Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook For A Successful Career

by Judy Kerr

If your dream is to live your life as a professional actor, your first tool is your basic acting craft. Good training helps you discover the power, control and confidence to act. Once you have confidence and know how to interpret a script and develop a character, then the business side of acting begins. It takes desire, guts, preparation, discipline, talent and luck to have an acting career.

This book to me is the best reference book for making a dream of being in show business come true, but it is also a template for making whatever is your heart’s desire come true.

This book offers advice for actors and actresses, and for those who want to live their lives as if acting is everything. My experience has been in Los Angeles and I’ll reference how we do things here, but there are no limits, you can act anywhere.

Act where you live, don’t wait until you make a move to a bigger city or to Los Angeles. Read about acting, writing, directing, producing, and editing. Read screenplays and plays. Listen to books at audible.com. Take classes at your local college; acting, English, literature, writing, speech, and communications. The reading and writing can lead you to writing a short film or a web series. Invest in the industry software Final Draft. (finaldraft.com) This software contains many scripts from films and television shows. You can use them to learn how scripts are written and use them for acting scenes. Gather a group together to read and discuss scripts. Get passionate about a story you want to tell. Write and then shoot short scenes. While editing those scenes you will learn more about acting and the camera.

Fear is usually what stops us from trying something new. Learn how to “act as if” you are not afraid.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt

If you want to be more successful, double your failure rate. - Bill Gates

Let the fears and doubts be there and still go for your dreams. You deserve it.

Actors are some of the most driven, courageous people on the face of the earth. They deal with more day-to-day rejection in one year than most people do in a lifetime. Every day, actors face the financial challenge of living a freelance lifestyle, the disrespect of people who think they should get “real” jobs, and their own fear that they’ll never work again. Every day, they have to ignore the possibility that the vision they have dedicated their lives to is a pipe dream. With every role, they stretch themselves, emotionally and physically, risking criticism and judgment. With every passing year, many of them watch as the other people their age achieve the predictable milestones of normal life - the car, the family, the house, the nest egg.

But they stay true to their dream, in spite of the sacrifices. Why? Because actors are willing to give their entire lives to a moment - to that line, that laugh, that gesture, or that interpretation that will stir the audience’s soul. Actors are beings who have tasted life’s nectar in that crystal moment when they poured out their creative spirit and touched another’s heart. In that instant, they were as close to magic, God, and perfection as anyone could ever be. And in their own hearts, they know that to dedicate oneself to that moment is worth a thousand lifetimes.

That we can fulfill our dreams. • We must accept responsibility for our actions and choices. • We choose our paths daily and are offered many opportunities. • It takes extreme focus and clear intentions to fulfill our dreams. • We need tenacity not to give up and to see adversities as opportunities. • It takes extreme curiosity. • We must use time and organizational skills to our advantage and respect them for the power they give us. • When we operate from poverty thinking, we will always be lacking. • Without a developed spiritual life and fundamental values/beliefs, we will not experience real joy and are likely to feel empty. • Having fun can be the most important goal in life. I have written this book for you. I want to help you design an artistic career and to live life as an actor…

Making a living as an actor is a worthy goal and a grand dream. I believe it is attainable for many. However, most actors never achieve this dream. From what I have observed, actors who make a good living, or even become wealthy, always seem surprised and grateful.

Whatever your acting career dreams and goals are, creating a successful business to support and propel your career is necessary and exciting. Simply speaking, an acting career consists of three components: the acting (which is the art), the business and your dream. As you begin to develop your career, you are in fact, setting up a small business in which you are both the President and CEO. When setting up your business, you’ll be making many decisions and purchasing quality goods and services for, hopefully, the best price. This book will guide you as you make those decisions. The best career choices are made when you follow your instincts and use your own good judgment, based on who you are and your values.

To be an actor you must act. Study, always study, and find places to express your art; act for audiences and for the camera. If you have the business but not the art, you are likely to feel something is missing in your life. Discover the ways to satisfy the artist within your soul.

Develop the art and the business so you will have a well-rounded, enduring acting career. Labors of love (usually jobs without financial reward) often lead to life-changing career paths.

To succeed in the business, you have to come to where the business is happening, which is either New York or Los Angeles. Get yourself into an acting class; that is how you meet people and begin to network. You need a resume, good pictures and an audition scene, three minutes long, that shows you off. Show the scene to anyone who will let you. Go to all the open calls and start to get used to auditioning; work breeds work.

Learn everything you don’t know; study body movement, voice and speech. The more skills you have, the more chances you have to succeed.

Make a list of anyone you or your parents know who is connected with the business. Contact them all and see if there is anyone they can introduce you to, so you can start making your own connections in the business. Keep performing someplace and get people in to see you.

