We have found 19,373 posts across 4 actor forums:
Voice Actors Impression - Solid Snake by TheMitsinga • last post Jul 19th
Seeking advice (a long one) by rhadam21 • last post Jul 19th
Hey guys I'm a 19 year old male from the UK looking for a little advice from those with some industry experience or even just anything to say on the matter :) so my acting journey started when I was around 17, I had recently just signed to a modelling agency in my home country of Scotland. they also dealt with some commercial stuff and obviously dabbled in acting work too. The very first audition they sent me out on was for this BBC tv series (30 episodes). I ended up booking the job and got to have my first ever acting experience on set which was absolutely amazing, as soon as I was done with filming that I knew that acting was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life (screen acting). From here I wasn't so sure as to what I was to do next, I never knew anyone who had done anything similar so I had no idea of the process. I spent a year out jus working and stuff, I eventually found myself in New York with my agent at the time (different agent than the one who sent me on my first audition) who also is very into his acting, he had an upcoming audition and asked me to help him rehearse his lines (I obviously jumped at the opportunity) he saw how keen I was and he asked if I was into my acting and I told him about it and stuff and we had a really long chat and he explained to me that the best thing I could do as a uk actor was study acting. so that's exactly what I did. the audition for drama school was the day after my flight home and I had barely scraped together my audition pieces and fumbled my way through the audition but I somehow managed to bag a spot and spent the next year doing a intensive foundation Course and REALLY enjoyed myself, I also came on SO MUCH in terms of my ability and really fell in love with the craft even more and I also got to experience stage acting and I really got to cement my idea that it wasn't for me (even though I love watching theatre) As we approached the end of our studying year the teachers began to talk about us auditioning for degree courses at our current place of study or going onto a different drama school to continue training. Now at the time I was convinced I wanted to keep studying but looking back now I can see my heart wasn't really 100% into that idea. I booked 3 auditions (RADA, LAMDA and RCS) my first audition was LAMDA this went really well and I actually received a recall for here. my next was RCS this didn't go so well and I got big NO for here. then last was meant to be RADA but corona virus lockdown began at this point and the audition was to be sent in by self tape (along with my LAMDA recall tape) now it was at this point I really began thinking maybe I don't want to spend another 3 years studying acting, studying and school work has never really been something I enjoyed I always found learning in a classroom quite tedious, I mean I loved my foundation year but I would always leave the essays and things till last minute. So It was at this point where I was like well if im going to not go to drama school for 3 years I better find myself an agent, so I found a list of some good agents around the uk and emailed out. I only heard back from one agent but this agency was perfect, they were definitely the biggest agency I had emailed and they had some definite A list clients. They shot back an email the day after and said something along the lines of "hey obviously due to lockdown nothing is really taking place right now and we are all out of office but if you are looking for representation when things get back to normal then do email us then) I was sure by this point I did not want to study but of course I sent away my audition tape for RADA and my recall for LAMDA (looking back I definitely half arsed these without really thinking about it because I didn't really wanna go) due to these tapes not being brilliant I didn't get into either of said schools (lowkey a relief). so this bring us up until VERY recently, I've spent most of lockdown just around the house not really doing much but just a few weeks ago the agency that I said had emailed back before emailed me again asking if I would like to set up a video meeting with them, I jumped and the opportunity. the video call went VERY well even though I was incredibly nervous (they asked if I could do an American accent and I was so nervous I just made the weirdest accent sounded like South African mixed with English) but they seemed to like me somehow and they said something along the lines of "we would like to start an informal kind of partnership to see how things go, they will put me forward for roles still and just see from there". I had two video auditions within two days and they seemed very impressed with the clips I sent them and they sent the off to the separate casting agents. I heard back from one casting agent they said something along the lines of "he is lovely, is there anyway he could do it in an English accent as it would be easier on American ears" so I sent away another tape in the accent and that was sent back to the casting directors. its been around a week and I've heard nothing. do you guys think I should email asking for an update or just wait. I'm kinda really impatient lol, but yea just if there's any advice you guys would have would love to hear it. ill attach some of my headshots swell. hope you're all doing well during lockdown also and keeping safe <3 [headshot ](https://preview.redd.it/xtqdt80gxub51.jpg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e8c46a6594efc660846b451ec7b94677d2bcb21e)
My bf (25M) has to act single for his acting persona. Advice? by FitCod2 • last post Jul 19th
So especially for LA folks/ actors/ personalities/etc.. my bf states that when he is in LA for gigs, he doesn’t tell anyone he’s in a relationship unless they ask. He acts single asl and does “innocent flirting” with people to gain a biggger status. He thinks that if people know his business aka that he has a gf back home, that it can mess up an image that his manager and director put him as. I(21F) am always okay with him doing his kissing scenes and all that etc etc. i just feel uncomfortable when i witness this “innocent flirting” under other actors pics on insta. I told him to try to communicate it but his excuse is that it’s for business “for our future” blah blah etc. Can someone tell me the facts on how they feel about this? Is it just business or is it more than that. I’ll edit later with more info as i am working atm, just need some advice. Tl;dr my bf “must” act single in order to get famous.
