The Difference Between Working Actors and New Actors
This is a guest post by Alex Collins
Alright, y'all, this post may touch a few nerves. If you find yourself bristling at this, don't take it personally. Instead, look at how this may apply to you, and how you can learn and evolve from it, benefiting instead of avoiding or ignoring it.
We're going to talk a bit about what separates a newer actor from a working actor and there's a few areas to focus on:
Realities of the Entertainment Industry (AKA The long odds and the reality of this business.)
Acting Training and Creative Pursuit (AKA Lightbulb moments & 'conquering Everest.')
Time Invested in Your Acting Career (Full time results with part time effort and “20 years to 20 minutes.”)
PSSST…before we dive in…you should download our free guide for working actors: 50 Things Your Agent Wished You Knew (and The Actor Business Checklist)
realities of the entertainment industry
What we do is staggeringly difficult. The odds of making money as an actor are long.
The odds of sustainably working as an actor are even longer.
The odds of ending up as an Oscar winning actor are infinitesimally small. (Only 376 Oscars have ever been awarded for actors. Just based on the # of SAG-AFTRA members today, that's only 0.0023%, or on any given year an actor has a 0.000025% chance of winning one. FYI-Your odds of getting hit by lightning is: 0.000066%).
“Why the negative attitude and Debbie Downer energy, Alex?”
I get it. Sometimes it's depressing and overwhelming to look at the realities of our business. OR, if you flip your mindset, it's liberating. Don't focus on what may not be possible, realistically, and instead focus on the things you can control. You've heard me say that actors can only control three (3) things for their entire career:
Their materials.
Their training.
Their mindset.
So, Control Your Controllables and you're more likely to be able to survive and weather the storm. (P.S. if you want to control your acting materials, you need to be in The Actor's Toolbox).
Newer actors tend to focus purely on their own bubble of “being an actor”, how talented they are, and their dreams and goals for their acting careers.
Working actors have done their research on how the entertainment industry works from a broad perspective, where actors fit in as cogs in the machine, and the realities of the business. They still have those dreams and goals, but they are able to be tailored appropriately, giving them more clear objectives for tasks that will realistically move the needle.
Acting Training and creative pursuit
“Lightbulb Moments & Conquering Everest”
Newer Actors:
When you're a new actor, EVERY day in class is an experience, an adventure, an opportunity to learn and grow in leaps and bounds. You are (or should be) a sponge. Everything is helping you to grow in your craft, and as such, you should be investing in an ongoing, broad based approach to training.
NOTE: This does not mean being a “resume stuffer” actor by bouncing around every 4-6 weeks. Sure, that's good too, but you will also have to commit to some sustained, regular training at the same studio, in the same methodology-probably an acting technique, like Meisner, Hagen, Chubbuck, etc. This is critical for your development.
If you're a newer actor, take copious notes. Take notes not just on your performance and teacher notes, but for everyone in class. Over time, your instincts will sharpen, and your script analysis, emotional preparation, and character development will strength.
Newer actors often rush through the early years of their career, both in trying to do too much training, too fast, but also in terms of their desire to take on larger roles and more complex emotional challenges, when in reality, they don't have the technical abilities as a trained artist to really deliver on that.
Ask yourself-have you ever had a really emotional audition scene and you had to do 10+ takes to feel like you “nailed it?” If you did, that's too many takes. You don't get that in an in person audition, you won't get that on set; and you won't be successfully maintain your instrument 12+ hours/day for multiple days in a row on a large guest star or lead role.
Working Actors:
A more experienced actor doesn't have as many of these big lightbulb moments as frequently. Instead, they are making progress that may be imperceptible. There's a reason Tom Brady or Lebron James or Serena Williams still train. They're the best at their respective craft, so they're not experiencing lightbulb moments, but they are refining and sharpening technique, reducing variances in skill sets, and making razor thin improvements that can be the difference between success and failure.
Remember this: How do you conquer Mt. Everest? One step at a time.
In the history of the world, such a small group of people have ever attempted to do this, let alone stand atop the world. Many try, many fail. Some lose their lives. The main reason that climbers fail is they get overly ambitious attempting to summit (and try to descend too fast). Instead, the slow, methodical approach is often the smartest and the safest. You've ALL heard that this business is a marathon, not a sprint, and it's true. Sometimes it is heart-achingly slow. But, one step is still progress.
Time Invested in Your Acting Career
Full time results with part time effort and “20 years to 20 minutes.”
Okay, brutal honesty time. You want to be a successful working actor, right? What does that look like to you?
A series regular on a one-hour drama? Leading your own sitcom? An A-lister in blockbuster movies? Achieving this often takes decades, if it ever happens. It's a full time job.
Are you demanding full time results in your career but only investing part time effort?
In a corporate environment, “full time” is a minimum of 40 hours per week. Is that the amount of hours you put into your acting career?
Exercise: Now, take out a notebook and jot down ALL the time you invest in your acting career on an average week. Add up classes, rehearsals, and audition prep, taping, uploading, etc. How many hours did you get? I'm guessing 20-25 maximum. (If you're in rehearsals for a play, you're probably hitting 30+).
When we get really honest with ourselves, we start to see where we have areas for improvement. Too often we get bogged down with busy work which makes us feel like we're investing full time effort, but we may not really be doing so.
New actors are typically investing more time because every concept, audition, performance takes a little bit longer to internalize, personalize, and adopt.
More experienced, working actors are more efficient, so they can do more with less time invested.
This doesn't mean waste 40 hours per week just to hit 40 hours. Again, this requires honesty. It also means you shouldn't beat yourself up. If you only invested 10 hours this week in your career, but they were really well spent, congrats, that's all you need to do.
But, newer and more experienced actors alike, did you read a script/play this week not for class or an audition? Did you watch a target show you could audition for that you haven't seen before? Did you go and immerse yourself in art by seeing a play? There are lots of ways to grow as an artist.
My good friend Camille Chen has been a working actor for more than two decades. She spoke on the That One Audition podcast about feeling guilty for not spending more time on auditions, but then had a breakthrough and realized 'it took 20 years to get to 20 minutes.' This means that if your technique and experience has become so refined over the years, you may not need to spend THREE hours prepping that audition. One hour may suffice. Or 20 minutes in some cases. But, you have to be realistic about where you're at in your artistic journey. (Camille's episode of That One Audition can be found HERE).
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