Charisma!

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that an aspiring actor needs considerable charisma--that mysterious charm and magnetism that audiences recognize in the actor and makes them identify with them. Charisma means that the audience members fall in love with the actor, at least to the point of being charmed by the actor and admiring him or her. Actors need to be attractive to audiences if they are going to succeed to any extent. Audiences want their actors to have qualities that they lack. They want to see happiness and success in actors. They want personality--charm and wit and sparkle, sexual energy, and attractiveness. This does not have to be physical beauty, it could be power, wealth, social position or self assurance.

So what does the aspiring actor have to do to achieve charisma? They can practice being suave. They can learn social graces and practice manners and tact. They also need to practice performing with energy in their demeanor and in their responses--vocal and physical. And they need to learn to love the camera. Whenever they audition, they need to be thrilled to be there, and they need to exude the charm of every character they read for. They need to have the kind of charm like when someone walk into a room, and everyone stops what they are doing and watches them, because they exude the charisma of a James Bond or a Clint Eastwood or a Meryl Streep. Aspiring actors need to work on it. And I suggest the aspiring actor takes plenty of time, doesn't rush, relaxes and that they REACT! Remember James Cagney's advice, "...look the other guy in they eye and speak the truth."

Additionally, you cannot act if you are carrying baggage from home into the scene room. You must have no problems at class, in rehearsal or in performance, You have left all of that home or certainly outside the performance space. You create charisma by enjoying what you do. It shows in your energy and charm, your relaxed and happy demeanor of loving being there and having no other care in the world.

Otherwise, the only prep you need to do is to create the physical character and learn the lines. Then don't think when you act, just listen and react. There is no half way to knowing your lines, you either know them or you don't. It is the actor's responsibility to know his lines. It is impossible to act without having the lines down to perfection. Knowing your lines frees your mind to receive the stimuli of the scene and to respond honestly, fully and without inhibition. It relaxes you the same way that meditation or yoga relaxes many actors. Being relaxed clears your mind for being charming and frees the body to respond with energy. There is no room in an actor's read for anything but the scene. That is why Mamet includes leaving home at home and the theatre at the theatre in his list in True and False of behavioral traits that actors must have. Actors who have charisma are not preoccupied by anything. They can concentrate on the task at hand.

To do your very best in your audition, your performance and in your career, you need to develop strong charisma. It is the undefinable quality that makes an actor a star!

How to Be A Successful Actor, Part Two

here are some details on the list from the last post

1. If you hang around successful people they can tell you how they succeeded. Losers can only complain that they are not succeeding.

2. Having a mentor to show you the ropes is the most important thing you can have to help you succeed.

3. If you are going to be an actor, act. If not professionally, then semi-professionally or even in amateur theatre.

4. Don't rely on old techniques. Learn the latest approaches to acting and auditioning.

5. You should always be in a class for networking, learning new approaches and staying sharp. A private tutor can really improve your acting. Even successful movie stars have them.

6. In order to succeed you need to be energetic. Energy is the key ingredient in charisma. A charming personality is necessary for success.

7. You can never hope to succeed if you don't have a strong basis of experience, training and networking. You need a strong resume and good reputation in the industry to get an agent and get ahead.

8. I wrote elsewhere in this blog about not listening to what 'people' say because for the most part 'they' will be wrong. Listen to successful people, your mentor and your tutors.

9. If what you are currently doing is not getting you ahead in the business, then change and try something new. The definition of insanity (and Democrats-sorry, couldn't resist it) is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

10. If you fail, it is your fault. Perhaps your lack of talent. Perhaps your not following these precepts. Perhaps something else you have neglected. But it is not the agent's fault, not the CD's fault, or anyone else's fault but yours. You have the power to do the right thing or not. You have to ask yourself, Are you doing what you need to do to be a success? What are doing this week that will move you ahead in the business?

Tips for Success as an Actor

Why do some actors succeed and others fail?

1, Those who succeed associate with successful people.

2. Those who succeed have a mentor.

3. Those who succeed are always acting.

4. Those who succeed study the latest acting techniques.

5, Those who succeed are always in classes or private tutoring.

6. Those who succeed are energetic personalities.

7. Those who succeed have a strong basis for their career.

8. Those who succeed do not follow what 'they' say.

9. Those who succeed keep trying new approaches.

10, Those who succeed accept responsibility for their success.

Idealism, Mythology and Profesional Actng

One of the things that has impressed me over the past couple of years is how important young people seem to think their idealism about acting is. They often write how they want to change the world through their acting, or that they want to serve as a role model through their acting, or some such noble goal.

I know when I was a young student and later when I was a young professor how I would do my best to uphold the high ideals of theatre and acting. I unashamedly have published on my web site my most well-known lecture, "Theatre, Religion, and Football," in which I emphasize the long standing cultural need for and the historical honored position of theatre in our society. I am pleased that theatre is still an important part of the cultural scene of our cities. But along the way, the high idealism that believes someone is going to make a difference by their acting has been replaced by a cynical reality check about acting as a profession.

