Ep54 Transcript – 3 Things You Need to Start Acting – Quick Fix Friday

Andrea Vahl: Hey, late starters, would you like to start acting in midlife? If so, this episode of Quick Fix Friday is for you. We’re going to dive into the three things you need to start acting.

Intro: Hello Dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration mindset and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

Andrea Vahl: In episode 52, we talked to Kimberley Pember, whose recent credits included Detective Knight with Bruce Willis, among other great films that are coming out for her. And I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into what it really takes and what you need to start acting.

She gave us a couple of resources like Backstage, Actors Access. There’s another one, Casting Networks. Those are all sites that list potential projects and things in your area or nationally that you can apply for. But a lot of those potential roles do need a few things.

Number one, you definitely need a headshot and it needs to look professional. I definitely would say you have to get this professionally taken where you are looking great, the lighting is good because this is going to be the way a lot of casting directors make a quick decision about you and have a couple of different looks if you can. Usually, sometimes people are looking for just one headshot submission, so you might have a couple of different looks depending on the type of role that you are applying for.

So get that done. There’s a lot of places that offer really great deals on headshot for actors or professional headshots that you can get, and it’s not too expensive, luckily.

The second thing you will often need is a resume. Now, this might feel a little daunting if you are just starting out because you may not have a lot of credits to list, but definitely think about anything you have performed in. Or maybe it’s even like standup comedy like I do, or things like that. You will also be listing the training you’ve had, and I think that’s a great idea to get some training so that they can see you’ve got that on your resume. You will also list special skills.

In your resume, you’ll typically have your contact information up at the top. You may or may not have a photo on there. You may not need that if you’ve got your headshot that you’re submitting separately, but then you’re going to break that resume out into tv, film, theater, training, and special skills. So you’ll also be able to list the special skills you might have, such as accents or types of sports you play or other things that you, are able to do in case they’re looking for someone with a special skill like rock climbing or something like that. There’s lots of resume templates online, so I would just take a look at some examples and make it really clean and easy to read.

The third thing you’ll need is a demo reel. Now, this is actually a little bit optional because not everything you’re going to be submitting for does require a demo reel, but it’s a good idea if you can come up with a demo reel. Now, this is a little hard when you’re just starting out as well. So what do you put in a demo reel if you don’t have any credits? Well, you can put in things like readings that you’ve done for auditions, or if you’ve done things in a studio where you’ve done some filming. It doesn’t always have to be really professionally shot, but that’s a great idea if it can be.

This is another great reason to get into student films because student films will hopefully give you some demo reel footage. You won’t often get paid for a student film, but it’s a good idea to do some student films to build up your demo reel. And if you’ve done anything like standup comedy or speaking, you can put some of those clips in there.

A demo reel just needs to be two minutes. And even if you don’t have anything, you might just shoot some kind of informal scenes of you reading script.

To be or not to be? That is a question.

Another thing that people wonder about that I’ve wondered about as well is getting an agent and you don’t necessarily have to wait until you have a lot of credits before you get an agent.

I was talking to some agents in my area and they said they’re often looking for just possible people who’ve had some training, who have the right look for them, and they’re looking for people to shoot commercials and other things that are fairly low key that they might be looking for a particular type of person on. So it’s a good idea to just reach out to agents in your area and see what happens.

In any case, it’s not really hard to get on some of these sites and start submitting for roles and just go for it.

Outro: Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide. Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com, and let’s turn dreaming into doing.