Success in acting requires continuous growth, practice, and connection. Acting coach Michelle Danner shares three essential pieces of advice for actors who are looking to sharpen their skills, stay inspired, and expand their opportunities in this new year. From training regularly to watching great films and building industry relationships, these tips will help you bring your best to every audition and performance.
1: Keep Exercising Your Instrument
When you don’t work as an actor, when you don’t go to the acting gym, you become rusty. So take a class with trained professionals so they can assess your work, see where you’re at and give you pointers.
Work with actors on scenes, work by yourself on monologues, pick different genres, from comedy to drama, from classical to contemporary, work on different accents that you can master. So when you audition and book a job, you are at your peak and you bring your A-game to the project.
2: Keep Watching Movies, Documentaries, TV Shows and Shorts
There’s always a time during award season where there are so many things to watch. Expand. Go to the theaters. See the shorts that are nominated for the Oscars. Watch not only the US movies but also the international films. When you watch a movie or documentary that has a great message in it, you are forever inspired, you fill yourself with ideas and you grow as an artist.
3: Keep Putting Yourself Out There
Schedule meetings with agents, managers, casting directors, producers, directors and even fellow actors. Introduce people to people and the energy will come right back around to you. Attend screenings, go to Q&As, film festivals. It’s always a constant conversation that you are having, creatively with yourself and other people.
Michelle Danner, acting teacher and founder of the Creative Center for the Arts and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory, is also a successful film director.
