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Actors – Moving Past Challenges to Success

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by: Diane Christiansen

Show business is a very uncertain path that we performers have chosen. The ups and downs, successes and failures seem more prominent than most professions. When it’s good, it’s REALLY good, when it’s not, it’s mystifying, if not disheartening. What do we do when we have gone on 50 auditions without a booking? What happens when a dancer is injured and cannot perform or a singer has fried their vocal chords? I compiled a list of things that we can do that seem to lift us up so we can keep on keepin’ on, knowing that it is a perseverance game.

First, we must maintain perspective and the way to do that is like this. When you are feeling like you are getting nowhere, stop and list what you have accomplished in the last year. Literally make a list. Once you can look at your accomplishments on paper, you can begin to feel good again. You can see you have reached goals and used your time productively. This offers you some perspective.

Next, re set your goals and make sure they are do-able. Again, make a list. Then put them away for 6 months. Come back to your list after 6 months and see how many you have accomplished. Cross them off. If some have not been achieved, re state them, declare them so, and add them to a new list.

Above all, have fun. Acknowledge yourself for even the small steps and show yourself some gratitude. Gratitude is another great way to stay on track.

Commercial Improv

Improvisation Training: Vital to an Actor’s Career

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When actors interview with me before taking my commercial class, I always suggest that they the take a workshop either before, during or immediately after they take a commercial class. Improvisation, or improv, will help actors to get more Commercial auditions and is a major factor in doing better auditions and, I believe, is crucial to a commercial actor’s career.


As a commercial actress, I have booked over 400 national commercials and I truly believe that I got many of those jobs because of my Improvisation training. When I first started doing commercials there were no actual commercial audition training workshops so I studied acting and then started doing Improvisation classes – which I loved. I quickly saw that the freedom and confidence I was getting from the Improv work was helping me do better at my auditions and thus I started booking even more jobs.

Granted that era was not anywhere as competitive as it is now but I do know that Improvisation training is even more beneficial and vital today then it ever was then for several reasons:

First of all, so many auditions today do not have dialogue and require Improv skills therefore commercial agents are more interested in actors (especially new actors) who have professionally studied improvisation because agents know that it will be easier to them auditions.

There are more non-scripted commercials being cast then ever before so casting directors usually want actors who are good with improv. Legally SAG/AFTRA does not allow actors to Improvise dialogue at their auditions so actors will probably never be technically asked to “improvise” but in actuality that is what they will be doing – verbally creating their own dialogue and/or scenarios. AND those who study Improv usually do so much better at those auditions.

There are more non-scripted commercials being cast then ever before so casting directors usually want actors who are good with improv. Legally SAG/AFTRA does not allow actors to Improvise dialogue at their auditions so actors will probably never be technically asked to “improvise” but in actuality that is what they will be doing – verbally creating their own dialogue and/or scenarios. AND those who study Improv usually do so much better at those auditions.

Find a teacher or institution that specializes in Improvisation. A lot of studios mix in the Improv training with acting, commercial and cold reading. This is not really offering the maximum value of studying Improvisation. Then, some teachers offer it as an on-going class. There are several problems with this format.

I strongly believe that Improvisation should be a second training workshop along with your acting class. Your acting training is focused on the techniques specific to whatever discipline of training you choose – motivation, emotional connection, subtext, character life, pre-life and after-life, etc. Whereas good improvisation training focuses on creativity, commitment, listening, trusting instincts, supporting the other actor and building confidence. When both acting and Improv are studied at the same time, you will get more out of your acting class and you will be ready to start auditioning sooner.

At the start of the Improv classes that I offer in my program, actors talk about how nervous they are about taking an Improv class. Most are concerned that they are not funny, or creative or instinctive. A good improv class does not push you to be funny and when you are “in the moment”, not thinking or planning and being instinctive , most actors find that they are creative and often funny. Improv is about freedom and it is a process that is achieved in a safe space with a really good teacher who creates a supportive NOT a competitive environment. Don’t we all want that feeling of freedom in our acting as well as our life.

COMMERCIAL BOOKING SECRETS

Ever wonder how they choose the actors they book on television commercials? Is there some secret determining factors that influence the casting decisions? There is -and I think it is important to for you to know what it is. From years of being a working commercial actress and booking over 400 commercials, having done the casting for over a thousand TV commercials and being a commercial audition teacher since 1983, I strongly believe that there is a formula for why actors get commercial callbacks and bookings. I know it isn’t carved in stone or even the exact way the director, ad execs and clients would verbalize but I REALLY believe that this is basically the formula.

