The Great Acting Blog: “What Have You Got To Offer?”

The Great Acting Blog: “What Have You Got To Offer?”

The constant stream of actors moaning about work, or lack thereof I should say, really doesn’t make any sense at all. Firstly, there are actors who complain about not having any work but never actually attempt to get any.  Draw your own conclusion there. But then, more commonly, there are actors who moan about their lot in general: their lack of an agent, or they don’t hear from their agent, or they don’t get enough meetings, they can’t even get seen, they’re broke, their life is passing them by.

It’s probably an understatement to say that we do not have a shortage of actors, indeed, we have an overwhelming surplus, and this is the usual cause of unemployment (let’s wheel out that old statistic, that only 8% of actors are in work at any given time). But let’s be serious for a moment: what exactly are you offering as an actor? What have you got that will thrust you above the cacophony? Are you happy to trundle along, playing audition percentages (ie – if I go on enough auditions eventually I’ll get something)? If so, then you have no right to complain.

Actors, when selling themselves, talk of  “being professional”. That’s fine and dandy, but I don’t know many actors who boast about being unprofessional. Similarly with “hard working”, few would offer themselves as lazy (although it might be more interesting if they did, and, they might well be lazy and unprofessional but are hardly likely to admit it). Then there is that old chestnut; “But I’m me! I’m unique!” Everyone is unique, so there is no real advantage here.

So the question is: what have you got to offer that is so extraordinary, that it will separate you from the crowd and not only enable you to survive, but to thrive?

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