You’re probably tired of all the discouragement that goes around when you opt for the acting career. Let’s just say, right off the bat, that it’s a remarkable decision that requires you to remain true to yourself. Furthermore, let’s also clarify that there are no perfect actors or people born to be actors. Even the top stars of acting like Jim Carrey and Robin Williams were beginners once. And it’s safe to say that even they faced a hard time coming up in the industry. Suffice it to say, this path is filled with nothing but doubt and uncertainty.
Another thing that you should clear outright from the start is that success is both; not something you can get overnight and surely not coming if you stop working hard at any point. You might not get instant success after acing acting auditions in Dubai. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get it at all. To that end, let’s take a look at what the professionals say about acting.
Preparation:
Roger Allam says, “Learn your lines so well that you never have to worry about them.” This is true for all auditions and plays or scenes you’re going to act out. You need to make sure that you are not asking for lines on stage so that the momentum goes on. A lot of people might bring about walk-in auditions and say that there are no scripts to rehearse in an improv. For that, you can prepare by giving yourself random scenes without reading the whole monologue. This helps you get familiar with the concept of adopting the character and coming up with creative and natural ideas. There’s no better example here to give than of Heath Ledger and the character of Joker he played. In the end, you decide where the action stops.
Paterson Joseph says, “Choose a play you feel confident you understand: liking a play isn’t the same as understanding it.” This shows that you need to be able to make out all that is that your character needs to do.
Dedication:
There is a certain degree of dedication that you can give to any role that you get that shows your determination. It doesn’t matter how many times you’re trying or how many auditions you’re failing. Johnny Depp says, “If it works, great! If it doesn’t, well, I tried.” The key thing to do is not to lose your focus or your will to act. You’ll never know if the next audition that you gave up on was the one you’d get the part for.
Clive Owen describes his struggles and tells everyone how everybody told him to have a backup career. He says he came across a lot of actors who had no backup careers. According to him, the will and the hard work made it all work by the end.
Exploration:
With every act that you go through, you might not realize but it’s a journey of exploration. You’re always exploring parts of yourself that you never thought existed. Nobody can put it like Ian McKellen did when he said that acting has to do with expressing your own personality. He further added that acting has to do with discovering the character you’re playing through your own experience. Since we are all different in our own unique ways, it’s safe to say your journey will remain undefined. That is to say until you get out of your comfort zone and start looking at different perspectives, you’ll not be growing.
Delivery:
It was Alan Rickman who once said, “Acting touches nerves you have absolutely no control over.” It was the psychologist, Albert Bandura who came up with the theory of learning from models. That is exactly what makes acting such an influential career in today’s world. We all learn from models that actors and celebrities put forward in front of us. We learn not just from the depicted heroes but from the villains as well. A convincing villain like the Joker might be able to resonate with the audience on a much larger level. In order to convince the audience of your act, you need to first believe the act yourself. It doesn’t matter where you come from or what happened to you outside the theatre. Once you’re on stage, nothing matters but the moments you spend on stage.
Learning:
Morgan Freeman puts it as “It’s what I learn from the great actors that I work with. Stillness. That’s all and that’s the hardest thing.” You can learn from everything that is happening around you. An actor can always learn from the roles people are playing around them. You can use anything you witness on the street, on a subway, or even in another movie in your own thing. An actor is always growing because they’re always learning. That is to say, learning from not just their own failures but from others’ failures as well. That is the true essence of being a successful actor. Acting is something you can learn from anywhere in the world. Just because you wish to be in the West doesn’t mean you can’t start from the East. Meaning, you can get to Hollywood if you start auditioning for different types of casting in Dubai. The point is, you need to learn from everywhere.