Jay Bernstein, the late manager, writer, publicist, producer, director and EMMY winner, taught a course called Stardom, the Management of, the Public Relations for, and the Survival and Maintenance In. He managed careers for many st...

William Shatner, Donald Sutherland, Stacy Keach, Mary Har...

Q: What does it take to be a star? • To be a star, everything has to be 100% with your talent, your representation and your presentation. For example, if you’re talented and you present yourself well but you don’t have an agent, it’s going to be pretty hard to get a job—so your representation is failing. If you’re very talented and the representation is the best you can get but you dress like a rock star, they’re probably not going to hire you to play a nun—so that’s your presentation. • If your presentation and your representation are wonderful, maybe you need some work on your talent. If talent is a problem, maybe there won’t be stardom. There’s nothing you can do with just representation and presentation. I think that talent is 35% of making it. The other 65% is having the right team with you. • The team is the right agent who gets you the jobs, the right personal manager who gives you direction, the right business...

During my 20 years in the business as a talent agent, casting director and acting coach, I’ve seen many actors become successful working actors, some

even big stars. They all had the same three things in common: talent, perseverance and confidence. I believe you can’t take one component out of the equation. If you have confidence and perseverance but no talent for acting, you’ll never make it; and I don’t care who your Daddy is. You can’t just have talent and confidence without perseverance, because no one is going to knock on your door and hand you a three-picture deal. And equally as important is self-confidence; you have to always believe in yourself. If you let the business regulate your self-esteem, you’ll be in big trouble.

Many people believe that luck should be part of this equation. I believe luck is when opportunity meets preparation. If you study hard, put yourself out there and believe in yourself, you’ll be prepared when the opportunity arrives.

Antwone Fisher’s first screenplay, based on his life, was made into a movie. The first-time director was Denzel Washington, who also had a starring role in the movie. Another success story is how Derek Luke landed the starring role playing Antwone Fisher.

Personally, I haven’t known any overnight successes. It can take years to get a big break but along the way you work on projects that encourage you. You have fun acting. Many times, you have to create the break by writing a part for yourself or finding a project and producing it on your own.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.”

Your face, body, voice and spirit are your billboards—what sells you. They are what the casting directors who interview you notice first. You cannot have the right look for every role, nor can you figure out what each director, producer or writer has in mind for each role. However, you can make the best of every casting meeting by figuring out who you are and giving of your whole self at each and every meeting.

Discovering the inner you takes time spent thinking, reading and soul searching. Finding the physical you takes honesty when looking at yourself in the mirror and on camera. Presence, vocal quality, hair, makeup, clothes, weight, height, and your spiritual development are all important aspects of the presentation of your unique self. Only you can decide who you are and then make the commitment to perfect and fine-tune your acting instrument—you.

The best part about all this self-discovery is that it makes you an actor every minute of the day. You are working, studying, preparing all the time. Actors usually don’t work as much as they would like, so it is very important to enjoy the process, the privilege of living an actor’s life. I...

Tom Hanks, on acting as a profession. “It requires a knowledge of why you’re doing it in the first place. If it’s power, well, you’ll never be able to hold on to that. It it’s money, eventually they are not going to pay your price; it’s going to dri...

sense of purpose for doing it is because there is no life like it and it’s more fun than you can imagine and you’d be doing it anyway, then you might be a little ah...

• If you can afford it, study basic craft, improvisation, voice and scene study at the same time. Four classes a week and all the homework in between for a year or two would give you a solid foundation. If you could also work in the theater and do student films, you would gain actual experience too. I know this isn’t possible if you have to make a living at the same time. If you are not one of those actors who are lucky enough to be funded for a year or two, take on as much as your time and money will allow. Think of it as financing an advanced degree in professional acting. Taking professional classes and landing professional acting roles is what makes you a professional actor.

There are several different schools of thought for teaching and approaching acting.

Constantin Stanislavsky, Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Uta Hagen and Robert Lewis.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Grapes of Wrath, Jeremiah Johnson, Bridges of Madison County, Castaway. The Truth of the acting never changes. These films exemplify how Action with Thought creates Behavior.

Good acting is good acting, in any medium. The foundations of good acting are all found organically in thorough training. The beginning actor learns the skills to pursue objectives, moment-to-moment tactics and actions, factoring in internal and external obstacles to those actions. They learn to inhabit an acute sensory world with physical and vocal skills, to be sensitive to text and subtext, to be a keen listener, to glean information from given circumstances and back-story.

Open-hearted means that the fear and defenses are down so the love and passion can come to the surface. It’s when you’re more concerned with what you have to give than what you can receive. It’s when you’re willing to be seen without artifice, raw and vulnerable. When you are in the moment, trusting the moment and trusting that your talent and being are sacred and non-rejectable. Basically, the fear of rejection or judgment or criticism is overruled by the responsibility of bringing more love into being. It’s the first mandate of true creativity.

