What are they thinking?

It happened several times in the past few days.  People of all ages, teens, twenty-somethings, thirty somethings, forty somethings and fifty somethings. have written to me saying that they a just dying to become an actor but they have never done anything.  They saw one particular film that made them thing that they have to do that,too.  They are trapped in boring circumstances, a good job that pays well,but is not exciting, or they are bullied and know if they were an actor they would be admired instead.

Only problem is that it ain't gonna happen.  How do I know?  After all the young girl in the Chocolate Factory film with Johnny Depp had never done anything before!   And now she's a star.  I know an actor who was a sculptor until he read for his first film.  He had no previous acting training nor experience.  He got the second lead in his first film and the lead role in his second film.  Such stories and the magic that is film, the illusion it creates of greatness and consequential events and great loves and romances seem to erase any sense of reality and logic from peoples' minds.

These starry-eyed dreamers have no concept of what acting and being an actor is all about.  They just know that the images on the screen are wonderful and that they want to be wonderful as well.

Now, I have to separate two things.  The dream and the  purpose of plays and films. Okay?
First the dream is an un realistic fantasy set off by the purpose of the drama.  The purpose of the drama is to remind ordinary people that they are extraordinary. Theatre and film's purpose is to show mankind how wonderful he can be, how wonderful he is, and as Shakespeare put it, "how like a god."   When the audience member does not understand that the purpose of the drama is to make him or her feel wonderful and important and extraordinary for a few moments and that after the film or play, they are returned to being wonderful only in their dreams. They still have to go to work in the morning and live their seemingly hum drum lives.

But if they would take it to heart, what the theatre and film are telling them, that all of us are extraordinary in some way, and do something about it. Get involved in a charity or even a political movement, being careful, of course, of not choosing some leftist wacko group. But to get involved and start being something more than just a hum drum person.  If they want to be actors, then they have to get involved with the drama somewhere. Community theatre,  acting classes, acting schools, etc.  Being an actor is how to get started being an actor.

You know, I get many questions telling me that the writer has done all this acting and studying, but what should they do next?  I have to tell you that I really believe that the people who become actors do not have to be told how to get started or what to do next.  They just know what to do and do it.  If they are actors, they keep acting in every and all opportunities. They know now to move forward in their career and get agents.   Perhaps they learned this form others they worked with, and perhaps they read how to do it in a book just as "Acting As A Business" by O'Neil.  

I am afraid, you see, that those who have not on their own found out how to get started and how to become an actor are never going to make it.  The ones that make it are born with enough drive to go and get it on their own.  

You have to have it.

Got an email this morning in which a young actor I know said that he had more and more recognized that acting is all about money.  And of course it is in the business side of acting.

I am constantly amazed that youngsters think that without and experience and training they are going to get a major role in a major film.  No way can that happen except for the super extraordinary person who leaps from being in a high school play to stardom as Ann Margaret did when she was cast in "Bye Bye Birdie."  She was recognized as having all the unique qualities needed to be a bankable star.

Theatre and making movies is not about being a good actor.  It is about making lots of money. Productions cost millions and millions of dollars and no one is going to gamble on an unproven person who does not have all the unique qualities needed. The reason so many actors never become professional in spite of having a great deal of talent is that they lack the charm, personality, and look that people want to pay money to see.

The look is not always beauty or handsome. Jack Nicholson is not a handsome man. But he has so much charm that we will pay to see him again and again.  And his look is so unique that he always is distinctive in his portrayal.

The reality of becoming a professional actor is not that you need an agent or training or experience so much as it is that you need to be able to give a unique rendering of the character from your look to your charm to your talent.

Money talks.  You have to be an actor that producers know will help bring money in at the box office.   This is also true in the amateur theatre where the producers want to at least break even on their productions.  So the actors cast in the leads and major roles are those that the audience will want to come an see because of the actors' reputations of being effective in previous plays.  Yes, money is often the reason why someone else got the role you wanted.  You have to be unique and pleasing to the audience--an asset at the box office to succeed.

