Tag Archives: auditions

Mads Mikkelsen: ‘The Snobbery in The Acting Business is Enormous’

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snobbery in acting industry, snobbery, acting, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has told Rolling Stones Magazine that a lot of actors are snobby towards actors who do blockbusters. The actor has done a mix of indie and big budget films.

“The snobbery in my business is enormous. I did not grow up on deep Czechoslovakian dramas or French art films, I grew up with pop culture. So I would be a hypocrite saying I don’t love James Bond, and that I don’t love flying kung fu – ’cause I f**king love it.”

“I don’t think I would want to fly around on wires eight films in a row, but I love doing it, and I’ll do it again, at a certain point, though, you want to go the other way: ‘Please give me The Hunt again.’ Something small…, but if I do eight of those films, then I’ll go, ‘Please let me fly around with a sword again!'”

Their is a downside though, Mikkelsen said his audition for the Fantastic Four was embarrassing. He was asked in the casting office to pretend to extend his arms like a rubber man, he was so embarrassed that he thought, “I can’t do this anymore.”

Luckily he now says he does not have to audition anymore and generally books his job through simple phone calls.

 

 

Anne Hathaway Losing Roles To Younger Actresses At Grand Age of 32

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AnneHathawayAAFeb09Being an actor is hard and being an actress even more so. An actresses career used to be over by the time she was 40. Thankfully, there are still some roles for actresses in their 40s now, but it seems that ageing is still a disadvantage for a woman in film. Women have always had a tough time in film but recently more actresses have been speaking out about sexism and ageism. Sometimes with depressing results. In this months Glamour magazine, cover girl Anne Hathaway said that she was already losing roles to younger actresses. “I can’t complain about it because I benefitted from it, When I was in my early twenties, parts would be written for women in their fifties and I would get them. And now I’m in my early thirties and I’m like, ‘Why did that 24-year-old get that part? I was that 24 year old once. I can’t be upset about it, that’s just the way things are.” She admitted.

Anne also says “…there are fewer roles [for women] and the competition is just as fierce as ever. I look around at my peers and I’m so blown away by their talent…and we’re all trying to get the same parts.” She had to audition for her role in The Intern. In the great interview she also says she doesn’t beat herself up as much anymore. Buy this months Glamour and have a read.

 

 

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates

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Pity the poor director who raises his head above the parapet and publicly proclaims ‘Is there anyone interested in playing Nora?’

If you’ve read my previous articles about the process of staging A Doll’s House, you’ll know it’s audition time. The chosen poster used to represent the internal struggle within the protagonist’s mind …

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates1

… but now represents the director’s (Kevin Russell’s) horror as the emails began to arrive. The number soon reached 200. How do you find the Special One amongst all those? Stories abound of some producers and directors abhorring hotmail email addresses, detesting specific drama schools or, even, flinching at the names of rivals on CVs. One famous director is known for whittling the list down by deleting every third email and removing every third application from his pile.

Ask any HR Manager attempting to fill a vacancy in a company – it’s a nightmare .So can it all be that random, relying so heavily on luck?

Ohhhh, yes.

Kevin told me that ‘it’s so silly what goes through my mind when looking at headshot after headshot. Whether they can act or not seems irrelevant. The first time acting gets involved is at the audition itself, but that seems so far away.’

He does, though, admit other skills are required. For him – and this is just Kevin, no one else (before someone complains that’s not how it’s done) – Kevin wants a clear CV, a photo that shows a certain attitude and a covering letter that indicates a little thought has gone into the application. The rest is gut instinct on his part.

Gradually, the audition list was reduced until sixteen actresses were invited to the venue, Barons Court Theatre. Then I joined him in the process, as a guide, a shoulder to cry on and the-fella-that-reads-along-with-the-auditionees.

The pressure is on them: 1 – to turn up on time; 2 – to resemble the person in the photograph (you’d be amazed how many don’t); 3 – to enjoy themselves. We assist with the last part, aiming to create a jovial and inspirational atmosphere.

