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Confidence

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In the acting business, actors must have confidence in their talents and themselves in order to deal with the challenges and always be able to bring their best game to their meetings, auditions and work. Confidence is an essential “personal tool” for everyone but especially for actors and performers.

For many actors, confidence is innate. For some, it may be cultivated by family and friend support and/or life experiences. For most, confidence needs to be nurtured and developed.  If the later is you then consider this theory that I believe works:

  • * Experience creates confidence.
  • * Confidence produces freedom.
  • * Freedom generates courage.
  • * Courage frees up you and your talent. 


The more you do anything, the more experienced and skillful you become. So the more you properly study, rehearse, audition and work, the better actor you are going to be.

Actors gain confidence when they have successes and “wins”: when they get auditions, secure representation, receive good feedback or reviews, get callbacks and book jobs, etc. Unfortunately, these successes are dependent on the acceptance of others thus it is unreliable and a shortage of achievements can undermine it. 


Confidence in your talent is powerful and depends mainly on your willingness to take chances, fail, learn, get up and do it again AND always be supportive of yourself. (A great class that helps build confidence is a professional Improvization workshop.) With confidence developed through challenging experiences, you are not dependent on anyone else to feel successful.
Do what it takes to build your confidence. It should have a powerful affect on your ability to feel good about yourself, thus do your best auditions and your best acting work.

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.

The Inside Scoop: A Conversation with Casting Director Caroline Liem Part 1

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Written by: Holly Powell

I sat down and had a great conversation with Casting Director Caroline Liem who has worked in many different areas and mediums of casting. She has worked on Television Pilots and Series, Feature Films, Voice Over for animation and was Head of Casting for Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Read more

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.

4 Actor Resources-Imagination

Four Resources Available to Actors – Part 3: IMAGINATION

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I’d like to preface this installation with a quote by Albert Einstein before I elaborate on the lesson.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Read more

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

Don’t Ever Walk Into The Audition Room In Character

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By: Holly Powell

There are many theories and opinions out there about whether an actor should walk into the audition room in character or not. Some actors have told me that a coach they worked with had been adamant that they should walk into the room in character, and another coach had advised them against that. Confusion about this seemed to dominate their whole audition process, and they were defeated about their audition before they could even walk into the Casting Directors office fearing they were making the wrong choice.

From my point of view as a Casting Director for 23 years, I can tell you…don’t walk into the audition room in character. Walk in focused and ready to go, say “Hello” or “Nice to see you”, looking the Casting Director, Director or Producers in the eyes. This could be the only moment during your audition where a little bit of your personality comes through. And just that, “Hi, how are you”, can speak volumes about who you are as a person…are you an asshole, arrogant, unprepared, nervous or confident.

When I started teaching my Audition Workshops and coaching actors, a Manager I had worked with for many years called me and said he was going to send me one of his clients for a private session. The Manager was concerned because this actor had been working steadily for several years working on great projects, but for the last year the actor had not booked anything. He wasn’t even getting many callbacks. The Manager asked me to work with him and see if it was something he was doing in the audition room that was causing this booking draught.

At the beginning of our session together, I chatted with the actor asking him how he felt in the audition room and asked him what kinds of parts was he mostly called in for. He told me he was usually called in to play ass-holes, terrorists, jerks or the bad guy. I took a beat and said, “Do you walk into the room in character?” He answered, “Well, I never did until about a year ago when a coach told me I should always walk into the room in character”. “When you chat with the Casting Director and Producers after the audition is over, do you chat with them in character?” I said. He took a beat, “Yes”. “That’s why you haven’t worked in a year”, I told him.

I explained that when the Casting Director, Director or Producers chat with an actor after the audition is over, they are trying to get to know a little more about the actor and get a better ‘feel’ for who they are. This actor was coming across as an asshole, arrogant jerk and these Producers didn’t want him anywhere near their set. The relief the actor felt when he realized he was allowed to be “himself” when chatting with the auditors, was transformational. He was so excited, and I watched his whole body relax as he realized he didn’t have to carry on an “act” the whole time he was in the audition room. That same day the actor went to an audition, and he called me later to tell me he had gotten an immediate callback! He was back to his “old-self”…a working professional actor.