwebs. So instead of looking at student films or indie projects as a chore or a time-suck, a better attitude would be to think of it as a free class. As Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) says about auditions, any day you get to act is a good day.

3. Become A Leader

For most of actors starting out, many of the projects you end up working on aren’t exactly super challenging. Munching on Cheetos while grinning like a maniac, or cheering at a greenscreen ball game as though it was akin to achieving nirvana, or being Guy Number 3 in a bar scene is often the type of work we get when we do get work. And any work is good! That’s not to denigrate getting paid to act, not in any way. But – and this holds true even for many, many actors well into their careers – when you work on smaller projects you can find yourself instantly catapulted to leading man or woman. How many indie films have you seen where an actor you’ve known only as a character actor or a supporting player in big Hollywood productions gets a chance to shine as the lead? This could be you, when you work with students and on small indie productions.

4. Connect The Dots

As we all know, networking is a huge part of being a working actor. And any project you work on, you make connections that can lead who knows where. Just because someone is a film student now doesn’t mean they always will be. Not to mention that the other actors, crew and everyone else associated with making a film – whether it be a student project or an indie – is a potential gold mine for connections for immediate work and for future projects. These people, after all, are not only in the industry – they ARE the industry. They are working on other projects constantly and thus they know who is need of what kind of actor. Get yourself on an indie or a student film and watch your network expand exponentially!

5. This Could Be The Start of Something Big

Everybody has to start somewhere. And for more and more big-name stars these days, that somewhere is in indie and student films. With the ubiquity of YouTube and countless other outlets where original work can be posted and seen, and with the interconnectedness of everyone and everything these days, there’s just no telling who could see your work on an indie or a student film – nor where it could lead. The notion that you need to be in Hollywood to get your start in films is just not true anymore. One example comes to us from Texas, where an unknown weirdo got together with a few friends and made a short film, about 13 minutes give or take. That weirdo was a fellow who goes by the name of Wes Anderson, and the friends were brothers Luke and Owen Wilson. So that 13 minutes of film shot on weekends outside Austin launched at least three massive careers, not to mention seriously upping the cred of anyone who was in any way associated with it. You just never know!

6. It’s Bloody Fun!

The thing about working on big-budget films or commercials is, no matter how cool the rest of the cast is, and how friendly and open the director and producers are, there is always going to be some undercurrent of pressure. Those huge crews and massive sets and locations don’t come cheap, and time is money. So there’s that kind of pressure, but also there’s the kind you put on yourself. You are always on some level thinking about your career on those jobs. You always are at least circumstantially aware that the work you are doing here counts. But working indie films and student films – while still work and while you still are going to strive to do your best – are so much more relaxed and fun. I have never laughed so much or had such a good time as when I’ve worked on smaller indie projects.

So get down to the film school where you live, or check out a job board website and find yourself some  smaller projects to work on! What are you waiting for?

Let’s be honest, just among us actors for a moment. We like it when civilians say things like, “Oh acting must be so hard! How do you remember all those words? How do you get up there in front of people?”

For some of us, we not only like it-we revel in it. Things like that make us feel special, reminds us that what we do isn’t easy and it isn’t for everyone.

But just between us, acting is damn fun too, isn’t it? Its our dirty little secret: if you do this acting thing, and you stick with it, that means you really, really enjoy it.

Which is why its so hard and so frustrating when you hit those moments where you just aren’t inspired. For most of us, once you’re into the performance part of it, getting ready to go in front of the camera or on stage, inspiration comes naturally.

However, sometimes the tedium and repetition of the audition process can drain the thing we love of all joy, and rob us of our inspiration. Here are a few things to keep in mind to keep it fresh and to keep yourself inspired for auditioning – so you can get that job performing!

1. Inspiration Doesn’t Always Come Easy

Author M. Somerset Maugham, whom you may remember from high school lit classes as the author who wrote “Of Human Bondage” was known to have said some version of the following:

“I only write when I am inspired. Luckily, I am inspired every morning at 9:00.”

What can we take from this? Well, like an author, as actors it’s our job to be inspired. We don’t have the privilege of waiting around for lightning to strike – we have to conjure it. And that is a useful mental image to carry with you as you go through the process of creating inspiration: think of yourself as an alchemist or a magician, conjuring out of nothingness the spirit and joy and love that is inherent in acting. If you receive your sides for an audition, and then print them out and leave them sitting on the coffee table while you “just check out a couple of quick things” on your social media feed or see what’s been added to Netflix recently, all the while waiting for inspiration to strike, you could be waiting a long while. It’s our JOB to go on the attack when it comes to inspiration, to sink our teeth into whatever the project is full force and wring every bit of life out of it we can. Waiting won’t do. So time for the work…

2. Get Started

Much like Maugham’s words about sitting down at the typewriter every morning at 9 on the dot, it’s vital to inspiration that we just get rolling on the work. Do the nuts and bolts part of it first; this is the easy part. And the amazing thing about acting is that you often find inspiration in the spaces between once you’ve laid the groundwork – but you’ve got to get going first!

3. Clear Your Head

Start out by taking a couple deep breaths, clearing away any lingering prejudices or dread or whatever is holding you back that day, and pick up the sides and read them anew, as if for the first time, with a completely open mind. If you can find a way to do this, you’ll often find little nuggets of possibility buried within the text, nuggets you may have missed before if you were treating your audition preparations as a chore to be dreaded. With no pressure on yourself at this point to memorize or in any other way analyze the piece, read over it several times. How many is several? Well, Sir Anthony Hopkins is said to read a script at least a couple hundred times before he even begins rehearsals. You be the judge of how much works for you.

4. Get Out That Notebook

Let’s take another cue from Mr. Maugham and get to writing. It simply isn’t enough to just read sides and think about what is written there; you have to interact with the material more than that if you want to truly inhabit it – and not incidentally, be inspired by it. So in keeping with the above point, start out with a little free-writing: what are your initial thoughts, what strikes you about each character and the things they say to one another? What images does the piece fire up in your imagination? Who do these people remind you of, what situations in your own life, what places do you remember when you read this piece? Write it all down. You’ll be amazed at where a couple scribbled words can lead you.

5. Get Into That Character

Now hone in on your character. Are they the character driving the scene, or are they more there in support? What are they literally doing in the scene? Why are they here? Where did they just come from, literally, like what room? What were they just doing before this moment, and where will they go after? Again, some of this might sound like Scene Analysis 101, but the thing is you find inspiration in the cracks between the lines. If you don’t look closely enough to see where the cracks are, you’ll never find it.

6. Action Jackson 

Now is the time to find the various beats in the scene, assign an action to each one with a fun, electrifying verb – to seduce, to destroy, to taunt, etc., – and think about what tools you might use to achieve these actions. Then create an objective for your character that is in keeping with the spirit of the text and the author’s intent. This too should involve some electricity and some fun. Go back over everything you’ve written down, and go over the piece again a couple times with all of that in mind, and make an honest assessment that it all fits together, not only for you, but for the overall piece as well.

7. Get Away From It All

Now put down your notebook, take a deep breath, and go for a walk. Go for a run, or a bike ride. Go sit in the park and watch the old men feed the ducks. Anything. Seriously. But this isn’t meant to be more procrastination. You’ve done the nuts and bolts part of it; now is when you absorb all that you’ve put together and let it breathe a bit. Get away from it for a little while – but what you’ll likely find is that you don’t REALLY go away from it completely. If you’ve done all the above steps thoroughly, once you step away for a moment, you’ll find the work seeping into your consciousness and subconscious in ways you couldn’t have imagined before. (Maybe take that notebook along with you on your little walkabout, just in case something strikes you? Hint, hint…) And if something does pique your curiosity, you now have permission to go online and look it up, haha – perhaps something about the period or place in which the piece is set, some question of clothing or nuance to a word the author chose. Let your imagination play with the piece and roam where it will and take these snippets and look into them.

8. Play

Now its time to truly play. Imagine the piece as a jacket you’ve been trying on in the store. Now take it off and hang it up. Leave it alone for a while. Once you’ve put everything aside for a time, your sides, your notes, your thoughts and feelings on it, put that jacket back on, and go through it all again. The depth and breadth of the work you’ve done will hopefully fill out the character and your audition in ways you couldn’t have imagined, had you just memorized the words on the page! Now go get ’em!

“Insanity laughs, under pressure we’re cracking…”
– “Under Pressure” – Queen/David Bowie

Being under pressure does sometimes feel like madness is cracking us into little tiny pieces. The sense of being out of control of a situation, and even out of control of your own body–the sensation of feeling your heart racing, your voice fluttering…have you ever been at a read and noticed the paper of your sides jittering in your hands? Even if you aren’t feeling particularly nervous or shaky about what you’re doing?

That’s so weird, isn’t it?!? But these kinds of physical reactions to stress and pressure can manifest themselves in weird ways and at weird times—thus making us feel even more out of control than we were before.

The important thing to remember about pressure is that it’s usually self-inflicted. Most of the time, it’s our own expectations of ourselves, and our own imaginations, and our own fear that puts us in a place of feeling pressured. If you talk to most casting directors outside the confines of the audition room—and perhaps over a cocktail or three—you’ll find that more than anything they just want actors to relax and be themselves at auditions.

