The Stages of your Acting Career Part 2

Emerging - Post Actor Training

After yesterday's blog about the first stage of your acting career - actor training, this part is about leaving drama school and moving into the acting profession.

Obviously, this is where it really counts - and it's amazing. You're out of acting school, the training from your original acting course is over and you are ready to take on the acting world. You're keen as mustard to make your mark in a film or television show. This is an amazing part of your career, filled with meetings with agents and casting directors, auditions and experiences that will shape the next few years.

Unfortunately lots of young wanna-be actors try to skip the first part, the actor training part and to enter the industry immediately. But to be honest, I've never seem it work successful for anyone. If you go to acting school, you'll have tons of experience of performing in public, you'll have acting for camera experience, business of acting training - you'll be skilled for auditioning and you'll have a sense of how the business works. You'll also have headshots, a showreel and an impressive CV for a graduate.

If you don't have an agent a this stage, you are far more likely to get one than someone just walking in off the street. Training is a form of trust that agents will appreciate.

Some actors get some amazing jobs in this initial stage of their career, others have to wait a while. We know an actor, now famous for being the lead in a Netflix series who got signed by a massive agent only to get know work for almost 18 months.

Now is the time to leave a great impression on everyone you meet - because this is a people business and people will remember you. You can't get cast every time, but you can leave the best possible impression each time.

The Grind

Now, it's possible that after a while in the exciting early stages after acting school, you might experience a bit of a stop. The momentum of acting school has slowed a bit and you start to lose your way a little bit. This is the part when you need to dig in. Don't blame your training, your agent, your colleagues, the industry - just dig in and keep moving forwards - that's what really matters after all, moving forwards.

This is the most difficult bit to be honest. This is where you lose motivation and confidence. This is when you should generally reach out for your industry's support, whether that's other actors, or seeking out a professional acting coach to help you out of the rut.

The Jobbing Actor

Finally, after all that pain and patience, you've booked something that really counts. Your family can watch you on the telly and it all seems like it was worth it. Now that you've got the job, really do your best, build relationships, develop your network, push hard at this stage to keep the momentum going!

There will still be periods without work, but if you and your agent are pushing now, you'll get onto a roll.

The Celeb

I truly hope you get to this stage. Only a tiny fraction of actors will ever become a celebrity and make millions of pounds. But if you do get there, congrats, it isn't easy and you earned it!

COACH Mark Westbrook