Thread
I want to act
1. Find a decent acting school. Your local community college may have a couple of acting classes, but you'll do much better finding a dedicated school. It'll be pricey, but not extortionate. Plus, you'll have a better chance of learning from someone who actually makes a career of teaching acting, as opposed to someone who teaches acting to make a little $$$ in their spare time.
2. Study. Read a bunch of acting theory books - the Stanislavsky ABC series is pretty darn good if thats the approach you want to study. Acting is like eastern philosophy - it's a journey, not a destination; but a good knowledge of theory and a good teacher will best equip you for the journey.
3. Be prepared to suck. Be your own worst critic. Other actors will almost certainly tell you you're doing a great job when you suck, because it's an awkward thing to tell someone they're terrible. You'll improve eventually.
4. Be prepared to deal with frustration.
5. Get in decent physical shape. You'll need it more than you could ever expect going into things.
6. Do a good voice class. I can't stress this enough. The play I'm in requires me to croon a smooth 40's showtune, call a horserace over the screams of the other actors, and then scream at the top of my lungs for 5-6 minutes. I'm pretty goddamn resilient in that field, but after a couple of run throughs per night, my throat is pretty much stripped raw. I shudder to think what it would be like without training and adequate warm-up. You *can* damage your voice permanently if you don't know what you're doing. Think you'll be okay? Shout as loud as you possibly can for 25 minutes straight then try to have an ordinary conversation...
7. Once you've done the above, work up some monologues and go up for roles on open calls. Hope you get something. Pack a few theatrical productions under your belt before thinking about acting in TV or movies - they're invaluable training for working with other actors, crew, and directors. Pretty much every actor wants to be a movie star, and so getting hooked up with independant film is not too difficult. Somebody always knows somebody who's looking for someone. Hell, the school I went to had a huge noticeboard of want ads for actors in film. Contacts and experience will get you where you want to be, provided you're any good.
2. Study. Read a bunch of acting theory books - the Stanislavsky ABC series is pretty darn good if thats the approach you want to study. Acting is like eastern philosophy - it's a journey, not a destination; but a good knowledge of theory and a good teacher will best equip you for the journey.
3. Be prepared to suck. Be your own worst critic. Other actors will almost certainly tell you you're doing a great job when you suck, because it's an awkward thing to tell someone they're terrible. You'll improve eventually.
4. Be prepared to deal with frustration.
5. Get in decent physical shape. You'll need it more than you could ever expect going into things.
6. Do a good voice class. I can't stress this enough. The play I'm in requires me to croon a smooth 40's showtune, call a horserace over the screams of the other actors, and then scream at the top of my lungs for 5-6 minutes. I'm pretty goddamn resilient in that field, but after a couple of run throughs per night, my throat is pretty much stripped raw. I shudder to think what it would be like without training and adequate warm-up. You *can* damage your voice permanently if you don't know what you're doing. Think you'll be okay? Shout as loud as you possibly can for 25 minutes straight then try to have an ordinary conversation...
7. Once you've done the above, work up some monologues and go up for roles on open calls. Hope you get something. Pack a few theatrical productions under your belt before thinking about acting in TV or movies - they're invaluable training for working with other actors, crew, and directors. Pretty much every actor wants to be a movie star, and so getting hooked up with independant film is not too difficult. Somebody always knows somebody who's looking for someone. Hell, the school I went to had a huge noticeboard of want ads for actors in film. Contacts and experience will get you where you want to be, provided you're any good.
Sly Stallone started with porn. That's before he was built like a rock, too. And he can barely act. Right?
So my advice is this: Come up with a good name (Samurai DL is too cryptic for the porn crowd). Get tested often. And write a groundbreaking screenplay like Rocky in your spare time.
So my advice is this: Come up with a good name (Samurai DL is too cryptic for the porn crowd). Get tested often. And write a groundbreaking screenplay like Rocky in your spare time.
Start as a fluffer and work your way up (down?) to stardom.