Products sampled from this guide:
Books About Which I'm Biased
Let's just go ahead and get this out of the way. I wrote or contributed chapters to each of these five books, so you should take the recommendations with a grain of proverbial salt. But I suspect I'd love these books, were I coming across them as an actor.
First, there's Self-Management for Actors: Getting Down to (Show) Business , the newest edition of my best-selling book. You're going to spend your entire career managing yourself. Learn how to do it right, and get the latest scoop on trends in the industry with this easy-to-read guidebook.
Next, I'm promoting Acting Qs: Conversations with Working Actors, a book I wrote with Blake Robbins of HBO's "Oz" fame. We sat down with 29 working actors to talk about their lives, careers, and advice for actors everywhere. Writing this book was an incredibly enlightening experience. Actors live such a courageous life! It's amazing to spend quality time with people who take such risks every day--even more wonderful to have them share so openly about their journeys. The delightful foreword by exec producer and writer Tom Fontana is the cherry on top of this collection of interviews.
My first book, Casting Qs: A Collection of Casting Director Interviews, is based on my three years of casting director interviews at "Back Stage West." Read about what casting directors want to see from you, in their OWN words. Next on my list is Judy Kerr's GOLD edition of Acting Is Everything: An Actor's Guidebook for a Successful Career in Los Angeles, Expanded Gold. This is an amazing book (to which I contributed) meant for all Los Angeles-based actors at some level. And finally, I contributed a chapter to The Backstage Actor's Handbook from the publishers of "Back Stage." That's it for the self-promotion. If you'd like more information on my books or speaking engagements, visit www.cricketfeet.com. For my FREE weekly column, "The Actors Voice," visit www.showfax.com.
Reference Material: CASTING DIRECTORS
You're going to need to build a library, as a working actor. In addition to "Casting Qs," there are a few older books filled with casting director interviews that should line your shelves. Those include Actor Succeeds: Career Management for the Actor (the first CD interview book of its kind), The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors: Conversations with Over 100 Casting Directors on How to Get the Job (another book from a former "Back Stage West" casting columnist like me), and Getting the part - Thirty-Three Professional Casting Directors Tell You How to Get Work in Theater, Films, and TV (Softcover) (a good bicoastal CD interview book). Former editor-in-chief of "Back Stage West" compiled tales from casting directors in How They Cast It: An Insider's Look at Film and Television Casting. Other (older) casting director books you should add to your library include Casting Directors' Secrets and Backstage Guide to Casting Directors: "Who They Are, How They Work, What They Look for in Actors". This just in!! I see that the legends of casting (Jane & Janet) have published a book about their casting experiences in over 25 years casting Hollywood's biggest films. I haven't read it yet, but having interviewed this duo, I can only imagine that A Star Is Found: Our Adventures Casting Some of Hollywood's Biggest Movies is a rockstar read!
Reference Material: AGENTS
Once you're ready for an agent (see my column PREMATURE MOVES at Showfax.com for warnings about doing that, moving to LA, or joining SAG too soon), you'll want to be certain you've done your homework BEFORE the meetings begin. Start with a book by top agent Tony Martinez: An Agent Tells All. Also check out How to Agent Your Agent and Agents on Actors: Sixty Professionals Share Their Secrets on Finding Work on the Stage and Screen. In addition to the ACTING WORLD BOOKS regularly-updated agency guides, K Callan's The Los Angeles Agent Book: Get the Agent You Need for the Career You Want is a staple for the agent-seeking actor.
The BUSINESS of Acting
Like it or not, if you're pursuing acting in a major market, you MUST focus some of your energy on the business side of showbiz. In addition to "Self-Management for Actors," I recommend that you start with Your Film Acting Career: How to Break into the Movies & TV & Survive in Hollywood, The Business of Acting: Learn the Skills You Need to Build the Career You Want, How to Sell Yourself As an Actor: From New York to Los Angeles and Everywhere in Between, and How To Be A Working Actor: The Insider's Guide to Finding Jobs in Theater, Film, and Television. Stephen Book's new The Actor Takes a Meeting: How to Interview Successfully with Agents, Managers, Producers, and Casting Directors combined with How to Work a Room: The Ultimate Guide to Savvy Socializing in Person and Online will help with the networking and meeting-taking that you must do.