And look, it’s important also to remember that everyone puts pressure on themselves. You’re not alone. But as a professional actor who is going to have to get used to the feeling of being looked while doing a tremendously stressful, unnatural thing, there are a few steps we can take to reduce the impact pressure has on our performances. Pressure doesn’t help you perform at your peak. So…

1. Pull Your Head Out of There 

If we can agree that most pressure is put on us by our own selves, then we have to acknowledge where it comes from: our thoughts—and specifically our thoughts about ourselves. “What if I screw up? What if I forget my lines? What if I don’t get the part?” Note the subject of all those sentences—for those who weren’t too keen on grammar, the subject is “I.” And if we hearken back to our training as actors, we should all remember that that is not where our focus is supposed to be when we’re in a scene. Just strictly from an acting standpoint, if you are in a scene and the majority of what’s running through your head is thoughts about yourself, your scene is going to suffer. These actors are the ones veterans recognize as the ones who check out when they aren’t speaking: “My line, my line, my line…then you say some stuff, blah, blah,…then my line, my line…” If you are thinking about yourself, then you aren’t listening, and if you aren’t listening you aren’t in the scene. In which case, you need to work on…

2. Focus, Grasshopper

Yes, as we all already know, this is a job that comes with a lot of pressure naturally built in. When you’re acting, people are looking at you, and they are judging you. Hell, if we’re talking about auditions, people are looking at you and judging whether to hire you and pay you money so you can eat food and pay rent and stuff like that. Of course there’s pressure on us! But as actors we all also know that it is simply impossible to act—do this mad task of spinning plates while singing the Argentine national anthem while dancing the Charleston if you aren’t 100 percent focused on the work itself. So concerns like these must of necessity be put aside when you’re doing the work. Of course you have to eat; of course you have to pay rent. Of course these are concerns for all of us. But the time to be thinking about them isn’t anywhere near the audition room. You have to develop a pure and almost ruthless focus on the work itself if you are to succeed, and that involves shunting aside all the other workaday nonsense that infects our day-to-day thoughts and only focusing on the work: What does my character want? What am I trying to get from my scene partner? What are they saying to me, both in the words and between them? How do I want to make them feel? What actions shall I take to make that happen? Notice that, yes, there are plenty of first-person references in those sentences, but they refer to the character you’re playing, not to you the actor.

3. Ritual de lo Habitual

Of course, all of that is easier said than done. But there are some simple, time-honored steps you can take to help build yourself a mental space where you are able to create this kind of intense focus. Breathing exercises are a common, but uncommonly helpful pre-performance activity for countless actors. The sensation of closing your eyes and thinking only of breathing deep down to the bottom of your lungs helps clear out your mind of those annoying distracting thoughts. And the benefits of deep breathing aren’t just woo-woo pseudo-spirituality either; deep breathing also helps to physically alleviate the tension we all carry around with us in our chest, diaphragm and abdomen. But beyond breathing exercises, developing your personal method for preparing to read for an audition or preparing to perform is amazingly helpful for taking your head out of the negative and focusing it on the work. Find a certain, specific set of activities or tasks you do before performing every time without fail, a specific routine. Listening to a certain playlist, doing some push-ups or just stretching a bit while you run lines, small pockets of meditation—all of these are valid. You just have to find what works for you, but making it a ritual is key. When I was doing a lot of work on stage, I would always take a few minutes before they opened the house to lie down flat on my back on the stage and run a monologue of some sort, even one completely unrelated to the show I was performing in. It sounds silly, but for me it was grounding, and it connected me to the place where I would shortly be sharing a couple of hours with a couple hundred of my closest friends, baring my soul for them in this space. It was silly, yes, but it also became sort of sacred somehow, finding that connection. The act of doing this same silly routine night after night helped me to shunt aside all the concerns and stresses of that day and focus in on who and what I was going to be that night.

4. Visualize the Positive

If you read interviews with elite athletes, you’ll eventually find nearly every one of them at some point or another talking about “visualizing.” That picturing a successful outcome could be so valuable to someone who is striking a ball or otherwise physically altering something in the actual space of the world is incredible, when you think about it. How can what Roger Federer pictures in his mind before he hits a serve possibly matter, when he is physically so gifted and so prepared to do so? It’s also testament to how important visualizing is for people whose work is more mental—like actors. Think of it this way: if your mind is running rampant with thoughts like “What if I fail?” just before you walk into the audition room or on set or on stage, the image of failure is what you are taking along with you. Not only that, what this kind of thinking also does is to create a space where lack of failure becomes the goal. This is important: that’s NOT the same as success. There’s another useful sports analogy here, and that is when you hear about teams who aren’t playing to win, but rather “playing not to lose.” If you are reading or performing with the mental goal of simply avoiding errors, you aren’t taking your game to the level it needs to be at in order to excel. Instead of thinking “I will try not to fail,” a healthy and positive mental outlook would involve thoughts like “I’m going to go in there and have fun, and connect as best I can with these people and this material, because I have done my homework and I know what I’m doing. And by all the gods in the heavens and on the earth, I am damn good at this.”

5. Have Fun!

We act because we love to act! When you feel yourself under pressure, remember the joy of this amazing gift we have been given, and smile, because you are a rare and lucky beast. Enjoy it!

There are two topics that are talked about probably more than any other among actors trying to establish themselves. Auditions are one of them, mainly because that is the primary hoop we have to jump through in order to land the gig.

The second one is headshots, and for a related reason: auditions and headshots are the tools we use to get our foot in the door.

Yes, you must have an education in acting in order to develop the skills needed, whether it be at university, or by attending private classes and simply doing shows and films. There’s a language to acting that goes beyond the verbal that we all must continue to learn, long after college is over.

But all the skills in the world aren’t going to get you jack squat unless you get a casting director or a director or a producer to notice you. It could even be said that the headshot is more important than the audition in a way, simply because you aren’t going to get called in to read unless that headshot speaks to them. All the acting skills and all the audition technique in the world isn’t going to do you any good if the casting team’s first encounter with you is in the form of a bad selfie from your last Spring Break that you have for some inexplicable reason blown up, printed out and used as a headshot.

So let’s break down some of the biggest mistakes actors make when it comes to headshots—besides using selfies–and make sure you get that foot in the door so you can show off your skills!

1. Actor, Know Thyself

One of the biggest mistakes up-and-coming actors make with their headshots is not understanding that it is a marketing tool. And the thing about marketing is that, in order to do it effectively, your product must be specific. As much as we might hate advertising, the people who do it well understand exactly what they’re selling. And they understand exactly who they’re selling it to. Now, we can’t take a separate headshot to be used for every single role we’re going to audition for, so marketing for specific audiences is out, with the exception of perhaps a few general looks that are slightly different. Instead, what your focus needs to be on is specifically what you are selling. Far too many actors think a pretty picture of their pretty faces is going to book them work. But this kind of generic, “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” approach is a killer when it comes to getting called in to read. We often talk about focus and specificity when it comes to acting; same thing applies here. Who are you as an actor? What’s your wheelhouse? Are you a big tough grizzled type? Great. Emphasize your thousand-yard stare. Don’t try to sell yourself as a 90s sitcom dad, if that’s the case. That’s just one example. The thing to understand is that there are just too many actors out there competing for roles in every single niche and type you can imagine for a generic headshot to work in selling you. Figure out how the industry sees you and play to that type. While we all of course have range as actors and we love to push the limits of that range, you’ve also got to understand the type that you represent. This is what you are selling initially. Once you’re in the room you can sell them on your ingenuity and ability to step outside that type, but you’ve got to use your headshot to maximize your chances to get in there in the first place.

2. Cheaping Out on the Photographer

Look, headshots are expensive. Of course we all know that. And it seems like they are only getting more expensive. So the temptation for working actors trying to make ends meet is to get their buddy Dave who shot photos for the school newspaper to take their headshots for them on the cheap in order to save a few bucks. It’s understandable, but it’s also a mistake. As Oscar Wilde said, “Nowadays people know the price of everything but the value of nothing.” So here’s another way to look at the outlay for headshots: if you’re going to spend that kind of money, don’t you want the best product possible? Not to mention that this item is going to be your calling card, your potential entree into the casting room—don’t you want to give yourself the best shot possible? And what’s more, the point of headshots is to get you work so you can make money! If you’re sending out shoddy, unprofessional headshots that don’t capture an honest moment of the truth that is you—no easy feat, even for professional headshot photographers—then you are shooting yourself in the foot when it comes to booking work. It hurts, yes, but please, just spend the money to get a professional headshot photographer to do the work. Not just any photographer, but one who specializes in headshots. Your career–and your wallet–will thank you down the road.

3. The Actor Prepares

A great headshot doesn’t happen by accident. We’ve already established that you need a pro photographer who knows how to take headshots, and a solid understanding of who you are as an actor and what you are selling. Now you need to think of your headshot session as an audition, or better yet, a performance. Doing the amount and type of prep work you put into your auditions and shows is vital to bringing out your best once you’re in front of the photographer’s camera. In other words, you need to get into character before you ever get to the studio. While the character is of course you, it is also a version of you that is marketable for certain types of roles. So do some prep work on those types of roles before you go in—read some sides and monologues that you have clicked with in the past, ones that play to your strengths and your type. Dig into those types of characters. Move around in the clothes you plan to wear. Study your look in the mirror—microexpressions tell so much about us. Be certain you know what story you’re telling about yourself before you go in so you’ll be confident once you’re there. You wouldn’t go on stage or step onto a film set to shoot a scene without warming up—why on earth would you do so before creating your number one marketing tool?

4. Save the Quirkiness for Later

Okay, you’re a professional actor who is thus a creative, unique person and artist with a million ideas for original creations. That’s great. But your headshot is not the place to show that off. Too often actors trying to grab the attention of CDs use gimmicky tricks that only end up looking desperate—and off-putting. CDs look at your headshot for all of about 1.5 seconds—you’ve got that long to sell yourself in your particular niche. Don’t screw around here with wacky facial expressions, silly poses, weird artistic shots, or anything else. The time for showing off your creativity is after you get called in to read, and that isn’t going to happen if it takes the CD or producer more than a second to pigeonhole you for a role they’re looking to cast. You want to help the CD as much as you possibly can to make choosing you from the thousands of headshots they look at each week the only choice—make it easy for them, and later on you can show everyone what a creative, valuable team member you would be.

5. You Do You

This may sound like one of the simplest rules and a very obvious one, but far too many actors violate it: make sure you look like you actually look in your headshot. Nothing will get you that dreaded, curt, “Thank you, we’ll be in touch” three seconds into your monologue like showing up looking radically different from your headshot. See the note above: they take a second to look at your picture—if it doesn’t look like the person who shows up in the casting room, what was the point of them calling you in in the first place?

6. Bonus: See Last Week’s Post

For god’s sake, bring hard copy of your headshots with you to every audition! If they want to gaze at your delightful visage, who are you to deny them? (Plus that means they’re interested!)

