Obligatory not an actor disclaimer. I’ve got a friend who is trying to become an actor and has not had success but they’re only three years into pursuing it so they’re not outlandish by any stretch. They recently finished writing a one-man play and they’re keen for me and a few others to watch it and give honest feedback about how they’re coming across. I want to do this, I’m interested in culture and arts, but I’m scared that the performance/writing won’t be very good and I’ll be in a position where I have to lie (which I don’t want to do and don’t think will be helpful). This is purely hypothetical because I don’t know how good he is (acting-wise anyway, his writing was never great in school) but I feel like I can’t turn him down without being unsupportive. I’m also doubtful that the other people he’s asked are going to want to go to this thing. As an actor, what is a good way to explain to you the awkwardness of this situation without outright saying that you suspect him to be untalented and also super duper sensitive? I like being friends with him and I kinda want to keep the work/friend thing separate. Like I don’t ask him to weigh in on my work performance. I feel like it would get awkward.
I am currently writing a special original short film for my YouTube channel, and am seeking a voice actor who is able to deliver a convincing impersonation of our master of horror himself, Stephen King. I am looking for the closest impersonation that i can find. If anyone is interested in sending over an audition tape, please feel free to reach out to embracethefilm@gmail.com
Every time I check out the actor posts on facebook all I see is constant arguing it gives me a freaking headache
Kind of hard to explain unless you've ever seen a high school theatre production or have just been a self-aware kid actor, but something I've noticed in all of my school productions is that everyone sounds the same. Even some of the more experienced kids all have the same time, like none of them are thinking the lines, they're just reading them. I'm not sure if this is something to do with inflections, tone, or just lack of confidence, but it's annoying because it makes us all sound amateurish (which we are), and I don't want to fall into the same way. Any advice?
Do the creators choose or does the company choose? Just asking for the future because I would like too choose since I already have the voices in mind for my characters
I’m really interested in chameleon actors. People like Joaquin Phoenix and Meryl Streep who don’t even seem to be acting, it’s like an entirely different freaking human being, to the point where you don’t even recognize them in spite of the same face/body. Who do you also find to be a chameleon? How do you think they do it? Anything else that comes to mind? I just find it so incredible fascinating - I don’t care if you don’t have something profound to say, I’d love to chat with anyone about anything.
Use this thread to post your headshots for feedback, get info on your age range/type, find good headshot photographers, ask any questions you may have about headshots. If you are posting a DIY headshot for feedback, and not just a snapshot in order to get feedback on your age range/type/etc, it is advised that you do at least some basic research on what actor headshots look like--composition, framing, lighting. You will find a Google Image search for "actor headshots" to be very helpful for this. Non-professional shots are fine for age/typecasting; please keep in mind that one picture is a difficult way to go about this. Video of you moving and speaking would be ideal, but understandably more difficult to post. For what it's worth, the branding workshop at SAG-AFTRA recommends a five-year age range. That's inclusive, so for example 19-23, 25-29, 34-38, etc.
_**(I've posted this under r/musicals already, but I felt that more people might see it and potentially respond if I post under two subreddits :)**_ Gender and age of auditioner? **Female, 15** Show/role sought? **All Shook Up, Ensemble :)** Vocal part? **Not entirely clear, but I'm comfortable lowest at E3 and highest at around E5?** Song ideas? **I'm currently the most confident with 'Part of your world' from The Little Mermaid, but I don't think it's right for this musical.** Access to practice accompanist? **Not really, at least for the following week.** Venue? **High School (it's a high school, teacher-run musical)** Musical? **All Shook Up** I'm auditioning for a musical for the first time and my audition is next week. I'm really hyped but the 3 panel judges (one drama teacher, one music teacher and one graduate drama student) are what's giving me the most anxiety. **For some context:** I took drama for a semester in Freshman year and had the drama teacher as my teacher. It didn't work out, I'm inconceivably terrible at drama (improv, at least) and I got terrible grades. The teacher's pretty nice, we just aren't on 'great' terms I guess. I joined the school Jazz Band this year playing piano and the build up was for a regional competition. We had months to prepare. I ended up crying before her weeks prior to the trip (needless to say I didn't go) because I was really stressed at home and I just couldn't play the pieces- they were beyond my level. I had never played jazz piano before this year so it