How to be a Successful Actor by an Unsuccessful Actor

How to be a Successful Actor by an Unsuccessful Actor

If this is the first time reading something of mine then, welcome. To introduce myself, I am Conor Charlton, a 33 year old Northern Irish actor who has been pursuing acting as a career for roughly five years. From 2016-2017 I attended the prestigious Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and took the MA Acting in Screen course, which I graduated the school with a Merit. In 2018, I won the Northern Ireland Short Film Awards actor of the year award for the role of Sean in 'The Ceremony' – you can watch it here:

I regard myself as thus far being unsuccessful due to my lack of TV, film or play role and the fact that I have overall earned less from acting than I have spent on training. This post should serve as introspection and also a guide for people considering the pursuit of acting.

As a member of various acting and film making groups, I see a lot of posts in this group which basically amount to "How do I become an actor?" or "Help me be an actor". I even get messaged by people for advice on this. Now unfortunately a lot of us jump to the assumption that the people posting are scammers or beggars and are awaiting for long drawn out ways of asking for money. If this is your intention, stop. Actors don't have any money. In the UK for instance, actors on average earn less than £9,000 per year. Compare that to the average salary in London (around £30,000) that's not a lot. For many of us, it's basically a hobby that gives us a little pocket money. Maybe we put a lot of time and effort into that hobby in the hope that we can do it and nothing but it to make a living and with a lot of luck a good living, but it means that we typically aren't loaded unless we have a side job which graces us with a lot of cash.

Now for the rest of you that aren't scamming, let me ask you something - why do you want to be an actor? Maybe there's one answer, maybe there's a multitude of answers. I won't go as far to say that an answer is wrong, but I will go as far to say that sometimes I have to ask myself why I want to be an actor. Sometimes it's because I want to inhabit a character and interact with a character's mindset. Sometimes it's because I like seeing myself on screen. Some people hate that - Dame Maggie Smith, some people love it - Samuel L. Jackson. Right now, I measure my own success in life by how successful a career I've been pursuing for a while is going. Maybe not so good, but then we can lay part of the blame on COVID 19 induced lock-down before we point at the other demons – failure to network enough, poor performances in auditions due to lack of talent, preparation, nerves, the ever, a failure to create my own work that could potentially raise my profile and generate more interest. What I intend to explain here are the various routes of success, how to attempt to pursue them and to a lesser extent, the obstacles faced and consequences that can follow. 

Whilst there are no wrong reasons to be an actor, I do have to suggest you reconsider if you are in it because you have the illusion of being rich and famous.  Success to who I consider "the real actors" out there typically is not about becoming rich and famous, but instead making a survivable income from acting whilst being involved with or creating art which we are proud of.  Fame and fortune can be a wanted  or unwanted biproduct of the 1% of actors out there and if you are in it for these reasons, I highly recommend you think of another career path.  A reality TV show might be a better option.  Most of us are about bringing stories to life or exploring the craft.  That is not to say that it isn't a job, because as I will explain that it is and it is very much a job and one which is often underpaid.  Great stories, portrayed by great actors can have a lot of benefit to society. TV for instance can be used to educate people, whilst a show like Game of Thrones has greatly enhanced the flow of tourism to the locations where it was shot.  Meanwhile actors can serve other roles - aiding young doctors through roleplays to prepare them for exams and the real world, being in company training videos and government health warnings.  Some actors find niches in unusual places.

Broadly speaking, there are three types of actor – the thespian, the entertainer and the writer/actor. While at times there is some overlap of two or even three of these things as trained actors are often diverse in their talents, the three typically have different intentions in terms of their career goals and backgrounds.

The Thespian

The thespain is the actor artist who might come from a classically trained background. They seek to inhabit the mind of a character and learn their mannerisms in the attempt to portray a truth. They may study Stanislavskian based method acting, the teachings of Miesener or obscure forms of European folk theatre. Perhaps they have in-depth knowledge of stage work, Shakespearean texts, Chekovian dramas, fringe theatre or the latest Jez Butterworth masterpiece. They are more likely to have attended a prestigious drama school, though more fortunate ones may have had the luxury of attending a private school with a multi-million pound drama department. I'm not jealous.. well, maybe a little bit.. but a teenager like I was wouldn't necessarily know to take advantage of such great facilities, so the lack of high end drama department won't factor in my current excuse for non success. In terms of where they perform, the thespian is traditionally more accustomed to stage acting but there are of course many who cross over to the big screen and do so with the greatest of success – the legendary John Gielgud, Dame Maggie Smith, Daniel Day Lewis, Marlon Brando and one of my own personal favourites, Mark Rylance. All of these actors either seek to present the “naturalistic truth”, or deliver an artistic interpretation of their character in order to heighten the delivery of the themes, subtext or other artistic values.

If you want to become a thespian then as mentioned before the most commonly used route for this is seeking out and applying for a relevant course in a drama school. However, where that not an option, you could also approach a theatre company and try to get as much hands on training as they can offer. If they don't exist in your area or at reasonable distance, you could always start up your own company. Try at least to find other actors you could work with, or people around you who aspire to act. Do some research about texts, try and get a play you could perform with little or no props. Consider street or fringe theatre. The path of a thespian is a long term investment that in terms of earning potential may never pay off but if bringing characters to life on stage is something that you've dreamed of, then that is payment alone. If I can offer any more advice is, try not to become the “pompous” thespian who peer down their noses at the entertainers.

