FOCUS ON THE TOOLBELT NOT THE RESUME

Actors looking for a competitive edge over others will often look for “resume builders”. They will take a month with a coach recognized as a top coach, they may even take a casting director workshop so they can add those names to their resume, they may take a weekend special skills workshop to create the illusion of a diversified skill set. While many of these teachers are amazing in what they do, if you don’t give them an opportunity to give you a new skill set you are throwing money away for the ability to say you’ve met these people. There is an enormous difference in working with an acting coach for four weeks and committing to several months.

My advice? Don’t take a class or a workshop just to add it to your resume. Worry less about what names and training a on your resume and focus entirely on what skills you can add to your toolbelt. Training once a week for four weeks is often available, but this is almost never enough time for you to learn a skill that you can apply to your craft. You may be able to understand what the skill is, but you can’t consider it a tool for your toolbelt until it is something you can routinely apply with little thought and without hesitation.

YOU ARE A MIRROR

Being an actor is a unique opportunity to be a reflection of how your moment in time sees yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

We are a reflection for today’s world and the stories we tell offer a deeper look into who we are as a society, who we’ve been, and who we may become.

My favourite stories aren’t the ones that tell me what to think, they are the stories that simply remind me to think.

I love stories that include or end with more questions than answers.

There was a television series, House, starring one of my all-time favourite actors, Hugh Laurie, where this occurred in an incredible way at the end of each episode. They would often tackle complex ideas or moral dilemmas and then not end the episode with the “right” answer, but instead would leave it up to the viewers to reflect on what they had just experienced and decide for themselves.

IT’S OKAY TO QUIT

I quit often. This is a tough industry and sometimes I crave a life without so much rejection, a life without as many authentic feelings spilling everywhere, a life without as much self-assessment. I have an inner brat too. And sometimes he can be very convincing.

But what I have found in my thirty plus years as a professional actor is that I can never quit for long. I am always pulled back into the industry I have grown to know as my calling. Not unlike the “thug life”, the actor life isn’t something you always choose. Often, the actor’s life chooses you.

It’s okay to quit. If this is the life you are meant to live? You will never quit for very long.