A quick guide to getting started as an actor in the UK

Hi guys, two things have happened today: firstly, I have been offered a part in a feature film which will require a few days of filming over the course of March and I have accepted it. Secondly, I have been forwarded this article entitled Drama school graduates ‘not being made aware of industry reality’ on Facebook (cue palm to forehead, no shit Sherlock, duh). Since I have already blogged on the modeling industry earlier this year,  here is a simple step-by-step guide to how to become an actor - please note that I am talking about the UK where I live, things may be different for you in the country where you live so it's always best to double check with a working actor in your country to be sure.

Do you have a yearning desire to perform?

Step 1: Are you talented? (And be honest.)

What is your talent? Can you sing, dance, act, speak foreign languages, do a range of accents, can you tell jokes, juggle, do stunts or anything extraordinary that can get you paid work? If you are not really talented, then no, don't go down this path. Sure there are a few surprisingly untalented people who manage to carve themselves a career in showbiz, but trust me, they are in the minority and the odds are stacked against you if, by your own admission, you can't identify your special talent. But if you can identify your talent, then move on to step 2.

Step 2: Do you need more training?

What is the purpose of training for actors? It is to get a professional body to certify that your talent is genuine. Training could be anything from a 4-hour course to a 4-year extended degree programme. But this is where a lot of people go very wrong - if you have no talent to begin with, no drama school in the world can give you that talent. They can only work on what you already have, Gosh, the number of delusional talentless kids who convince their parents to part with their hard earned money to send them to expensive drama schools - it is criminal of such schools to accept such talentless kids knowing jolly well they are unable to give them the talent they need to succeed. These parents need to get their children to prove themselves before handing over the fees, say something like, "before we agree that you can go to drama school, you need to show me you can get paid work as an actor, then I'll agree to pay for your training. Otherwise, you'll get a proper job and forget this acting thingy," It is a huge investment of time and money for both parent and child - so surely you need to be sure this is a right decision before going ahead with it.

Any kind of drama school training is bound to be expensive.

Am I being unfair? No, I don't think so. You cannot compare acting to say dentistry - one cannot expect an aspiring dentist to be able to carry out root canal treatment on a patient before s/he has completed a degree in dentistry and had been given the correct instruction to do so. The university will make sure that they will only allow students who have proven sufficient knowledge of the tasks to pass the course and go on to practice as qualified dentists. Acting however, is completely different - you need some talent to begin with if you want to be successful in this industry. Any kind of training can only help you make the most of what talent you have, but you must have that talent to begin with. Reality check here, please. They are teachers, not magicians - so don't expect miracles.

One important purpose of training is to convince casting directors and agents to give you a chance even if you have not had any experience - it is a piece of paper to demonstrate your potential to perform. It is important for those who are just starting out, far less important for those who have already proven that they already have what it takes to get quality paid work. So yes, there are actors (who are skilled enough to get paid work in their area of expertise) who do bypass the whole drama school process altogether as long as they have found way to get paid work without the training. Going to drama school is hardly going to make or break your career if you are genuinely talented.

Going to drama school really isn't that important at the end of the day.

Step 3: Speak to someone already working in the industry

I can't stress this enough. So many young people do not understand what it is like to work in this industry as an actor - they are seduced by the glamorous images of their favourite actors on the red carpet and they aspire to be like Hugh Grant, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Scarlett Johansson. The reality is that most actors will never reach that level of fame and success but some actually of the better ones do manage to make a living from it and they are incredibly happy doing something they enjoy immensely for a living. Speak to someone like that, ask them for advice and help and listen to them. Then speak to another working actor, speak to as many as possible, learn about the industry from them. You can learn so much from working actors, listen to their stories, do not repeat the mistakes they have made.  If they tell you that you should not go into this industry, then you'll be a fool to ignore their advice.

Step 4: Get a good agent.