So – the big news … Drum roll … An actress has been chosen and she did say ‘Yes.’ Her name is Alexa Matthews. When asked she said, ‘I have always wanted to play the role of Nora and as soon as I saw there was an opportunity to do so I applied immediately. She’s a complex character and makes such an interesting journey though the play and one that as an actor you can really challenge yourself with, this really excites me.

A Director In Search Of An Actress by Paul Vates3 Alexa Matthews – Photo by Michael Shelford

‘The audition was lots of fun and Kevin and Paul have a way of naturally making you feeling at ease. What I loved was that Kevin directed me in some of the chosen scenes with Paul and we got it up on its feet. Auditions can be a really surreal environment but instead of sitting behind a desk Kevin and Paul were much more involved.’

Where was she when she heard she had been offered the part? ‘I had just boarded the plane to France for a friend’s wedding with my boyfriend and received the email just before taking off. I was so excited to hear the news and couldn’t wait to get back to discuss the play further.’

The whole production rests on Alexa’s shoulders – so no pressure there. It’s such a famous role, it is natural to feel nervous about the months ahead. Alexa said, ‘I really hope that I do the play justice and that the audience come away feeling like they have seen a great version of the play. I hope that they are tickled with its lightness but also come away with an understanding of the fresh and relevant messages it has to convey.  Importantly I hope they have a great evening out and that as a company we also have lots of fun.’

What Alexa may not realise at the moment, though, is just how many macaroons she will have to consume during the run. I think I may keep count… but more on that later.

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen will be performed from November 3rd to 22nd at Barons Court Theatre, west London. Tickets are selling fast, so if you fancy stopping by call the box office direct on 020 8932 4747 or email londontheatre@gmail.com to reserve seats.

www.newdreamstheatre.co.uk

Facebook: New Dreams Theatre

Twitter @KevinNewdreams

 

 

Is Acting Training Worth It?

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acting, acting advice, acting book, how to be a successful actor, actorpreneur, auditions, castings, casting breakdown, how to be an actor,To train or not to train, that is the question. To paraphrase some little known writer, ahem. It is a debate that has raged on. The truth is, there is no easy answer. Frankly, studying at Cambridge will get you noticed but training at some random never-heard-of polytechnic won’t do you much good. In a recent Mark Strong Acting masterclass I went to Mark made the excellent point that it is not the training that is important, but the confidence it gives. Sometime people who don’t train have a chip on their shoulder, Mark said, much like people who don’t go to university think they missed out on something. It is all rubbish and in fact they did not miss anything at all, but the lack of confidence is there.

So, do you need three years worth of training? Especially with the exorbitant fees that universities now charge? The answer is yes, and no. There is still a hierarchy to acting. If you go to a school which is a brand name it will look great on your CV and open some doors. RADA is one, as is Central and LAMDA. Ditto Oxford and Cambridge. The acting industry is just as snobby as the wider world. People love brand names.

Some training is smart. Although I believe that acting is a talent you either have or don’t, but you can improve. Take classes, join improv groups, make your own work. Keeping up your skills as an actor is important but just doing three years of training for the sake of it is not. Many great actors have no formal training. You will also have the added bonus of not having any debt which will take you years to pay off.

In the end the decision is yours. Just don’t think that your acting career is over before it began just because you cannot go to a prestiges school. Not everyone has the money to do so and they only take a small number of applicants every year. Developing your skills is important but this can be done on the job, doing student films, fringe theatre, in drama classes and even in (shh) amateur dramatics. None of this has to go on your CV. Just get out there and work. The acting industry is not the closed shop it used to be. Go to the theatre, watch film and TV. Learn as much as possible. Actors who went to one of the top schools may get a head start but the good news is that the acting game is a marathon, not a sprint.

 

Catherine Balavage has been an actor for over ten years. Her book on acting, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, has gotten numerous five star reviews and has been called the ‘best advice available’ by numerous sources.

 

 

Emma Dyson Interview: Acting Advice From Spotlight’s Career Expert

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acting tips, acting career, acting, advice, book, how to be a successful actor, quit, Catherine BalavageI interviewed a lot of great casting directors, actors, directors and experts in the acting industry for my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. One of those interviews was with Emma Dyson who gives actors career advice for Spotlight, the main casting site for actors and casting directors. Spotlight is also the essential casting site for actors, if you are not in it, you are invisible. An extract from the interview is below. Read it and learn.

