So You Wanna Be A Famous Actor, Eh?

"You Wanna Be A Famous Actor?": Here are some lessons from my past

Some years ago when I played American football in college, we were on the practice field at the end of August right when the new school year started. It was hot and we sweated our butts off! To get to the practice field we had to walk across campus and our college mates were out playing Frisbee. The girls were laying out in the sun. The guys were drinking beer and laughing and having a good time. And what were we doing? We were going to put on our equipment in 95° heat and go out and practice for three hours. You can imagine that in that kind of heat, practice was hard. Sometimes we wanted to rest or get a drink of water, but we couldn’t. Our coach saw that we were tired and wanted to rest and it was always at those moments in the middle of practice when he would call us all in, tell us to take our helmets off and “take a knee”. He used to tell us a lot of things during those little speeches of his. One thing that he always used to tell us was, “Men, when it’s too hot for the other teams, it will be just right for us.” Something else that he used to tell us was, “Men, if you’re out here practicing in this menacing heat, you gotta love it.”

You Wanna Be A Famous Actor?: Ya Gotta Love It!

First and foremost you gotta love acting or singing or whatever you want to do. If the reason you are doing it is to become famous, then I would strongly advise you to seek out some other field. I know that this and the other answers you received might be difficult to digest, but it’s all good advice. Your first priority as an actor, should be to learn the craft and try to be as good as you can be.

Another time, when I was in college in my sophomore year, I was trying to decide what to major in. What I really loved was languages, but I thought that I should really major in business administration, because that’s where the money would be, but I didn't like it enough to make it my major. I talked to a professor in whom I could confide and told him that I was undecided. He told me to do first and foremost what I was most passionate about and be as good at it as I possibly can at it. He told me that if I did that, then the money would come and fame too, if that’s what you want.. He said that one day I would be thankful that I chose to do something that I really love to do. And you know what? He was right. It's important to know what it really means to be a working actor. Maybe you already know. I don't have much information about you other than what you wrote.

So You Say You Wanna Be A Famous Actor, huh? Think about some of the issues that actors face before they even get close to working as an actor:

*New to show business and just seem to be wallowing around to find out what you should be doing to get started in the right way!
*Not being sent out on many auditions.
*Rarely getting called back.
*No agent and not sure how to get one.
*Not many industry contacts and can’t seem to meet that industry professional I would really like to meet.
*Difficult to balance work and the demands of an acting career.
*Able to book jobs, but not always able to keep them and don't know why.
*Sending out materials—audition tapes, headshots, and résumés—but not getting the types of responses you would like or none at all!
*Don’t have the money to take classes, so just taking a workshop every now and again instead of going to a school or regular classes. It’s been the situation for months. Maybe even years.
*Having difficulty getting off work for auditions, because the boss doesn’t support employees' acting careers!
*Difficult to prepare well for auditions, because of work. Either too tired or just not enough time in the day to work on your acting career!
*Have to work at a club or restaurant or in a job they don't like until the wee hours of the morning and end up going into auditions looking and feeling like a zombie.
*Having to work at a job that robs them of valuable time they could be using to spend on developing their acting career, auditioning or something else. *Don't have the cash to make a show-reel or audition tape, get headshots.
*Not sure how to choose a headshot photographer!
*"Don't know how on earth it's possible to make a résumé, if I don’t have anything to put on it! How on earth can I start an acting career!"

You Wanna Be A Famous Actor, But This Is The Reality

There are certainly more of these issues, but this my friend is the reality. I certainly don't want to rain on your parade, but rather to help you understand that you need in my opinion four things that will help you get started so that one day you will have a good chance of getting work as an actor and then MAYBE get to be famous. Knowing that many, many, many young actors and even older ones have the same issues and hearing about them over and over again, and knowing that I had the same issues not long ago, I decided to create a resource for this same group of people. It takes you through four critical and crucial steps that I consistently see actors overlook and skip, because they’re too impatient and want to jump in right away instead of first creating the base. For actors who think they have their priorities in order, but believe that the real goal is something other than to be a brilliant actor, to be the best actor they can be. I say all this to let you know, something that you already know which is that there will be a lot of things to do before you get there. You will need clarity of what you really want and for you, why being famous is so important to you, motivation, determination, thick skin, a method of planning, business skills and you will need to see how these things can actually bring success when you interact and hear the stories of other actors, working actors. Click on this link below and take the actor quiz. It will help you to see some of the things you know or that you need to know about your up-coming acting career: The Actor Quiz.

You Really Wanna Be A Famous Actor? Think About Going To Class First!

After all this, you need to study, study, study. I would advise you to get information about the different techniques that there are and then choose one. Here is some other information that can help you in choosing classes and schools and to learn more about the different techniques there are: Choosing an acting school

More Possibilities

One last thing. Don’t disregard all the other types of acting possibilities there are:
Film, television, theater are the obvious ones. There is also hosting, industrials, commercials, commercial print, student films, independent films, spokesperson. They can help you to get your feet wet and help you get started. Community theater, extra work, student films and commercial print work can all help you to get your feet wet, while you’re studying.

I hope this gives you some insight and I hope to have made you think. Unless you get lucky, becoming famous can be several years out, if it ever happens at all. Statistics say that it probably won't. If you are an exceptional person, then you can make it happen, but will come with a price and sacrifice.

One Last Lesson For He Who Wants To Be A Famous Actor

One last little lesson I learned that I would like to share with you. When I first started acting, my teacher told me that it was probably my football and military training that taught me that I had to strive for the goal and that I achieve my goal, when I reach my objective. She told me that acting is not like that at all. She told me that it is not about “nailing” a scene, but rather about living each and every moment of the scene. That’s what makes it more real. We have to be “in the moment”. It’s not about the final destination of becoming famous. It’s about doing something you really love and enjoying your development and your experiences along the way.

Study, learn, be the best actor that you can be and enjoy it; each and every moment of it. If you become famous, I’ll be happy for you. If you don’t, be happy for yourself that you did something that you really loved and enjoyed. If you don't think you can do that, then you might want to think again about what it is you really want.

If you really wanna be a famous actor, you need to do a lot of work first.

Best of luck!

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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