60 percent of why actors get callbacks is their physicality – what they look like. Since those chosen must represent the client’s target market and must be a strong physical representation of the character they are portraying.

20 percent of why actors get callbacks is their talent and creativity – what they actually do on the audition whether it is an improvisation or a scripted monologue or a scene. The decision-makers look for actors who are believable, unique and/or their work

The remaining 20% factor, is the actor’s confidence, personality and essence which usually needs to match up to the actor’s look. This is the factor that most actors don’t consider and often don’t understand.

Now, let’s say the actor is a great physical type for a particular commercial and does a great audition but he/she comes off arrogant or too silly then he/she will probably not get a callback.

Or if he/she is really approachable and likeable (which is important for most commercials) and is the perfect type but overacts on their auditions (which happens way too often) then again, he/she will not get a callback.

Now when it comes to getting the booking, the numbers change a little, since there is some agreement between the ad execs and the director on the looks of those being called back, the importance of the actor’s physicality is still important but now since it is still subjective, it is about 30%.

What also is relevant in the “looks” area is when it is necessary to match actors with spouses, friends, workers or family.- the consideration becomes, Do they look like they belong together. What the actor does in their audition, how they take direction, their creativity and talent now becomes the prominent factor at 40%..

The actor’s attitude, personality and essence factors comes in at 20%..

And finishing up the BOOKING equation are wildcard factors: it could be anything from the actor’s wardrobe (which one of the decision-makers really likes for the spot) to any of the execs or director having subjective preferences or dislikes. There are too many subjective wild card factors to cover here but I am sure you can imagine some.

This information should help you to not take it personal or think you did a bad job when you don’t get a callback or booking. And it should help you have the insights you need to put the odds in your favor for booking commercials. And by the way a lot of this is also applicable for booking smaller roles in film and TV.

Acting: The process is the Product

A rare interview with Award-Winning Director/Teacher Kimberly Jentzen by Emmy Award-Winning CD/Teacher Holly Powell

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Watch this interview — Emmy Award-Winning Casting Director, Holly Powell talks to Los Angeles Acting Coach, Kimberly Jentzen, author of “Acting with Impact” about the acting process: “Know that your performance is created and lives in the moment and can’t be fixed in place or held in time. The key is to not judge yourself but to accept yourself in the process.” Enjoy this excerpt from the introduction of Kimberly’s book!

ACTING IS LIVING TRUTHFULLY IN AN EVER-CHANGING EXPERIENCE

When you hike up a mountain you have two choices. You can enjoy the changing sky, the view below, the flowers along the path, the struggle up to the top, the breeze, the sun through the trees, the smell of pine… or, you can focus on lunch at the end of the trail and miss the beauty, the adventure and, most sadly, the actual trip.

The adventure is the journey, and the process as it happens is the actual experience of acting. The product of the performance is being engaged in the moment without focusing on how it comes out. Your goal as an actor is to live honestly in the experience of the moment. If your attention is on the end result, you will sabotage the journey.

When you attempt a scene, many times you have a predetermined picture in your mind of how it will go. You practice in your bedroom, you give an award-winning performance and you know that in your heart, when you get to that audition, it’s going to blow everybody away! Then, in the actual audition, you watch yourself in the reading and wonder, “What is happening?! This is nothing like I rehearsed at home!”

There are two main reasons for this phenomenon: expectation and concentration.

Expectation

When you were at home in your bedroom, you were caught up in discovery. You were in the richness of your imagination and could visualize it all. You were seeing and experiencing what the character, in that moment, was seeing and experiencing. Then, when you actually auditioned, you attempted to recreate the result of that bedroom performance instead of the imagined elements that got you there in the first place. Attempting to recreate a performance always puts you in your head because you judge everything against an ideal, and you can never measure up to that kind of expectation.

Another aspect of this expectation is your unique instrument. There is no one in the world like you. And because your approach to the material hasn’t ever been done before, there is a potential shock when you observe your own performance. Doesn’t your acting always sound and look better in your head? All of those judgments in acting can take energy away from your effort.

Concentration

When you have an audience, the pressure to entertain becomes VERY real. It takes more concentration to create and hold onto your given reality in a scene. If your preparation is not strong enough, the pressure from the audience can overtake your attention, and you will then watch yourself. Great acting is participating in a given reality and not focusing on what your audience is witnessing.

