The Academy of Cinema and Television strives to bring our blog readers and students as much information on a weekly basis as possible. And recently a teen blog reader emailed and asked just “how she could become a professional actor.” In one sense, all of us are actors, even if we don’t get paid to perform. Acting is a skill most of us develop as children in order to get what we want from others. Watch any 2 or 3 year old shopping with a parent in a toy store when the child sees something they want!

However, these natural instincts to perform or mimic others is often replaced with the reality of interacting with others in a more mundane and social world. A successful teen actor must learn to tap back into that imaginative world–like the world of early childhood–in order to turn fictional characters into a palpable, if temporary, reality.

Becoming a professional teen actor can simply be a matter of being in the right place at the right time, if the raw talent is in place. But typically, raw talent needs some assistance. Only a small percentage of working teen actors ever reach the lucrative ranks of Raven-Symoné or Miley Cyrus, but it is possible for teens to experience success as an actor if they are willing to do the legwork. Here are some tips for becoming a professional teen actor.

  1. Take professional lessons. You may be saying to yourself, “you are a performing arts school, so of course you are telling me to take classes.” But take a moment and stop and think: can you really become successful at anything if you don’t strive to educate yourself on the subject? Mario Lopez, a professional actor since his tween years, has told our students time and again the importance of training and taking classes. He, and many other adult actors, continue to use acting coaches throughout their careers.
  2. Enroll in dance classes or learn a musical instrument. This is an excellent way to learn how to interact as a solo artist or as part of a group. Professional teen actors often take ‘movement’ classes, which is just another way of saying basic dance instruction. Actors who can play an instrument often have an advantage over others who must learn to pantomime the action. Dance classes can help develop the self-discipline and physical stamina many acting roles require.
  3. Become a better observer of the world around you. Few professional teen actors create their characters completely from scratch. Spend time watching the people you see every day. Listen for different accents or observe how different people walk. Someday you may have an opportunity to base a character on someone you knew as a child or tween. All actors must be a keen observers of the smaller details many people may not notice, like facial expressions or body language.
  4. Take drama, literature and English courses in high school. Acting and creative writing work hand-in-hand, so a teen actor should understand how language and composition work. Since many movies and theatrical plays are based on literary works, teen actors should start early learning as much as they can about the major authors and genres. Also keep in mind that our program is always on the look-out for raw talent that is willing to work. Our students are generally at the top of their academic classes working hard to balance their classes here at the academy as well as their academic school work.
  5. Professional acting is 10% work, 90% auditions. One of the hardest things for beginning teen actors to learn is patience, and auditioning for roles requires a lot of it. The more a teen can go out and audition, the more at ease they become with the process. Auditions can be very intimidating and stressful to the unprepared teen. Especially if the audition waiting room is filled with dozens or hundreds of other teen actors who look exactly right for the part you want! Some casting directors want you to be prepared to perform a short monologue or sing a song, while others might just videotape your responses to seemingly random questions. Casting directors know exactly what they are looking for and the teens auditioning don’t. Never forget that producers and directors are usually looking for specific physical attributes as well as talent during an audition. If you have blonde hair and blue eyes and they are casting to fit a teen into an Greek family grouping, you are not going to be selected no matter how much talent you possess. You must also realize that auditioning is rarely a one-step process, and you must be prepared to return for more call-backs and more thorough scrutiny.

We hope this has helped our teen readers. And, if you have read this and you desire to attend the academy, go here: http://www.academyofcinemaandtv.com/auditons.html and request an appointment from the admissions department.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm and is filed under Our Program, Student News, acting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.