If you're just starting out and want to get your hands on some of the more comprehensive guides for actors out there, here's a few good places to start: The Film Actor's Complete Career Guide: A Complete, Step-By-Step Checklist of All the Things Actors Seeking Film Careers Can and Should Do, and When from the legendary Lawrence Parke of Acting World Books, while How to Make it in Hollywood defines Hollywood terminology and covers everything from mailroom work to developing "rhino skin."
Reference material for the LA-based actor comes from another former "Back Stage West" columnist (Tombudsman) L.A. from A to Z: The Actor's Guide to Surviving and Succeeding in Los Angeles. For fun, be sure to check out the delightful How To Get Arrested: A Motivational Story for Actors. Another fun read is Shoptalk: Conversations About Theater and Film With Twelve Writers, One Producer-And Tennessee Williams' Mother (also check out Actors Talk: Profiles and Stories from the Acting Trade by the same author). Always stay mindful of the fact that this is a business with: Acting As a Business, Third Edition: Strategies for Success.
Auditioning and The CRAFT of Acting
Working actors will tell you that auditioning requires a whole different skill set than you cultivate in ACTING class. Excellent books on auditioning include THE original Audition by the legendary Michael Shurtleff, Next! An Actor's Guide to Auditioning by casting director-turned-director Ellie Kanner (she also wrote How Not to Audition: Avoiding the Common Mistakes Most Actors Make), How to Get the Part... Without Falling Apart!: Featuring the Haber Phrase Technique for Actors by Margie Haber (one of the BEST audition coaches in Los Angeles), How to Audition: For TV, Movies, Commercials, Plays, and Musicals (2nd Edition), Ten Minutes To The Audition: Your Last-Minute Guide and Checklist for Getting the Part (10 Minutes 2 Success), and Ed Hooks' The Audition Book: Winning Strategies for Breaking into Theater, Film and Television (3rd Edition). A handy checklist comes from coach Doug Warhit in The Actor's Audition Checklist.
As for the many wonderful books on various acting techniques and methods, YES, I'm leaving 'em all out of this guide. While I have my favorites, for sure, there are other people who are much better equipped to deal with issues of CRAFT than I am. In my work, I focus more on the business of acting... this list does too.
Your Support System
In addition to having a wonderful survival job to help you afford pursuing your dreams, you're going to have to build and maintain your support system as a working actor. Some ways to help you do that are described and outlined in books such as the hip, fun Extra Work for Brain Surgeons: A Hollywood OS Directory 24th Edition, the amazing Survival Jobs: 154 Ways To Make Money While Pursuing Your Dreams (a book which changed my life a few years ago), Breaking into Commericals: The Complete Guide to Marketing Yourself, Auditioning to Win, And Getting the Job, 2nd ed. and Acting Out: Your Personal Coach to a Money-Making Career in Television Commercials for the actor looking to do commercial work, Be a TV Game Show Winner P for tips on how to be a big winner on these fun shows, and a few really great publicity tips in How to Make Yourself (Or Anyone Else Famous) and Charming Your Way to the Top: Hollywood's Premier P.R. Executive Shows You How to Get Ahead.
Mindset
I'll close with Mindset, as it's the way I open "Self-Management for Actors." I can't think of anything more important than having the proper mindset to survive and thrive in a career as a professional actor. Of course, there's the artist standard: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition] and its accompanying workbooks. Next, two great books by Barbara Sher: I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It and Wishcraft : How to Get What You Really Want. Two BIG favorites are How to Get What You Really, Really Want and Live Your Dreams. Finally, a book that has really given me a paradigm shift in focusing on the Law of Attraction and INTENDING the life I dream of: Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings. This book was bought for me as a gift by an actress who has just sold a pilot to Fox and is celebrating the season two pickup of her new sitcom. The actor I bought the book for, in turn, just attended his first big screening (as the lead in his feature film debut).
Check out my other lists on VOICEOVER ACTING, BOOKS FROM ACTING COACHES, AUDIO BOOKS FOR ACTORS, and BOOKS FOR KID ACTORS too!
Share your toys! And live your dreams... if you don't, someone else will.
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Products mentioned include:
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Books About Which I'm Biased
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Reference Material: CASTING DIRECTORS
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Reference Material: AGENTS
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The BUSINESS of Acting
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Auditioning and The CRAFT of Acting
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Audition
by Michael Shurtleff
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$7.99 Used & New from: $0.01
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Your Support System
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