Your Face Looks Familiar...: How to Get Ahead as a Working Actor (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Whenever I moderate a Journey of the Working Actor panel discussion for the SAG Foundation Life Raft Series, or when I speak with college students..." (more)
Key Phrases: many film credits, working actor, episodic television, New York, Los Angeles, Asian American (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you are crazy enough to want to be an actor, at least be smart enough to read this book.
- Martin Mull

Actors need to start to make connections between themselves and the enormity of the possibilities out there. When you begin making connections to people with experience that have made it, it gives you a connection to the world you want to get into. Here actors can read about ways to maintain their integrity while in the embattlements of time and pressure.
- Richard Schiff, Emmy Award Winning Actor, The West Wing

Who better to tell our tale than one of our number. Thank you Michael for writing this book.
- John P. Connolly, President, AFTRA

Your Face Looks Familiar should be required reading for anyone who is thinking about acting as a career choice.
- Marcia R. Smith, Executive Director, Screen Actors Guild Foundation

You've probably imagined your star on the Walk of Fame, but you've probably also realized there's only so much sidewalk. In a field as competitive as acting, you need sound advice grounded in the reality of show business, not another voice telling you to reach for the stars. In Your Face Looks Familiar, you'll come face to face with working actors and find out how they earn a good living while satisfying their artistic impulse.

Your Face Looks Familiar details the ins and outs of the business of acting, demystifying the process of building a career for new actors and veterans alike. Michael Bofshever not only shares his experiences as a thirty-year performer and acting teacher, but through interviews reveals the successful strategies of over fifty screen, stage, and television actors for maintaining a happy, healthy working life. You'll learn proven techniques for auditioning, coping skills for both success and rejection, methods for transitioning from stage to screen, and much more. Bofshever even includes helpful hints like the Actor's To-Do List to help make acting work for you.

With literally hundreds of years of acting experience behind it, Your Face Looks Familiar is an ideal resource for any actor who is serious about finding a foothold in Los Angeles or New York, on the stage or on the screen. Read it and be ready to play a part that's right for you: successful working actor.

About the Author

Michael Bofshever has been a working actor, acting teacher, and director for thirty years on stage, on television, and in film. He has been a series regular with countless guest-star appearances on episodic television, has appeared in fifteen motion pictures, and performed in hundreds of commercials. He has taught acting at UCLA extension, the Michael Howard Studio, and Theater for the Forgotten and continues to teach privately. He is well-known around Los Angeles for his scene-study class as well as for Journey of the Working Actor, a seminar which he regularly conducts for the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. He frequently speaks about building an acting career at the American Film Institute, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and universities throughout the country. Please visit his website at www.michaelbofshever.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann Drama (November 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0325007632
• ISBN-13: 978-0325007632
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,749,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Of value for any actor, May 6, 2006

By	krebsman (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

I think this is a pretty good book for any actor, regardless of what stage his career presently occupies. It is a realistic guide to the acting profession. As a professional returning to performing after 24 years on Wall Street, I found it a good reminder of many things I had forgotten. Bofshever gives knowledgeable advice on how to break in and, more important, how to stay in the acting business. Particularly valuable to me was the chapter on what to expect and how to behave once you report for work on a television or film sound stage. The book is divided into ten chapters in which Bofshever gives his views on a particular aspect of performing professionally (auditions, agents, acting teachers, day jobs, stage acting vs. film acting, mental health, etc.). At the end of each chapter, he quotes additional comments culled from interviews with other working actors about their experience. The 60 actors interviewed are all of different physical types, ethnicity and ages. Each of them has something worthwhile to say. The hardest part of the profession is the constant rejection and the long periods of unemployment. These actors have all been through it and their experience and advice is worth reading about. The life of an actor is a difficult one. Only the strong can take it. Bofshever's book can perhaps make it a little less painful. Four stars.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars real stories from reel actors, July 14, 2006

By	S. Stewart (NYC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I heard Michael Bofshever speak at a Screen Actors Guild event recently. He has a genuine respect for the craft of acting, and over many years of being a professional actor, has come to terms with the realities of a career in 'the biz'.

The beginning of each chapter in this book is great at describing the various aspects of a working actor's career and everyday life. Then there are blurbs from actors whose faces really are 'familiar', like Marcella Lowery from 'The Cosby Show' or James Rebhorn from 'Talented Mr. Ripley'. The stories are fun and down-to-earth, and truly give you a picture of what the entire process of becoming a professional actor is like.

Because you are reading verbatim accounts from each person, you get many different perspectives on the types of successful careers one can have. It can be a little confusing sometimes to go from story to story, but all in all it's really informative and a fascinating read, for anyone interested in what it's really like to be an actor!