The few actors who are unique and pleasing as those that make it.

An Actor Prepares

This morning I heard from a student I had in class forty years ago.  He wote to comment on a post I had made on Facebook regarding the sorry state of acting in today's theatre.  Most of that post was an article by Arthur Penn, the famous director.  My former student wanted to let me know how he has achieved success as a professinal tenor, performing opera.  His message is one that actors need to take to heart-- that it takes courage and conviction, dedication and perseverance to succeed as a professional performer.  What he has experienced is not unlike what a good actor experiences in preparing for his career.

I am greatful to this former student of mine for reminding me that training is important in the search for success.  I have perhaps downplayed that importance in much of my writing. But it is necessary for the actor to keep his voice and body in tune through constant coaching and instruction in classes.

Here are the portions of his letter to me that are most applicable to actors:

 
"I AM a great guy, and this fact has NEVER helped me find work! Perseverence and drive, living like a Bohemian, showing up to every audition and spending everything on lessons and coaching is what works. No one cares, at all, that I have had a more than colorful life. They only care about how I sound and how I look and whether or not they can somehow use me in their house. I am only what I can offer at that very moment and all the rest does not make any difference whatsoever.

"I have been monumentally lucky in that I am FINALLY making my big-assedTiroler Festspiel Erl this summer singing the Duke from Verdi's Rigoletto. This offer was made following my FORTY-FIFTH audition. What a boon! What a coup!"

It is difficult for us to imagine attending 45 auditions for a role.  I have read of actors attending half a dozen or more, but never so many as this.  It is a tribute to the directors who want to have the best possible production, and it is a tribute to the singer/actor who endures and succeeds!

Acting and Playwrighting

Some concepts about plays that a playwright and actor need to know:

a. Plays are not conversation, nor are they discourse(Discussions of an idea).

b. Plays are stories told in action. Everything Aristotle wrote about play writing (which he called Tragedy making) indicates that.

c. Plays are stories about someone's emotional reaction to a situation and what that reaction causes him or her to do.

d. A playwright fashions a play, he does not write it. He expresses the fashioning of the play by writing down what he has created in terms of stage directions and dialogue..

e. Thus the fashioning of the story is what the playwright does first. He tells the story in theatrical terms, which means he creates an situation and places a person into it. That person has an emotional reaction to the situation and does something that expresses the reaction. (either the situation or the character's response to it is a disorder that must be repaired) A chain reaction of his action causing an emotional response that causes an action that causes an emotional response......and so on until the story is complete by order being restored. The playwright creates no dialogue until he can tell the story in terms of action/reaction with no dialogue at all.

 

As an actor, you need to be an emotional responder to the stimuli of the play moment by moment.  Those responses will also contain the action of the play (what you need to do as an actor).

All I Need Is An Agent

It certainly seems to be the prevailing urban legend about becoming an actor that all one needs to do is to get an agent and they will be launched into stardom.  I am besieged with email from young people, usually teens and pre-teens but sometimes young adults as well, asking me for help on getting an agent. The seemingly urgent requests reveal that most young acting aspirants have no idea about the nature of the acting business and what it takes to become an actor.

An agent is not the first thing an aspiring actor needs.  It is very much the last thing he needs. You see, the business usually works this way:  An extraordinary person comes to the attention of an agent or casting director and gets an acting job.  From this job, their extraordinary qualities get them other jobs, and they are in the business.  Well, that sounds easy, doesn't it?  The problem is that they have to be "extraordinary."  And not just in one way--they have to be extraordinary in many ways.  They need, among other things, to have extraordinary talent, courage, personality, charm, and look.