The Entertainer

I use the phrase entertainer to describe someone who came into the film and television world with the main aim of entertaining an audience, typically in comedy, action or soap opera roles rather than some grand pursuit of truth or dramatic tradition. Whilst some, like the thespian come from acting school backgrounds, others have had little to no formal training at all and instead were famous for other reasons – perhaps they were stand up comedians, sports stars, singers or have the type of celebrity status I have the least amount of respect for – reality TV stars. With the odd exception, the entertainer is less likely to take the “craft of acting” as serious as the thespian, but that does not mean they can't be extremely competent at what they do. Two of the most beloved entertainers in Hollywood today are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart – a pro wrestler and a stand up comedian respectively. They may be more likely to appear in comedy or action “flicks”. Hardly Oscar winning fare but that's not to say they won't have a place in our hearts and minds, at least for a little while.

Perhaps a little bit controversially, I'll also place the musical theatre performer into the camp of entertainer. I don't want to sound like I'm snubbing the MT folk as these wonderful people are required to be able to act, sing and dance. This guy can just about do one of those things. However, I don't think I'm wrong in saying that Musical Theatre receives a fair amount of snobbery directed it at and the light hearted writing of certain MT shows calls upon actors to give a more “cheesy” or “corny” performance. Sometimes this style of acting lends itself way to zany comedies and of course musical films, but naturalist work may need the MT person to have some additional training. By its very nature, breaking into song and dance can render characters as being chariacatures, not “real” human beings. That being said, I've never seen “Les Mis”, “Miss Saigon” or “Hamilton”, so I guess I'll shut my big mouth on that front!

If you're looking to become an entertainer then really you'll need the passion and talent to pursue a different path before you move onto acting. That path may be as competitive or as difficult to succeed as that of a thespian. You might be good at getting hit with a chair, but are you as charismatic as The Rock or John Cena to make wrestling fans or those who aren't fans want to pay to see you in a film? Are you really as funny as Eddie Murphy, Rebel Wilson or Bryan Callen? Moving onto acting is really the by-product of being incredibly good at another skillset afforded to so few, so before you decide to start venturing down this path, decide what you wish to succeed in more.

The Middle Ground

You may be thinking about the run of the mill actor we see in films and TVs who don't necessarily have fame for being a rapper or wrestler, but don't have a lot of stage experience. Well the likelihood is these folk followed a similar approach to the thespian in terms of drama school training but chose to focus more on modern plays, or screen training. For there are a number of key differences in the styles most commonly seen in screen acting and stage acting. Whilst a thespian can often convert to screen work, their need for those at the back of the theatre to see and understand their work will often call for much larger movement and noise than that of a more contained screen actor. They may have a tendency to over-gesticulate and over-project for a drama where the camera is designed to represent the viewer's eye. So they'll get a little bit of training. If you intend to skip the stage stuff and head straight to the screen, like I largely attempted, I'd encourage you to get to workshops in your area or find small or student film makers who need amateur actors. This may mean unpaid work, where you should receive show reel footage in return, but there are big arguments in the arts world about whether or not doing something free is ethical. The theory goes that if nobody acted for free, good actors would be more employable and receive a higher rate, whilst acting for free leads to the amount an actor can ask for getting drastically reduced.

Whatever way you choose to build your show reel, whether it's via student films or by paying a reel service to cut a reel for you, a good reel is important. Likewise having a great set of headshots done by a professional photographer should heighten your chances of getting noticed by directors and agents alike.

The Rest

So those broadly speaking are what I would say are the main two, but I would be remiss not to mention the writer/actor and give a brief shout out to the voice actor. The writer/actor is often a major player on both the stage, small screen and the big one too. Take Sylvester Stallone, rejected more times than I care to Google before he got the funds to produce “Rocky”, a film that he wouldn't sell the rights to unless he was given the title role. More recent British examples would be Phoebe Waller-Bridge who wrote and starred in tragicomedy “Fleabag” or mockumentary, “This Country” penned by sibling duo Daisy May and Charlie Cooper, whilst an American favourite of mine would be “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, written largely by Rob McElhenney. I have the most respect for these actors, purely because it's the type of artistic endeavour I want to be involved with the most but a combination of laziness, the constant fear of inadequacy and a dash of paralysis by analysis and bingo – you've got the recipe for an actor who doesn't write. Who instead hangs in there, waiting for castings to come to them.

Don't be that guy.

No matter what type of actor you wish to become, sitting still and not developing your own work will increase the likelihood you get absolutely no where with your career. Even if you have done a gruelling three years at drama school and landed some fantastic representation does not necessarily mean you should sit back and wait for castings to come to you. Sure, there is a time to relax and “discombobulate”, especially after something as intense as drama school, film shoot or theatre run but doing nothing for long periods of time, in that often dreaded period of time most of us actors refer to as “between jobs” likely won't create a lot of opportunities. Writing is one of the best ways to create opportunities for you and as the Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”

It may be a skill as difficult or if not more difficult than acting and require you to study and learn it from books, lectures and videos but should you prove to be good at it, it will serve not only as a career booster for your acting, but potentially as another career in itself.