These atmospheres are simple to create on the stage or for film through the use of your imagination. Imagine the space, the very air around you to be filled with whatever atmosphere you wish—impending doom, the color blue, a cathedral, a graveyard at midnight, ecstatic joy, a street accident, springtime, champagne bubbles; the choices are endless. Once created, these atmospheres then begin to influence the actors, often guiding their character’s reactions and behavior. Emotional nuances are added to the performance. In addition, the audience senses the invisible, but very present atmosphere created by the actors, and an additional bond is formed between them.

Most great performances appear to be effortless. It is important for the actor to practice the feeling of ease. Practice walking with the feeling of ease. Lift your arms with the feeling of ease. Pick up an object, even a chair or a table while consciously employing the feeling of ease. Once you have exercised this many times, you will begin to notice when you tighten-up or are pushing. You can then immediately call up the feeling of ease to come to your rescue.

People tend to think that actors who can do it right away, because it is easy for them, are talented and other people who can’t do it right away aren’t talented. I’ve taught long enough to see that if people work hard enough they will learn everything they need to learn to really be wonderful.

I think the measure of whether a person can do it or not is totally dictated by how much they want it.

In terms of learning to act, there are very pragmatic things you can learn to do. If you do them like a recipe, you will be able to act a scene and act it well. So, in that regard, I don’t think it’s magical at all. The magical question relates back to: do some people have talent and others not? I don’t believe that’s the case: I believe anybody can learn anything about acting that they need to know to be a good actor.

The three things that actors need the most are relaxation, imagination and the ability to analyze a script.

Janice Lynde, prominent Emmy-nominated, Obie Award-winning actress and acting coach for actors as well a faculty member at the American Film Institute, teaches directors how to work with actors.

I believe there is no set formula for acting, but if some essential elements could be described, I would characterize them as: a) the actor’s complete suspension of disbelief, wholly immersed in the moment; plus b) total, specific and extremely detailed knowledge of the character through specific analytical and emotional investigation; plus c) a hefty dose of willingness to focus only on the task in front of you; minus d) the fear of negative comment.

• A favorite seems to be, “Doing My Job.” While driving, make that activity the center of your awareness. When your mind wanders, refocus. When you find yourself thinking about what you will do when you get to your destination or replaying past events, gently redirect your attention to this moment—to what is happening right now. Pay attention to the cars around you, the feel of your car, everything happening on the road and exactly how it relates to you. Use variations of this exercise anytime during the day—while reading, eating, talking to a friend, or washing dishes. • Joel Asher, well-respected acting coach and director of film and television. Q: What acting techniques do you teach? • I use many techniques. Just as a carpenter wouldn’t go to a job carrying only one tool, an actor can’t do that either. If an actor uses the same technique to audition for a soap opera as a situation comedy, it’s not going to work. So, I give actors different scenes with different styles, different challenges, so they can constantly be expanding their techniques. I teach weekly technique, professional and master scene study classes. We do exercises and improvisations that grow out of the scene work. These are improvisations that are done to isolate a specific skill and work on that issue.

As an exercise, pick any sentence and try using a different emotion each time you say the sentence. This will help you to realize it is the acting that is most important, not the words.

In order for me to create Blanche’s given circumstances for myself I will have to behave “as If” I were Blanche DuBois. This “as If” is the “if” Stanislavsky refers to. The first thing I do is abstract the given circumstances into general terms: I’m not necessarily an alcoholic, but I have some knowledge of how bad an alcoholic feels physically. If an actor doesn’t have that knowledge, part of their homework on the role is to get the knowledge, as specifically as possible. I have had the flu and felt pretty terrible. So, I will do sense memory work to help me recall the specific symptoms of a specific time when I had the flu: headache, muscle ache, odd body temperature, nausea, etc.

Every thought, feeling and emotion comes to you through your five senses. What you could smell, see, touch, taste, feel and hear. That is how you get information in this world in order to formulate how you feel and how you respond. It is a physiological fact, not an artistic idea, that you can bring back the memory of any event in your life by recalling the sensory stimuli surrounding that event. The magic of this work is that you, the actor, don’t have to feel anything, either emotion or sensation. But if you make a consistent effort to remember these sensory stimuli while you are in the scene acting, you will find these exercises—tools—are one hundred percent reliable for the audience. Note the emphasis. You do not have to feel anything. You just have to make the effort to remember. This is such a gift, it means you can deliver a performance under any circumstances as long as you have the discipline to choose specific acting work and then keep making the effort to do it.