Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star – Hollywood Star, That is

You might think that to become a working actor in Hollywood, all you have to do is become really good and then send out your headshots. Well on the surface, that is what everyone in the business will tell you. But what they won’t tell you is stuff they don’t even know…about themselves…their own process for choosing actors that they themselves aren’t even aware of..
. WTF, you may say…how can a casting director not know what they themselves are looking for or how they choose the actors who come in to see them? I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. It’s a similar process to how you pick and choose things you buy. You think you buy things because “You want to”, but in reality your mind is already pre-disposed to seriously limit the number of choices you have when making almost any type of decision. There are so many factors that dictate human behavior that we can’t get into them all, but let’s just cover the basics so you can at least start to think about these things and get the most bang for your buck when you are trying to get auditions and, more importantly get jobs.

So back to the title…Twinkle, twinkle, little star. What did I mean by that? Well what I’m saying is that you have to become a star or at least try to become a star if you want to act in Hollywood. Huh, you say…but I don’t want to be a star…I’m an artist and want to act for all the right reasons (whatever that means). Well if you like to put food on the table and more importantly if you want to be able to practice your craft, you have to create demand for yourself. You see, there are a lot of competing resources (read other actors) out there for casting directors’ attention and what makes you think you deserve their attention any more than the other thousand actors (on average) who submit for the same roles as you? The answer is simple, because they have been trained to think very highly of you…even if they don’t even know you. OK, you’ve lost me there buddy. Well what I mean is that you have to begin marketing yourself in direct and indirect ways to these people so that when they get a submission from you, they get a little “twinkle” in their eye and think, “oh yeah, that guy…we need to call him in”.

Lets face it, actors are like cockroaches…you squash the dreams out of one, and ten more will quickly replace them…so don’t be a cockroach, don’t be replaceable. You must find ways to differentiate yourself, and I don’t mean act weird or dress strange. I mean make sure that casting directors think of your “brand” when they see your name or picture. A brand has a whole range of emotional responses attached to it, whereas a headshot really has none, other than maybe, “Huh!”, followed by ‘toss’.

This is a huge topic and I can’t cover it all here but you need to think of yourself as the coca-cola of actors, or even the Dr. Pepper. Whatever it is, think of it, create it and then get it out there. You won’t believe the difference it will make in your career!

I’d love to see your comments and questions