Beginning An Acting Career?
Here's What To Spend Your Money On First

Beginning An Acting Career:
Where To Spend Your Money First!

Interview with Acting Teacher Wendy Ward - Part 8

Advice For Someone Beginning An Acting Career:
What To Spend Your Money On

In part 7 of this exclusive interview , Wendy talks about the method she uses to teach acting; the Meisner technique.

Tony: You know what ActingCareerStartUp.com is all about and we’ve talked about the people who come and visit me here. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start an acting career. Let’s say you have a niece who says to you: “Aunt Wendy, I really want to become an actress. It’s my dream! Please help me get started.” What would you tell her?

Wendy: Well I think you might be a little surprised at some of my advice with regard to beginning an acting career. The first thing I would tell her would be: Save your money. We have a lot of kids who come to New York who think they need to have part-time restaurant jobs so that they can have a flexible schedule. You don’t need a flexible schedule until an agent is sending you out for auditions at least four or five times per week. What you do need is a good nest egg (savings) so that when it’s time for you to quit your job to pursue acting full-time, you’ll be able to manage that financially. I can’t tell you how many actors I see who can’t pursue the business of acting because making a living is getting in the way.

So save your money and spend it on training…wisely.

Tony: Can you please explain what you mean by ‘wisely’?

Wendy: Don’t expect to build good habits if you take short-term classes.  They are only good for information not for building a set of skills that will support you forever.  Take the steps in the right order. Let me give you an example of what I mean. I interviewed a girl yesterday who jumped right into an on-camera class, but who doesn’t really know much about acting. I told her that the camera magnifies every little detail of your acting. She told me that she realized that after she saw herself on camera. She went on to say that when she saw herself she felt really embarrassed.

I told her that the Meisner training will make her more believable and that maybe the right thing to do would be to become a strong actress first and then apply it to on-camera work second.  To me, that order makes more sense. Of course you learn things from doing them, but you gotta have something going on before you get in front of the Head of Casting for NBC.

Tony: Absolutely! I agree 100%!

Wendy: If you are going to be working in front of the camera there are definitely things you need to know about camera work.  And, there are actors who have experience, but they have to sort of wing it or improvise when they act because they don’t have a language. They don’t have a technique. They don’t have a way of approaching their work so that they feel confident each and every time they act.  Technique exists so you can eventually throw it away and have a developed instrument where you no longer have to think about what you’re doing.  You’re conditioned.  You’re in shape.

Tony: I’m really happy when I interview people like you who have so much experience, because I hear many of you saying the same types of things that I tell people as well who are beginning an acting career. That lets me know I’m on the right track.

Wendy: Well, you are definitely on the right track. You have terrific intuition about these kinds of things.

End of part 8. In part 9 of this exclusive interview with Ward Acting Studio founder Wendy Ward, she talks about one of her pet peeves, something that young, aspiring actors do, a big mistake they are making! Read it to see if you are making the same mistake!

Visit Wendy Ward at the official Ward Studio website.

 

Here are some other related pages you might find helpful:

Compare the Meisner acting technique with other acting techniques:

• Stella Adler
• Stanslavski
• Uta Hagen

Read here about my personal experience studying with Wendy Ward

23 Benefits of taking acting classes

Everything you need to know about acting classes.

ActingCareerStartUp.com Acting School Directory

About The Business Of Acting

8-Step Guide To Preparing Your Trip To New York To Study Acting

A Guide To Beginning an Acting Career

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What you’re doing is great Anthony. Whenever I read the things on your site, the interviews and even your book, I feel like if only everybody got to read this before they got started, they would be so much better off and everybody else (casting directors, agents, directors, etc.) would be so much better off too.
Personal Manager, Ingrid French

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Tony,
I want to say you changed my life. I want to be an actress so bad, but i began losing motivation when I couldn't figure out what to do. And then I found you! Thanks to you, I'm taking my first acting classes next month! Yippee!
Sara, Pasadena, CA

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Hi Tony
I would like to thank you for helping me with the monologue question I asked you. 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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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