Acting Career Advice:
Interview with Personal Manager Ingrid French
Part 11

I asked Ingrid to kindly share some acting career advice with our visitors to this website. Part 10 of this interview was also dedicated to what a new actor should do to start his/her acting career. Make Sure You Have The Money To Pursue An Acting Career Tony: Anything other acting career advice you have with regard to auditions in general?

Ingrid: Yes! Let’s say that you have taken classes and you are ready to start submitting yourself for auditions or you have an agent or manager who will submit you. Auditions are during the day. One of the hardest things to make this a series career decision, you are either going to have to have a flexible day job so that you are available to audition or you will have to have a night job as a bartender or a job waiting on tables or a third shift job so that your days are free to audition.

The worst thing is that when you have training, you have someone who can send you out for auditions and then not be able to go on those auditions. I know so many agents and managers that if they start calling you to audition and you keep saying ‘no’ because you are not available, then after a while, those calls will become less and less. As an agent you want to submit people who are available and as an actor, you want to work together with people who can send you out only if you are available and you can get out of what you are doing during the day.

Be Patient & Enjoy The Process

Ingrid: One other thing I would like to say is to enjoy the process. For some people the most important thing is achieving the goal of being a working actor, being famous, doing a successful feature film. If you don’t enjoy doing the work, going to auditions, doing the research and studying for the scenes you’re going to be doing, then you’re not going to enjoy it. Even a working actor who gets to the place where he doesn’t have to audition anymore, you still need people on your team, you still have to work at it day to day, that makes it almost necessary that you enjoy and appreciate the process. This is one of those instances where, if you want it more than anything and knowing that it is extremely difficult and that if you put everything into it that you have, that there is still no guarantee that you will be successful. But if you are not 100% committed then there is just no chance that you will be successful.

Always Be Ready

Ingrid: Another piece of acting career advice I can give you is to always have a headshot and résumé even when you go to an audition. I always tell my actors that when I send them to an audition. You should do that even if your manager or agent or the casting office doesn’t tell you to. You never know who you will run into during the day and who might ask for it.

Dress The Part

Always dress appropriately for the role for which you are auditioning. If you are going in to audition for a role as a blue-collar worker, then wear jeans, work boots and a flannel shirt for example. If you are auditioning for the role of an office worker, then wear what an office worker would wear. It’s always good to look as much like the role for which you are auditioning as possible. Sometimes the actors who get the part are the ones who during the audition had the right look, then during the call back they look closer to the detail of the acting. It really all depends, but it’s always good to look the part.

End of part 11

In part 12 of this interview with Ingrid French, she talks about what agents and personal managers look for when they receive an actor's professional resume.

There's more acting career advice on this site.

Here are some books written by people who have been in the industry for years that have some great acting career advice for you:

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