Technology is king, let’s face it. And barring some massive disaster that launches us all into some Mad Max-type post-apocalyptic dystopia in which we can’t access our Instagram accounts (my GOD, think of the CHILDREN!) tech is here to stay.

Just as it is for everyone, technology is a huge part of the landscape of the working actor’s world, and will continue to grow more and more ubiquitous. As bandwidth gets cheaper and the hardware necessary to use it becomes ever-more sophisticated and affordable, we’re going to see tech solutions more and more commonly employed to all sorts of acting-related activities.

Take self-taping auditions. There was a time, way back in the dimmest recesses of ancient history—say around 2010—when self-taping auditions was pretty much unheard of. Sure, if some high-end, much sought-after star was in Bali at the moment when a producer desperately needed to see him or her read sides for a potential role, they probably found a way to pull it off. But for most of us, self-taped auditions  have only really become a thing recently.

But they are indeed A Thing, and they are everywhere. So it’s vital that you work up your self-tape game to the same level of confidence and professionalism that you apply to your in-person auditions. Here are a few important things to think about when you’re getting ready to self-tape.

1. Just Do It Already

Now, let’s be perfectly honest with one another: at some point we’ve all blown off an audition that we probably should have made. Things happen–like a lack of time, or rain, or hangovers–and yes, it’s crappy and not professional to not go audition, but there it is. You can’t make it out for every single one. But when it comes to self-taping, you have absolutely no excuse. You don’t even have to shower if you can manage to make yourself look presentable without one, let alone toddle your wee self out the door and into that big, bad world. How can you possibly justify blowing off a self-tape? Every time someone reaches out to you and asks you to submit a self-taped audition piece, that means there is someone thinking you might be right for a part—and possibly more than one someone. Agents and managers are often reluctant to directly tell actors that a CD or a producer saw your headshot and asked to see you, for fear of getting your hopes up, or that you might self-sabotage via heightened nervousness or a sense of pressure. But you never know who is thinking of you! As low-stress and low-time commitment as it is to self-tape an audition, you really have to take advantage of every opportunity. However…

2. Don’t Be Lazy

It may be less of a schlep to self-tape than it is to go to some shabby office across town in rush hour traffic only to wait for two hours in a room full of bored actors for your chance to read, it’s true. But that doesn’t mean you can treat self-taping auditions with anything less than total professionalism. In fact, since you control the final product, there is absolutely no reason your self-taped audition piece should be anything less than the best work you are capable of doing. When you physically go into an audition room to read, you get one, maybe two chances. Nerves, exhaustion, distractions—a million things can sabotage your read. Not so with self-taping. If you don’t get it right, cut and start over. Learn your sides until you know them cold, work with your reader until they get sick of you, and don’t settle for anything less than perfection—since all you have to do is hit “delete” if it turns out to be anything less.

3. Don’t Show Us Your Bedroom

Speaking of professionalism, you absolutely have to take the time and put in the effort to make your self-taped audition look as clean and professional as possible. Set yourself up with a clean background–perhaps not stark, hospital white–but at least a lighter-colored blank wall, a clean sheet or ideally a curtain, as the folds in the fabric lend some depth. Make sure you wear neutral colors that neither blend in nor clash horribly with the background. And for the love of all that is holy, make sure there isn’t a lot of visible clutter. You don’t want the CD or producers trying to figure out what the hell that jumble of things is on the shelf behind you, or commenting on your messy room while you’re trying to emote. Make sure the focus is on you.

4. Ready for Your Close-Up

With camera quality on phones and computers these days, you don’t have to invest in a separate camera, but make sure you use the highest quality possible settings on your phone—a newish one, please—for recording. A tripod or a phone clip is a cheap and worthwhile investment. And take the time to learn how to do some simple edits, like trim the bit before you start and after you finish, and add a fade-in/fade-out. A simple title with your name, the date, and the role you’re reading for can’t hurt. And make sure you’re in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. Your mom screaming at you to pick up that messy room while you’re reading isn’t a good look.

5. Follow the Instructions 

Nothing will kill your self-tape audition faster than not doing what you are asked to do. Many producers will have specific instructions for the actors they’re looking at, and they want it to be standardized as they go through the submissions. Think about every cattle call audition you’ve ever done where you go through the standard list—smile, profile, other profile, turn, etc. This isn’t the part where you want to stand out; just do what they ask. They may want a full body shot, or tight close-up or some specific information on the slate. So make sure you read the original email very carefully before you send off something incomplete or incorrect. If you seem to be someone who can’t follow simple directions for a self-taped audition, why should they think you’ll be able to take direction on set?

6. Submit Early and Often

While you do have the luxury of taking the time to produce the perfect audition when you’re self-taping, you don’t have all the time in the world. Getting your self-tape in earlier rather than later is a potential bonus. Why? With so many actors sending in audition tapes, the casting team is unlikely to wait until the actual deadline to start processing them. Rather, they will probably start working their way through them as soon as possible, especially if there are a lot. Putting yourself at the front of the pack can be a big plus in your favor. Who knows, they may decide they’re finished with casting your role once they come across your piece, before they even finish looking at the rest!

7. Slate Separately

A great way to ensure that you are taking the time to fully get into character and to demonstrate for the casting team the difference between you, the actor, and the character you’re reading for is to shoot your slate scene separately from your actual audition piece. You’re going to send them in as one file, but if you cut after your slate, then roll again when you’re ready to read, it provides a clean break and a clear transition. Also, when you slate you’re looking directly into the camera, along with doing whatever else the producers have asked for. Flipping the switch to “in character” while the camera is off is your best bet for a clean and watchable audition piece.

Ultimately, in order to take advantage of the boom in self-taped auditions, you have to devote yourself to preparing your self-tapes just as professionally and thoroughly as you do your in-person auditions. In fact, since you are saving time you would otherwise use getting to the in-person audition, not to mention waiting to read, you have even more of an opportunity to prepare your best work!

And don’t forget to self-submit at the most widely-read site for CDs, agents and producers!

It’s a mad, mad, mad digital world out there, and we’re all caught up in it to some degree. No matter how badly we might like to escape from the constant pull of the digital screen demanding our attention, it’s simply a fact of life these days.

But there are also some truly wonderful things that come with the digital life, especially for actors. Many of us can’t imagine it, but back in the “good old days” agencies and casting agents did their casting via thousands of manila envelopes mailed back and forth containing actors’ headshots and resumes. One prominent L.A. CD said that in her first job as an intern way back when, she was responsible for opening and sorting through 150-200 such envelopes every day.

I know, right?

Just the mere fact of New York and L.A. agencies going digital in the past couple decades has probably put a huge dent in the US Postal Service’s revenues.

But even in an era where smart phones, tablets and computers carry the life-blood of society and keep us connected in so many ways, there are still far too many actors out there who haven’t fully taken advantage of the huge potential for connecting with agents, casting directors, and producers via the internet. Here are a few suggestions on how to take your social media game to the next level!

1. Naming Rights 

Grab your name right away when you join a new platform, or even if you haven’t joined it yet and are just exploring it. If someone else already has your name, add “actor” or “official.” You can check to see if your name is available on multiple sites using https://namecheckr.com/ Being easily searchable is a huge feature of modern technology—imagine those old-school casting directors searching through the actual, physical phone book for an actor’s number if they ever lost it! The point of getting hold of your actual name is so you will come up under a variety of platforms in one search. If a casting director is interested in you they might look you up to check out your style and previous work—don’t confuse the issue by giving yourself half a dozen unrelated cutesy handles!

2. Heading to the Top

In keeping with the idea of establishing yourself in one easy-to-search name is the idea of using your actual headshot across all your social media platforms. This makes it easier to identify you when someone is searching for you. Plus, repetition sells! Ask Don Draper or his spawn currently operating in the advertising universe. Seeing your awesomely professional headshot, one that conveys a great story about you and your personality over and over can have a positive effect on how casting directors and producers see you. Keeping your face in front of their eyes as much as possible works to your advantage.

3. Keep it Professional

This isn’t to say that you should sanitize your profiles and scrub them of anything fun, or take down your vacation pics where you were seen with a basketball-sized margarita or anything. However, if you are hoping to take your career as a professional actor to the next level, you might at least consider what kind of story you are telling about yourself via your social media posts—not only to your friends, but to people who have never met you. If every post of you seems to be something about raging late into the night, doing shots, or otherwise going wild, you will create an impression for people who might be considering hiring you in a professional capacity, and it might not be the one you want to create.

4. The World Through My Eyes

Also, think carefully about what your sites look like in general. Visualize what impression a stranger is going to get from your profiles before they even read a word. As stated above, your headshot should feature prominently. But also you should consider the appearance of your header photo, your cover photos, and the artwork you feature on your profiles or websites. Much like with any website, if viewers are greeting with an insane, seizure-inducing attack of anime-style slashing colors and auto-play sounds, you’re not going to keep anyone around very long—including casting directors.

5. Fwd: Fwd: Fwd:

You should also pay close attention to what you choose to repost and pass along that comes from other sources. Yes, it often seems as though everything on the internet these days comes from somewhere else. (Is there a factory on a distant planet somewhere that produces original content and funnels it down here for us Earthlings to share and reshare over and over again? Because nobody here seems to be MAKING anything…) But the thing is, even if you didn’t write it or create the meme, it is incumbent on you to consider how it might look to strangers thinking of hiring you. Check out the ENTIRE piece you are posting, and check out the source material too if it is in any way controversial. Remember the story of Senator Paul Ryan a few weeks ago proudly posting a story about a secretary who had tweeted that her additional savings from the recent tax cut would net her about $1.50 a week–enough to “pay for her Costco membership,” he crowed in a tweet. Unfortunately the Senator’s staff didn’t read the article very closely, because the secretary’s take on it was hardly complimentary to Ryan and the Republicans. Know what you’re talking about if you repost, and be able to back it up if questioned. And you might consider leaving the truly loopy stuff out of it altogether, or saving it for your (non-acting) blog, or for posting on the Tinfoil Hat Times or wherever.