It is not just that it is nearly impossible to become a professional actor in the first place, it is also the crass commercialism that has turned what used to be a great art form into a huge business venture. The mythology of acting being some high status artistic endeavor long has been replaced by the lust for fame and fortune. The successful actor still acts because he is compelled to act, and money is not the object so much as is the acting itself. Indeed, the high minded actor will act for nothing if that is the only way he can act. And there remains still among New York stage actors the feeling that they are artists and that Hollywood film actors are prostitutes selling themselves for money. When I first got involved in professional film acting years ago, I can remember one of my former students being aghast at the fact that I had deserted the idealism of the theatre for motion pictures. Of course, I had not deserted the theatre and strove to maintain its idealism. It was, however, a lost cause amongst the financial realities of the bureaucratic structure of academia. The mythology of the Ivory Tower of knowledge, learning and culture in our universities has been replaced by the grim realities of FTE and state funding formulae, not to mention political indoctrination.

It must be a blow to the idealistic, liberal minded young person to discover that being an actor is as much of a business as being a banker. Indeed, it takes a bit of scratch to get your itch to become an actor satisfied. It takes money to get started and it takes money to keep going. I guess I should have listed under preparations that the aspiring actor needs to know is how to earn a living before trying to become an actor as that is the very first thing one must do—support himself and his acting habit. There are books to be ordered to give the candidate for acting success the informational preparation he needs. There are head shots, business cards, the printing of resumes, personal post cards, and even creating a personal actor’s letterhead stationary for correspondence is something the actor needs to pay for. Management software such as Performer Track and web sites for audition information and casting opportunities to subscribe to add to the financial investment of one’s acting business. Then there are acting classes and union initiation fees and monthly dues to pay when that level of success is reached. It totals up to a pretty substantial amount. Whatever happened to the actor as an artist?

The professional world of acting is far removed from the ideals of they young artist. Those ideals are only part of the mythology of acting, like Thespis and Demeter.

They are mostly lost among professional acting, but they are not entirely gone from society. While the commercialism of professional acting forces the artist to be a businessman, the freedom of amateur and semi-professional acting still allows acting to be pursued as an art. Thus, we have an active indie film industry and many film festivals for the work of artists to be displayed. We even have a few, small stage theatres whose work is geared toward art rather than money. They are to be applauded.

They cannot possibly survive without income, of course, but the fact that there are people who will choose art over money will continue the mythology for the world of acting.

In the final analysis, what acting most needs are successful actors who will then serve the art by nurturing budding attempts at creating, preserving and expanding theatre, cinema and acting beyond the commercial toward the pinnacle of art.

WhatAbout Script Analyis?

Here are some questions and answers about script analysis that I recently had with a correspondent. My comments are in bold.

In your e-book,("The Tao of Acting") you say you're not in favour of script analysis. Exactly so. I also find this very difficult for me to do. I've been taking acting classes for almost a year now, and I feel I haven't improved much since I started.That is probably due to your doing too much writing and not enough acting in those classes.

How should an actor prepare for a scene, like getting into character, if he should not create an imaginary biography of the character, or imagine what happened before the scene starts? If you have read the play, you have all the character info and back story you need. If the playwright thought you needed more, he would have given you more. (historical characters excepted as the playwright may think the actor already knows the character and his circumstances when the actor may be unaware of them. Then a bit of historical research may be in order, but otherwise analysis is not needed.) The actor reads the scene or the play, whichever he is given, understands what is going on and what the character is about, then the actor assumes the physical character, and reacts to the stimuli of the scene moment by moment.

Isn't sub-text beneficial to the actor because it helps the actor be, or get in touch with the character? I think sub text is a crock. The lines ARE the emotional response to the stimuli, they don't need sub text, they need to be spoken to communicate their meaning. Sub text is "acting" and therefore artificial and we want our performances more real. Also sub text is dangerous because the actor may speak the sub text rather than the lines and confuse his scene partner. I saw a famous actress do a scene at The Actors Studio, years ago, and she felt the scene was not working so she ad libbed a sub text line not in the script. Then she blamed her scene partner for the weakness of the scene. I thought all of that was BS. And now I know that Method acting is BS. As one of my students, now a professional actor, said about script analysis, "Just do the scene." I agree, if you want to be a student of what is in a script, analyze it. If you want to be an actor, "Just do it."

Why people fail to become successful actors

I probably have addressed this somewhere before, but it is a question much on people's minds at present. Many want to know if they have a chance to succeed as actors, and many would become actors, but.... There are many reasons why people fail. In my book, The Tao of Acting, I list personality traits that actors must have for success. These are taken from True and False by David Mamet. And then my book contains a list of professional habits based on Miriam Franklin's book, Rehearsal. Failure to live up to any of these personality traits or professional habits can cause an actor to fail. I recently saw an interview with a Los Angeles acting teacher, who said "The only people who succeed as actors are those who have to be actors." This is something I have been telling people for years. If you can be happy doing anything else in life, you probably will not succeed as an actor.