Emma Dyson works for the main casting website for actors in the United Kingdom, Spotlight. She also does one-on-one talks for Spotlight members to give them career advice.

So tell us about you.

I’ll tell you a bit about my background. I trained as an actor at the Guildford School of Acting in the 1990s and then, having got the training out of my system, I quickly realised I couldn’t be an actor. I probably didn’t have the talent or the perseverance or the backbone. Then I was an agent for six years. Then I left being an agent thinking that I would go into a different career, something entirely different, but every job that I was getting was pulling me back to the business so first of all I was working at my old drama school back at Guildford, I was the personal assistant for Peter Barlow who was the then assistant director, and then I left two weeks into the job because he was leaving. Subsequently a casting director put me in touch with Thea from United Agents, and I was temping at United Agents sort of off and on for about six months which is when I got the job here at Spotlight being the PR manager.

I used to do castings within the agencies and get the Spotlight breakdown and put roles and the actors that fit them together. It was interesting, having worked in an agency, because the first point of contact that you do in casting work is Spotlight. Now I am very happy here as PR manager and I go to the drama schools and talk about acting and Spotlight member benefits. How to get a good CV and photo, what type of letters to write to casting directors, agents. Time and time again they are incredibly green. They are in their final year of drama school and have hardly written any letters to agents or casting directors. They leave thinking ‘Here I am, come and get me!’ it just doesn’t work out like that. It’s really important and I empathise that it is very important to write letters, to hopefully reach your future employer, who will, across the course of your career, become your friends, and keep re-employing you.

acting, acting advice, acting book, how to be a successful actor, actorpreneur, auditions, castings, casting breakdown, how to be an actor, It is such a shock when people leave drama school. They don’t really know what to do.

I know and it is such a shame. They go to Central, LAMDA and RADA. Those are very central London schools. They get so spoilt for choice because it’s awash with agents and casting directors, it carries the kudos of being at the best drama school. Where I was at Guildford  we were terribly cut-off  despite the facts it’s only a twenty minute train journey, but, we felt very cut-off.  It’s a shame that schools that are not in central London get kind of left out and not thought of. There are some interesting actors in regional schools. The Welsh college is a very good school with a lot of good courses and a brilliant reputation. Conversely Rose Bruford has some really good students and that is in Kent.

I think you have got to train, you have got to workshops, you have got to keep classes going. Try to teach yourself as many skills and techniques as possible because the more skilled you are as an actor the more you should work. I always like the actors who go into musical theatre, straight theatre, film and do a bit of everything,  And what we are noticing is that there is more of a vogue for musical theatre and films are being made from those musicals. I know of a few film directors who are making films which are musicals. It is kind of a renaissance or a nod to the 1950s. The MGM sort of musicals. Musicals are very popular.

So learn to sing

Learn to sing if you can, and if you can dance then I think you will probably work all the time.

Daryl Eisenberg, an American casting director, told me two things when I met her: One, you are not special. Don’t think you are more special than anyone else and are just going to make it,  and two, whatever is stopping you from getting a job, remove it.  So if you can’t dance then learn to dance, etc.

I think that is just a roundabout response to what I just said. If you do just keep yourself as skilled and as tuned in as possible then you will get work. You have to do as much theatre as you can and as much film as you can. Not only that but I extend it to: if you are a London actor or a London based actor see as much art as you can, culturally exploit everything which is on your doorstep. Because I think that tunes you in to everything. It keeps you aware of what is current. You pick up on working trends and that reflects across the arts.

Tell me about Spotlight events,

Yeah, we do events. Being PR manager. ..We did one in October in conjunction with the London Film Festival. I got three casting directors. I got Karen Lindsay Stewart and Lucinda Syson. It was held at the British Film Institute and it was chaired by Pippa, my boss, and myself, it was just about how to become a working actor, keeping your CV up to date, how to get an audition, and also I do seminars where I talk a lot about being a working actor, how to network, all of those things, and at Spotlight offices on every Monday we have Spotlight Mondays where I operate 20 minutes chats with people who are stuck in their careers. They are incredibly popular. They always sell out very, very quickly. And the seminars are sometimes in conjunction with Actors Expo or other bodies. We just hold little seminars in house.