What actors are way older/younger than you think they really were? by Clean-Arm-7415 • last post Jul 19th
For example, when i first saw Jason Earles from Hannah Montana, i thought he was literally like 15. Turns out he was 29 by the time the first episode came out.
Does anybody recognize the voice actor of Two-Face in this video? Hard to recognize who it could be. by endless_telegram • last post Jul 19th
​ https://reddit.com/link/hu13hl/video/gvl1vd0kntb51/player
Is This A Scam? by nancysong74 • last post Jul 18th
I recently came across a competition called [The Actor Launch](https://theactorlaunch.com/?fbclid=IwAR37-2Cgp64au3mCUjV9ffa4CweLuO30Rml6bv0sy3GmrEp9QILB9ZokO_A). I was wondering if anyone knows this competition is legit? I'm interested in joining, but please let me know, thanks! \*UPDATE\* Thanks for your comments and inputs. I called the sponsors on the page. All of the sponsors are well-known studios that my friends attend or have used the service of. The ones that answered my phone (today's a weekend) have all confirmed the legitimacy of the competition. I guess the lesson here is that you should do your own research while taking other's opinions. That's the best way to avoid acting scams :)
A strange predicament by hulking245 • last post Jul 18th
Hello! I am starting out as an actor. I also have a YouTube channel which I haven’t posted to in a very long time. I am planning to post a commentary video where I essentially joke about a Canadian children’s television show that ended a couple years ago. These jokes would likely be satirical and not target the television channel (YTV) or any of their other shows. It would be very lighthearted as well. Because I live in Canada, would making this video ruin my chances of possibly getting a role on this specific channel? Is there any type of fair use law that allows actors to do this?
Being an actress and not kissing by Doocay • last post Jul 18th
Excuse the English. I've been preparing to audition for a part where the character I am going for is supposed to be the love interest of the lead. (Shes just supposed to be the crush of the lead). I know from experience that in theatre it's easy to fake kissing and stuff. But this is for a student film so I am uneasy about that part, or if it will lead to provocative bed scenes. I'm not sure if kissing is gonna be included. But for the future unrelated to this, if I do get a project, where I am expected to kiss even though I didnt know beforehand. What will I do then? I cant just say no. I know people will say: Its acting let go of yourself. But I am a very religious person so I really wanna know how to avoid this.
Growth Mindset during quarantine? by danielle_cinelover • last post Jul 18th
Hi Everyone! Hope you are well. As quarantine drags on I have started to realize that I can use the time to become more educated on the variety of roles within the entertainment industry. I am an actor by trade, but have always been interested in learning everything from what a gaffer does to (on average) what types of scripts get greenlight at major studios. I know a lot of these questions sometimes get answered with time and while working on sets, but in the interim (while some of us are unable to go on set) I am trying to think about ways to educate myself. **Does anyone have any resources (blogs, books etc.) that they would highly suggest I look into?** Because I have been unable to find a one stop shop resource so far I am even thinking about ways to publicize the conversations I am having or include others in the conversation - maybe in an AMA format so that everyone can all benefit from playing interviewer? Would love to hear any thoughts and will make sure to post any updates on this thread. Thanks!