Most of the young people who suddenly or not-so-suddenly decided they want to be actors lack one or more of the extraordinary requirements for becoming an actor.  And some of these people will have one of the extraordinary requirements to a degree that the rest of them are of little consequence.  Thus, the aspirant may be so handsome or beautiful that the agent or casting director is not very concerned about the other qualities.  Or the aspirant may lack one of the qualities so that those they have are of little or no consequence.  The actor may be very talented, but his lack of courage prevents him from taking the risks needed to become a professional actor.  And if you don' t have the personality and charm to hold a stranger's attention in a conversation, you are going to have a hard time with professional acting.  Additionally,  as an aspirant to an acting career, humility and lack of egotism are very important.  There are tons of other qualities that are pluses for an aspirant to have. These are listed in my e-book, The Tao of Acting.

So far, I have only written about the extraordinary qualities the aspirant needs. These he has before he has done any acting.  They are either inborn like his talent or acquired like his charm.  Before the aspirant needs an agent, he or she needs other things in addition to the extraordinary personal qualities above.  They need an extraordinary resume, head shot, demo reel, business card, and post cards (not ordinary post cards, but personalized ones for networking.).   These seem like simple things, but they may take years to acquire.  Most young aspirants can make a resume with one or two shows that they have done on it and stating that they have been in drama club or taken drama classes in high school.. That is not extraordinary.  An extraordinary resume not only lists the leading roles in amateur, semi-professional and professional productions the actor has done, but also it lists the highly regarded acting schools and studios with which he has studied.  That is one point.

There are many other points to be made about the aspirant's need to be extraordinary in a great number of ways if he is to succeed.  Acquiring these things to go along with your other extraordinary qualities is what is needed before you need an agent.

Spencer Tracy, Method Acting and Intensity

The late Spencer Tracy was one of the greatest film actors of all time. He was nominated as best actor nine times and won twice.  He was renown for his natural style and versatility. And he did not subscribe to any nonsense about acting.  Once at a party he attended, several actors were discussing the merits of Method Acting.  After a long and often heated discussion that Tracy only observed and did not take part in, one of the actors asked, "What do you think, Spence?"  Tracy replied simply, " I think it is very important for an actor to learn his lines."  Simple and direct.  An honest reply without any nonsense about acting.  A reply I admire and applaud.

Recently an actor wrote to me and asked me to evaluate a video audition he had made.  In it, he often looked down at his script before saying his line.  I replied that he was too tied to the script to be effective in the scene. As an actor you have to respond to your scene partner, not to the book. So you have to free yourself from the book in order to concentrate on your scene partner. The book and not having the lines down also presented a barrier between the actor and his scene partner. I noted that his emotional responses were not reaching the audience and that he needed more intensity.

Now, here I have to tip my hat to the Method actors. The thing that made Method acting popular was how intense the actors who used it were.  Marlon Brando, James Dean, Montgonery Clift, Robert DeNiro, and Al Pacino give us highly intense acting.  Jack Nicholson does them all one better as he not only has great intensity, but he also is having great fun playing the role.  This gives him the highest charisma that an actor can achieve. An actor needs to catch the casting director's attention with the intensity and fun he communicates while playing the role.

That intensity and fun is communicated to the casting director when the actor feels those qualities while reading for the part. I have always said that acting must be fun and it is very important for the actor to communicate that he is having a ball doing the audition or playing the role.  Then the actor must also feel the intensity of the emotions his character is expressing.  The actor does this by allowing himself to fully release his emotions without inhibitions.  When he does that, the intensity takes care of itself.  Remember that acting is not an intellectual activity, it is an emotional one.  Make sure you are always emotionally in the moment before each scene begins.  Then you need to respond not with words from the script, but with the emotions those words represent.

Is a College Education Worth the Money ?

One of the aspiring actors I advise sent me the link to an article on "The Costs and Benefits of a College Education" by Amanda Charney a student at USC. The article was dated Sept. 18, 2012.   Both aspiring actors and their parents often write to me with concerns about the matter of going to college or opting to go straight into the business of trying to become a professional actor.  As far as I am concerned the entire matter is one of maturity and experience.