6. Bio-logical 

Get your bio looking sharp and up-to-date. Enlist a writer friend if you are having trouble, but get yourself a clean, easy-to-read bio that is truthful, but also not shy about sharing your accomplishments. Union memberships should feature prominently, as should recent and bigger roles. There are tons of great tutorials out there on how to really capture people’s attention with a good Twitter or Instagram bio, if you do a quick search.

7. The Network Is Not Down

Now it’s time to make sure you are networking in the best way possible. Reach out to everyone you meet via their favorite platform and make sure to keep them updated on all your projects and your latest posts. However, it’s important too to keep in mind the true meaning of the word “network.” It is a “system of lines or channels that cross and interconnect.” A big mistake a lot of actors and people in general make in terms of social media is mistaking the purpose of it. It’s for multiple people to share with one another, and connect back and forth. It’s not a one-way megaphone for you to trumpet your glory and await your subjects to bow down and show their admiration. Actors who only post about themselves and don’t show support or interest in anyone else’s projects get real boring real fast. You by yourself are just not as interesting as you are as part of a group of like-minded people. Creators thrive among other creators; develop a network of people with interests similar to your own. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but the less time you spend focused on yourself and your own projects and the more time you put into interacting with others on their projects, the wider you spread your sphere of influence, and the more interested parties you end up crossing digital paths with—thus ultimately drawing more attention to you and your own stuff. Spread the love, and the love will come back to you!

There are a few workplace norms that are seen as old-fashioned, relics from another era. Suits and ties on men are rapidly giving way to a casual Friday look that begins on Monday and lasts all week. And if you know of a workplace where they swill lunchtime cocktails like they did in the Mad Men era, please pass along my resume.

And while technological changes have altered things somewhat–we stay in touch through a myriad of digital platforms much more so than we once did by phone, for instance–some norms remain.

For instance, people still hand out business cards.

And when you’re an actor, your business card is your headshot. That’s why it’s so insane to hear so many stories lately of actors who go to auditions without bringing one.

In fact, for actors its even worse than the analogy of business cards: to be an actor going to an audition without a headshot is like leaving the house without any pants.

Here are a few reasons why.

1. Because you want to stand out–in a good way

One recent conversation with a prominent CD in New York revealed her observation that up to a third of actors these days are going to auditions without a headshot. Which side do you want to be on, the side who has a hard copy for the casting team to use to compare and contrast your face with other possible casting choices? Or do you want to be the actor who has to sheepishly make excuses for not having one of the basic tools of the trade at the exact moment when it is most needed? Headshots have been around for a very long time and are still so widely used even in this digital era for a very good reason: a good headshot tells a story about who you are as a person and as an actor. If it’s done right, a headshot should make an emotional connection with the person viewing it. You take that away when you are trying to get yourself cast in something and instead leave the CD looking at a black and white, typed list of your previous work and you’re doing yourself no favors.

2. It’s your business card, yes, but it’s also your FACE, for God’s sake

Look, we all agree, your acting is the vital thing in regard to booking work. It’s what we do, after all. But ask yourself this: how are they going to remember that awesome acting of yours with your smiling face looking up at them? Yes, they’ve already seen your headshot. Yes they definitely have a digital copy of it. They may even have hard copy. But one thing you definitely do not want to do is deprive the casting team of any opportunity to think about you–especially when other actors will have their own headshots there. We spend so much time and energy trying to put our faces out there and get them in front of people via social media and our performances—what are you thinking by not putting your face in front of the people who literally can make or break your next job opportunity?

3. Lots of CDs are old school

This isn’t meant to slag on anyone, merely to point out a simple truth: people who came from the era of casting via piles of headshots that were sent to them in the mail are not likely to change their style. It’s the most tactile, not to say visual means of separating actors onto groups to see who might fit best with other potential cast members. You’ve got to be in the mix if you want to want to win the fight. And although the actors’ viewpoint of castings these days is a row of open laptops, that still doesn’t mean your digital resume is readily available. If they want hard copy, you should be able to give it to them.

4. Why did you pay all that money for headshots if you aren’t going to use them?

We get it. Headshots are expensive. They’re only getting more so. But nobody is suggesting you get a hundred of them printed and start handing them out to everyone from your dry cleaner to your doorman to that weirdo on the corner who hears the CIA’s secret radio broadcast through his fillings. But for the sake of all that is holy just have one or two with you when you go audition, right? You’re paying all that money for them in order to book jobs, not hoard your headshots like Smaug sitting on a pile of gold in The Hobbit. You pay all that money for headshots as a tool to get you jobs so you can make more money. And as our CD friend says, it’s “a real shot in the foot” for actors to have to say they don’t have a headshot when asked for one. Why is that? Because if they’re asking you for a headshot THEY ARE INTERESTED IN YOU. To that end…

5. Don’t make the CD’s job harder

The casting director wants to cast you. The really do. They want you to make the choice a slam dunk for them, to thoroughly inhabit the role with a confidence and grace that makes it impossible for them to choose anyone but you. But as soon as you start putting roadblocks in their way, your chances of a slam dunk plummet. This is not to say that it is impossible to get cast without a hard copy headshot. But just make it as easy as possible for them to choose you. Don’t be the player who had a wide open dunk who flubs it at the last second and clunks it off the back of the rim. Bring your headshot. There’s just no good reason not to.

“Acting is not being emotional, but being able to express emotion. ”
–Kate Reid 

“Some actors I have met possess an intelligence that I can only dream of. It’s about character, it’s about behavior. They understand things about people that I simply don’t see.”
–Ron Silver

As actors, we walk a tricky line every day we practice our craft. It requires a hefty investment of intellect, but to be a great actor you also have to be able to readily access your emotions. Sometimes that big ol’ brain is more a hindrance than a help.

One example of our brains tripping us up and getting in the way is an audition experience that is familiar to most of us at one time or another: you’re well-prepared, you do your due diligence, you’re totally comfortable with the lines and the role—you feel confident and ready to do your best work.

But moments before your name is called, suddenly you’re seized with doubt. You get nervous. For no good reason at all, you stammer and stutter through lines you had nailed cold that morning in your house.

WTF, brain?

And while this is a common experience and one that most of us will go through at one time or another, there are nonetheless some mental tricks we can play on ourselves to reduce the possibility of our brains betraying us. Here are few audition mindset errors and quick fixes!

1. But What Do They Want?

This is a crippling mindset to take with you into the audition room. If you’ve read the sides, familiarized yourself with the character and the piece and set yourself up with a strong, achievable objective, you’re all set. Beyond that, there is literally no way you can access the inner thoughts of the casting team to try to figure out what exactly they are looking for, so stop trying to!

Quick Fix: You are here to do a job, and you are a professional who has prepared for this. You ARE the right person for the job. Take that mindset into the room with you, along with a sense of openness and play, a willingness to talk, to listen, and to roll with what you are given. It’s not about whether you can squeeze yourself and contort yourself to fit into the role. It’s about making them see the real you and all your uniqueness, and how the role can and should be molded to fit you.

2. Running Your Own Race

In the down time waiting for your turn to read, of course as curious actors we’re going to look around the room and take in the other actors who are also waiting. But a crucial mistake many actors make is to do “pre-casting” in their heads before they read. You see someone with “the perfect look” and you sabotage yourself by psyching yourself out, ruining your chances before you even begin.

Quick Fix: Remember that visualization is a powerful tool—and that negative visualization is just as strong as positive. So instead of picturing the stellar, incredible audition that the chisel-jawed actor next to you is going to deliver, visualize instead your own strength and power as an actor. You know what you’re doing, so mentally prepare yourself to do it. You can’t run anyone else’s race but your own. The only thing you have control over is you and your work, so picture it going well!

3. Locked And Loaded

There is such a thing as being over-rehearsed. One symptom of this is when you have pounded the lines into your head to such a degree in one particular way that you find yourself unable to imagine them any differently. This phenomenon manifests often with less experienced actors growing frustrated with a reader who is “doing it wrong.” The danger here is a profound misunderstanding of how acting really works: it is fluid, dynamic and changes constantly. That’s why performers can act in eight shows a week on Broadway for months or even years on end: every show really, truly is different.

Quick Fix: A great way to prevent this rigid mindset afflicting your audition is to remember that acting is all about play—we even call it “playing” a role, right? So while doing the work of learning your sides, make sure you reserve yourself some time for having some fun with it. Try out different accents, different levels, different tactics. Try learning your sides in different places too—this is also a great exercise for helping you get the lines more solidly down. Run lines while you’re doing dishes, walking the dog, commuting, working out—while you’re anywhere and doing anything, really. And keeping your mind open and your sense of playfulness when you hit the audition room will help show you off as a versatile and adaptable actor who can think and act on his or her toes.

4. You’ve Got Nothing To Prove

Eleanor Roosevelt famously said that no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. The same concept applies to auditioning and acting: if you walk into the audition room with something to prove, it shows. It reads as desperation and it also prevents you from fully focusing on the work at hand.

Quick Fix: You are here to audition not because there is a possibility you might be right for the role, it’s because you ARE right for the role. They wanted you here for a reason: something in your headshot, your smile, your experience, or your first audition sparked an interest in the casting team. The trick now is to be fully engaged as yourself and connecting fully with every ounce of your free, crazy energy and the joy you take in performing and letting all of that shine out like a beacon they cannot ignore.

5. Forget About The Job

Related to the previous point, if you walk into the audition carrying an urgent need to book the job for whatever reason, it shows. It reads like a literal weight sometimes when you see actors desperate to book a job. Yes, of course its nice to think about landing a dream role or getting a big fat paycheck. But visions of shopping sprees or critical accolades resulting from a role you are currently auditioning for is a sure-fire way to sabotage your audition performance and thus prevent that fantasy from coming true. A man can’t serve two masters, and that certainly applies to our brains. If you’re not focused on the work, then the work will suffer.

