My life goal is to become an actress

Question

acting is my one and only passion in life. for as long as i can remember acting has been my dream and basically the only thing i want to do in life. i continuously ask my mom to get me into acting but she always tells me that she doesn't have the money and i need to focus on school, but thats not what i want in life. i don't want a job that i get out of going to school, i want to act. i'm 14 going on 15 and i KNOW i have what it takes. i don't have much experience besides being in drama for 4 years at school, but i'm willing to get as much as i need. i'd really like some advice on where to start, my family doesn't have endless money to spend though.. i really would like to get into big stuff now rather then just community stuff. does anyone have any advice for me?

Answer 1

You would be surprised (or maybe not) at how many young people say almost the exact same things in the same way. As a matter of fact, all you have to do is a search here on YahooAnswers and you will find tons of questions just like this and tons of answers as well.

Sometimes I'm torn between telling people who ask these questions to start by getting some training and telling them to just go get a head shot and go to some casting website and start submitting. But reason wins over me and I have to tell you that if you really want to be an actor, you should first put your big rush to do it to the side and slow down. Build your base first. The competition is fierce and if you don’t prepare yourself really well, you will become just another statistic of the many who WANTED TO, but never made it.

I even created a new video on my site on the exact same topic: The reasons why most aspiring actors never make it.

You might have heard in school when you talked about Abraham Lincoln, that he is the author of a famous quote. He said, "If I had three hours to chop down a tree, I would use the first hour to sharpen the axe."

If you don't sharpen your axe first, there will inevitably be a time when you will have to stop chopping and sharpen it, so you might as well do it now.

What does that mean? Get some acting training. Find a good school and a good teacher to help you learn how to act. Start taking drama classes in school and doing school plays. Just do some things that will help you to learn how to act.

While you are doing that, try and understand what it really means to be an actor, what actors do...really while they are trying to get work, how little money most actors make, why actors struggle to make ends meet and how successful actors are able to continuously get work. You need to learn business skills, networking skills, communication skills and a lot more.

When you decide to become an actor, you are making a decision to run your own business. Now I know you are young, but if you can start to grasp these concepts now, you will position yourself ahead of your competition. You might need some help on that last one about business, but if you talk to successful actors, you will learn what I mean. For example, you need to be good at making contacts with the right people. There are ways to do that and ways not to do it.

On the other hand if all you ever aspire to is to work background work or be an extra on Disney or something like that, then don't worry too much about all that stuff I just said and just go and try and get extra work. That's fairly easy to get considering that the majority of all acting work is background work and smaller roles anyway.

But you have to know that if you really want to make a big splash as an actor, sooner or later you will need some real experience and some real good training, because that's what the really good actors have and if you want to compete with them, you will need it too. Extra work is great in my opinion at the very beginning just to start and see how things are on set and how real actors prepare and perform and to see how set directions are given, but it will not make your career and if you do it too much, some say that it will damage your chances of having a real career. Some industry professionals discourage it for those who really want to pursue a serious acting career.

The thing is, you can do both if you want. You can go to school, take acting classes and still work as an extra or even try to do some community theatre while you are learning the craft.

At any rate, have a look at this page on my website for aspiring actors. It has 23 links to pages that have to do with starting your acting career.

You'll find a lot of helpful information there that will make you think about how you can get your acting career started including steps to get started, 17 things you can do fairly soon to start getting work, ways to promote yourself, how to get the money together to fund your career, how to get an agent, 29 ways to promote yourself to get noticed and why acting school is so important. http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/teen_...

Good luck!

Tony

Answer 2

My Daughter tried out for all the school plays regardless that she wasn't in a drama class. She won the lead in Fiddler on the roof. Then She went  to Nickalodean Studios in Florida and try to get on some of the shows. She was also on a Soap Opera in Costa Rica. Her Cousin was a producer. You have to start out and find auditions in your area and go from there. If you are real good someone will notice. Keep in mind that there are very few shortcuts in life. Not everyone is discovered. Most actually go to college and get degrees and work really hard at there craft before making it big. Good luck.

Answer 3

First of all you have got to be realistic. There are many people who want to break big into the business and there is no shortcut to get there unless you know someone like Spielberg and he knows you "have what it takes".

And the fact that you love acting and that's the only thing you want to do in life doesn't change the fact that you need an education.

And to get anywhere in acting you need experience. So join some community theatre. This will also allow to get in touch with more experienced actors and their knowledge.

Hold on to your dream baby BUT finish school and get good grades you might get a scholarship in drama. Take some jobs in the summer or whenever you can and SAVE SAVE SAVE. Because acting is going to get expensive with classes and head shots especially if you need to move to LA or NYC.

Being an actor is going to take lots of work and you must be prepared for setbacks along the way but it is possible.

Answer 4

Try entering this dream job contest and maybe you can become an actress for a day!

http://tinyurl.com/65tyxh

Answer 5

look just go to actinginfo.blogspot.com

and acting411.blogspot.com

and read everything you see! and click on things in blue but not doulbe underlined ones

and you got any questions ask me!

and i suggest you sign up with alan baltes(go to first site read right column you will understand) he wont be an agent jsut help you!

and for agents in your area go to talentagen ts.blogspot.com

and scroll down till you find city nearest you!

and if your in new york or l.a keep scrolling till you see acting schools

any other questions feel free to ask! i can tel you lots of info that like deadline for j.o.n.a.s and when camp rock 2 auditions start its info that alan baltes didnt put on blog but im signed up with him and he told me

Answer 6

Sorry kid, but chances are you're going to have to get more experience in your community theater or school performances. Unless someone is going to discover you walking through the mall (which is most likely not going to happen). Seriously, don't minimize how the community theater can help you get experience. Sometimes they do open casting calls and you can make it into production, however be prepared because they might try to push the acting classes/workshops on you.

Even look into calling you're state's film office and see if there are any productions that have open casting call for extras (however most of the time you gotta be 18).

If you are really adamant about not doing any local theater, then do your research and see what's going on in your state as far as film and television. Don't fall for scams that ask for money down or a registration fee.