Act Now! A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Become a Working Actor

9781400048625

1400048621

WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY TO ADVANCE YOUR ACTING CAREER? DO you ever ask yourself that question? Think about that for a second. Other than picking up this book, did you do anything else today to advance your acting career? If you have an answer for that today, will you have an answer for that question tomorrow? Here's the first secret about succeeding: The more often you have an answer for that question, the faster you're going to succeed. Write this question down. What did you do today to advance your acting career? The answers to that question will be the most important information you ever learn as an actor. If you can't answer that question each day or each week because you're lazy, then there isn't a book or coach in the world who can help you. If, however, you can't answer that question because you simply don't know what to do, then you're in luck, because I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to do to advance your acting career. It won't matter how old you are, where you live, or how much experience you have. As long as you can follow the steps of this book, you'll have a good answer for that question each day, and you'll be on your way to becoming an actor. Your overall goal I'm sure you have some kind of goal in mind for yourself. Maybe you want to be a major movie star or you want to be on a hit television show. That's great, and in the world of show business, anything is possible. Let's call that your "Overall Goal." Jim Carrey has often talked about the night he drove his car up into the Hollywood Hills before he made it big and wrote a check to himself for $26 million. He said that his goal was to make that much money doing movies. Years later, he got paid exactly that amount. What's your overall goal? Go ahead and write it down. Keep it in mind and I'll show you how to reach it. If you ask a major star like Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, John Travolta, or Meryl Streep how they became famous, they probably won't tell you that they called a big talent agent and the next day they got paid millions of dollars to star in a box-office smash. They might be able to do that now, but that's not how they started and that's not how you're going to start. First they learned how to act. Then they built up some experience. Then, based on that little bit of experience, they got an agent. Once they got an agent, they got some better roles. Once they got the better roles, they got a better agent. Once they got a better agent, they got the really big roles and the really big money that goes along with it. That's how it works. It's okay to have really big goals, but you must know where to start and what to do, and that's what I'm going to explain. Your main goal Once you've established your overall goal, it's time to talk about your main goal. Do you know what your main goal is? Let me tell you what it is. You should write this down, too. Your main goal is to put yourself in the best possible position to get an audition. That might not sound very glamorous, but that's the real secret to succeeding as an actor. This goal is more important than learning the craft of acting itself and I can prove it. Let's say there are ten actors at an audition, and they're all pretty good. They aren't the best, but they're okay. Maybe some of them are really bad. Some don't even have any training, but it's the last audition and the casting director has to pick one of them. Also on that day, there's a super actor who nobody's ever heard of and he's at home watching soaps on television. Who is going to get the part? Obviously, the great actor at home isn't going to get picked because he's not even at the audition. One of the ten actors standing in front of the casting director is going to get picked. That brings up a very important point. A casting director can only cast people who show up at auditions. That's why your main goal has to be to get an audition. The more you do it, the more ch