Quick Fix: You’re here to act because you love to act. You love the joy it brings you, and you love the fun of it. That’s where your mind should be when you are auditioning, taking advantage of this opportunity to act. As the Beatles said, “There’s no where you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be,” and this is a useful mantra to keep in mind as you navigate the loopy world of the professional actor. The roles we book are the right ones for us to book, and the roles we don’t book free us to pursue some other opportunity. There is no “coulda, shoulda, woulda” in acting, there is only now. Be in the now when you audition, and you will find yourself in the roles you’re meant to play!

“There’s nothing like getting yourself into character and seeing a different person. It really wears on your vanity.”
–Elizabeth Moss

If you’ve ever gotten to meet a truly great actor just after they have performed a role on stage, you might have been surprised by just how different they are face to face.

Of course, we all know that the character on the stage or in the film isn’t the same as the person playing him or her. However, to see and hear that actor up close, to witness their transformation in that context can still be a bit shocking.

So how do they do it? As actors we all have those friends and colleagues who seem to effortlessly slip into character just before a performance or an audition–what’s their secret? Here are a few techniques that can help ease your way into getting into character more smoothly and quickly.

1. Inside Out

The truth is the real secret to great acting is hard work. As much as we lionize and admire masterful actors like Daniel Day Lewis and Meryl Streep for their seemingly effortless gift for playing characters, the truth is that all the greats are incredibly hard workers. Sure, there is such a thing as inborn talent. But without hard work that talent would wither and die. So the first step to playing a character is to know who you are. Research, research, research. You should know the piece backward and forward, the era, the time of year, time of day, etc. You should also know where you are coming from. As Michael Shurtleff, author of the seminal actor’s handbook “Audition” says, “Every scene you will ever act begins in the middle, and it is up to you, the actor, to provide what comes before.” And this applies not just to the literal moments leading up to the scene you’re about to play–you also have to know your character as you know yourself. What made them who they are today? What kind of childhood did they have? Imagine some experiences that may have shaped them as you yourself have been shaped. The more you can take the time to do this kind of background work and internalize this sort of research, the easier it will be to slip into the skin of your character when the moment comes.

2. Outside In

So that takes care of the internal part of the character. Now for the external. You may hear some actors refer to themselves as “inside-out” actors, or “outside-in” actors. This usually refers to whether they approach the creation of the character from the internal, mental and emotional base, or if they approach it from the externalities, like a limp or other physical mannerisms, or a costume or wig or something like that. It’s important to building a genuine character to use both internals and externals, but once you’ve locked in a solid way of physically being with the character, it becomes much easier to slip into it. Just to look at one example: is your character shy? Or bold? Think about how that will affect the set of his or her shoulders, the way they walk, the way make and hold eye contact, etc. As you’re learning the lines, get up and move around. How do the words you’re saying make you feel, in a physical sense? Every real actual human being in the world is made up of layer upon layer of psychological, emotional, and mental baggage that informs how we move and speak–in order to play a genuine character you need to build up a simulacrum of that. It sounds silly, but it’s amazing how easy it is to “put on” a character once you’ve established a physical shell for him or her to reside in.

3. Where Are You Going

That gets us to the present, how the character became who and what they are, and what forces shaped them, both mentally and physically. Now it’s time to focus on what is to come for the character. What do you want as the character? What is your objective in the scene and in the overall piece? This is obviously Acting 101-level stuff that we all know and will have worked on by now. But it’s vital that you take a little extra care here, in order to get yourself in a state where you are truly inhabiting the character. Too many of us go into an audition thinking about what we wore (Is it right? Is it wrong? Is it too much? Too little?) worrying about forgetting lines, thinking about what the casting director might be looking for, (Am I too fat/thin/old/young?). Or perhaps we’re simply dreaming about what we’re going to do with all that filthy lucre once we land the gig. In other words, our minds are in million pieces and in a million places that have nothing to do the character we’re supposed to be playing. So as backwards as it may sound, just before stepping into the audition room or into the scene, stop thinking about the lines for a moment and instead really focus on what you want as the character. What are you trying to make happen? As humans we’re all driven by our desires, both hidden and apparent. In order to play a genuine character, you must let those desires come to the fore.

4. Focus

As discussed, so much of what we see as great, natural ease with acting is really the result of hard work. That holds true for getting into character as well. Acting requires a tremendous amount of concentration. When you’re acting, you’re pulling off an insane balancing act: saying words that you know by heart but that must appear to be spontaneous, and portraying a person that is you, but not really you–in other words you must “…behave truthfully under imaginary circumstances,” as Sanford Meisner said. In order to do that you need to focus yourself. If you’re in a busy audition waiting room, try to find a quiet corner when your time is coming up. Take some deep breaths and focus all your energy on the previous background work you’ve done. Sure, it’s possible to go directly from a silly conversation with another actor about last weekend’s party into playing a character, but you’re likely to have better results if you take the time to properly focus your energies.

5. Believe

So much of what comes out in our words and behaviors originates in nothingness. That is, a thought is just the electrochemical firing of communication between neurons in our brains, a tiny, infinitesimal bit of energy. You can’t weigh a thought; you can’t measure it physically. Yet those thoughts can manifest in very real externals: nervous sweat, red-faced anger, tears of sorrow. So the first step to playing a genuine character is to believe in yourself as the actor who is right to play him or her. Confidence–like nervousness, anger, or sadness–radiates outwards and manifests in our physicality. If you believe in yourself as an actor, your belief in your character will reflect that. Let go of doubt, and take all the hard work you’ve done to get where you are, and let it shine. The result will be a genuine, deep, and rich character!

So you’ve been cast in your dream job, and you’ve got an entire script to digest.

First, congrats on breaking all the legs!

But if you’re like most actors, that elation wears off pretty quickly. It’s almost immediately replaced by a feeling of dread at the monster script you are tasked with not only memorizing, but absorbing and making your own.

ARGGGH! Panic time!

Well, first of all take a deep breath. Whether you need to memorize something for performance, or for an audition to land that dream role, there are certain methods and thought processes that can make the task more manageable.

1. Eat That Whale

Do you know the best way to eat a whale? One bite at a time.

As disgusting as that image might appear in your mind’s eye, the metaphor is apt when it comes to memorization. It’s super easy, especially for imaginative folks like actors, to allow our minds to jump miles ahead of where we actually are. Ever experienced a chain of thoughts like this? “Yay, I got the role! Whoo-hoo! Okay…look at that huge script…Oh god this is going to be tough…I don’t have much time…oh man, there’s no way I can get all that down…oh god I’m never going to make it…I’m going to fail…they’re going to realize they made a huge mistake and that I’M A TERRIBLE ACTOR OH GOD KILL ME NOW!!!”

Well, first of all, stop it. Just stop. This entire sequence of thoughts can be derailed right at the start if you focus instead on the small tasks within the larger one. A script is a series of scenes, each of which is a series of sentences, each of which is a series of words. Take your mind off the big picture task and focus on the small ones that make up the larger one.

2. Imagine 

Once you’ve got your mindset ratcheted down to focusing on bite-sized nuggets, now’s the time to use that active actor’s imagination. If you just look at the words on the page as dry, flat things that you need to somehow cram into your head one after the other, you’re going to have a bad time. Instead of killing yourself over not memorizing quickly enough, slow down a little and let the imagery of the piece wash over you. What are the colors, the smells, what’s the light like in the scene, what are you wearing, who are you talking to, what do they look like to you, as conveyed by the words in the script? Once you’ve got a feel for that, take imagery to the next level: what pictures or sensations or feelings do you associate with the words in a given line? A rudimentary imitation of the famous “memory palace” of Sherlock Holmes fame is to associate words with something separate from the word itself, but distinct and somehow related: if a phrase contains the word “sorrowful,” you might think “blue” as in sad, then in your mind’s eye, picture a blue sky or Van Gogh’s “Starry Night.” This is a great exercise in helping your mental agility via a sort of mental play, one that you can utilize throughout a script.

3. A Novel Approach

Too often when confronted with a script to memorize, we immediately put ourselves in a negative mindset, viewing it as a task or a chore. As any kid in school or taking piano lessons will tell you, even 30 minutes of homework or practice time can seem like an eternity, if you’re dreading it. So take the time to wash that negativity away. Relax a little. When you first sit down to start memorizing, don’t memorize. No, really. Read the script as if it were a short story or a novel. Imagine yourself in there, really in that world. Let the flow of the entire piece wash over you, the ups and downs of energy, the shifts in tone and emotion, just as if you were reading a good book. Legend has it that Anthony Hopkins reads a script 100 or more times before even agreeing to do the film or play. Now, we may not all have that kind of time, but there’s something to be said for absorbing the overall piece rather than just beating it into your brain a line at a time by sheer brute force. A healthy combination of both might be optimal.

4. You’re Better Than You Blink

Did you notice the weird word in the header above? That comes from a Malcolm Gladwell pop-science book titled “Blink.” In it he goes a long way toward showing that human mental and emotional processing is much more subtle, and much more subterranean than we think. The title comes from the notion–proven time and again in studies he cites–that even before our conscious mind processes something, we already KNOW about it, whether it be a person, a problem, or a situation. Our minds do some sort of jujitsu that we don’t really understand even before we actually have time to think–in the blink of an eye, in other words. Take this to heart as you memorize: you’re getting more than you think you are, and your mind is better at this than you realize. Again it comes down to mindset: are you are filled with tension and pressure to memorize? Or are you open, engaged, and ready to take in what’s there? Makes a world of difference.

5. Get Behind 

I really liked this idea I got from a director years ago: stop calling it memorizing. When people recite “memorized” things it comes out like kids saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Instead, focus on comprehending. Get the meanings behind the words and phrases, and the words themselves will come as you go along. And if it’s for an audition, having a strong sense of the scene and where your character is coming from and where he or she is going via the words is a million times more important than nailing every vowel and consonant perfectly.

6. Bonus Tip: Practice Makes Perfect

As in all things, the more you memorize, the better you get at it. Memorizing a script gets easier the more times you do it, and the more you do it successfully, the more confidence you’ll have next time around. But you can’t build confidence without a positive outlook, so if you let go of the self-judgment and instead allow the script to flow into you in a more organic way, you will not only absorb the material more fully, you will have more fun doing it!

As actors we are very lucky–for a lot of reasons.

