Acting Career Advice
From
Actors Connection Owner, Lisa Gold

Acting Career Advice At Its Best! Lisa Gold (pictured left) is owner of Actors Connection, a networking and educational facility that teaches trained actors how to market themselves and provides opportunities for them to get their work seen by industry professionals. I sat down with Lisa not long ago to ask her share her vast industry knowledg and eperience in the way of acting career advice for the aspiring actor. Don't miss part one of this exclusive ActingCareerStartUp.com interview in which she address the issues surrounding starting an acting career.

Tony: So Lisa, what is another bit of acting career advice? For example what are the first things you would have people do who are starting an acting career?

Lisa: Well, after you start to understand what it will mean to start an acting career, you should start by clarifying your goals and what you want it to look like. Does it mean for example that you want to be up on stage or in front of the camera for the pure love and pleasure of moving your audience or expressing yourself? Do you intend to have this be a hobby? Do you want acting to be your only source of income? And by the way, you must separate your true desire to be an actor from what you think those top celebrity goodies are going to bring you.

Tony: Then what would you have the person do?

Lisa: After that I would have you do some research. Go to the library, the bookstore, Internet. Find good books on good acting. I would have you do that before you take any acting classes. Research the people in your area who are already doing what you want to do and ask them their opinion on who the best acting teachers are and what the best classes are, because you do need training. Without training you can probably book some job, sometime, somewhere, but working like that will not sustain an acting career.

Tony: I remember an acting forum I went to with a noted casting director that provided some great acting career advice that touched on how actors who get acting jobs sometimes are not able to hold on to them. Can you talk a little about that?

Lisa: The one thing that casting directors, agents, producers and directors like is to work with people who are prepared. They like to work with people who know their stuff and if you get that opportunity for some odd reason to work right away without a lot of background and history working at this career, if you are not prepared, that’s it! If you don’t know your craft, if you don’t know how it works on a set, if you don’t know what stage left from stage right is, if you don’t know up stage from down stage, if you don’t know the terminology, and technology, then you won’t go very far. Plumbers have to know what a monkey wrench is. Doctors have to know what a scalpel is. Obviously those are words that I know as a layman, but there are probably tons of tools of the trade in every other trade that I am not a master at and have no idea what they are. You have to learn the terminology. You have to start studying from the ground up.

Tony: Now you’re getting close to the basis for your famous phrase that I heard you say while you were giving acting career advice to a group of people at Actors Connection a few years ago.“There’s a reason why they call it showBUSINESS!”

Lisa: That’s right! The next step after the research of finding out where you’re going to invest your time, for example whether you will take classes or go with a personal coach, is also to take a look at yourself as a product. This is kind of going against the grain with respect to what a lot of traditional college and theatre training tells you. What they tell you is that you will succeed if you are really exceptional at what you do. I’m here to tell you that unfortunately that’s just not the case any more.

Yes you have to be a good and well-trained actor, but you also have to look at who you are as a product, like I said, in an over-saturated marketplace. Fifteen years ago there were only five to ten colleges that even had graduate programs in acting and performing arts. Now there are over fifty colleges that have grad programs. So if you have fifty colleges with grad programs, you probably have twice that many with undergrad programs. This means that colleges and universities are turning out really well-trained actors into a marketplace that doesn’t want them or need them. We have enough actors. So that means you now have to distinguish yourself from all those who have really good training; especially in a marketplace that doesn’t have a desire for new actors. How are you going to prove yourself against another really great actor? That comes in the marketing. Ask yourself, “What is my product and how can I market it?”

See the rest of this interview with Lisa Gold in which she gives more great acting career advice.

Visit www.actorsconnection.com to check out the many ways in which they can help actors further their careers.

For still more acting career advice, find what you are looking for right here on ActingCareerStartUp.com.

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Video Special Report!:



The Top 10 Reasons Why
Most Aspiring Actors Never Make It!

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Hi Tony
I would like to thank you for helping me with the monologue question I asked in October 2007. I went to the auditions for a Drama course and I am happy to say that I have been accepted as a first-year student at the Tshwane University of Technology. Please keep on sending me those newsletters and let me know where I can find books that will help me in my acting career. Thank you once more. Have a blessed day.
Sincerely
Edward Thaba -South Africa

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Hi,
I was wondering if there is anything established like actingstartup.com in the U.K. because you are amazing and I have learned loads...
Thank You.
Nadine., Newcastle, UK

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Dear Anthony,
Just wanted to thank you for bringing me in to [audition for the video], meet you and chat this Saturday. I was really excited to hear about your working on actingcareerstartup.com and even took a look at it today - it's awesome! You are very well-spoken, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and it shows through the work that you do! I hope our paths in the industry will cross again and really enjoyed meeting you. Thanks, again and best wishes with your very important work!
Warmly,
Gretchen, NY, NY

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Hey Tony, thanks for the info, yours by far is the most useful, I am 30 years old, and I myself always (secretly) wanted to be an actress, but I never knew where to begin, so thank you. You have given me hope!
Ana C., Tampa, FL

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Hi, I’m John.
You answered a question for me about two weeks ago about how to write my cover letters…I want you to know your advice was helpful. I got called in for a part as an extra in my first movie! It’s not big, but it’s my first one! Thanks for your help!
John, San Diego, CA