Is Becoming An Actor Luck?

July 21, 2022

-So, is becoming an actor luck? By the end of this video, you will know. So, is becoming an actor luck? I don't know Tom, what do you think? -He's becoming a doctor luck. He's becoming a pilot luck, right? Hope is not a life strategy, develop an unshakable skill set. The idea you know our cousins, our uncles, our neighbors, tell us, "You know, it's not what you know it's who you know", all of life is what you know first and then it's who you know. A close friend asked recently, "Well, you know, how do I get a really good actor to be in my movie?", go, "Well, study acting so they feel confident around you. You might know their makeup and hair person. You might know somebody who did their clothes". I mean, the ways of filmmaking and acting are they're wonderful actually and they're very circuitous. You know this person knew that person of it but it's not about going to parties. Be a skilled actor, study, and go. "Well, yeah, but I don't have the confidence", well, that's why you study to get the confidence. I mean, we have a conservatory to build confidence and consciousness, contacts, contribution, how to handle conflict, etc. -And I also think as you're just reminding me the people who come from the most challenging circumstances are often in your experience the ones who go the furthest with this. Because there are people who you might on the outside think, "Oh, you're lucky, you were born into a certain family or maybe you were born in L.A or like right where all this is happening", but often that takes away a certain drive and a certain curiosity that for people who are really really really passionate about this they have to write overcome obstacles overcome circumstances and that's what makes them interesting as actors. -Well, again, if you're relying on luck that means you don't have a point of view. Now, you might get a couple lines in something but that's not going to be a career that fuels you 50-60 years, right. What are the skills, Emily? -So, the skills are first have a solid technique we teach in our Saturday workshop, 15 guideposts, 6 viewpoints, 4 agreements, 4 parts of vocal variation, 3 tenets, 3 techniques. You will learn those and learn to integrate them so deeply that any time you look at a script you immediately have a game plan and you know what you're going to do and that relaxes one that gives you confidence working on your voice and speech that's why we have an incredible voice and speech faculty that work with our actors every week from all over the world. But it's certainly not luck and I don't really get why people would ever approach life that way because it's a little bit like you're saying, "Well, my strategy is to win lotto". -Not a strategy. -No. -Hope is not a life strategy. Once again hope is for dopes don't rely on hope, rely on faith. Have faith in yourself...That's really what it's all about, really learn script analysis. So, you have a point of view. Now, it's really fun. Now, you're really excited to audition because you have a game plan for every audition you ever have and it's an opportunity to do what you love and share it with people who presumably most often love this stuff too, right. It's a very positive pursuit. But if you're walking around looking for opportunities it's as though you're going to a potluck supper with an empty Tupperware container and going what's for dinner, right? Everybody brings an empty dish nobody eats. What's your contribution? -There are things that you can control and one of the things you can control which you talk about all the time is your preparation and the way you can do that is by watching these videos, by training on Saturday. So, take a moment right now and click on the subscribe button below. -Be prepared.

Remember folks, I was in the second-grade play. I was in the eighth-grade play. I was in the 12th grade play. I was actually in three plays in 12th grade, right. But your parents paid school taxes for you to be in that play and maybe you were the most talented or seemingly gifted actor i used that term advisedly amongst that particular group, right. But that was not the business of being an actor. Now and they paid as I said school taxes or private school tuition for you to be in that play and it ran for two weekends. Maybe it only ran for one. Now, you're saying my craft is so clear and I inspire such confidence in every production team I meet. You should not only put me in the show. I'm actually putting myself in the show by the choices I'm making in my auditions right. But you ought to reward me handsomely. Okay, so, it's a different level of play. So, why would you think you're just going to get lucky or meet somebody? Again, that could turn into the odd job. But we're in the business of training people for a career which is 50, 60, 70, years to where you're going to monetize this and eat from it and part of the reason we teach it is I've had quite a living doing a number of things here in terms of producing and acting and writing and so you know I can show you how to do that. In any class, any training situation, when you're looking at work you must see a transformation in under an hour with that actor otherwise, it's all theory. It's all conceptual and remember, this is a business where people can die of encouragement. Everybody's wonderful, marvelous, fabulous, but sadly not enough for good. So, take the time to get good at this, right? Well, we've talked in other videos about motivation and objective. Stanislavski would say, "There's your objective and then there's your super objective". So, your objective is to get a job but your super objective is to continue working for the next 60-70 years. So, don't lose sight of the super-objective. I find that most actors overestimate what could happen to them in a year and they underestimate what they could accomplish in 10 years. Take the long view. This is a marathon. it's not a sprint, this life thing we're in. A production, there is a lot of monetary investment. So, you must inspire a chunk of that production budget to rest on your shoulders. That's not about luck, it's about craft, it's about skill. This is in your heart. This is what you love doing. The sooner you realize it then your life fully begins. Make your life a work of art. Make your life a work of your own hearts. Come visit a class currently on Saturdays it's global and it's a community that you've dreamed of. Come be our guest. Click below.