How do I practice acting alone? by 0907sean • last post Jul 18th
Hi, I’m 16 year old high school student. I want to practice acting so I can audition while going to college. I’m Korean, so I’m not going to (can’t) become a Hollywood actor. How do I practice acting alone (at home)? Are there any scripts I can practice with? Thanks.
Day in the life of an Actor | Self-tape Quarantine Edition by andrewjlau • last post Jul 18th
What should an actor do in their free time? by LivinLaVidaBrooka • last post Jul 18th
Hey all, As an actor and college student during this pandemic, I haven't been doing much. I'm currently waiting for my online acting class to start and am working at my minimum wage job getting whatever hours I can, but when it's time to come home and actual do things.. I just feel like I'm in waiting. Waiting for something to happen and it sucks. I'm a gamer so I'll play some games here and there in my free time, but I feel like I could be doing something more productive that could benefit me as a person but I'm not sure what that is. I also read at times (currently reading An Actors Work, which I LOVE) but I feel like I could be doing more? What do you guys do in your free time to help improve yourself or your acting?
Where to move for an acting career (besides LA or New York) by colinfyster4 • last post Jul 18th
Hey everyone! So my wife will be going to law school sometime next year and I've been trying to study different acting markets across the U.S. (especially those with a good law school nearby). So far I'm looking heavily at Georgia, New Mexico (caveat being that their law school is not that great) and Chicago (and of course LA and New York). I didn't know if there were any actors out that lived in secondary acting markets and could let me know what it's like? I'm asking about advice for secondary markets instead of LA or New York, because those are easy to research and obviously two of the very best places to move for an acting career. I just want to see if there are other options out there. Thank you all so much! Hope you're all staying safe out there!
I’m 18, going on 19, and lost in the world. But I have a giant passion for art and acting. by Bradythenarwhal • last post Jul 18th
These days I’m just unsure of where life is going. I spent so much of my youth being sad and wallowing in self pity, but at some point I started going to the gym and got a job and opened up and became like..an actual person? It wasn’t until senior year that I actually got truly confused and realized I don’t know what I want to do. Everyone kept saying “oh you have so much time to decide” but I DONT. I DONT have a lot of time. Shit is getting really real and coming fast. I don’t live with my father anymore because he was abusive and my sister and her husband let me stay with them until I go to college. I dabbled a bit into psychedelic mushrooms and ate too much and had a breakthrough/identity crisis and that is just a whole other story. I’ve always kept my friend group small. The same people that have stuck with me since childhood. Everyone at school knew me, but didn’t really *know* me. I was just the guy everyone knew, say hi and have short, but somewhat deep convos with and that was all. I had 4-5 actual people that I can truly call my friends. Psychedelics and just all the experiences I’ve had in the past and the lessons I have learned made me realize I have a passion for recording and taking pictures/videos, but moreso I have a passion for art in general. Whether that is making music, writing, or acting. I just want to create and be around art. Psychedelics especially helped me uncover all of this and find myself because I was so lost and didn’t know what to do in the world. I’m beginning community college in the fall and I am majoring in Psychology and minor in Drama. I’m planning on giving drama/acting my all. I’m not expecting big shit to happen. Be the next Leonardo or even some B, C or even D or E tier actor, but it is still something I crave to do consistently and make some sort of living off of. There are so many forms of media and TV shows these days. I feel like I have acted so much for a big portion of my life already, so I really want to succeed and see this through. I know it goes for many other people too, but my entire life growing up was watching TV shows and sitcoms and mimicking the characters and trying to be like them. Watching their mannerisms, their charisma and how everything just flows. Just wanted to share my thoughts. I love discussion when it comes to TV and Film. I’m also smart and safe with psychedelic usage too. I wasn’t with the shrooms and they beat my ass for it, but i’ll always be grateful and happy I had that trip. It felt like I died and was reborn.