If you wonder if you have a chance to succeed or wonder if acting is what you should try to do, you will fail. Those who have to be actors do not wonder or even care much about those things. They just go out an be actors because they must do that. If you have any reason why you may fail-- lack of money, where you live, race, religion, or anything else -- or if you give reasons why you failed in the past and have not accepted them as your shortcomings and corrected those reasons, you will fail. Many actors illustrate the definition of insanity: they keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

Acting is not just a career choice, it is a life style choice. It involves a great deal of self motivation, sacrifice and continued effort. If you are not a good self starter, if you cannot live without the common comforts and conveniences and/or if you cannot doggedly stay with your desire to be an actor in spite of everything, then you will most likely fail. For an actor, success is not fame and fortune, success is having been able to be an actor as much as possible during his lifetime.

Lastly, Tony Smith, on his Acting Career Start Up web site, today posted an article and videos, revealing what he calls the secret of achieving success as an actor. That secret is another thing that I have been telling people for years: have a mentor. If you blindly try to become an actor on your own without guidance from someone who knows the ropes, who has been there and done that and who is really willing to help, your chances for success are diminished. I should not have to point out that finding someone willing to help you and then ignoring their advice not only is rude,but also is a way to fail.

To be a success, you must be positive, and be willing to do what is needed to be done. You must listen to experience and learn from and correct your mistakes. You must be a successful personality and not associate with losers. And you must have a mentor willing to help. I not only am willing to help, I am probably the only mentor who does not charge anything for his help and/or who is not trying to sell you anything. Above all, however, you must have to be an actor.

PS. One of my advisees in LA just sent this regarding the topic of why people fail to become actors: "Most people want instantaneous gratification - as most society and acting does not yield itself to instant gratification. Many don't have the personality - it is sales, it is marketing, it is communicating, it is networking, it is planning. You have to be very smart and savvy. You have to spend the money to make money - a good head shot is priceless- yet many get photos from amateurs and it shows. If someone wants to have no vacations (how can you vacation if you are trying to make it?), no love life, no family life (or minimum at least), no partying (if you get an audition the next day you can't be indulging and that can happen in an instance). (I truly believe you should not date or be in a relationship if you want to be an actor- too much energy) It is almost like living like a monk. To stay focused and not get discouraged - wow! Only for the thick skinned and those who are tenacious. It takes total dedication - and perseverance - and a long shot. It is like gambling - yet if you get that role you hit the jack pot. Yet - if you do it right and make the right connections and are likable - I believe it can happen. It really depends on the person and how much they believe and want it. They need to never give up - I guess you need to be insane! You have to love it - whether it gives results or not. Even if you are not an "a" list or "b" list actor = you just have to be happy that you are trying and living the dream so many are afraid to go for. The ride to get there - to being a working actor - is more fun that when you get to the top of the mountain. Then you have to say - what next?! It is not meant for the majority - that is why so many leave. They don't understand that it is a lifestyle and one that many won't accept and understand. You need to say "good-bye" to those who don't believe in you - as you can't have any negativity. It is self centered and the person has to be extremely egocentric. I guess I am not painting a very nice picture - yet I would not give it up for the world. This is the happiest I have been in years."

Cost, Warnings and Preparations for Being an Actor

What has become more and more apparent to me over the last year is that going into the business of acting requires many kinds of investments that I write about on my newest web site sub page, Your Investment in Acting. Acting is not an art that you just start doing and people give you money. Acting is a hard-nosed business that takes a sizable monetary investment for you even to compete and to make progress. Then the investments in time, effort and preparation are in addition to that. Acting is not something to be entered into unadvisedly and without proper preparation, which includes lots of acting experience as well as some formal training.

Almost all of the kids on Yahoo Answers are looking for a quick and easy way to become the people they see on the TV and movie screen. They don't have the foggiest notion that what they see on those screens is not at all what acting is all about. Thus the scammers take over, selling them the promise of quick stardom, even if they have no talent. And there is practically no one out there that will tell them if they have no talent. A large number of the population do not even believe that it takes talent to be an actor. Every aspiring actor should question every organization they are thinking of doing business with and try to be assured that the business is not a scam.

When I first began advising on Yahoo Answers and All Experts, and I wrote my book, The Tao of Acting. I always listed for those who asked for them the steps in becoming an actor. One important step was that the aspirant needed to get a mentor. As I have moved away from belief that there are a set series of steps in becoming an actor, I have kept the belief that the aspiring actor needs a mentor as described in my book. The actor needs to do many things all at once: build a resume, network, earn a living, and on and on. And of course success comes to each actor in a little different way. Some are thought to have a lucky break, but luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Networking is making opportunities for yourself. If you want to be an actor you cannot ever stop working on it. It is a life style and there is no vacation from that.