may have been partly poor judgement on both our parts, but I couldn't help but feel I let everyone down. She's also nice to me, smiling or saying hello if we walk past each other in the hall, but things still feel a bit awkward. I think the graduate student genuinely dislikes me. He and a couple other people ran an extracurricular this year which I was in (that I really enjoyed), but over the year things got worse. I'm really introverted and anti-social (because of my social anxiety) and I think my behaviour rubbed off in the wrong way. It's as if I behaved like a freak or something, because the atmosphere feels *so incredibly awkward* whenever we happen to interact. I understand why he may think the way he does about me, I just don't know what to do about it. I don't dislike any of these judges, heck, they're really good people, I'm just so tense about the fact that I'll be singing in front of them since I haven't really sung in front of anyone before, much less auditioned for anything since 5th grade. I've tried to sing in front of other people, close friends even, but my voice just won't come out. I'm awful at drama, socially-anxious and a terrible dancer, and I'm not confident with my singing voice at all, however, I do love musicals, and I want to take the opportunity given to me and experience it while I still can. I'd be estatic just getting into the ensemble. I do have a close friend auditioning for the musical for the first time and another who is an experienced musical-actress, but I haven't really confided with them about anything. They're both much more confident in themselves than I am, given their circumstances. I'm also a little concerned about song choice. So far I'm considering 'Part of your world' by the little mermaid because my voice is the most confident in this song, but obviously it doesn't really relate to 'rock and roll' or (correct me if I'm wrong) 80's songs, which is the main music style of 'All Shook Up.' I don't think I could get a new song 'right' in a week's time, but I'm willing to try. I think the song choice is probably the least of my worries compared to my panel anxieties. Of course, any advice for first auditions, song choices or just anything that'll support mental health will be really appreciated. If you're reading this, thanks for reading :) **tl;dr** This is my first musical audition. I have had some negative interactions with all the 3 audition panel judges and I'm also concerned about my song choice. I haven't really sung in front of others (because self esteem issues). Any advice is appreciated.
So voice acting (and acting in general) has been a bit of a secret passion of mine. I haven’t really stepped into acting since I was 17 (I’m 22 now), but I always enjoyed doing plays and musicals in some way or another. I’m a bass player in a band and I also have a degree in sound engineering (translation: I am broke and do not expect to make good money anytime soon
Hello! Do you as an actor tell people good news when you get the chance? Let’s say a new episode or commercial releases with you in it... do you tell all your friends? Or do you keep it to yourself? I usually don’t post anything on social media so I usually keep my friends updated via text with good news. But I feel that some people take it as me bragging. When really, I thought it may be rude if I don’t keep them updated. I’m quite new to this so I’m super excited to tell my friends and family. Going forward I may not tell them every single thing I do anymore lol I’m afraid I might rub it in their face
I'm making this post on behalf of a non-Redditor friend of mine who is 22 but can easily pass for someone older than 30. He absolutely looks too old to play a teenager or someone his own age and he carries himself with a maturity that's far beyond his years. He's a great actor with a lot of range, and I can attest to that. But he tells me he has lost a bunch of acting opportunities from just sending potential casting directors a link to his IMDb page (which lists his date of birth). As soon as he does, they lose interest and ghost him. My friend has tried everything he could to get his age removed from his IMDb profile, but they won't let him. It has gotten to the point where he is seriously considering **suing** IMDb. Have any of y'all been able to successfully remove your age without resorting to legal action?
I've got a self-tape audition for a feature film, and I'd like some advice re: physical aspects of the scenes. There are a few parts in the sides in which I'm supposed to drop to my knees / point a rifle menacingly at someone / hold a baby. How would you handle these physical directives as actors? I don't have the technical capability or the manpower to move the camera to keep me in frame if I were to actually drop to my knees. Do you think casting will be disappointed if I don't actually drop down but manufacture the same emotion as if I had? As for the rifle, is miming a no-no? Should I just speak as if I were holding one (fear, power, etc. properly reflected in my voice) and not actually pretend one is in my hands? Same question re: baby. I was thinking about holding a blanket in the shape of an infant, but I don't know if that's more dumb than just leaving a space between my arms where there's an implied baby. Thank you for your thoughts/tips!