Casting Play Reading - by iJuanAyala • last post Jul 17th
CASTING NOTICE Hi everyone! Seeking a few college-aged male actors (18-25) for a virtual reading of a new play by Ed Martin titled "A Friend Of The Devil", which centers around the tumultuous relationship between two college roommates during their freshman year of college in 1976. The reading will take place 7/25 via Zoom. If you're interested and available, please email your headshot, resume and a link to your reel (if you have one) to ignitecasting1@gmail.com . Deadline for submissions is 5pm (Eastern) today, 7/17. Thanks so much!
i need a bit of help here and i hope i can get some by EnderxDJ • last post Jul 17th
Lets say that you want to be a voice actor but your dog chewed up your mic and your headphones are breaking and you can' replace them. But your dating someone who knows how to draw and animated. And you want to help them out with voices. But you need a mic. And when you do. You don't know where to start.
Headshots and Agencies in Australia by bronsonmcjohnson • last post Jul 17th
I'm just wondering if any of the Aussie actors lurking around this subreddit have any pointers around Sydney-based agencies and good places to get headshots? I've heard from an acquaintance being represented by MCTV that that particular agency has a signing-on fee of about $250, which then gets you headshots with them. For those who've been doing this dance a little longer; does that sound legit? Or would I be setting myself for a big ol' scammerino there? Other options would be appreciated!
Some Thoughts on Who Should Be Allowed to Play Who by b2thekind • last post Jul 17th
# To Start. I want to take a moment and talk about who gets cast as who in casting, specifically when it comes to disabled and trans characters. I saw there was a thread about this earlier today, which I missed most of the discussion period for. I have a lot of thoughts about this, and a lot of them I didn't really see get put out there in the thread. I know this is a long post, but I think it is something important. I hope some people read it. Let's start from an easy starting place. **Blackface is bad.** We all agree on that I'm sure. And I'm not talking about Tropic Thunder, Always Sunny, or Sarah Silverman, where they are playing a white person playing a Black person to comment on it. I have no issue with that. I mean a white person playing a Black person. We've agreed this is bad for a long time. We haven't had a white person playing a Black person in earnest in a Hollywood film since 1945, except for depictions of Othello, which continued, regrettably, until 1965. Blackface has a particularly nefarious history in the US, given the role that minstrel shows played in reinforcing stereotypes and subjugating Black Americans. But I think we can also agree that white people playing any race other than white is also wrong, right? That opinion has been around for a long time as well, right? Not exactly. In 1961, Natalie Wood, a white actress, played Maria, a Puerto Rican character, in West Side Story. That same year, Mickey Rooney gave a very offensive performance as a Japanese character in Breakfast at Tiffany's. But after the Civil Rights Movement, we didn't see this die down. **Linda Hunt, a white actress, played a Chinese little person and won the Oscar for it in 1982.** Alec Guinness played and Indian character in A Passage to India two years later. Al Pacino played a Puerto Rican character in Carlito's Way in 1993. Out of these 80's movies, Short Circuit is a particularly bad offender. Aziz Ansari has a fantastic monologue about how he looked up to that actor and movie so much as a kid wanting to go into acting, finally getting to see an Indian lead. He then finds out later that the lead was played by a white actor in prosethetic makeup. I personally find this egregious when Bollywood is full of some incredibly talented actors, so there is no shortage of Indian actors to play such a role. Getting even more recent, **Angelina Jolie played a woman of partial Afro-Cuban descent and darkened her skin and wore a curly wig for the role in 2007** in A Mighty Heart. As recently as 2007, Rob Schneider has performed a racist Asian caricature. Johnny Depp has a history of playing Native American roles well into this last decade. And **Emma Stone, who is all white, played a character who was 1/4 Chinese and 1/4 Hawaiian in Aloha just five years ago.** This idea that white people shouldn't play people of other races seems so obvious, but how old is it really? The situation got a lot better in the 90s when a lot of these sorts of things bubbled to the surface, but only in the last five years has this practice really stopped altogether. What is my point with all of this as an introduction? **First, to point out that majority populations taking minority roles is a giant problem that is just starting to be addressed. Second, to point out that as soon as one thing becomes forbidden to play, actors tend to jump to the next thing quickly, before they can't do it anymore. But most importantly, to ask the question, "why?"