10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Further Your Acting Career

1. Read scripts! 

Get used to it — read film scripts, one-hour dramas, multicam comedies, and sitcoms. 

2. Study the careers of celebrities. 

Of course I want you to be a chameleon and play anything, but to get started, be able to state the roles that are easy for you to be cast in. Think about a few celebrities that you resemble. Ask your friends who they think you resemble. Do some research and see where those celebrities started, what were the roles they played, especially at the age that you are now.

Let’s say everyone tells you that you look like Jennifer Lopez. Go back and see what roles she played at the very beginning of her career. Then you can bring some of those same types of roles into your practice and classes.

3. Network! 

Oh gosh, I know most of us hate networking. It feels awful, kind of dirty and yucky. But it’s smart to keep in touch with people you’ve worked with. I know when people ask me about casting suggestions, if an actor hasn’t stayed in touch, I forget about them, or at least they aren’t front of mind. Agents and managers often move. Maybe they can’t take you with them, but stay in touch if you like them and believe they are good at what they do. 

A casting director who loved you and called you back or even booked you — are you staying in touch with them? I wouldn't reach out asking for something, but I’d reach out to connect with them. And someone who you know and like but haven't connected with recently — send them an email that doesn’t require a response. Do a little networking. It's not gonna hurt, I promise you.

4. Do something creative.

Get yourself outside your head and out in the world, especially a creative world. Go to a museum, go to a play, go to watch a movie but also go out and live life. I think sometimes as actors we forget that we’re going to be playing mostly people who aren’t actors, so anything that you do is going to be useful to you in your research as an actor. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to horseback ride — great, then do it! The next time a western comes around, you will be able to honestly say, “I can ride horseback.” Make sure you let your team know, and update your casting profiles.

5.  Set up an “actor date.”

Find three of your friends that you haven’t touched base with in a while who are other actors or creatives and reach out to them. Let them know if you’re feeling stuck, and ask them what they’re doing and would they like to get together and brainstorm.

Find a way to do something fun and creative and hopefully they’ll come back to you. You’ll be able to plan something, work on a scene together, record a scene, write something. Connect with your fellow actors. Maybe they just signed with a great agent that they love and they want to connect you to them. Hopefully you can help each other. We need friends in this business.

6. Practice self tapes.

Grab some sides from an old audition that you had or an audition that a friend had and put yourself on tape today. Practice to keep those skills sharp. Sometimes when there’s not a role to get you’re so much freer, and you can really enjoy it. You can take that discovery and put it into your next audition. You shouldn’t make every audition so precious all the time.

7. Master a new dialect. 

Are you working on your voice? Are you working on your dialects and your accents? You want to be prepared if you get the audition. It’s best to be prepared for the accent or dialect BEFORE you get the audition. An English accent will serve most people very well unless you’re English, then try a standard American dialect.

Get a voice teacher. If you can’t afford one, go online and listen and train for free. If you have a friend who’s got an accent and it’s a good one for you to learn, ask if you can hang out and talk and say to them, “I’m going to practice my accent and you can tell me when it sounds terrible or if it sounds good and give me some correction.” If you’re almost fluent in a language, get fluent! Why not? It’s going to be good for your career, and also learning another language is useful for your life. 

8. Update your casting profiles.

Do you have a special skill? Hopefully you do. If you don’t, then get one. And once you get a special skill, put yourself on tape, record it, and upload it to your casting profiles. Right, you can horseback ride, you’re a dancer, you’re an archer. Whatever it is, it’s super fun and it’ll be an interesting thing to have.

It might be a conversation starter. You never know when they’re looking for somebody who’s a great pianist or a trumpet player or a dancer.

9. Practice a monologue.

Why don’t you record a monologue? Do you have a monologue prepared? In class, if your partner got a job and can’t show up, you should always have a monologue prepared. Put it on tape, if you like it, and it’s good. 

10. Get into an acting class.

I think this is gonna sound self-serving, but get into a class. It doesn’t have to be my class, but get into a class and study. Start working if this is what you really want to do. You’ve got to put some work into it, and it’s also a great way to meet other actors and other creative people.

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