It’s no secret that an actor’s profession is often considered unserious, giddy, and even over-romanticized. However, only those who have never been into acting can think like that. If you feel the urge to try out this unusual occupation, turn down all the subjective misconceptions other people tend to have. Even if you have been engaged in the absolutely opposite type of work, it doesn’t mean you have no talent for being an actor. It may be high time to go with your heart and discover a marvelous ability to change characters, personalities, and even worlds with the help of acting. Let’s delve into the details and explore how to become an actor without experience.
Table of Contents
The main aim of an actor is to entertain people. Whether this actor plays in the theatre, shines in Hollywood blockbusters, works on television, or just performs at parties – their mission is to give people emotions. Therefore, first of all, an actor has to be as natural as possible. Here comes the first myth about acting – ‘It’s not a serious profession.’ Who told that? We bet if 10 people are asked to play a 5-minute part in a performance, 9 of them will expose themselves in seconds. Only those actors who can get into their character so that the audience believes them and feels their emotions can be called the great ones. Is that so easy to achieve? Highly unlikely.
It’s pretty challenging to define a specific number, as the average remuneration of an actor varies from $31k to $60k. The good news is that there is no absolute ceiling, and as you know, some actors get millions for just one movie. However, we would not recommend you focus on those numbers and be more realistic from the beginning – a newbie is unlikely to make money hand over the glove. What a newbie is bound to have – loads of hard work, rehearsals, self-development, failures, rejections…but we’ll discuss it further.
Despite a widespread misconception, future actors do require education or specialized training. As we’ve already mentioned, the first stranger in the street has a miserable chance to astonish the audience with astounding acting skills. As with programming, accounting, or composing – all these occupations require hours of learning and practicing. Why would acting be different? For this reason, we’ll make an in-depth overview of what steps one should take (and be ready for) to approach their dream of becoming an actor. Let’s get started!
For soon-to-be actors, it’s vital to realize what price should be paid to have a life in the spotlight. Free time? You’re unlikely to go out and hang up with your friends in the bar – memorizing scripts, working on mimics, voice, and gestures are of higher priority right now.
Working out and eating healthy food is your responsibility, not a choice to lead a healthy lifestyle. And by the way, roles don’t come easy, especially if you don’t have an agent. Like any business or career, you’ll have to seek and seize every opportunity to participate in and network within the industry. It may be sending your CV to hundreds of organizations, cold emailing, or endless auditions. No pains, no gains, especially if you want to walk down the red carpet in real life, not only in your dreams.
While most people think that acting is about the ability to show any emotions, it’s the other way around. The great actor learns to hide that they are showing emotions, not actually ‘have them’ for real. In real life, we call such a person a hypocrite, don’t we? Therefore, it’s not about learning to show emotion anytime in education, training, or acting courses. It’s about training yourself to dive into any situation and feel it’s happening in reality, providing the appropriate emotional reaction. The one everybody can believe and even feel as if it’s their own happiness, grief, surprise, or fury.
How long does it take to acquire this skill? It depends. You may consider taking a course just to understand the basics of acting, get acquainted with like-minded people (networking really matters), and get professional feedback from your coach regarding your skills. There are different types of acting classes:
If you wonder if one has to obtain higher education, the answer would be no. Acting is more about practice, not theory, and cinema’s history will hardly help turn into an imaginary character from another epoch. Not only will skipping university save thousands of dollars, but also your time, the most precious thing.
Last but not least is that the process of becoming an actor is not solely about acting and performing. One should be ready to upgrade their personality if they decide to step onto this path.
Systematic – sending 50 emails at a time isn’t enough. Making 100 phone calls isn’t enough. Attending 120 auditions isn’t enough either. All these things have to become a regular part of your life. Your training courses, working out sessions, audition preparation, and submissions process should be consistent. River cuts through rock, and so will you if you integrate all these activities into your life.