** Why do actors play minority roles so often? And moreover, why is that wrong? We all agree white people shouldn't play Black people, I hope. Why? Why can I. as a white woman, play a queen in Medieval England but not a Black woman or a Chinese woman? I think there is a definite answer to this. My answer is simply, that this is not my body. This is how I think of things. I can, as an actor, play a different person, in a mind/soul sense. I can play a different religion, a different time period, a different sexual orientation, etc. **But I don't know what it's like to be a Black woman, a trans man, a woman in a wheelchair, a little person, a deaf woman, etc.** They not only have a different mind/soul that I would have to adopt, but they also have a different body. Not only that, but **they are treated differently by society as a result of their body.** And they likely see the world different as a result of not only their body, but how society treats them. So why is it wrong to try to play a different body? Well a few things. Let's start with the most fundamental one. # We take our bodies for granted. I know what it's like to be in my body just like you know what it's like to be in your body. Similarly, a disabled person knows what it's like to be in their body, and a person of a different race knows what it's like to be in their body, and a trans person and so on. We all have relationships to our body that are influenced by society's view of our body, and we all have relationships to society that are influenced by our body and how it is seen. Can we learn what someone else's body is like and how they function in society? Yes. But on this massive scale? Sure.Daniel Day Lewis did so very well in My Left Foot. Eddie Redmayne did so fairly well in The Danish Girl. But there is still a big problem here. Daniel Day Lewis's entire performance was about his relationship to his disability. Eddie Redmayne's was about his relationship to his transness. Do you see the problem I'm getting at? **Real people take their bodies for granted.** All of a sudden these performances are so centered on inhabiting someone else's body, that these people are reduced to their bodies. Daniel Day Lewis's performance was nothing but a disabled person. Eddie Redmayne's was nothing but a trans person. **This person was reduced down to nothing but their body.** If you had an actual disabled person or trans person in these roles, respectively, then they wouldn't have had to focus on the body, it would've just been there. They could focus on everything else. And all of a sudden this person isn't reduced down to just their disability or transness or whatever else. This may not stick out as a giant problem in these movies, but that's because these movies scripts are about those issues. The Danish Girl is about a transition, as if that is the most interesting thing there could possibly be about a trans woman, and not just something that trans women are used to and move past to become fully realized people. Same with depictions of disability so much of the time. This also gets to a larger problem. H**ollywood has an obsession with the idea of a "transformation." This is because people don't understand what it is that actors do.** Good acting is invisible. It looks easy. It's like a magic trick. We don't tell people how we got the performances we got so people look for external measures. He actually ate a buffalo heart. He actually broke a mirror. He actually drove a taxi for months. This is nowhere more prevalent than in the idea of the transformation. People obsess over things like weight gain and prosthetics as if you go to acting school for four years and all they teach you is, "Oh yeah, drink a lot of protein shakes and sit there for 6 hours in the morning while somebody makes you a new face." That's not acting. That's other stuff. But, even in our acting, we use this to "measure" an actors commitment and devotion. We use it to assign acting as being "good." This is why playing disabled and trans characters wins awards. And this is why, to answer an earlier question, actors are so obsessed with playing these types of roles. They feel like they have something to prove. Actors want to find tough, physical things to do in acting to make it seem hard to an outside eye. Being vulnerable with your emotions is hard enough, but audiences don't see that. This obsession makes people ignore training, understated acting, and emotional vulnerability, hurting the craft. But more than that, it can have dire consequences on the populations depicted. **To take the case of trans women, when people see Jared Leto play an incredibly feminine trans woman, and then accept the Oscar for it with a full beard, it reinforces, consciously or not, this idea that a trans woman is also a man who is putting on a very convincing act.** If they've only seen trans women played by men, and never met one, they could very well think that all trans women look like men in nice wigs and makeup, or that all trans women could go back to looking like a man anytime they choose to. They could feel like all trans women are essentially acting when they behave like their gender. **They could think that trans women are nothing more than their transformation.** This has deadly consequences when so much of the population actively does think of trans women this way, and trans women are killed regularly because of this line of thinking. These movies may not be the root cause of this thinking, but they certainly aren't helping in the way actual representation of trans women would. Instead, they are validating this mindset that trans women are nothing but a transformation. **They reduce these people.