"I Want To Study Acting In New York!":
How One Australian Aspiring Actor
Made It Happen

Australian aspiring actress Adriane Daff felt that what she needed was to study acting in New York. In this, part 2 of this interview she shares her story of how she was able to make her dream come true. In part 1 of this interview, she talks about how and when she first became interested in acting and why she thought it was necessary to go to New York to get additional acting training. Tony: Let’s get to the part where you decided to come to study acting in the U.S. How did that come about? Adriane: I’m not sure why, but I always wanted to come to New York, more than any place in the world. I didn’t want to go to study in England, which for an Australian probably would have been easier.

Tony: Why do you say that?

Adriane: Well, because it would have been easier for me to get a visa in London. But instead I started looking at New York, because I thought that if I were going to go somewhere and train, it might as well be somewhere I’ve always wanted to go.

Tony: How did you actually make it happen that you could leave your country and come to study acting in New York? I mean how did you get the money together for such a big trip? People reading this interview will want to know. Is your family supporting you? Did you save your money over time? How did you get the money together to be able to come here and study acting for 18 months?

Adriane: For me it has a lot to do with good planning. I decided to come to New York the first time in September of 2006 and I didn’t come here until July of 2007. I knew that the six-week intensive acting course was only held once per year, so when I decided in September I had had nine months to save up my money to be able to make it happen. I had to plan it to make it happen. If I had discovered the intensive the year before, I probably would have had to wait a year, because I would not have been able to afford to go right away.

Tony: So for you planning is key?

Adriane: Absolutely. I even knew how much I had to save every week to be able to have enough money to go.

Tony: So people who, like you, want to study acting in New York one day, they must really have to be creative when trying to make ends meet so that they can stay here, study and keep there dream alive.

Adriane: It’s interesting when you talk to other actors here in the city who are international and who are in similar situations, you see just how big of a network of people there are who are pretty much all in the same situations. They are doing all kinds of things to make ends meet and make money so that they can stay. People are waiting on tables and doing all kinds of little odd jobs.

I have to say that I didn’t expect that either.

Tony: What advice would you give someone from a country other than the U.S. who wants to come here to study acting?

Adriane: I would think about why you want to study acting in New York. Give yourself time and plan it out. In other words don’t decide to go and then think you have to go right away, like next month. Plan it out.

I also would not recommend trying to combine studying with travel. What I mean by that is, if you are going to come to the US to study acting I think that all of your attention and time should be on that…if you just want to come to see the Statue of Liberty and be a tourist it’s probably going to get in the way of your training! I  have seen too many other people fall short and fail because they are trying to see the world and do ‘a bit of school on the side’. I haven’t seen that work for people yet and I don’t know why someone would want to make it even more difficult for themselves than it already is!

Tony: Thank you for sharing your story with the visitors to ActingCareerStartUp.com.

Adriane: It was my pleasure.

End of part 2.

Read here about Adriane's classmate, an aspiring actor from Belgium and who is also studying acting in New York at the same school.

Here on ActingCareerStartUp.com, we have put together a guide for those who seriously want to study acting in New York or in any other US city..

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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