Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Acting Means Doing

Receiving resumes and headshots from actors can be a grating, frustrating thing.

Why is it whenever producers send out a casting call and ask for an actor's reel, they're met with the usual junk: "Here's my resume and headshot. I don't have a reel...yet! But I'm training at such-and-such a school, and I'm taking improv classes, and I'm a really hard worker..."

Snore.

There's no excuse anymore for an actor to not be able to show a producer what they look and sound like.

Case in point. Here's Hugh Laurie in his hotel room. He was was already a well known British actor before he got the part on House. But he did a reading anyway. And because he was out of the country at the time, he did it via video. It helped seal the deal (rumour has it that Bryan Singer didn't even know Laurie was British after he watched this).

Actors: hire a video guy for a half-hour, or turn on your web cam, and act. Read a phone book or a soliloquy or whatever. It makes a difference.

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