Know that an audience will always have an energetic influence on the actor. This is natural. We pick up vibes from anyone in our immediate space. Have you ever felt a stranger looking at you prior to you noticing? Often we can feel the energetic pull of any attention we are getting.

Part of the actor’s job is to accept the audience without sabotaging the performance. The audience’s gaze is part of the magic of performance, and every audience will experience your work uniquely. When an actor allows the audience to be a witness, the performance improves. The vibes you pick up in the room have the potential to inspire the best in you.

Know that your performance is created and lives in the moment
and can’t be fixed in place or held in time.

The skill of acting is the ability to live truthfully in an ever-changing experience.
The key is to not judge yourself but to accept yourself in the process.

Being paid to go inside

Acting is an opportunity to work on what is inside you, a part that most other professions avoid. It can be painful or scary to look inside, but without this self-investigation, you cannot grow. It is called “growing pains” for a reason. It is in our nature to avoid pain unless we are made to change through pain. But the only way to grow artistically or spiritually is to allow the experience of life’s pain to penetrate our hearts without becoming a victim of our own experience.

To look within is to discover, accept and acknowledge your own emotional triggers, struggles and triumphs. This is the process of acting—being willing to feel, being willing to look, and being willing to seek in the moment. It is seeking, listening and discovering…and seeking again. It’s not planning the reaction in the scene; it’s experiencing the reaction in the moment. This is our climb up the mountain.

Acting with Impact and Life Emotion Cards are available at Samuel French Bookstore, and at actingwithimpact.com and on Amazon.

Educate Yourself Before Your Audition

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By: Holly Powell
 
Thinking back over the thousands of actors who stood in front of me before they began their audition, the one’s I remember most are the one’s who walked in and said “Hi Holly!” I know that seems obvious and simplistic, but it always surprised me when an actor would walk into the audition room looking like a deer in the headlights and say “Hi”, and I knew they didn’t have a clue as to who I was. Or worse they would say, “Nice to meet you”, and I had auditioned them ten times before.
 
Casting Directors are people too (I know…hard to fathom), and it goes a long way when you call them by name and have educated yourself as to what they have previously cast. All too often actors put Casting Directors on this huge unreachable pedestal and when confronted with this “gate keeper”, actors can come off as scared, insincere or aloof. The genuine “human to human” contact of knowing the name of the person you are auditioning for helps defuse the discomfort of the moment, even when the Casting Director is in a nasty mood.
 
The actor almost always will get a “breakdown” of the script they are auditioning for that lists all the characters and a synopsis of the script. The breakdown also lists the Producers, Writers, Director and Casting Director and it is the actors job to make sure they know who they are going in to audition for.
 
Today actors live in the wonderful world of IMDB and all this information is at their fingertips. If you have never met this Casting Director before, type their name into IMDB and check out their previous work. I was always impressed when an actor would comment on something I had cast before…they had done their homework on ME!
 
I found Hillary Swank in a pre-read for a pilot I was casting many years ago and immediately knew there was something special from the moment she walked into the audition room and said, “Hi Holly, nice to meet you!” She looked directly into my eyes and what I remember most was her complete presence in the moment. It seemed as if we had a job to do together, that we were a team, that I needed her as much as she needed me. This was all accomplished by walking the fine line of being genuine, ambitious and confident in her talent all at the same time. Isn’t it human behavior to want to help and root for someone who calls you by name and who has educated themselves as to where you fit in this casting process? And isn’t it human behavior to maybe feel a little dissed when you have met someone before and they come in and say, “Nice to meet you?”. I’m just sayin’…
 
It is also imperative that the actor knows the “tone” of the show. Is this audition for television and if so what Network is it on? Is this a comedy, drama or dramady? If this audition is for an episodic show currently on television, then the actor MUST watch an episode of this series. Again, actors today have the advantage of Hulu and other sites to watch “on-demand” television. So, the old excuse that you have never seen an episode of this show is lame. They will know that you have not done your homework…and interpret that to be that you are not serious about your career.
 
If you are auditioning for a Pilot and the “tone” of the script is confusing, check out the writer on IMDB and see what other shows the writer has written on. One of my students told me that he had an audition for the pilot of “Desperate Housewives”. On the breakdown it said: Hour Drama ABC. Taking this information at face value into the audition room with him, he read the scene as a straight drama, no humor at all. He said it was the worst audition he ever had. Knowing what we all know now about “Desperate Housewives”…that it is an hour “dramady” with lots of tongue and cheek humor…the mental image of this actors audition is truly painful. In hindsight, I told him if he had IMDB’d Marc Cherry, the Creator and Writer of the show, he would have seen that Marc had previously written mainly comedies… “The Golden Girls”, “The Crew” and  “The 5 Mrs Buchanans”. Therefore…probably some humor in it!
 