Hey /r/acting. Recently we had a post get some traction where the OP wanted to hear from people who took years to book their first television co-star or other high profile work/professional credits and wondered how they moved to that 'next level.' Specifically he asked: **(1.) why do you think that was (that it took years to get the first big booking).** and **(2.) what was the change you made that finally got you booking?** I wrote the comment below in response, but unfortunately the OP deleted the post and nuked his account. Our moderator u/thisisnotarealperson was kind enough to ask that I make this comment its own post so that it wouldn't be lost if people wanted to refer back to it or search the subreddit for similar questions and similar answers. I'd love to hear from anyone else in the comments about this sort of career transition and how they'd describe it (or advise someone going through the same thing), but if you're just wondering why you're seeing this same big wall of text twice today, I hope this preface explains it well enough. Cheers. ---- As for the "why it took a few years" question, this is just a hard fucking business, and it's made a lot harder when you aren't getting out to audition very often. As for the "what changed," I think working as a reader in a casting office was a huge turning point for me. Nothing really changed in my skillset, but demystifying the casting process and seeing how and why decisions were made relieved a lot of stress about the whole ordeal. After that, when I went in for an audition it didn't seem like me against the world or against some cruel system that was blocking me out from getting the thing I wanted, it was just a familiar working environment. I had empathy for the people across the table from me. I got to see dozens of auditions of many very good actors when I worked as a reader and, as basic as this seems, it really clarified how "not booking the part" was not personal, and which things the actor actually has control over. Many things that drive casting decisions are out of your hands, so there's no point worrying about them. It's only worth worrying about the things you DO have control over: the state of your marketing materials, your professional conduct and personal behavior, and your skill and preparedness as actor. I saw actors who had fantastic reads get removed from consideration because they looked too much like a producer's ex wife, I saw actors with great reads who got dismissed from consideration because they were rude to the casting associate, and I saw great actors we were excited about dismissed from consideration because they showed up unprepared. We once had a full day where we auditioned 20 people for a part and then got a call from production that the project was stalling and wouldn't be moving forward. NONE of those actors got booked for the role, because the role no longer existed. The actors with the best read still didn't "get it," through no fault of their own. But the ones we liked got asked back to read for a different project. Again, I don't think I became better at scene analysis or something during that time, but my attitude changed. I didn't go into an audition with the energy of someone asking for that specific job, I went in with the energy of "a professional actor here to show you some of my work." Because THOSE were the auditions that actually had any sort of advantage in the room. You, personally, can't really control whether you're right for a part, but you can control the fact that you show up fully prepared and comfortable making adjustments on the fly (a LOT of people don't do this) and being a relaxed, empathetic collaborator. The people who were in the running for a role were always completely off book, fantastic at listening, and had a great understanding of the story purpose of the scene they were reading (that purpose is not "get me a job on tv" and you can feel when people think it is). And if the stars didn't align on that role, the office looked forward to bringing them back in for another project. And that's REALLY what you should be shooting for. Heck, just getting an audition is a victory, there were THOUSANDS of people who submitted and weren't called in, so treat it like one. The short film you mentioned _(OP had mentioned writing and producing his own short film)_ sounds like a good way to get nice footage for your reel and a great next step, but even having some short clips from your best self-tapes uploaded is better at getting you called in than nothing. I never saw anyone at a casting office watch more than 20 seconds of an actor's footage, the vibe is very much "this guy has the right look, just check and make sure he can actually act."
I’m fully repped, in the Los Angeles market and am a popular type.... used to auditioning 2 times a week average. For almost two months it’s been crickets for me. Just wondering if there’s anyone else out there experiencing this! What do you guys do during slow periods????? My class that I’m in doesn’t start back up until the new year, so I’m out of class for several weeks. I just got more headshots taken for shits and gigs and added them to my profiles. I’ve been looking for self submission opportunities but even there my type isn’t popping up like it regularly is. I’ve even been self taping old sides just to pretend like I have something to do. This is excruciating, I actually feel like I’m going crazy? I don’t want to sound ungrateful for previous opportunities or a like a “lazy” actor, I’m definitely doing everything I can on my end. It’s just never been this slow for me, and especially since my class isn’t continuing until Jan, I’m actually stumped on how else to spend my time ... anybody in LA wanna go on a hike or something? Do you want a scene partner for a tape coming up?!? EDIT: also, I know the moment I am desperate or venting I will usually get some Cmail within hours and then look stupid for complaining. Hoping this happens.
Hello, I got my BFA in musical theatre and was working performing regionally in plays and stuff until I became disabled. I was wondering if I had a shot trying voice acting and if you recommend any places for me to start. I don’t have any voice over experience, but I am an experienced actor. I mostly struggle with the technical side of things and have no clue how to record or edit audio and make it sound good. I also don’t know if stylistically I would be a good fit for this and what people are looking for. Just curious if I could pick your brain about if this could be something I could succeed in.
In February I auditioned as part of VFS’s live audition tour and I got in, but given how expensive it is (tuition and living costs), I want some honest reviews from people who studied there. From what I’ve read I know it’ll be a lot of hard work, but I’d love some more information on the quality of education and if it prepares you to be a professional actor. I know I want to pursue acting so if you have any recommendations for other programs I’d love to hear them! I’d prefer something no longer than two years, and that has a focus on film and theatre or just film. Thanks!
I know with comedy, usually each scene is performed multiple times, of course depending on time and other external factors. Sometimes multiple takes are used for opportunities to improvise. But when it comes to very heavy scenes in dramas, are those typically filmed only once? Some performances seem so emotionally taxing I couldn’t imagine the actor being able to get themselves to that place more than once multiple times in a row. Just curious what filming one of those scenes looks like
I can’t filter by region on my phone when I’m web browser. The app doesn’t filter by region. What are the developers thinking? It was fine before!
If someone can answer this I’ll give them a million dollars in 200 years.