One, the job is fun! We literally get to play every time we audition, rehearse or perform. Not many people can say that about their jobs.

Another reason we should be thankful is that one peculiarity of the work of acting is that you can learn so much about it just by watching other people do it.

When you think about it, this is a rarity. An accountant can’t learn accounting by simply watching someone enter numbers in a ledger. A golfer can’t learn much by watching golf on TV. You don’t want to fly with a pilot who learned his craft simply by watching YouTube videos of other pilots.

Granted, like those accountants and golfers, actors too at some point have to get out there and do it themselves. However, one way we can help ourselves and our craft in our down time is by watching others act. So instead of expending your precious brain cells on the entertainment with the nutritive equivalent of cotton candy like reality television, do yourself a favor next time you spend an evening in and check out some of these films.

1. The Godfather

Consistently making the top of most lists of the greatest films of all time is Francis Ford Coppolla’s 1972 masterpiece based on Mario Puzo’s novel of the same name. It’s also a master class in acting from some of the top actors of the modern age–Marlon Brando (who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Don Corleone), Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall convey all the tension, stress, conflicting desires and internal and external power struggles of a mobster family navigating the handover of control from one generation to the next. And don’t forget the Corleone women: Dianne Keaton and Talia Shire, while underrepresented in the uber-masculine world of this mafia tale, still have powerful moments to shine. Shot in an era before CGI, the film mostly relies on the basics of acting rather than explosions and superheroes “flying” in front of green screens: people in a room who want things from each other and are willing to fight to achieve their objectives. Watch, re-watch and then watch it again.

2. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

We’re going back in time even further, and that raises the danger of losing some of you, but if you take a short time travel journey to check out this film, your acting skills could benefit greatly. Nominated for seven Oscars and taking home two for John Ford as best director and Jane Darwell as best actress, this study of one family’s desperation and hardship during the Dust Bowl years of the Great Depression is anchored by the stoic, simple, and quiet power of Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. If you want a lesson on how to act without “being actory,” in other words, the value of stillness and playing the scene rather than playing for an emotion, you have to watch this performance. Fonda’s every thought and emotion is apparent, even when he is silent.

3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Power couple from old school Hollywood Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor take an absolutely demonic delight in eviscerating each other emotionally as an unhappily married couple in this film version of Edward Albee’s play. Sandy Denny and George Segal as a younger couple drawn into their bitter web are also fantastic. If you needed any more proof, consider that this film was the first film in over 30 years to be nominated for an Academy Award in every single category for which it was eligible. And check out Burton’s own take on director Mike Nichols’ style and skill: “He conspires with you, rather than directs you, to get your best. He’d make me throw away a line where I’d have hit it hard…and he was right every time.” This film is swordplay without the swords and contains a million tiny and epic lessons for the actor.

4. The Silence of the Lambs

A little bit more modern, and perhaps not at the top of everyone’s list when it comes to the greatest films of all time, but nonetheless Jonathan Demme’s psychological thriller took home five Oscars, so they must have done something right. Indeed, if you want a compact lesson in how actors use various tactics to achieve their objectives and get other characters to do what they want them to, you could do worse than re-watching the scenes featuring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Hannibal Lecter is only on screen for about 24 minutes, but he nonetheless dominates the piece. In fact, everything about Hopkins’ performance is a study in economy for the actor, not just his miniscule screen time. His ability to use stillness, and to let the words do the work rather than pushing to imbue them with anything inorganic is masterful, and indeed won him an Academy Award for best actor. One interesting tidbit: when Lecter and Agent Starling first meet and he mocks her southern accent, Jodie Foster says that Hopkins improvised that bit, and she thought for a moment he was deriding her dialect as one actor to another. So her shock and discomfort are very real at that moment and lend the scene an additional authenticity. You never know where improv will lead!

5. Whiplash

Finally, you say, we get to a film from this century! But this amazing film is destined to become a classic not only because of the tremendous, complex, and nuanced performances from leads Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons–who took home an Oscar for his troubles. Beneath the adrenaline and violence and machismo and frankly abusive nature of the relationship between these two, it’s ultimately an old-school film that is more like a play, in the sense of how we are placed in a room with the duo. We are up close and personal as this high-stakes game unfolds, and in the end it’s the relationship between the two of them that is important, not jazz or drumming or success. On the other hand, another great reason for actors to watch or re-watch this film is that it’s a case study in the sacrifice, hard work and commitment required to achieve the top level in an art form. How far are you willing to go? What discomfort are you willing to endure to achieve your dreams? These themes and more that are contained in this film are vital for anyone serious about making living as an actor.

The SAG Awards are taking place Sunday night, recognizing top performances in television and film.

Kristen Bell is serving as the ceremony’s first-ever host, while presenters include Emma Stone, Halle Berry, Dakota Fanning, Lupita Nyong’o, and Kelly Marie Tran. Morgan Freeman will receive the life achievement award.

Follow along below for a winners list, updated live as they’re announced.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series:
Millie Bobby Brown, “Stranger Things”
Claire Foy, “The Crown” (WINNER)
Laura Linney, “Ozark”
Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale”
Robin Wright, “House of Cards”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series:
Jason Bateman, “Ozark”
Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us” (WINNER)
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
David Harbour, “Stranger Things”
Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
Laura Dern, “Big Little Lies”
Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies” (WINNER)
Jessica Lange, “Feud: Bette & Joan”
Susan Sarandon, “Feud: Bette & Joan”
Reese Witherspoon, “Big Little Lies”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:
Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock”
Jeff Daniels, “Godless”
Robert De Niro, “The Wizard of Lies”
Geoffrey Rush, “Genius”
Alexander Skarsgard, “Big Little Lies” (WINNER)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role:
Steve Carell, “Battle of the Sexes”
Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
Woody Harrelson,”Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (WINNER)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role:
Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
Hong Chau, “Downsizing”
Holly Hunter, “The Big Sick”
Allison Janney, “I, Tonya” (WINNER)
Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series:
“Black-ish”
“Curb Your Enthusiasm”
“GLOW”
“Orange is the New Black”
“Veep” (WINNER)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series:
Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black”
Alison Brie, “GLOW”
Jane Fonda, “Grace and Frankie”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep” (WINNER)
Lily Tomlin, “Grace and Frankie”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series:
Anthony Anderson, “Black-ish”
Aziz Ansari, “Master of None”
Larry David, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
Sean Hayes, “Will & Grace”
William H. Macy, “Shameless” (WINNER) 
Marc Maron, “GLOW”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:
Timothee Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist”
Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour” (WINNER)
Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role:
Judi Dench, “Victoria & Abdul”
Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (WINNER)
Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:
“The Big Sick”
“Get Out”
“Lady Bird”
“Mudbound”
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (WINNER) 

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series:
“The Crown”
“Game of Thrones” (WINNER)
“The Handmaid’s Tale”
“Stranger Things”
“This Is Us”

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series:
“Game of Thrones” (WINNER)
“GLOW”
“Homeland”
“Stranger Things”
“The Walking Dead”

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture:
“Wonder Woman” (WINNER)
“Baby Driver”
“Dunkirk”
“Logan”
“War For The Planet Of The Apes”

“Hey! You kids get off my lawn!”  –some old guy

“Prithee, take thee hence, thou scoundrel, and quit mine pasture!”  –some even older guy

The world is a rapidly changing place. It’s hard to even fathom just how radically different things are today from the world of people who grew up even a couple decades ago. And that difference often results in older people grousing about…well, everything.

But the truth is, this is not unique to the modern era. Many people thought electricity was the devil’s tool. Cars were surely just a passing fad. And no doubt some elder caveman poo-pooed the inventor of the wheel as a brash young lunatic who would amount to nothing.

Because let’s face it: when people whine about changing times, first and foremost what they’re actually complaining about is young people. Today the refrain is: they’re all addicted to their phones, they’ve forgotten how to read, their music is terrible, they’re all idiots, etc. etc.

The acting community is not immune to this syndrome. Hang around with a group of older actors long enough and they will eventually come around to “get off my lawn” territory. And while actors are generally more open than most to celebrating the joy, energy and vivaciousness of youth–given the child-like nature of our jobs–the thing is, kids, you really do still have a lot to learn. Here are few tips to help you get started in acting and hopefully avoid some pitfalls that are common to You Kids These Days.

1. Get Back In Line

First of all, congratulations on graduating from your theater program or otherwise getting your start in acting! No doubt you applied yourself and learned a great deal from your classes, from performing in the plays that your school or community theater group put on, and from the student films you were in. Senior year was probably great for getting cast in leading roles and really pushing the limits of your skills. Now however, you’re entering the real world, so you’re going to have to head to the back of the line. Again. Yeah, that sucks, but it’s simple reality. The best way you can look at it is to think of what you’ve accomplished in your university is having laid the groundwork to BEGIN learning. You’re the new guy again, the low man on the totem pole, so try to be a little humble in spite of your awesomeness. You’re still awesome, don’t worry! And you will get cast in lots of things and do wonderful work. But there’s nothing more off-putting than someone who thinks they know it all, and that goes double for a kid who thinks they know it all. So to that end…

2. Take The Bloody Note

While every word spoken by every director and every acting teacher is of course not pure gold, as a young actor you ignore advice and notes at your peril. First of all, it’s bad form. Directors like to work WITH actors, not find themselves forced to struggle AGAINST actors. If you ignore a director’s notes you may well find that the one time they take a chance on you as a budding talent is the last time. What’s more, the truth is that we all have something to learn from everyone around us–especially from people who have more experience in our field. Even if you disagree with the note, try not to get defensive or argue; rather, try to process it and work through it in your mind and on your feet, at that moment and later when you’re on your own. Have a little trust that this mentor might know what the hell they’re talking about for a second. You might find something valuable in there. And of course, if you find yourself getting a note you disagree with…

3. Talk To Me, Baby

O why o why won’t you talk to me?? Millennials, look, I hate to break it to you but you’ve simply got to learn how to converse better. Millennial actors, you’ve GOT to work on this especially. And by talk I mean CONVERSATION, not meaningless babble. If you got a note you don’t agree with, express the reasons why you don’t agree with it, and discuss it. This is a collaborative business; you’ve got to learn to intelligently talk through the work, to offer your own ideas, and to listen when your coach or director explains it. And that means…

4. Shut Up And Listen

I know, that may seem to contradict the note above, but here’s the thing: lots of times when people are silent, they’re not actually listening; they’re simply waiting for their turn to speak, and that’s not the same as listening. That, or they’re staring at their phone–and sorry, but that goes double for millennials. This applies to off-stage life as well as on: learn how to really listen to what’s being said to you and you will have taken a step 90 percent of your peers have yet to master.