How do you break through?

I think it depends because some actors burn out very quickly, and other actors, they see an opportunity and they become very successful and popular when they are in their forties. So I think it just depends because there is so much reliance on good luck and you have to have a lot of charisma, a lot of talent. But then the rest of it is luck. I think you can make your own luck, but a lot of it is out of your control. Probably one of the reasons that I didn’t become an actor was because I couldn’t stand being in a career with no control.

To answer your question, I think it depends on many things. They have to have a good agent behind them and the rest of it I think is luck.

What is the most common mistakes actors make?

Not being proactive, not writing letters to casting directors. Even with a good agent you should still do your own work. Not looking after themselves, not working out, not eating well, not networking, I think all of these things, the actor has to do that. It is part of their homework.

How many actors are on Spotlight?

Just over 40,000

 

For the rest of the interview, and great interviews from our acting industry professionals get your hands on a copy of How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur now.

 

 

 

Stupid Things People Write In Acting Casting Breakdowns

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Stupid Things People Write In Acting Casting Breakdowns, acting, auditions, castings, acting advice, acting book, casting breakdowns Ah, casting breakdowns, audition notices. Whatever you want to call them, they sure can frustrate. An actor will generally spend more time applying for acting roles than acting or even attending auditions. Acting is a game of numbers and applying to casting calls can be soul destroying indeed. Especially when they include any of the criteria below. Luckily I can find the humour in it. Like my dad says, ‘If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.’

 

Must be able to convey emotion. Jeez, that will be hard, it’s not that actors are trained in conveying emotion or anything.

We want real people, not actors. Really? Then why advertise on an ACTING JOB SITE. Idiot.

Nudity is required. All of the time but generally only for women.

Payment for lead actor only. Great, everyone else can just live on fresh air and pay their rent with fairy dust. That’ll work.

Female wanted. Character name: “The Girl”. Because in real life women are not known by their names, only by their gender. Oh, and they are ‘girl’ no matter how old they are apparently. Which is fine, because most of the people behind these castings want an 18-year-old. I wrote an article on this problem in the acting industry here.

Must be able to act. Really?

For women: Must be slim. Because a persons body mass impacts directly on their acting talent apparently.

For women: Must have long hair: Read: must be fuckable. So many castings just suit a stereotypical male ideal of female beauty. It is so sad

No acting experience needed. Because why hire actual actors when you can just hire someone off the street? It is not like we are trained professionals or anything.

 

These came just off the top of my head. I will continue to write about silly things in casting breakdowns in the hope that they improve somehow. Please add your own casting breakdown fails below or email them to frost magazine@gmail.com and I will include them in the next post. Let’s try and change the industry, even if we have to use tiny baby steps.

 

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon. 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Parish on Acting: It Can Turn You Into a Monster

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Sarah Parish has given a rather excellent interview to the Radio Times. Here are some of my favourite quotes from it.

On starting acting: “I had no confidence. I think because I started so low. I had quite low expectations. I felt one step behind, and it’s always been, ‘I can’t believe they actually chose me’. I went for small parts because I thought that was probably the only thing I would get. I never auditioned for leads. I just assumed I wouldn’t get them.” That is said with so much self-parody that I feel like I’m allowed to ask: “Do you think you missed out because of that?” Huge eyebrows: “Well… ya think? But you live the life you’ve lived, don’t you? I didn’t have that God-given confidence you get from going to a public school and going to Rada. I went to a comprehensive and felt lucky if I got a job in the chorus. But the upside is I was never disappointed.”

hatfieldandmccoy

If the industry has gotten better for women in the past 20 years: “I did hear something alarming the other day, I bumped into a friend at an audition, another girl my age. I asked if she was still doing this show – I can’t tell you what it is – and she said, ‘No, it was cancelled. The reason they gave was that they already had a female-driven programme.’ Wow. Because you can’t have two female-led dramas on telly. How awful would that be! So we’re still not there. I don’t know if we’ll ever be equal. We’ve still got an old-fashioned way of receiving female characters. They’ve got to be the wife, or they’ve got to be nuts.”

