How To Create Success As An Actor
ACTING
Top 13.5 Tips for Mastering Social Media as a Successful Appearing Actor!
- Re-tweet everything Lin-Manuel Miranda tweets so that to your followers it appears that you and the creator of HAMILTON are besties.
- Your life is your art. Hashtag every social media post with “#actorslife”: Your new haircut. Your spin class. Your chlamydia prescription, etc…
- Posting inspiring quotes or memes is a great way to publicize, “I may not be working, but I’m working on myself as an artist.”
- Leverage Timehop to your advantage: Always repost pictures of you with that one successful person from your BFA class, even if you two haven’t spoken since your Freshman GoFundMe indie.
- Post a picture of your celebrity doppelgänger so that people will associate you with success. (Rising star points if your aunt comments, “How pretty you look!”)
- Be vague with theatrical credits. What is “Off Broadway?” Anything that’s not Broadway, of course. (Your TONY surely awaits at the Shubert if you add to your name “The King / Queen of Broadway.”)
- Take selfies before lighting equipment on every film set you pass through regardless of whether you’re working on that set, and then plaster on your timeline(s) those falsies. (Bonus points for bringing your own Tupperware and stealing lunch from “Krafty.”)
- Share ALL your callbacks! Not getting a callback? Share someone else’s! Association = Stardom.
- Don’t post your headshots all at once. Post a new angle, once a month, so that no one ever forgets how good David Noles (or how expensive Peter Hurley) made you look.
- Share a link to your website whenever cosmetic updates are made. Occasionally changing the background colors on your website will trick people into thinking you’re more successful than sitting alone in your apartment changing the colors on your website.
- A status about sharing an elevator with a celebrity is sure to impress your mom’s book club friend Ellen! (You’re so close to stardom!)
- Every time you complete a project, no matter how minuscule, write a lengthy post about how much it meant to you! Think of it as practice for your Oscar speech.
- Posting, “Without ______ I wouldn’t be where I am today” is a great way to imply that you are somewhere.
13.5 When feeling deprived of career momentum post the vague, “I HAVE NEWS!” and then wait and watch for the notifications to ramp up. “Likes” = substantial success!
(via)
Staying Creative While Waiting For Your Big Break
Heather Brooker a mom, actress, Emmy Award-winning writer, and host of the popular podcast Motherhood in Hollywood, proposes:
Start a Web Series. Someone said to me the other day that the web series is dead, and the trend is over. I guess no one told the gals at The BreakWomb, who have a massively popular web series that’s exploded in the last year. Or Namaste, Bitches which beautifully skewers the LA yoga scene.
Write Something. This goes hand-in-hand with the web series. It’s also something I need to keep reminding myself to do. Write! Write a blog, a web series, a short film, a poem. Anything to keep those creative juices flowing.
Podcasting. You cannot throw a rock in this town without hitting a comedian who has a podcast. It’s a cheap, effective way to reach a wide audience with your brand of comedy. I started my podcast, Motherhood in Hollywood as a way to combine my passion for acting and being a mom.
Go on Sabbatical. Okay maybe not a full-on Sabbatical like a college professor. Maybe just take a weekend and go to a festival you’ve always wanted to go to. Like Burning Man or Bottle Rock. Step away from the “industry” for a minute to see how the rest of the world is living and relaxing to gain some perspective.
Get a Real Job. This is not the same thing as what your parents told you when you said you wanted to be an actor. I mean, if you’re struggling to pay your bills and the acting stuff isn’t working out, find a job that you’re interested in and do that for a while.
Learn a New Skill. I recently did a weight-loss challenge where I tried new workouts all over LA. Some of them included sword fighting, tap dancing, and circus performing. I started thinking about how it could help me as an actor to have these skills and be really good at them.
(via)
Acting Tips: How to Prevent Overacting
Setting Acting Goals
If my main goal was to move my own acting career forward, here are some examples of things I might do daily.
- Apply for my own work (yes, even if I had an agent).
- Go on social media and interact with other actors, film makers, casting directors and anyone else in the industry.
- Re-connect with somebody I’ve worked with in the past.
- Write a blog post.
- Read a book about acting or watch online tutorials.
- Move my body on some way.
- Practice relaxation techniques and focus exercises.
Now over to you…
Photograph by Kalvin Sainz
(via)
Stillness
Essere O Non Essere–Questo È Il Problema