5. Leave Your Participation Trophies Behind

So, university shows are great, and community theater shows are great–your friends and family come to see you do what you do, and you are certain to get tons of applause and accolades and congratulations. And there’s nothing wrong with that; building a young actor’s confidence is a key part of educating them. However, I hate to break it to you but playtime is over. No one gets cast in the real world for simply showing up. If you want to get cast in the real world you need to put in real-world work: do the preparation, learn your lines, learn your blocking, learn new skills, read scripts and acting books constantly, and constantly take classes. While we’re on that, “participation trophy” classes are out, not if you want to actually improve your craft and get the skills needed to succeed. If you’re in a class where everyone gets a “Great job!” after every performance and no one ever gets critical notes or ways to improve, then get out of there, because you’re wasting your money. You can go to your grandma’s house to get a cookie and a pat on the head.

After all that, here’s this too: You ARE special. You ARE unique. And you ARE uniquely talented. But if you put up the roadblocks outlined above, no one is going to get a chance to see all of that. You’ve got a long road ahead. Take a step back, take a deep breath, open your mind and your heart and get ready to engage in one of the greatest and most joyful adventures you could hope for: your life as an actor!

“I remember that Jack Lemmon, who is one of my favorite actors of all time, says that the day he stops being nervous is the day he should leave the business.”

–Kim Basinger

Let’s be honest: acting is a very unnatural thing. Whereas most people tend to keep their raw emotions under wraps, or at least not on display for the general public, as an actor you are tasked with doing the exact opposite: accessing and sharing the most intimate parts of your deepest self with strangers.

So it’s no wonder that acting is a bit nerve-wracking–in fact it would be a little disturbing if it weren’t.

And of course the audition is the most vulnerable, raw, and exposed moment the actor likely experiences; after all you are literally putting yourself on display for strangers to judge your worth. How could you NOT get a bit nervy in such a situation? Here are a few ideas for helping you to deal with the nerves that come with auditioning, and put on your best performance every time!

1. Breathe In The Air

The human animal is an amazing thing. We can take a thought, like worrying about forgetting our lines, and this little bit of nothing, this tiny electro-chemical zap between neurons deep in our brains will manifest itself in sweaty palms, increased heart rate, shallow breathing–you know the drill. So, while we can’t really prevent those little neurons from firing, what we can do is face the issue from the outside-in, by dealing with nerves and nervousness by addressing those physical cues first. It may sound trite and old hat, but deep breathing is an incredibly calming act. The Latin root of the word “respire,” or “to breathe” is also the root of the word “aspire,” and both of these refer to “the breath of life.” Visualize that as you take a moment to do some deep breathing exercises.  Another useful tool for using breath to help you overcome nerves is to force your lungs to work a little harder. Do a few push-ups or jump around a bit if you can find some space to do so. Shake out your limbs and run in place for a moment. The shallowness of breath and tight-chested sensation of being nervous can’t coexist with labored breathing from exertion. Neil Young swears by doing 25 push-ups right before he takes the stage to get rid of that tightness in the chest; we could do worse than to emulate him.

2. Denial Ain’t Just a River in Egypt

So that’s the physical side of it, now for the mental aspects of nervousness. The first step toward overcoming any problem is acknowledging it. One huge mistake we make as actors is denying the plain and apparent fact that we all get nervous from time to time. To claim otherwise is sometimes considered a sort of badge of honor, almost weirdly machismo, or a perceived token of professionalism for some actors to claim they simply don’t get nervous. This, to put it in completely modern and cool terms all the kids will understand, is utter horse hockey. Oscar-winning actor Henry Fonda was famously known for throwing up in the wings a few minutes prior to virtually every stage performance he was ever in throughout his long and illustrious career. If your college roommate Tyler smugly tries to claim he’s less nervous as an actor than Henry Fonda, sorry, not buying it. The thing about denying pre-audition nerves or anything else is that trying to ignore it feeds the monster and allows it to grow even larger and more powerful. Nerves are a good thing. Read the quote at the top of this piece again: Jack Lemmon said that if he ever WASN’T nervous, he should quit acting. It’s nerves and adrenaline that spark the best performances. So if you’re feeling nervous in the waiting room, sit with that for a moment. Allow yourself to feel that. It’s okay. And again it’s perfectly natural. But as you meditate on the feeling, ask yourself where it’s coming from: are you excited about possibly getting cast? Fearful you won’t be? Worried about being a little under-prepared and possibly making a mistake? While these are all perfectly normal thoughts, they are encumbrances in the audition room. They are roadblocks to allowing your best work to come out. These kinds of thoughts are like annoying little mental mosquitoes buzzing around your ears: they are tiny, infinitesimal really, but they can have real-world consequences. Maybe you can’t change your feelings, but you can change your thoughts, the ones that lead to those feelings. So while you can acknowledge these distracting thoughts, you also have to put them aside. So…

3. Focus, Grasshopper

The thing about being nervous is it is an inherently self-absorbed and selfish thought process: what will they think of me? What if I make a mistake? What if I don’t get cast? Notice all the first-person references in there. These thoughts are going to cross all of our minds from time to time, no doubt. But you have some control over them by simply switching your focus to what you’re really here for, which are things outside of yourself: what are your objectives as the character? What do you want to try to get the other characters in the scene to do? How are you going to get them to do what you want? Notice the outward focus of these thoughts–that’s where your head should be as you get ready to audition. If it is, you will definitely notice the nervousness slipping away as you instead focus on the work you must do.

4. People Are People

Finally, remember that the people you are auditioning for are, well, people. They have lives and worries and friends and pets and hobbies, just like you do. Too many actors walk into auditions treating casting directors as if they were just down from Mount Olympus for the day to pass judgment on us lowly humans. No. Wrong. Talk to them as if they were people–because they are–and you’ll find yourself a lot less nervous about performing for them–which is after all what you love to do!

The main thing to remember about audition nerves is that you are not alone. Everyone, but everyone experiences some level of nervousness when they audition. Just accept that it’s part of the gig and use that energy to inform and color your performance while focusing on your intent and objectives and you’ll find that they can actually help rather than hinder you!

“I had to stop going to auditions thinking, ‘Oh, I hope they like me.’ I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem.”

–George Clooney

If there’s one thing the internet of actors isn’t lacking, it’s audition advice. If audition advice were a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, we’d all be billionaires.

Unfortunately, the value of much of that audition advice may be worth just as much as your cousin’s invention–good old ChadCoin–once the market crashes.

And mixed up in all that dubious advice are several myths about auditioning that aren’t doing any of us any favors when we step into that room and face the people behind the table. Here are a few of them and some ways to remove yourself from the mental traps they set.

1. You Begin the Audition After You Slate

So you’ve learned your sides, you’ve developed a character arc and laid down some solid objectives for your read. All you have to worry about is the moment after they say “Whenever you’re ready,” right?

Wrong. Like it or not, you are being assessed and judged from the moment you walk into the building where the audition is being held. Far too many actors behave abhorrently in the waiting room, talking too loudly, playing mind games trying to psych out other actors, or treating the support staff as if they were servants or worse. Any and all of these behaviors are a super quick way to get yourself at the top of the “we decided to go in a different direction” list.

The Fix: While you may not literally be scrutinized every second you’re in the building, the thing is you never know who is watching and listening. You also never know if you are going to be working with another actor who is there that day, either in the piece you’re currently auditioning for, or another one down the road. The acting community, no matter where you live, is a relatively small, insular group. You WILL develop a reputation if you hang around for any length of time; make sure it’s a good one that will inspire people to want to get to know you and work with you. And by the way, those support staff people? The ones who take headshots and resumes and hand you forms to fill out? They are often on the creative team in some capacity, depending on the project. Treat them nicely and you may benefit in the form of a tie-breaker vote. Treat them like something you scraped off your shoe and one well-timed word from them could cost you the job without you ever knowing why. Be excellent to each other!

2. You Should Treat Auditions Like A Job Interview 

While there are certain norms of behavior we should all follow when auditioning that have to do with professionalism–preparation, dress, promptness and so forth–the fact is when you audition for a role you’re not so much asking to be hired for a job as you are asking to be adopted. As casting director Cathy Reinking (Frasier, Arrested Development) puts it, “You’re actually creating a family if you’re going to work on a project. I think it’s the opposite of a job interview. In a job interview you’re going to put up your public persona. I think it’s more the private person that we’re looking for.”

The Fix: It’s important to develop the confidence to allow your genuine self to emerge when you audition. Much in the spirit of the George Clooney quote at the top of this piece, auditioning isn’t so much about contorting yourself to fit into some box. It’s about making the casting team see that you are exactly the correct shape, and that they should construct the box around you. Fear of making mistakes and worrying that you’re too fat/tall/thin/short/old/young or whatever distracts your focus, fills you with tension, and makes you too rigid to simply be. Let it go!

3. You Must Be Off-Book

Generally speaking, if you talk to five people in the industry you’re going to get five different opinions. Or ten, depending on how recently they took their meds. But if there’s one thing you consistently hear from casting directors it’s this: when it comes to auditions, it’s more important to act than to be memorized. That’s what you’re there to do, after all, isn’t it? Seeing actors struggle to remember lines they just learned the night before is excruciating for casting directors. Worse, if all you’re doing is trying to dredge up words, they’re not seeing you at your best–or even seeing you ACT at all, not really. They’re seeing you recite, or attempt to. And anyway, there’s no prize for being “Most Memorized” at an audition.

