Becoming an “overnight success” in the acting business consists of many things. Aside from being in the right place at the right time, for this to happen you need to master the craft, learn about the industry, check your marketing tools, perfect your auditioning and networking skills. All of this and that will not only make you a better performer but an industry professional, too. When you dedicate your life to acting, in order to succeed in this competitive field, you absolutely have to know the ins and outs of both your craft and the business side of entertainment industry.
What many actors fail to understand is that being a working actor means a lot more work than just graduating from drama school and then climbing the ladder of fame. No matter how many of us would love this to be true, unfortunately, show business doesn’t work this way.
How to Dedicate Your Life to Acting
When you completely dedicate your life to acting, you become one of the many who’s sole purpose in life is to get paid for what they do best. You don’t just flow downstream — you fight your way up to get to where you need to be. And for this to happen, you have to develop a certain mindset that will push you through many obstacles on this path.
So if you feel like performing is your one and only passion and you are ready to dedicate your life to acting, it might be the time for you to step up your game and get all the right tools to accomplish the task.
Get rid of the negativity. You know those people who constantly repeat to you that you can’t make it? Stop seeing them! Their negative attitude will slowly spread under your skin and get to you eventually if you will allow them to.
Find a group of support. Exchange those negative people for friends and family who do understand you and see your passion for the craft. Due to so many rejections that actors face in their career, people who will support you are very important. Your best bet are like-minded fellow actors who know what you’re going through.
Get a team together. While not really possible at the very beginning of your acting career, eventually you have to start building your own team of professionals as if running for the government position. Managers, agents, acting coaches, trainers and maybe even therapists (if you need them), etc. These people will help you get to where you need to be.
Constantly work on your craft. While stating the obvious, it’s important to remind yourself every single day that you have to act, perform and learn new things. You need to perfect that craft on a regular basis in order to grow as an actor. Work on your acting, improvisation and auditioning skills all the time.
Develop your marketing skills. Second to working on your craft are your marketing skills. After you dedicate your life to acting, it’s not your hobby any longer — it’s your future. And if you want to get paid, you need for your acting to be seen by people within the industry. Use your great marketing tools and skills to make this happen.
Fight your self-doubt. After you have let go of the negative people, you need to start working on yourself. Every single one of us have that feeling of self-doubt at some point in our lives, but we need to learn how to not let it overtake our lives and especially our performances. Keep your strengths intact and ignore your own negative mindset.
End poor relationships. Whether its your partner in life or a dear friend, if they set you ultimatums of choosing either them or your career — you don’t need such people in your life. These relationships will end eventually because if you dedicate your life to acting, those whining about theirs won’t find a place in it.
Never forget about your plan. It’s your ultimate goal broken down into more small goals which are then broken down into even smaller mini-goals. Always have your acting career plan in front of you and keep accomplishing these little tasks to finally reach your dream.
Always have fun on this journey. Keep your sense of humor about it and never let anybody — including yourself — to get you down. You’ve chosen this career for the fun of it and because you love doing it, which means you absolutely have to remember to have fun on every single one of your auditions, classes and actual performances.
Remember that every actor at some point in their careers — be it the very beginning or after some moderate success — get the urge to leave this profession, drop everything and become a doctor because it’s just too damn hard. And the ones you see on the stage and in cinema are those who stuck around and pushed through these urges no matter how difficult it was.
These strong wishes and thoughts of “maybe this isn’t for me” are just your weak part of the brain trying to frighten and intimidate you. You inner self-doubt is trying to manipulate you into choosing something easier for you in life; don’t fall into this death trap. After you dedicate your life to acting, stick to this goal, follow your dream and push forward no matter what.
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