 So, please actors, use all the resources available to you so you never walk into an audition room again without being completely educated as to who, what, when and where.

Four Resources for Actors Part 4

Four Resources Available to Actors – Part 4: THE MOMENT

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“Live each present moment completely, and the future will take care of itself. Fully enjoy the wonder and beauty of each instant. Practice the presence of peace. The more you do that, the more you will feel the presence of that power in your life.”
Paramahansa Yogananda

This quote is by my Guru, Yogananda, and yet it could just as easily become an acting lesson that very much aligned with this lesson I am about to write about.

My mentor and acting coach, Sally Kirkland, once said; “You have to stay very human, from moment to moment. You can’t in any way let the audience know what’s going to happen next.”

This is yet another inspiring quote on being in the moment. How very true. Once we harness the ability to stay in each instant, allowing it to take us to the next, then we can call ourselves actors.

The antithesis of that would be to practice thinking of our next line or anticipating what the other actors line will be. All of that is the opposite of being in the moment.

Many times, I ask actors to keep going when they feel they have made a “Mistake”. Mostly because that mistake can keep you in the moment more quickly than if you had stopped and started all over again. These are the golden moments we live for in our work. Those moments when we go up, the hair stands up on our arms and our mind is a blur. Those precious moments are something that can take you on a journey in a split second from being in your head, thinking about your lines, how you look to others or wondering what the heck to do, to the NOW. They are golden moments that Meryl Streep says she hopes for when she works. They bring you immediately into your own skin, your body, and your mind and then you must KNOW where you are in the story and live in it. Allow those moments; do not be afraid of them, for they will take you places that are delightful, organic and raw. They not only give us a little journey to the NOW, they also keep your scene partner on their toes, wondering, “Where is she going with this?” Thus, needing to follow along on the trip to our truth, our moment. Giving us the opportunity to live through the role and surprise not only ourselves, but also whomever we work with. Of course, having confidence in our Improvisational ability and trust in our scene partner goes a long way. But if you can relax and allow those moments, they are truly what we strive for in each moment of our work as truthful actors. When I say relax, I mean really don’t worry about what will happen, just go with it. Just as Yogananda believed each moment will take care of itself, I also believe that will happen when we forego any upset or frustration and just allow the voyage to take you to yourself to your soul. To performances full of surprise and wonder, much like the journey of Life.

Casting Director Jason La Padura

Casting Director Jason La Padura: Audition Advice & Tips – Part 3

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Jason La Padura has been a Casting Director for 30 years and his long list of Television, Film & Theatre credits include casting all three films of High School Musical, Heros, and Touch to name a few. He also had the privilege and fun of being a judge for The Miss America Pageant. Jason started out casting theatre in New York and eventually moved to Los Angeles forming La Padura/Hart Casting.

I met Jason in New York when I had my first job as a Casting Director at an Off-Off Broadway Theatre Company called Manhattan Punch Line. Jason’s partner, Gary Murphy, was the PR person for MPL and we had cubicles next to each other. Jason was quickly establishing himself as a theatre Casting Director and with his casting partner, Stanley Soble, transitioned with ease into casting television. He eventually moved to Los Angeles and with Natalie Hart, formed La Padura/Hart Casting.

Jason came to speak to my students in one of my Audition Workshops at Holly Powell Studios, and we taped his visit for my Master Talent Teachers Video Series on “Auditioning”. He gave the students so much incredible advice that I have made it into a 3 Part Video Series for MTT.

Part 1

  • The difference in casting for TV, Film and Theatre
  • Chatting with the Casting Director before starting the audition
  • Props or miming in an audition
  • Is there ever a time when it is Ok for an actor to start the audition over?
  • What’s your opinion about when an actor gets through the entire audition and asks if they can do it again?
  • Stage directions
  • What an actor should wear to the audition

Part 2

  • What does a Casting Director expect from an actor in the “callback”?
  • Memorization
  • Non-Represented Actors
  • Non-Union Actors
  • Best way to keep in touch with a Casting Director

Part 3

  • Testing at the Network
  • Going on tape for Executives
  • Do you have any questions?
  • Self taping
  • When do you advocate for an actor?
  • Pet Peeves