Category: Finding Acting Work

Networking like a Star!

When people talk about Hollywood, they often widen their eyes and say, “Well, it’s all about who you know.  You know?”  And  that is, actually, completely true.  The very first day I started my theatrical training, the school’s director, a well-respected and successful actress in her own right, sat all of us first year students down and said, “This is your first big break.  The people who will give you your second big break are not us, your teachers, but your new peers who you are sitting next to right now.”  We all gave each other sidelong glances, sizing each other up.  Could that pimply kid next to me really make me a star?  Chances are…yes.

If the entertainment business is all about being in the right place at the right time, who you are with at the time is going to really affect your life.  Maybe that pimply kid on Day One decided he wasn’t going to be an actor at all, but a casting director.  Wow!  Instant in.  Maybe that other kid next to you became a producer, or a director, or got a starring role on Broadway last year and knows a thousand other well-situated people.  Sound crazy?  Well, that’s because it is.  But crazy or not, the truth of the matter boils down to a little rule involving the one-and-only Kevin Bacon: everybody knows somebody.  (If you’re not getting the Kevin reference, it refers to the 6 Degrees of Separation game.)  Which is the heart of networking. Read More

Getting Acting Gigs By Sneaking In The Backdoor

So you’ve moved to L.A. and now it’s time to implement phase two of the plan: get discovered by some chance occurrence while serving a big time director his or her organic fruit smoothee with all natural granola at your unavoidable “day job.”  Simple, right?  My advice to you: put down the apron and pick up a walkie talkie.  If you’re going to work some BS job it might as well be in the same ballpark of the sport you’d like to play.

The truth is that the stakes are extremely high and the competition is ever present in this business.  The long shot discovery is an urban legend.  Careers aren’t made overnight; they take years sometimes decades of constant dedication and drive.  Talent, sure.  But everyone’s talented here- don’t you watch Idol?  Yes, if you have a serving job you get tips and your schedule is open for “auditions.”  But why let someone else be in control of your own destiny?  Not saying agents are a bad thing, but sometimes it’s an excuse for complacency.  I have an agent and I still bust my butt to get my own work, and a lot of my acting jobs have come from working in the film industry.  I know that must sound completely nuts… Read More