If an actor has the maturity and background to jump right from high school into the aspiring actor's life, then that is probably the best idea for him or her.  If this aspiring actor also understands that the goal is to be an actor, not a famous, wealthy star, this choice is an apt one.
Those who go to college want the "security" of a college degree and the statistical promise that it will add to their total lifetime earnings as well as give them something to fall back on.  These are fallacies to the actor,however, who is not concerned with making a lot of money.  Today's job outlook for college grads does not help this thinking, either.   And the actor who knows that he or she will only be happy if acting, could care less about a fall back job.  They only need enough money to keep body and soul together between acting gigs.  They also know that if they have a fall back, they most likely will do just that and give up and fall back instead of pursuing their heat's desire.  These actors also know that they can get a college education anytime, but that they will only be young once.

Some young people and their parents see college as a transition between high school and life.  Teens look forward to the college years of fraternities and sororities, football games and parties and all the fun of campus life while getting and education.  An education in much more that acting.  There are required courses of all sorts from writing to history to math and science --even languages and literature must be studied in classes which must be passed if one is to graduate.  And while a theatre major may offer excellent classes and lots of productions to be in, The professional world is only interested in the professional classes an actor has had and the big names he or she has studied with.  So other young people would rather be acting and taking professional acting classes right out of high school, getting a four year head start on those who go to college and making their youth an asset for their budding career.  Standing between these two approaches are mom and dad.

The aspiring actor's parents are either their greatest asset or their greatest liability.  If they approve of their offspring going right into the business out of high school, even offering the help of room and board while they do it, they are a great asset--so long as they live in or near a city where an actor can get a good start.  They also are helpful if they approve of an acting or theatre major at college. Some parents, like Brad Pitt's mother, work continuously to find their progeny a strong entree into the business. I am afraid that most parents however, play the politician.

The politic parents say they support their child's choice of becoming and actor "after college."  Then they insist on a non-theatre or non-acting major and secretly hope the kid will come to his or her senses and go into business or get married and give up the foolish idea of acting.  Of course not all professional actors who went to college have majored in acting or theatre. Many have not.  It is not a requirement for success as an actor. But it is so easy for an aspiring actor to get side tracked that unless he or she has extraordinarily strong determination to act, it is a sure bet they will take a load of their parents' minds and give up on acting. Many people look back and remember their college days as the best days of their lives.   I have the added perspective of having gone to college and also having been an actor.  I can honestly say that the best days of my life were those I spent on the set as a professional actor. 

Ms. Charney covers two more topics:  Networking and Costs.  She gives the impression that the networking opportunity from college is an advantage over choosing not to attend.  All actors have to learn how to network properly and do it diligently if they are to succeed. The aspiring actor who does not go to college can do a great deal of successful networking in four years. So that topic is sort of even between the two situations.  Costs are another matter.

One of the most recent emails I got was from a dad who was honestly concerned about the cost of colleges.  Tuition of thirty thousand dollars a year for four years is daunting to anyone.  And student loans are of no help to the aspiring actor. Starting to try to crack into the business while worrying about paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans is not a good situation.  An aspiring actor lives a Spartan life as it is.  Debt only makes it worse. I'd say the cost of college,especially in these uncertain days of employment , make it unappealing.  No one wants an uneducated or stupid actor.  But an actor has time for reading. He or she can easily better their minds by reading the great books on their own.

One more topic before I close.  Professional acting schools with a two year training program often seem like a great choice for the aspiring actor.  Again, the exorbitant cost of such schools make them a poor investment.  No school can guarantee its grads a job.  Certainly no acting school can guarantee their alums a career.  They make it look like a great many who study with them are successful, but the number that are compared with the number that are not is very small.  Aspiring actors need to keep in mind that it is the actor that makes the school, not the school that makes the actor. Talent and drive cannot be taught.  The successful actor is born with them and many other necessary qualities.

Are colleges and acting schools worth the money for aspiring actors?  I'd say for the more mature and highly experienced high school grad, they usually are not.  There are more reasonably priced and more effective training available.  A good mentor can guide his protegees to the best opportunities. The same is true for the student who needs more maturity and experience.  A good mentor can suggest the best way to achieve those goals.