How to be a professional actor in the UK and Ireland
This is a slightly different take on an article I previously wrote called “How to be a Successful Actor by an Unsuccessful Actor”
Previously I examined the different types of actors and
posed the question “Why do you want to be an actor?” If you have a reason you are happy with and
can justify the grind you are bound to encounter, I can reiterate the basic steps
someone in the UK or Ireland should take in the hope of gaining professional
work. Note that I can’t tell you how to be
successful and a full time, or even close to full-time working actor. If I had that secret, I would probably keep it
to myself, or disseminate it only to my closest acting compadrés and that
secret might consist of know the right people, make your own work and nail
every audition you’re ever given. Instead, I reside in the all too common “in
between jobs” phase of my acting career, a phase almost all actors find themselves
in, whether they find a level of successful or not. However, I can try and give you the
information to get you onto the path of finding auditions in four-steps:
training, headshots, showreels and hunting.
Step One: Train
I hear all the time from people with no experience of the
acting industry “I would make a great actor” To that I ask “Why? Do you have any experience? Have you done any training?” Almost always,
the answers are as follows: I don’t know, no and no. On occasion it is because the person stating
this seemingly unfounded self-confidence had a part in the school play half a
decade prior. There are of course actors
who don’t do a whole lot of training and are just “naturals”, but in my
experience these are very rare. The vast
majority of those who count themselves as natural actors are in reality natural
over-actors. Their version of acting is
waving their arms around, saying everything with an unnatural diction, a raised
voice and strained facial expressions.
There may be a time and a place for this in pantomime performances and
in the odd Tom Hardy film, but what the vast majority of critics, artists and
keen viewers of film and television regard as “good acting” is a lot more reserved
than this. Yes, some people in real life
are performative in their daily interactions but on average, people tend to be quieter,
often guarded with their emotional responses. It is these below surface-emotions which are
often far more interesting for the audience to examine and interpret. For reference, I recommend you watch “In the
Name of the Father” and review Daniel Day Lewis’s incredible performance. This is an actor who trained in the craft of
acting, studied the real-life counterpart of his character and immersed himself
in the understanding of his part’s wants, needs and understanding of life.
Training typically provides the tools for an actor to
experience the emotions their character feels and communicate these emotions
not purely to the viewing audience what these emotions are but to the other
character-inhabiting actors so that they can receive those emotions and respond
in a totally convincing way. Not all
tools are equal in their usefulness and different actors will benefit from
different tools. Some actors will use
the teachings of Chekov and Stanislavski with great aplomb, whilst others will benefit
more from Meisner’s methods. These tools
need to be used with caution, however. Ultimately, using them should ultimately fill
you with more confidence in your abilities, rather than reduce you to being
cripplingly-insecure about whether you can act or not. This Is something that many of us will mentally
languish and lacerate ourselves with for years.
That horrible question of “Am I or will I ever be good enough to become
a successful actor?” will follow us around like a bad smell. Hopefully, training will help you answer that
question for yourself and hopefully that answer will be a resounding “Yes.” I state this with a caveat though – the best
actors are able to use their insecurities to make them work harder, or provide
a vulnerability to their performances.
As Al Pacino said in this talk, “You can’t let your skin get too thick.”
https://the-talks.com/interview/al-pacino/
Training can come in many forms. In this COVID era we appear to be in, there
are a number of great online acting classes and I would recommend that you check
out a few different options. Some of the
London based actor’s Facebook groups will have various online coaches promote
their services. Some offering great deals. A few that I have tried and recommend are “Acting
with Keira”, Studio Bianchini and Manuel Puro’s 21 Day Self Tape
Challenge. There are plenty of books you
can read as well and try out the methods with a friend and family member, “The Energetic
Performer” by Amanda Brennan is a great start, along with “The Complete Stanislavski
Toolkit” by Bella Martin and “A Screen Acting Workshop” by Mel Churcher. Some of the larger drama schools such as RADA
and RCSSD (Central) have online courses, but they are more on the expensive
side. Another choice you have to make
for you and for you alone is whether or not to go to drama school, which should
COVID be gone, you should be able to do in September of 2021. I myself did a full time Masters in Acting
for Screen at Central. Whilst I have no
doubt it made me a more rounded actor, it didn’t necessarily make me more
confident in my chance of success.
Now, at this point if you know you’re still in the game, you
should have hopefully figured out something else: what sort of roles are you suited
for? What is your casting? There are a few factors at play here, the
principle one being appearance. Without body
shaming, a more “cuddly” person is typically less likely to play a romantic
lead. There are exceptions to this –
Jack Black, Rebel Wilson and Adam Sandler have all done romantic comedies, but
there are very rarely going to be occasions when Jack Black and Zac Effron are
going head-to-head for the same role. On
the other hand, there are plenty of times when that teen heart throb is too
damn pretty to be an average Joe bin man.