** Trans actresses go home from playing women and they are still women. Their femininity is not an act. Seeing that could be very important for some people. This brings us to the second answer to, "Why is it so wrong to play someone with a different body from me?" # Playing someone with a different body takes away roles from people that already have trouble getting roles. **The default in Hollywood has long been cisgender able-bodied white males.** This is starting to change, but if a role says "shopkeeper" "police officer" or soldier" or some other completely non-specified character, it's almost universally cisgender able-bodied white males. And despite frequent discussions about white people not being able to get casted, if you look at statistics, you'll see that they are still the majority of people being cast, well over they're percentage representation in the general population, and it's even worse for cis and abled presence. If you are in a wheelchair, and a role comes along where the lead is supposed to be in a wheelchair, that's a big moment for you. That is so rare. You finally have a chance. And then if you lose it to an able-bodied person? Or even worse, can't even get in the room to audition for it? That's a giant blow. You may never have a chance at a lead again in your whole career. That must feel terrible. Because here is the issue. **Disabled people can't play abled people. Trans people often can't play cis people. And so when they are each allowed to audition for less a tenth of one percent of roles, and then lose those roles to cis people who are allowed to apply for everything, what is left?** For a long time it wasn't even possible to be an actor and be trans or disabled because of this. Cis people already have access to 99.9 percent of roles. Trans people have access to .1. Having a few of those roles snatched away is losing a career, because there are only a few of them out there. Here is where arguments about, "What if they aren't as good of an actor?" often pop up. To that I would answer that we have dozens and dozens of cases where movies cast non-actors in roles because they know that life better. The Florida Project, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Full Metal Jacket, and most child casting ever come to mind. Like I said earlier, these actors know their bodies, so they can skip straight to making a well rounded person. This is not to mention that minority actors, if they aren't up to par, are likely not up to par because they didn't have access to training. And if they didn't have access to training, it's likely because there weren't roles for them so institutions didn't want to set actors up for a life with not roles. And the reason there are no roles for them is because majority groups have taken all of the minority roles. But this is changing. Trans kids and disabled kids are at many of the top training institutions in the world. There are some really stunning new actors on the scene who come from these groups. They often can't even get in a room because if there is no transformation, it's not as impressive. If you were trans the whole time, it's just normal acting, not giant showy flashy transformation acting. But these actors are out there, and they are talented. And even if they're untrained, movies have done very well with that for other groups. It worked great for Tangerine. Knowing their own body is enough of a prerequisite to be considered. And finally, this all brings us to a third answer to our big question, "Why is it so wrong to play someone in a different body than me?" # It hurts people. We see time and time again, when this sort of casting happens, giant backlash to the casting. And people are often dismissed as being too sensitive or too PC or too easily offended. I think this is a giant problem. When someone sees this casting and says, "I'm offended," a very common response is, "Why are you being so sensitive," or some sort of common sense explanation of why it's not trying to be offensive, or why that actor was cast in this specific situation. On the worse end, people are accused of being snowflakes, or the situation gets politicized. But when someone says, "I'm offended," what they're really saying is, "that hurts my feelings. That hurts me." If someone accidentally grabbed my arm too hard and I said, "That hurts me, can you stop?" what would they do? Would they keep grabbing my arm equally hard while saying, "Well I'm not trying to hurt you, maybe you're just being too sensitive," or maybe go into some common sense explanation for why they should be allowed to grab my arm? No. Almost certainly not. **So how come when someone says, "That hurts me, can you stop?" about something like casting, we respond like that?** How we respond to hurting someone, as good people, is we usually stop, then apologize, explain that we didn't mean to hurt them, and then ask how we can keep that from happening. When actors do this after getting called out, they're often criticized in acting circles for capitulating, I've found. And a common argument I hear back is that people don't see why this is so hurtful. They don't understand how this could be hurting someone, so they assume the fault lies with the other person for being too sensitive. But I think it's worth explaining why these things are so hurtful. Imagine for a second, we are actors after all, that you are a thirteen year old trans girl who is just beginning her transition and is facing a lot of self doubt and internalized transphobia. You have never met another trans girl. Trans people aren't that common, and often want to blend in anyway. Your only exposure to trans people has been in the media. You want to believe that you are a trans woman, you really want to believe that. **You want to believe that trans women are women. But how hard must that be when every trans woman you've seen in the media has been played by a man?