It's Called Show Business!
One of my missions at the studio is to provide real world training for the working actor in an atmosphere that is both safe and challenging. What I mean by this is that I want and expect my students to understand all aspects of the "Business" in which they have chosen to explore their "Art." I need them to understand that a career in the arts weather it be acting, singing, painting, music, sculpture or dance is a two sided equation that has to be kept in balance. Without this balance the one will not work in sync with the other. If you are on a see saw and one person outweighs the other by to much you go nowhere and have no fun. As children we instinctively know this but as adults this simple mathematical truth is all to often thrown by the wayside. In plain terms you can't have the "Show" without the "Business" and you can't thrive in the "Business" without the"Show."
In the acting game craft is king. The best actors always end up with a great career and live to see their dreams come true. Would this were true but unfourtunetly that thinking is a kin to fairy tale. The hard truth is that all to often the very best actors will be completely ignored by the industry unless they can figure out a way to make people sit up and take notice. This can be accomplished in a number of ways that were not available to me when I was coming up. Casting director workshops, agent and manager workshops, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Vine and the plethora of other tools to connect that seem to pop up on a daily basis. I was out of college and a working actor for ten years before this magical thing called "the internet" was even made available to the general public. Even then it was many years before everyone had an email address and it became the industry standard by which submissions and demos are viewed.
In an industry that values youth and beauty above all else if you've "got it" and you can get in front of someone who can see it you're going to get meetings. However if you do not look like an Abercrombie model or have an uncle in the business you're going to have to work harder then the person who won the genetic lottery. I can't tell how often I will be training a beautiful person who has little or no experience who will start getting meetings for studio pictures before another actor who has been training and working their butts off on their craft. This can be demoralizing or as I hear all to often, "that's not fair!" This is very true but this is show "Business" and fairs got nothing to do with it. If you want "fair" there's a fair in Pomona every fall. Once you get past this and understand that their career has nothing to do with your career you can mitigate the differences, buckle down to work and use the extraordinary amount of tools at your disposal.
Some of the biggest movie stars working look just like you. Tom Hanks, Kathy Bates, Toby Maguire, Viola Davis, Bryan Cranston, Anna Paquin, Robert Downey Jr., Octavia Spencer and Jeremy Renner to name just a few. These are actors who put themselves where they currently are and did the hard work it takes to get there and stay there.
You have to "want it" more and work harder to get it then the other actors around you.
You have to understand the "Business" in the "Show"
In the acting game craft is king. The best actors always end up with a great career and live to see their dreams come true. Would this were true but unfourtunetly that thinking is a kin to fairy tale. The hard truth is that all to often the very best actors will be completely ignored by the industry unless they can figure out a way to make people sit up and take notice. This can be accomplished in a number of ways that were not available to me when I was coming up. Casting director workshops, agent and manager workshops, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Vine and the plethora of other tools to connect that seem to pop up on a daily basis. I was out of college and a working actor for ten years before this magical thing called "the internet" was even made available to the general public. Even then it was many years before everyone had an email address and it became the industry standard by which submissions and demos are viewed.
In an industry that values youth and beauty above all else if you've "got it" and you can get in front of someone who can see it you're going to get meetings. However if you do not look like an Abercrombie model or have an uncle in the business you're going to have to work harder then the person who won the genetic lottery. I can't tell how often I will be training a beautiful person who has little or no experience who will start getting meetings for studio pictures before another actor who has been training and working their butts off on their craft. This can be demoralizing or as I hear all to often, "that's not fair!" This is very true but this is show "Business" and fairs got nothing to do with it. If you want "fair" there's a fair in Pomona every fall. Once you get past this and understand that their career has nothing to do with your career you can mitigate the differences, buckle down to work and use the extraordinary amount of tools at your disposal.
Some of the biggest movie stars working look just like you. Tom Hanks, Kathy Bates, Toby Maguire, Viola Davis, Bryan Cranston, Anna Paquin, Robert Downey Jr., Octavia Spencer and Jeremy Renner to name just a few. These are actors who put themselves where they currently are and did the hard work it takes to get there and stay there.
You have to "want it" more and work harder to get it then the other actors around you.
You have to understand the "Business" in the "Show"