The Fix: Yes, of course you must prepare. This isn’t at all to suggest that you don’t even glance at the sides and fly by the seat of your pants. However, preparation means several things, not all of which are being 100 percent off-book. As long as you know the character, the piece, the relationships with the other characters, and you have an arc and solid objectives to work for in the scene, it’s generally going to be acceptable if you hold your sides. Granted, you should have those words–and more importantly, their SIGNIFICANCE–ingrained in you! You should absolutely know what you’re saying and why. But bringing a genuine connection to the piece and the character is what lands you roles. And what you want is roles, not a gold star for being a bright boy or girl who knows all the words–and/or who ends up stuttering and stammering and looking up at the ceiling when those words escape, as they do.

The bottom line is you are the only you in the world. Your job when you audition isn’t to try to make yourself seem like a cop or a doctor or a mobster or whatever. Your only job is to be 100 percent the genuine and unique you that you are, and to bring all your weird quirks and funny ways into that role.

Rather than trying to make yourself fit the role you’re auditioning for, make them see that for their project to succeed as best it can, they need to make the role fit you!

You can’t get cast if you don’t get seen! Make sure you’re self-submitting and receiving email casting notices right here where thousands of industry professionals are looking for you!

It’s sometimes hard to believe, but in acting, as in life, we are often our own worst enemy.

But how could that be possible? Why on earth would we not want ourselves to succeed? It’s our success after all…

The truth of the matter is that inside these big, beautiful brains, the same brains that give us our love for music and art and acting, there lives a legion of voices that often tell us things that are simply not in our best interest.

We sit on the couch and eat ice cream even though we planned to go running; we stay out late the night before a big presentation at work; we fight with people we love even when we can see that it’s over something completely stupid.

As actors we love the voices in our heads. Heck, we NEED the voices in our heads! However, we also have to know how to tame them. Especially in the hotbox of the audition room, where we feel the most pressure and are often at our least secure. Here then are a few tips for avoiding self-sabotage when auditioning, and giving yourself–and all your lovely voices–the best chance to succeed.

1. Get Your Head In The Game

Acting, as we all know, is a matter of focus and intent, a matter of objectives and ways to go about getting them. So when you go into the audition room wondering “What do they want?” Or thinking “What if my look isn’t exactly right for this part?” Or “Why isn’t that guy looking at me? Does he hate me?” Or, god forbid, thinking about all the lovely, lovely money you will be paid if you land this part, you aren’t focused on what you need to be doing, which is your job. The audition puts you in an awkward position: you have to relinquish control over certain things. You can’t do anything about the temperature of the room, or about what might be going through the minds of the casting team, or about the terrible reader you’re stuck with any more than you can do something about your height or weight or hair color at that moment. You CAN do one thing and one thing only: focus on your damn job. It’s always going to come down to what you do with the material you were given at that moment, and when your head is all over the place thinking about things you can’t control, you aren’t using your skills and training to the best of your ability.

2. The Actor Prepares–No, Really

You think you’ve prepared enough but have you really? If you aren’t the actor in that waiting room who has done the most preparation for the audition you are selling yourself short. Yes, we’ve all been given sides at 9:30 on the night before a 10 a.m. read. And of course any reasonable casting team doesn’t expect you to be off-book in such circumstances. That doesn’t mean you can’t have your character and his or her objectives, relationships, desires, and beats solidly locked down. Not only that, we are all walking around with our eyes glued to the tiny computers in our hands 24/7. Do some research on the project, know what you’re reading for and know who you’re reading for. The actor who walks into the room and asks what the character is or what the scene is about might as well have stayed home.

3. Listen To Eleanor Roosevelt

She said “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” and that is a phrase actors should tattoo on the inside of their eyelids. Look, it’s intimidating to walk into the audition room; it’s a tough thing to bare your soul for 90 seconds, out of context, for a roomful of strangers who are after all there specifically to judge you. However, these people are human beings just like you. When you give away your confidence and meekly scuttle into the room as if you are about to offer yourself up as a sacrifice to the gods behind the table, you are destroying your chances of being your true self–which is all casting directors want to see in the first place. As Cathy Reinking, CSA (Frasier, Arrested Development) says: “I look for charisma: an actor being their authentic self, and not trying to be someone else, or trying to second guess what you think we might be looking for. We just want your authentic self in that role. And never be intimidated by casting people. We’re just normal.”

4. Keep It Simple, Stupid

This may seem like a contradiction to the mandate to prepare in number 2 above, but nevertheless, it is possible to over-prepare. That is, sometimes we try to do too much with the material. Sometimes we can fall into a trap of overthinking every possible angle and insinuation and undercurrent a scene has to offer and it muddles the audition. And understand, generally it’s a good thing to be super analytical and detailed when it comes to your character–but only once the rehearsal process has begun. If you are chasing possible demons your character may or may not have encountered in childhood and reading symbolism in stage directions and trying to imbue your lines with seven layers of meaning, you’re going to look a mess for the casting team. Do explore various ideas and potentially different angles as you prepare, of course. But then it’s vital that you land on a solid grounding for what you want to try to do once you’re in the room. You just don’t have time to create a multi-faceted one-man show in the time allotted. Focus on the main objectives and the main beats of the piece and the ways you’ve chosen to go for what your character wants, and make sure you don’t lose the primary point of the scene by darting around between too many often contradictory secondary objectives.

5. Don’t Beat Yourself Up

It is of course impossible to have a perfect audition every time. Just as its impossible to have a perfect show or a perfect take–or for that matter a perfect football game or a perfect night out or a perfect drive to work–every time. But when it comes to actors we have a tendency to club ourselves over the head when we make mistakes. This is a mistake, haha. Find a way to absorb what you’ve done, assimilate what you learned that day, and then let it go. Truly, if you talk to casting directors at any length you’ll find that the main thing they’re after is seeing actors who are relaxed, having fun, and genuine. So find a way to have a good time and not put so much pressure on yourself, and your auditions will benefit.

It’s a new year, a time when we sweep out the old and invite in the new, creating fresh changes for our lives. It’s time for resolutions ranging from dusting off that old gym membership, to signing up for new classes, to simply being more present in ourselves and kinder to others. (And don’t forget self-submitting and giving yourself every opportunity to get cast!)

But one thing we could all probably use is a new set of headshots. Let’s face it: most actors keep using the same old tired headshots for far too long, the result of a deadly combination of inertia and avoiding shelling out the funds necessary for a good headshot photographer.

Of course, we have to remember that headshots are an investment, the exact opposite of lost money; they are the calling card we use in order to get auditions, and therefore book roles and therefore MAKE money! So skimping on headshots is a mistake that can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you have no money to spend on new headshots maybe it’s because you haven’t spent any money on new headshots so you can look your best and book roles–and get paid!

At any rate, if you’re going to make that kind of investment, you want to get the most out of it possible. Do make sure you thoroughly research the photographer you’re thinking about hiring, making sure they are experienced in headshots specifically. But also, here are some tips for how you can help yourself to look your most relaxed and let your genuine self come out in your next headshot session!

1. This Is Only An Exercise

One great approach an acting coach gave me years ago was to treat a headshot session as an acting exercise rather than a photo session. Get out of the mental state of the result being a series of distinct static photos, and think of the afternoon as a period of time in which to stretch your acting wings. This lends it a bit of fluidity, as well as a different kind of energy altogether. Warm up as you would before a class or a show, stretch, do vocal warm-ups–the whole nine yards. If you’re the type of actor who warms up to a playlist, get out your headphones and get your groove on ahead of the shoot. Just as occurs with performing on film or on stage, you WILL warm up; whether you do so before you’re performing or during the actual performance itself is up to you.

2. Objectives

So go into the shoot with some objectives, and perhaps some different basic characters in mind. Treat the camera as another character: do you want to get him or her to back down from a fight? Do you want to seduce him or her? Do you want to convince him or her that you are trustworthy? Any and all of these–and many more–can be useful looks to bring out your best in a headshot. In this sense we bring a genuine acting flow to a headshot session rather than trying on Derek Zoolander’s Blue Steel for a static–and awkward–moment in time.

3. Engage Engines

So if we’re treating this as an acting exercise, it’s important to engage with the camera as though it were a person, right? And what do we do with other people, more than anything else in the world? No, not that. We talk to them! So, as weird as it sounds–and please prepare your photographer for this in advance–you might try engaging with the camera as if it were a person. That is to say, talk a bit every now and then, say something in character that you would want to put across to the other imagined character. “I trust you.” “I want what’s best for you.” “You’re not going to beat me.” Whatever fits the objective you’re currently playing. Putting those thoughts and feeling into words really helps to create a feedback loop between mind and body that will lend an additional layer of truth to your performance. Not only that, also look at the camera the way you look at people. Staring down the barrel of the lens just ends up looking like you’re a creepy stalker, or as if you’re terrified. In a normal conversation, we engage with our eyes and then look away; we smile, we shift our gaze from eye to eye. A huge mistake with headshots is treating the camera like it’s going to cease to function correctly if you ever dare to avert your eyes. So it’s also important that you…

4. Don’t Wait For The Click

Cameras these days and the skilled photographers who operate them can capture micro-moments of infinitesimal time. This isn’t one of those silver-oxide photos from the Old West where people had to sit stock-still for ten minutes in order to capture the image. You can move around, you can shift your weight, you can turn your head, you can smile, or don’t smile–whatever strikes your fancy. In other words, it’s okay to behave like a human. Your photographer will probably give you prompts if he or she sees something that looks like an intriguing path to follow, but for the most part plan on just being you. And so…

5. Please Don’t Hold Your Breath

Of course you’re going to be motionless from time to time, but in so doing don’t make the mistake of holding your breath. It makes you look stiff, terrified and wholly unnatural. Imagine you’re with a friend having a coffee and a conversation; you may sit still for a time, but you’re still relaxed and you’re still going to be breathing–one hopes. Certainly your friend and the barista hope so.

The more you prepare for a session as if you were getting ready for a performance, the more the real you is going to come across. The most important factor in taking genuine, warm, relatable headshots that really capture you’re true self is that you have fun while doing it!