Auditioning can be pretty wretched. Often lacking in standardization, organization, or any sort of environmental comfort to set one up for success, the process is designed to weed out the timid and unprepared (when, indeed, it is designed at all). So the onus is on you to come in guns blazing. This is easier […]
Being your own advocate is a crucial component of a successful career in the arts. But how do you distinguish between the kind of assertiveness and confidence that forwards your career, and the brassy showbiz arrogance that makes everyone hate you? It’s a tricky delineation, and often they feel like two sides of the same […]
Between hustling for future acting gigs and basic survival, keeping yourself from getting rusty can be a struggle. We all have those stretches that feels like the only acting we’re practicing is squished into 30 second self-tapes for the local lottery. Even if you’re booking, how do you keep yourself sharp and constantly expanding your […]
Delivering an honest, organic emotional connection is the heart of our work as actors. But it is not an easy task. It requires a level of technique and artistry that is often dismissed or diminished in the mind of the general public. The business side of “show” makes it even harder: not only do actors […]
Actors are simultaneously asked to be readily in touch with their most vulnerable emotional selves, and to have the hide of a rhinoceros. We must bare our souls and brush the rejection off our shoulders. But the myth is that this skill should somehow be inherent, that it doesn’t take work, that actors who make […]
In the age of self-tapes and market saturation, auditions can come fast and furious. Especially if you live in a major film city, keeping up with every show, pilot, miniseries and web series can feel like trying to count grains of sand as they sift through your fingers. Free yourself from this expectation now: there […]
“Don’t make perfect the enemy of the good.” It’s something my mom says a lot, and something I, in the tradition of daughters everywhere, frequently ignore to my detriment. I think a lot of artists struggle with lurking demons of perfectionism. The subjectivity of the entertainment industry makes it easy to fall into self-loathing echo […]
Believe me, I get it. As an actor, funds tend to be not so much tight as barely existent. The unfortunate thing is, acting is an expensive business, and unless you have some sort of Victorian benefactor, it’s up to each of us to fund our own ventures. With an endless influx of advice on […]
It’s a fickle, shallow world we live in, and you and I have chosen to spend our lives pursuing one of the ficklest and shallowest professions. Which shows excellent judgment and not even a smidge of insecurity all around. Ahem. Feeding the beast can seem like a Sisyphean task that eats up your time, […]
To agent or to no agent… and which agent? Those are the questions! Sometimes I feel like you can find an opinion to match what you think/want to hear on any aspect of the industry. I always go with the study that confirms that I’ll live longer for drinking a glass of wine a day, […]