The second most key factor in casting is your essence. When you as an actor walk into a casting
room, the casting director will consciously or subconsciously take note of your
baseline personality type before you even begin to act. If you’re usually a high energy, fidgety
person, this will mean that playing a high energy, fidgety person should theoretically
require you to consciously change your movements, speech pattern and vocal
resonance less than an actor whose baseline levels and rate of speech is of a
lower speed. The best actors in the
world can make the changes from their normal selves to their character selves
effortlessly. For some it is just a
matter of training and experience but for the vast majority that level of
brilliance may never appear. Use the
time spent training to play around, explore and see what roles you are
comfortable with. Given time you may be
able to push into roles you are less comfortable with, but at the beginning of
your career, “playing it safe” may be the most sensible option. If you were the class clown or have a jokey
personality in your day to day life, then prepare yourself for comedic roles more
than gritty period dramas until you feel comfortable with your range.
For a committed actor, training never truly stops, however
over time, we may dedicate less time to training itself, when experience can be
gained from acting work itself. However,
if you hace a comfortable baseline of training, you’re ready for step two.
Step Two: The Headshots
Not just a way to win Call of Duty, the Headshot is a well
composed portrait photograph of you. If
you’ve figured out what your casting is, you may know what style of headshot to
opt for, so when searching for a headshot photographer in your area, have a
look at their work, look for a photographer who will help promote your baseline
personality traits. Headshot sets typically
range between £80-200 depending on location, the experience of the photographer
and the standard of their equipment. If
you are London based, here are a few I have heard good things about:
Phil Sharp https://www.philsharp-photo.com/
Jennifer Evans http://jennifer-evans-photographer.com/
Matt Shelford https://www.shelfordheadshots.com/
Kim Hardy http://kimhardyheadshots.com/
Leigh Lothian https://www.leighlothianphotography.com/ 
Actors Portraits
London |
Faye Thomas https://www.fayethomas.co.uk/ Faye Thomas
Photography | Editorial Portrait & Headshot Photographer | London & LA
Faye Thomas is a Photographer specialising in Editorial Portraits and Headshots
of actors. Clients include: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sam Heughan, Hayley Atwell,
Jodie Comer, Maisie Williams, Emily Beecham, Tuppence Middleton, Michelle
Dockery, Bradley James, Lauren Cohan, Cressida Bonas. As a leading London &
UK Headshot Photographer Faye is recommended by agencies including Hamilton
Hodell ...
If you are based in the Ireland, I recommend either
D3rk Matter - https://www.d3rkmatter.com/
Or 36 Chambers Productions - https://www.36cps.com/
Step Three: The Show Reel
You’ve got your baseline level of training and headshots,
you can now go about creating your showreel.
I am going to write another post with more details about what makes a
showreel and why they are so important, but for now I will only be breaking down
what they are and how to get the footage.
A showreel, very simply is a collection of 3-4 clips which showcase an
actor’s appearance, ability and relevant castings, edited together to send to
casting directors, filmmakers and agents.
Models and photographers have portfolios to display their work, actors
have showreels. Ideally, no longer than
three minutes (often two is fine), a showreel should only have scenes in which
you share dialogue with other actors. A
monologue for one part of the reel will be fine with some agents and casting
directors, but many agents tend to prefer seeing how you receive lines as much
as you speak them. Once again, your training
should come into play so that you are not “acting”, you are “being” the
character you need to be.
Now as to where you
get these scenes, entirely depends on how much you value your money over your
time, or vice versa. You can trawl through
the various student film or unpaid short film listings you see in your local
film and media related Facebook groups for roles which you feel you would
suit. Then, if you’re lucky the filmmakers
involved will be willing to send you some of the script, or a dummy script for
you to prepare and perform for a self-tape.
Sometimes, unfortunately they will cast these roles purely on the
self-tape, which thereby defeats the purpose of contacting them in the first
place, but again, if you’re lucky you can get cast on the strength of your
self-tape, or if your headshot provides evidence that your appearance matches
up with the writer/director’s version of the character in their script. However, this can be an entirely inefficient way
to use your time – student film makers are just that – students. They are not professionals and can vary widely
in their competency and attitudes. Some will
strive for perfection, others probably should have just stayed in their bedroom
smoking weed and playing Fifa than bothering to even set up a tripod. I have been to student shoots where the students
have only brought one small SD card for an entire days shoot on a DSLR. I’ve been involved with other shoots where
the footage is that choppy, out of focus or badly recorded that the end product
is entirely unusable. On one occasion, I
let the students use my mother’s house to film the short, only for them to
knock a chunk of plaster out of the hallway wall with the dolly. On another, I never got the footage back
after waiting for months and months to receive it. Unpaid
shorts, whilst potentially having a more experienced crew involved might be
time consuming in other ways. The writer/director
might want to write a new scene and add it to the script, completely losing sight
of his original vision, the on which you came onboard for. I would say that you have to use your own
judgement to get what you want out of these situations and to know which projects
are worth getting on board for but having made a lot of errors in this regard
over the years (and some great decisions which led to paid work as well), I can’t
really give you any support in that field.