Without putting the time in and doing something to attempt to further your career, you are probably not heightening this luck factor. You may feel like you're floating, whether or not you are. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're actually still developing subconsciously, by studying how people interact, maybe your imagination is expanding from a lot of reading and watching of great shows. Perhaps being relaxed and not worrying about your lack of preparation will actually mean when a juicy casting comes up you will smash it out of the park rather than crumple in a shambolic nervous heap in the room in front of the directors or relevant casting people. But if we're being realistic, being proactive should put us in an ultimately positive frame of mind.

That's why I ultimately recommend picking up a pen and writing. After all, we as actors should be storytellers; playing a character is playing one part of a story puzzle. The creation of a whole story, or just the story of the character itself should come natural to us. Just like acting, there are countless books on the subject of writing and thousands of online lectures and videos online which can offer you guidance on the subject. If you're as serious about it as you will need to be to succeed, once again, you're in for a long haul. Just like anything else that you try in life, you will probably suck.. until you don't. What's needed for any career in the arts, you will need a thick skin and the willingness to grind, all the while having your decisions and efforts torn apart by critics and friends alike.

Before I come to the conclusion, I said before, shout out to the voice actors out there. Voice acting is something that a lot of actors will have a base level of ability in due to extensive practice at using their voice in a similar fashion to a musician playing an instrument. With the right recording euipment, and a voice reel, they can potentially pick up a lot of work either voicing over advertisements or mobile phone apps, or provide character voices for animations, computer games or radio dramas. Building a career as a VO artist does not necessarily need the same focused training as that of a traditional “thespian” but there are still some skills to be developed over time that will make you better at the job and help you land gigs.  There are various services which you can pay for to help you get a good reel, but even with a good reel, you'll need to network to make the connections which can give you a steady flow of work. Much like acting, it helps to have representation, who may have the connections to audio casting directors.

Conclusion

I've probably repeated myself a bunch of times throughout this and for good measure I'll do it again. If it's not abundantly clear, becoming a successful actor either requires a lot of the “preparation meets opportunity” luck and a fair amount of the right place, right time and right look for the role luck. It'll also need a lot of sacrifice. Time effort and emotional energy will be spent over an extended period – a period that can entirely undefinable in its length. You could spend a lifetime trying to succeed in this industry and there is a danger that you may never succeed. All the time and effort could be sank into one thing with no great outcome in terms of status or financial stability. Your love for acting and your desire to do it must outweigh the fear of failure. Yet that same desire must not control you when it comes to your castings and performances. You must feel only what the character feels. Think only what the character thinks so that for those looking to hire you, or the audience you seek to captivate the energy and connection your character has is both captivating and believable.

As an actor you will need to be both stubborn and flexible. A will to make hard decisions, but a pragmatism which allows you to create opportunities, recognize them when they appear and take advantage of them when they fall into your grasp. Do not kid yourself about “being discovered” on the street or even as an extra. For a miniscule percentage of people, this may have happened but the vast majority of folk who want to have a chance of succeeding have to embrace the grind. If that's what you want to do, then go for it. I hope opportunities present themselves to you and I hope you have the clarity of mind to take advantage of them when they do.  

That'll do.

- Conor Charlton 2nd June, 2020

P.S. Some of you may have got to the end of this article and thought "surely this is nonsense, after all it's not what you know, it's who you know..."  And while I have touched upon networking briefly, there may be a certain level of truth to the old addage.  There are countless actors who have benefited from nepotism and there are cases where the actor may have only gotten as far as they have done through knowing a writer, a director or a producer before their career began.  Whilst I can't claim that I wouldn't utilize any family or friend links presented to me, I can ask to those actors out there who benefit from these links to please put the same amount of work into your role preparation as an actor who doesn't have the opportunities that you do.  I'll not waste my breath and complain about this, that or the other being unfair, because the world we live in is unfair.  I have been incredibly fortunate to be born where I was, when I was and to have had the support of the people around me to even pursue acting, I could not imagine what it'd be like to be facing that struggle in somewhere much more hostile to this pursuit.  Perhaps in the future, I could write another article where I theorize ideas on how to cultivate your talent in more difficult conditions.

P.P.S. Any mathematicians who want to tally up the number of times I say "perhaps", "maybe" or talk about the odds and want to try and calculate the percentage chance of someone succeeding (making a respectable earning) through one of these career paths, let me know.

Also check out the Worst Ever Reading of Ulysses

https://audioboom.com/posts/7599625-episode-3-the-worst-ever-reading-of-macbeth-part-1

I write almost entirely for fun and because I love storytelling, but if you're feeling generous and want to throw a coin or two my way, below is my paypal tipping address.  A fair amount of the money I spend these days goes on either writing classes or tipping other artists for bringing us cheer at this grim time, so I wouldn't say you're wasting too much if you do.   Christ that last sentence is even more try hard.. What a virtualling piece of..

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