5+ Tips for a Successful Acting Career

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We previously mentioned acting is difficult, but we haven’t yet reached the subject of “career” linked to it.

Supposedly you are now convinced you were born to pursue an acting career and don’t want to waste not even another minute of your time doing anything else. If you are an actor already, but a beginner, if you are a model, a singer, an athlete, a teenager or a middle aged housewife looking for a change, you need to know what makes an acting career successful. It all depends on readiness, professionalism and context.

Are you a huge fan of William Shakespeare, do you rap like Tupac in the privacy of your bedroom or is there something magical about your Elvis Presley voice? Did you envy Eminem after he did 8 Mile? Or is Marilyn Monroe your eternal idol? Luckily enough for you, that is almost irrelevant for how to start, continue, strengthen or develop your acting career! What you need to care about is how to present yourself, to continually improve your skills, to surround yourself with inspiration and a healthy social circle and to secure auditions!

 

Get your acting goals straight
If you set your goals and work hard for them

How Do I Start Acting?

Careers don’t start overnight, they are built in time and with patience, and the word itself has strong meanings, thanks to Carl D. Perkins. Sometimes they take you to a totally different destination than you expected, like it happened in Ronald Reagan’s case. The subject under discussion right now is perhaps not about how you should specifically start to act, but rather what makes you a good actor before you even know you are one.

1.   Developing Your Inner Strength

Before we could even get to talk about workshops, acting lessons, coaching, choosing your monologues, sealing auditions, getting an agent and finally earning a role, not to mention reading reviews about yourself in the morning newspaper, you need to make sure you can handle criticism when it’s both fair and unfair, you need to correctly evaluate your temper, analyze your self control and tell yourself it’s not going to be easy. Inexperienced actors often daydream about idyllic scenarios that rarely happen outside fairy tales and thereafter get disappointed. You need to lower your ego and expectations and even make sure you can handle a harsh reality like someone rejecting you or even you yourself realizing you aren’t a good enough actor. Sometimes, that leads to positive change: not being fit for the stage or the set can lead you to your meant to be career. Perhaps it’s best for your to be a voice actor, a comedian or a dancer. The benefit of preparing yourself for an acting career is that you definitely develop your character and get to know yourself better, which is something no one can take away from you. Sometimes it can also extract a darker version of your personality, but let’s hope there was only one John Wilkes Booth that history can take and you are farthest as possible from a criminal profile.

director's clap board
Success at Hollywood

2.   Create A Flawless “You”

No one likes a sloppy resume or amateur photo shoots. Before you even get to pick an agent to represent your interests, it’s really important to have the best version of your acting skills available for people to see. Pursuing an acting career definitely means all eyes can are on you constantly. Think of paparazzi and journalists, tens of events to attend and peer pressure, and these are only a few. Here is some precious information: you should guard your intimacy but conduct your living as if your daily routine could be on television. Don’t get into gossip, don’t skip a workout, don’t allow yourself to be lazy. The sooner you begin to work to improve yourself as an actor, the more you are actually working on improving yourself. Yes, it takes effort. It sometimes takes life changes like moving around places until you settle in a city which is the middle of an entertainment epicenter full of opportunities. Ashton Kutcher is indeed from Iowa, but relocated to Los Angeles after winning a trip to New York as a model, so our point is pretty obvious.

3.   Info: Your Future Depends on Knowledge

Twist it around however you’d like, but you need to be up to date with everything regarding acting. From the newest methods to the upcoming new talented youngsters, from the Oscar nominees to the latest news about Drake’s career, from the current trends in interpreting your craft to the black list of agents – nothing can slip your attention. Every move you make will influence your future, so it’s essential to be informed at all costs. That moment you choose to go to acting classes instead of joining the army is what we’re talking about, but don’t forget to stay totally focused and connected to your allegedly chosen path.

How Do I Develop My Career?

There is no perfect answer to this. Some choose the longest formal education path at college, others don’t care about the graduating certificate and simply exercise on their own until they feel ready to pass the test of auditions. Some people relocate, others change their agents or get a coach. You might want to travel around the world and find you inner peace before you can be a better actor. You might be a young developing artist like Selena Gomez who started her activity at the age when some still fool around as kids, or you can be a late bloom.

acting business circle
This is how the business relations backing an actor looks like

If you are an intermediate or advanced actor, you will still need to keep your game up high if you want to be renowned on a national or international level. Starting with evaluating your agent and the opportunities he or she opened for you and ending with constantly adding skills or technical improvements to your craft, you cannot allow yourself to meet platitude. Your ambition and motivation will do you good when you’re starting to lose your faith – and moments of confusion pop out of nowhere in any actor’s life and career.

Don’t forget, success is a relative term and in the end, it’s only up to you which is the definition you are going to assign to it!

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