How do you get started in the acting business?

Question

I've always had the talent to act, and now I want to get started doing the real thing, problem is I don't know where to start. Help me?

Answer 1

You get started in the acting business the same way you get started in any other art: you do anything that will build your name and establish connections. You answer open audition ads (sometimes known as "cattle calls"), you get involved in community theatre, you volunteer to usher or to help build sets at a local semi-pro company. Anything and everything that will remind people that you exist.

Then you go to a photographer and get your headshot done. Ask your connections which photographers know how to do good headshots. Remember, always black-and-white, not color. And keep your C.V. up to date. That is how you prove to casting agents and directors that you are serious and employable.

Acting may look like a lark, but I'll tell you something now that you'll need to know in any art: if you're going to succeed, you need to WORK at it. You need to treat it as seriously as any job. You need to put in the same seriousness and sobriety that you would if you were a doctor or a lawyer. The rewards are definitely worth it, but acting is serious business, and you need to treat it as such if you're going to last.