An alternative is that you create your own scenes. Nowadays, the cameras on mobile phones are arguably
as good as top of the range DSLR cameras were ten years ago. Tangerine proved that with a few
modifications, you could produce an award-winning feature on mobile phones five
years ago, it stands to reason that with some know how, a few tripods and the
right lighting, you and your friends could produce some showreel footage. This will obviously require some planning and preparation
if you want even half decent footage. You
will at the minimum need two other friends to help with this. One friend should be a fellow actor to act
with, the other to set up the camera, or cameras, light and direct the shots. As what you will be doing will be for
non-commercial reasons (even if showreels are designed to market you, they still
fall under not for profit), you can use existing scripts. I would tend to avoid incredibly well-known
scenes and I cannot stress enough that you create your own interpretation of
the scene. Figure out your own versions
of the characters, their backstories and how they relate to the scene and the
other characters involved. Nobody wants
to see you do an impersonation of a well-established actor. If you feel doing this impersonation can’t be
avoided, you can write your own scene, or have an experienced writer friend craft
you something.
If you value your time over your money, I’d recommend that
you pay for a showreel shooting service.
There are companies all over the UK and Ireland which will help you
write, find other actors, source locations then light, shoot and edit your
showreel scenes to a cinematic standard. They can vary in price, again depending on location,
quality of gear being used, experience of the team and supply and demand. At the minute, you are likely to get a very
good deal as COVID restrictions have put some of these teams in tight spots.
If you’re based in or around London, I would really
recommend the guys at www.self-tape.co.uk
I have appeared as an actor in a couple of their scenes,
working with very different actors. Their
direction, efficiency and approach is truly outstanding.
If you’re based in Ireland (in particular the North, but we
can discuss travelling), then I have to shamelessly plug my own company – 36 Chambers
Productions www.36cps.com
To sing our own praises, we are highly skilled filmmakers
with a 100% success rate of getting our customer’s agents. We are fast, efficient, but still find time
to ensure that the reel is tailor made for your wants and needs, going out of
our way to provide you with coaching, guidance, pre-shoot and post-shoot
customer care. If you wish to shoot your
reel in Belfast, we can even try and arrange accommodation for you.
Step Four: Hunting
If you’ve chosen to look for roles in unpaid student shorts,
you will already have done a little bit of hunting for roles. Low paid roles can be found on Facebook groups,
they can also be found on a number of the “pay to play” websites. The value which you derive from these
websites can be incredibly hit or miss, depending on a few factors. Time of year, location, supply and demand and
how much time you commit to applying for roles and sending in your showreel all
come into scope.
Based on my own experiences, I would list them in order of most
to least value as follows:
Barring a few exceptions, you will rarely see roles paid
more than 3-400 pounds on them and frequently a lot less. The “big money” is typically found on www.spotlight.com - arguably the original and best “actor’s
directory”, except to be found on Spotlight, you need to qualify.
“Spotlight is for professional performers, so to become
a member you need to have either formal drama training to graduate level, or
have had paid speaking roles in at least four professional productions (in
either television, film, short films on the BAFTA short film list, theatre or
character driven voice work)” - https://www.spotlight.com/help-and-faqs/getting-started-as-a-spotlight-member-faqs/
On top of this, having a Spotlight account can be relatively
fruitless without an agent actively submitting you for roles, or acting as a
middle-man between the casting director and yourself, so you would be wise to
look for an agent if you have completed the other steps. It takes a while to find a suitable agent and
just like the doubts of “whether I’m good enough to be an actor, or should I really
be pursuing this may creep into your mind”, you may have doubts as to whether or
not your agent has your best interests at heart. Sadly, not all agents are good ones and sometimes
even the bigger, more successful agents have ulterior motives for signing you
up. They may see you as a threat to the
success of another actor on their books and will take you on in order to stifle
your career before it even gets started.
You might also have an agent who is focused on other things in their
life – writing, alcoholism, or whatever.
Again, try your best to do your research before you write to any agents
at all. Approach each agent individually,
write personalized emails to them, address them by name, attach your best
headshots and your showreel. Have a
reason as to why those agents would be good for you. Some agents are old fashioned in that they will
not take e-mail submissions, you my have to have your headshot and cover letter
printed out, this inconvenience to provide a sieve to find who are likely to be
worthy additions to their rosters. There
will be things to negotiate – what will your agent represent you for? Stage, screen, commercials, modelling or all
of the above? Will they do voice over
representation as well? Will they
represent you in different territories?
Do they want 10% or 20% commission for each project? I have been told before that “an agent works
for you, not the other way around”, but have realistic expectations,
particularly at the start of your career.
An agent is under no obligation to take you on and you may be very lucky
to have a particular agent represent you.
With some agents you will need to stick with them a considerable amount
of time to see any results, jumping between agents can be more damaging to you
in the long term, so try not to do it too frequently. Building a healthy client relationship in the
long run is typically the way to go, but assess what you want carefully and once
again, use your own judgement as to what your expectations are. Lastly, remember that this is capitalism,
baby. If you’re not making your agent
any money, they will drop you like a bad cheque. Do your damn prep, bring you’re A-game and turn
up to every casting/submit every self-tape on time. Some of that last line may seem easier said
than done, but you are an actor. It is
your job.
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