Want to be a Working Actor? Just Do this One Thing

Forget about all those expensive courses, activating frameworks, inspirational bootcamps, and acting seminars. As somebody who offers many of these resources, I’m here to say there’s no such thing as a silver bullet to make your acting life easy. There’s really only one thing you need to do in order to become a working actor.

And that’s to work as an actor.

Now please hear me out before you roll your eyes and yell, “Copout!” On one hand, the solution I’m proposing to you is scary and, maybe on its surface, absurdly illogical: The only thing standing between you and being a working actor is simply doing the work of an actor? Sure, right. And the only thing standing between me and being Audra McDonald is being Audra McDonald. 

But take just a second to think about it. The only things stopping you from applying this solution are your misconceptions about what an actor’s work actually is. An actor, first and foremost, is a creative entrepreneur who must constantly innovate—both dramatically and strategically—to compete for the fractured attention of today’s critics and consumers.

Let’s actually drill down to the roots of what makes what I’m proposing so difficult to stomach.

• Your imposter syndrome. Yes, the TikTok shrinks among us will have heard of this one, a now-common term referring to our self-doubt and our fear of being seen as frauds. But despite its overuse in pop psychology, the research still reveals that the highest performers among us suffer from its self-limiting effects. I’m not on Broadway, you say. I’m not getting those callbacks, you insist. I’m not booked six nights a week, you cry. And to that I say, “So what?” What you’re describing—the bookings and the standing ovations and the packed houses—are just the tip of the iceberg, merely the highly visible rewards for all of the actual work that sits underneath the surface.
  
  So let me put it simply: The stuff you dismiss as trivial—the self-produced work, the financial tracking, the happy hours and networking slogs—that stuff is the work I am talking about. It’s time to shatter the misconceptions we have about our own productivity and ability to add value, and remember that the invisible work, the daily ups and downs, is what builds up over time to greater and more sustainable rewards.

Everyone else in our lives. Unfortunately, most of our friends and family—and even sometimes our otherwise well-meaning colleagues—are similarly deluded about what the true work of an actor entails. If you’re not actively performing on a stage, they assume you are not working. If you’re not at or directly on your way to an audition, they presume it’s easy time off. Basically, if they can’t see it, it ain’t real. So what ends up happening? Your friend texts you in the middle of a Tuesday to see if you want to grab Korean food, or your family asks you to head home for the weekend. And why not? It’s not like you’re working, they say. You can sit at home and play with your phone from here just as well!

Of course, we should know better. I mean, it’s our lives they are pooh-poohing after all. But here’s the sad part: Because of their ignorance, we’re left with this bizarre pressure to not do our work. A sudden doubt casts over us that makes us think they might be right, that maybe we’re not being that productive after all. What results is a vicious cycle, where other people unintentionally trivialize our work, we in turn grow more doubtful of our own productivity, and finally we become disenchanted with the very activities that lead to consistent success in the first place. Rinse and repeat.

Fortunately, this whole illusion begins to shatter if we just take a moment to remember that, under the iceberg’s tip, lies a thriving creative enterprise with you as its chief executive: marketing, networking, practicing new material, auditioning, teaching—all of these interrelated pieces, running smoothly and consistently, are what allow for the visible wins (what everyone else assumes is the actual work) to come to fruition more frequently.

It’s hard as hell to treat your creative business like an actual business when everybody else in your life assumes you’re simply putzing around. So, how do you change the narrative and recognize yourself as the working actor you strive to be? Here are three tips from Artist’s Strategy to get you started.

• Set up consistent work hours. For many of us, it’s a daily blessing that we’re not stuck with a nine-to-five corporate desk job. But we can leave behind the worst parts of office culture while adopting some of its advantages: namely, having a nonnegotiable work schedule. The same way your mother wouldn’t dare call your sister, a middle school teacher, to go shopping at two in the afternoon, you must make clear that you are also working between the hours of a particular window. Set that time aside, designate it as immovable and uninterruptible, and make that expectation clear to those around you.

• Follow through, no matter what. More exciting things will come up. You will choose to go hang with friends as opposed to finishing that script you’ve been working on or shooting off those casting emails you’ve been putting off. And while that’s a-ok, within reason, hold yourself accountable to a real deadline. If that means you get up early tomorrow or stay up the next few nights, do it. If that means saying no more often and limiting time with people who have unrealistic expectations of you, then do that. The challenge with our work is, if you don’t do something, the consequences are slow to materialize. You may not get fired in any traditional sense, but you will lose your competitive edge and, perhaps worse, your reputation for responsiveness and consistency in an industry where a good one is your calling card.

• Give yourself a reward—or punishment. Use the latest research in behavioral psychology to your advantage. We know that good habit building rests on a network of reward and punishment. So maybe for every hour you spend on that production budget spreadsheet, you clear up another hour to hang out with friends. And for the more masochistic among us, perhaps a punishment: absolutely no wine until you’ve emailed a dozen producers. Create a robust but manageable system of rewards and punishments to keep you on track for the things you’re looking to accomplish.

Growing a creative business is a herculean effort and needs as much focus, intention, structure, and love as you’re able to invest in it. And while it’s often difficult to establish clear boundaries with friends and family—and even to convince ourselves that our work is our work—it’s the only way everyone in your life, including yourself, will finally understand that you’re not here to pretend.

So start on the one thing you can do to become a working actor—put in the actual work.