On the charity she and her husband, James Murray, set up; the Murray Parish Trust: “It’s in memory of Ella-Jayne, our first daughter.” [She died of congenital heart failure at eight months old] “It’s a terrifying and traumatic time [when your child is ill], you just want to be there all the time. They really, really need this hospital. The accommodation they’ve got for parents at the moment is so sad. £70 million it’s going to cost. Our charity is the little Jack Russell that goes down the hole and scoops everybody out. The big money willcome in afterwards.”

Second daughter Nell gets in the way of her career: “My agent will say, Darling, you’ve got to do a play’. I don’t want to do a play. Why do I have to do a play? You have to go off and do your time in a play to remind a certain genre of people that you’re still an actor. It’s a ball ache. I don’t want to have to leave my daughter and go to London every night.”

On pilot season: “If there was a little room you could go in beforehand where you checked in your dignity, your soul and your pride, that would be fine. But unfortunately you have to go into pilot season as a whole person. Every day you drive around with your clothes in the back of the car, you sit in rooms full of people as sad and as desperate as you are, with so much make-up on they could sink the Titanic, tiny little thin people. Sometimes casting directors might look at you, sometimes they might be on the phone, sometimes they’ll talk over you. And more often than not, you’ll hear nothing. I have got jobs out of it before, but it’s just not worth it. We tape all our [audition] stuff in our garden shed, now. Having a shed in our back garden has made us a lot of money, me and Jim.”

On the pressure on men: “You have to have a six pack, you have to have a pair of glutes, you have to wax your chest. You have to sign a contract saying you will show your bum. You see these poor guys right before a scene, doing press-ups, when they should be thinking about their character. That’s what we’ve come to expect from men on screen now. It’ll be from up there [she gestures to some nameless authority]. Hot, young people with perfect bodies. That’s what people want to see. And of course it actually isn’t what people want to see. I want to see interesting faces. I want to see different bodies. I want to see people I can relate to. There’s nothing attractive about knowing a man has been flexing in front of a mirror five minutes before a scene. When did that become sexy? And I don’t want to see a woman looking starved to death. When did that become sexy? These are first world problems, It’s very easy as an actor to live in a bubble and think that life is about acting, and of course it’s not. It can turn you into a bit of a monster.”

Isn’t she awesome? I think so.

If you are an actor then check out my book How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It is available in print and in all eBook formats on both Smashwords and Amazon.

American Actors Can Get How To Be a Successful Actor For $1.99: One More Day Only

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acting, acting advice, how to be an actor, how to be a successful actor, hollywood, castings, auditions, casting directors.American Actors Can Get How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur For $1.99: One More Day Only

Fresh from a Kindle Countdown Deal for British actors which was very successful, now American actors can get my book for only $1.99 for a limited time only. How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur has been getting rave reviews in America and it has already been selling stateside.

This is what American actor Tom Shafer had to say about my book: “An excellent guide for the entertainment professional

I found this book to be an excellent companion to Bonnie Gillespie’s ‘Self-Management for Actors’, which I am also currently reading. The first half of Catherine’s book does a excellent job of distilling a seminar’s-worth of material into a manageable bit. The second half, the interviews, felt more conversational. What was clear, the recommendations made in the first half came, in part, from these interviews. This is an excellent technique, since it reinforces the validity of the recommendations as having come from entertainment professionals who have achieved a perceived level of success. (I like that the definition of “success” was open for discussion, since it can mean different things to different people.)

As an American reading this book, I did find some UK-centric resources and references. But, in this era of global Internet access, I found just as many that were valid for US readers. I was able to take this in stride and see this as a valuable tool in my self-management as a working actor.

Thanks, Catherine, for writing this excellent guide.”

 

What are you waiting for? Get your copy now.