This is the next vital step - here's how it works: an agent finds work for the actor and in exchange the agent takes a cut of between 10% to 20% of the actor's earning. When the actor doesn't work, the agent doesn't earn - so both parties need to work together to ensure that the actor does get work. A good agent will have excellent connections with casting directors and production companies and will be able to use these connections to get you those vital auditions you need. As a newbie in the industry, you won't have those connections and without a good agent helping you out, you won't be able to get your foot in the door in this industry. How do you get a good agent then? Be very careful, this is not when you turn to Google as there are a lot of dodgy agents out there who will ask desperate actors for money up front and get you little or no work. Be warned that for every one good agent out there, there are probably five dodgy ones. Always check the contract you're offered. How do you get a good agent then? Simple, I refer you to step 3: speak to a successful actor who is happy with his/her agent. Ask them if they would recommend their agent and if so, could they initiate the introduction. If you can't get a good agent, then it's a sign that you're not good enough for this industry - go do something else instead. You simply can't survive in this industry without a very good agent.

Make sure you have a good agent - check the contract you are offered.

Step 5: Get on the right databases and unions

This will vary from country to country - please bear in mind that I am specifically talking about the UK here. All actors will need to join Equity - the actors' union. Equity will only accept actors who meet certain criteria in terms of the amount of training they've had and the amount of professional paid work they have managed to get - they will say no to applicants who have not met their joining criteria as this is a union for professionals, not amateurs. The process works like this: most professional casting directors will not consider using non-Equity actors and Equity will not accept actors who have not had professional work. It's a process designed to keep outsiders and newcomers out of the industry.

Once you are on Equity, then you need to get on Spotlight, which is the database for all professional actors in the UK and it is also the first place most casting directors will turn to when they are looking for talent. The Spotlight database enables casting directors to do a targeted search for the precise kind of talent they need: so for example, if they are after a female, height 180 to 185 cm, weight 75 to 80 kgs, playing age 46 to 50, of black African ethnicity, with short black hair, speaks French fluently, can play the piano, has experience with physical theatre and modern dance and can drive a car (to play the lead in a movie), then the Spotlight search machine can narrow down the search to only the actors who fit all of those characteristics. It is an extremely efficient search engine and Spotlight will only accept Equity members (who in turn will only accept actors who have had professional experience) and most casting directors will use the Spotlight search engine when casting - so if you're not in the system, it is very hard to break into the system!

It is necessary to understand the casting process.

Be warned that there are a lot of crap websites out there who try to con you into thinking that you can exist outside the system. They try to tell you, "Forget paying for your Equity membership and the £216 fee that Spotlight will charge you - try our crappy website instead, we're a lot cheaper than Equity and Spotlight and you can still get work." Well, the only bit that is true in that statement is that they are cheaper than Equity and Spotlight, but you will remain outside the system and only get poorly paid or unpaid work from student film makers and other amateurs. If you are unable to meet Equity's basic membership requirements, then again, that's a sign that you should not be pursuing this.

Step 6: Make yourself available all the time.

This is actually really quite hard - what will happen next is that your agent will get you auditions, often at short notice. And they will call you and say, "hey, I have a casting for you tomorrow for this feature film at 2 pm at this studio in Soho - I am going to email you the details now." You cannot then say, "oh no, I have to be at work tomorrow at 2 pm, I'm sorry, can we do this next week? I'm more free then." Within reason, the agent can probably move your casting by about an hour or two, say if you can't make 2 pm, they may be able to see you at 12 noon or 3:30 pm - but you cannot say, "can we do it on Friday evening instead?" No way, it does NOT work like that. You see the casting director when they are free to see you, not the other way around - not unless you're some super famous star, which you're not.

Most actors will do some kind of part time work to sustain themselves financially in their 'down time' and the common feature of this 'down time' work is that it is flexible, usually something they can do from home. The smarter actors know how to get their hands on part time work that is reasonably well paid whilst they keep themselves available for auditions: such examples of well paid part time work include graphic design, database management, private tuition, personal trainer, aromatherapy, interpreting/translating and personal shopper. Some actors are reduced to jobs like waiter, shop assistant and other service related roles because they do not have any special skills that enable them to get more highly paid flexible work. Yes there are sacrifices you will have to make to keep yourself available for auditions and you must be prepared to make those sacrifices if you want to go down this road. Again, if you're not prepared to make this great sacrifice, then cut your loses - please go do something else instead.

Step 7: Avoid the training trap.

