CASTING

My fingers are bleeding... I blasted a casting call over several well known casting e-lists. Now, from 9am to midnight, day after day, I’m clacking away at the keyboard responding to all the submissions - which is a great thing! Keep ‘em coming!

I’ve booked 5 full days of casting and I’m not even halfway through. A few tips to actors who want to get noticed, and book jobs - these should be basics that everyone should already know:

1. Don’t submit a resume without a headshot.
2. Don’t submit a headshot without a resume.
3. Don’t demand to read for one part and only one part. Read for what the casting director thinks you’re right for.
4. Read submission instructions.
5. Read the information provided on the production company and previous credits.
6. Don’t submit if you have no intention of being part of the production.
7. Don’t ask how much it’s paying before you’ve even auditioned. Believe me, you need the audition practice anyway.
8. Actually show up for your audition.
9. Don’t ask when call backs are.
10. Don’t be difficult. If you’re trouble now, you most surely will be on set.

And there you have it - I’ve been a working actor for over a decade, and believe me, these are rules to live by. Actually, I forgot the most important rule... ask yourself why you want to be an actor? Is it for money, fame, adoration?

Those are all the wrong reasons. Act because you love it, will do anything for it, and there is nothing else you can do that will make you even remotely happy. Act because you want to contribute to the art form, not because you want the art form to contribute to you.

It’s a tough life, filled with rejection and disappointment - but then there are those moments... those fleeting moments, where a performance comes together and an audience responds... and for an instant, a very brief instant, you’ve become art and touched someone else’s soul.

That is why you should act. That is the only valid reason. Take your satisfaction from the moment created on stage or in front of the camera, and the rest will fall into place.