How To Start Your Career in Acting
Acting is a notoriously difficult business to break into. As the adage goes, there’s no business like show business. Breaking into acting involves gruelling auditions, an eternity between paying jobs, unconventional hours, and an extraordinarily high level of competition.
With so many challenges to overcome, how do you successfully start an acting career?
Every great and accomplished actor on the screen has had a different story and experience when it comes to their career in acting, but to simplify things, we’ve broken the journey down into three steps:
- Learning how to act
- Making the transition from learning about acting to acting professionally
- Where to find career advice for actors
- Finding out how to get auditions for movies and jobs in the acting industry
Let’s take a closer look at how you can start a successful acting career.
Learning To Act
One of the best ways to get started in your acting career is by taking professional acting lessons. At The Actors Pulse, we offer targeted lessons designed to elevate your acting technique, so you can put your best foot forward when auditioning for stage, television and film roles.
The first and most important step to achieving your goal of acting for movie roles is to improve your acting. Acting classes are a tried and tested way to achieve that end. Working with experienced professionals can help get your acting to a movie-level standard.
There are many kinds of acting lessons. You can get classes for beginner, intermediate, or advanced acting techniques. You can learn acting skills on stage or acting in movies. You can even choose how regularly you take classes, from intensive full-time courses to something on a more casual basis.
How To Transition From Acting Classes To Movies
Acting lessons are a great start, but the journey to starting your career in acting doesn’t end there. One of the benefits of engaging in professional lessons is that it also helps you to meet people in showbusiness and learn how the industry works.
In addition to attending acting classes, talk to your teachers and fellow students about the world of acting. Focus on forming relationships, express your ambitions and listen closely to any advice that is given by those with experience.
How To Get Auditions For Movies
Even when an actor is famous and established, they will most likely still need to audition to get the part.
Securing an opportunity to audition for great parts becomes easier over time as interested directors and producers send out scripts intended for specific performers. However, without notoriety this is unlikely so it tends to be hard going when you’re starting.
The only way to get auditions for movies as a beginner in the business is to actively put yourself out there.
Seek Qualified Advice & Guidance
Seek out casting directors and audition listings. Don’t be discouraged if at first, you don’t succeed; there are many rejections for every big break in this business.
An acting teacher who has experienced the highs and the lows of the business will be able to guide you on this, and many other acting-related topics. The career advice for actors that these experienced industry professionals can give is priceless.
At The Actors Pulse, we offer lessons to suit all sorts of actors, no matter what stage of your career you’re at. Our classes are based on the highly favoured Meisner technique and we are the leading school in the Southern Hemisphere for this acting method.
Read on to find out more about The Actors Pulse or call our team today on 0414 475 515 to learn more about how we can make a difference in your acting.
FAQS
1. How Do I Get Into Acting With No Experience?
The best way to start a career in acting is to pursue formal training through acting lessons. This helps you to gain the necessary technical skills sought after by casting directors in auditions as well as helping you to connect with industry experts.
Getting into acting is often about who you know as much as what you know.
2. How Can I Improve My Acting Career?
If you are already an actor but hope to expand your portfolio and obtain better and more challenging roles, the best way to do this is to invest in further training. Even the most famous actors are continually working with an acting coach to fine tune their performances and learn new skills.
Actively engaging in community theatre productions and smaller indie roles can also boost your resume and help you stand out to casting directors.
3. What Are The Different Types Of Acting Jobs?
There are three main types of acting you can train and audition for:
- Screen Acting – for movies and television
- Stage Acting – performing in front of a live audience in a theatre
- Voice Acting – performing only using your voice with no physical presence (most often for movies, radio or similar)
4. Is It Possible To Self Teach Acting Skills?
While practising in front of the mirror may help you nail down facial expressions or body language, it cannot give you the necessary skills to become a successful working actor.
Investing in acting lessons is vital to becoming an accomplished actor that understands the technical nuances of performance. When working with a skilled acting coach you receive vital feedback regarding your performances and guidance on how to continually improve.
For anyone seeking to pursue acting as their chosen career, we recommend ongoing acting classes with an industry professional, so you can continually develop and hone your skills.
5. Can You Audition With No Experience?
Absolutely, applying for roles with no experience is a great way to get experience when you are just starting out in your acting career. Of course, you may not be offered roles when you have no experience to back up your application, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.
Remember, while applying for roles with no experience is acceptable, you should also be engaging in acting classes to improve your chances of nailing that dream audition.
Billy Milionis is one of the few Australians to have ever studied under the legendary master teacher, the late Sanford Meisner. Billy has also studied story structure and scene analysis techniques with John Truby and later at UCLA. He has also spent several years doing improvisation in Hollywood with the L.A. Connection. In addition, he trained in the technique of Stella Adler, Practical Aesthetics and Lee Strasberg’s method.