Oh this is the part that so many actors just don't bloody get because they are such arty-farty types who do not have the most basic grasp of how the business world works. This is why I am so glad I worked several years in the corporate world before entering showbiz because it gave me a very pragmatic understanding of the sales and marketing process. So listen carefully to the next part because I am offering you some extremely valuable advice for free.

Avoid the training trap!

It really doesn't matter how incredibly talented you are - there is no kind teacher or uncle who is going to reward you for your talent. It doesn't matter even if you are the most talented actor around, what matters is how you market yourself as a product out there. Such is the basic premise of the business world: you can spend ages making the perfect product but if you don't know how to sell it, then all that effort you've spent making the product is wasted if no one buys the product. If you do not make the right connections, if you do not know the right people, if your agent does not submit you for the right roles, if you are just not focusing enough on the business development aspect of your career, then you are not only condemning yourself to failure, you're wasting an awful lot of time and money in the process.

Some naive actors want to claim that they don't want anything to do with the corporate world - that they are not business people but artistic thespians who want to focus on being creative rather than making money. Well I have a newsflash for you: you can be as creative as you want in your modern dance class or your improvisation class - that still isn't going to get you any closer to landing that big role in a feature film or TV series if you're wasting all that time hiding away in classes rather than promoting yourself: it comes down to the sales and marketing function in the business world - the sooner you embrace it, the better. Wake up and smell the coffee - there's nothing more pathetic than an actor who isn't working desperately barking up the wrong tree by spending money s/he doesn't have on all those acting classes. And yes, I am talking about people I know, I've seen too many like that.

How much training does an actor actually need then?

Now when I explain it like that, it does seem quite obvious that one needs to take a measured approach when it comes to obtaining the right amount of training. Sure other professionals (dentists, architects, engineers, bankers, teachers etc) go for training as well, but they do so whilst working and they are very selective about the courses they take. Only actors are mad and stupid enough to spend so much money on training when they are unemployed. This is a bloody stupid mistake that so many (supposedly intelligent and talented) actors make - I just wanna have a massive face-palm moment right here. Look, I don't want to put down these acting classes - I'm sure some of them are quite good, but how is going for more classes going to help you sell the product at the end of the day? Did it occur to you that you're not getting work because your sales and marketing sucks - there may be absolutely nothing wrong with the product. You may be constantly improving the quality of the product but if you won't pick up the responsibility of business development, then you're sabotaging your own career by ignoring what needs to be done.

Why do actors make this bloody stupid mistake then? It is easy to focus on what is fun to do and ignore the harder tasks at hand - acting classes are fun! Business development is a pain in the butt, it is a very challenging task. If you have two things that need doing, one of which is fun the other is a chore, which do you choose to do first? Now the right answer should be, "the task that is more important" not "the task that is more fun". This is a vicious cycle because the actor who chooses to go for more training meets other actors who feel exactly the same way and they convince each other that they all need more training and they are all doing the right thing. The teachers at these courses of course will convince the students that they need to spend more money on more courses - these drama teachers depend on a steady stream of insecure actors paying for their courses to make a livelihood, so they have no incentive to tell their students that they are good enough to get paid work. Talk about being sucked into a vicious cycle!

Actors need more experience, not more training.

Step 8: So, what next?

So if you have followed my first seven steps, what should happen next? Well, you should be able to get at least some paid work at the very least if you have managed to get through all seven steps. If not, then something clearly has gone wrong along the way and you need to fix the problem: are you not networking enough and promoting yourself? Is your agent not taking care of you? Do you need a new agent? Are you not getting the right kind of auditions? Are you requiring more training in a particular area? Are you wasting your time and money doing some useless bullshit acting course instead of fixing the real problems which are holding you back? Can you identify the problems holding you back? If you can't identify the problems, then ask an experienced actor or agent to examine the situation for you and perhaps s/he can tell you where you are going wrong. Listen to them and try to get the help you need.

And even after you have done all that, you still can't find the problem, then it's time to cut your loses and call it quits. Try doing something else because there is no point in making such big sacrifices if you have very little to show for it. But hopefully, it shouldn't come to that if you have been following the seven steps listed above.

If all else fails, blame yourself. 

OK that's it from me on this issue. Have you ever contemplated working as an actor or are you already in the industry? If you have any other questions on the topic, please feel free to leave me a comment below, thanks for reading!