** Nearly every depiction of a trans woman you have encountered has been a man pretending to be a woman. And now you have to tell yourself that you are not a man pretending to be a woman. Have you been imagining this? That's a painful thing to have to deal with. Every role model you've had has actually been a man, the one thing in the world you would like most to believe you aren't. Or let's go back to the example of Aziz Ansari. To grow up cherishing a movie with an Indian lead, the first movie you can think of with an Indian lead, only to find out that it was a white person and that Indians don't actually get to be leads in movies. Not while you're a kid. You can see how this is similar, right? So when those people, and their parents, and their friends, and the people who used to be those people get together and say, "That casting choice hurts me," I hope it's understandable why it hurts them. # To Finish. I hope it's understandable why those casting choices not only hurt audience members, but also hurt your fellow actors, and hurt the depictions of these characters. Not only that, but we can see how these casting choices play into wrong and anti artistic ideas of what the art of acting is, and how they play into much larger problems in society. Playing characters with bodies vastly different from your own has giant consequences and implications. I also want to finish by talking about this idea of clinging to sinking debris that I see in casting right now. We finally, in the last five years, have seen actors stop playing other races. But we've been seeing them jump onto playing trans roles. Scarlett Johansson got called out in a big way and didn't get to, but that didn't stop Halle Berry from trying to do it a few months ago. Don't kid yourself, **these actors know that the window in which they can get away with playing these roles is closing and they are making last ditch efforts to get it in while they can.** I don't think that this is necessarily on actors like Scarlett Johansson and Emma Stone as much as it's on directors, producers, and casting directors, but if you understand why it hurts people, I think actors can and should stand up against it. Then on the flip side you get actors like Halle Berry, who not only agreed to take this role after the Scarlett Johansson debacle when she should have known better, but referred to the character as a trans man, then exclusively used she/her/hers pronouns when describing the character the whole time. Getting pronouns wrong doesn't mean you're a bad person, but if you don't get why it hurts people after you've been doing research for months, how could you possibly get to a place where you understand this character? Playing disabled people is currently far more acceptable than playing trans people. But the actors doing it also know that that opportunity could close up. If an opportunity is going to close because it is hurting people, maybe we shouldn't jump on those opportunities. It feels like a ship sank and actors are jumping from debris to debris trying to find whatever floats for long enough. That won't be remembered well. The Scarlett Johannson memes are already out of control. That brings us to the idea of history, changing times, and the current generation of up and coming actors. You don't have to agree with me about this, you are entitled to your opinion. But you will not be able to get into a top training program if you have a disabled or trans role that you haven't removed from your resume. If you defend why you should get to play these roles, you will alienate a massive amount of rooms you are in. Whether you believe it should or not, this is dying out right now. More and more, it's seen as unprofessional to fight for it. **History will not look kindly on people that play these roles.** If you read this far, I really appreciate it. I hope this helped elucidate exactly what roles it is okay for someone to play, what roles it's not okay for someone to play, and the reasons why that is. How it hurts people, and how we can move forward as actors. If you're interested in learning more about this subject I would highly recommend watching Disclosure on Netflix, watching Aziz Ansari's Short Circuit monologue, and watching Trevor Noah's "Let's Talk This Out" about The Upside.
Stage actors, do you think your theatre degree was necessary in contributing to where you are today? Why or why not? by ShiningAway • last post Jul 17th
I'm a high school student and I have been considering getting college level training in theatre, but I would love to hear from actual graduates about whether your degree was worth it. Whether it's a balanced liberal arts degree or a BFA in a conservatory-style institution, I'm interested in all of them and I'd like to know your opinions. Thank you!