Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Advice and motivational words to the aspiring and budding actresses, who all are your followers and shall like to know from you for their climb to the ladder of success in this field?
Ms. Tracey Birdsall:
Dear aspiring and budding actresses,
I was once a budding actress too. I don’t feel like (looking back) most of the advice I got was correct. I don’t feel like (looking back) most of the people giving me advice really knew what they were talking about… not in a bad way, it’s just that everyone thinks they have the answers that you seek. They don’t, they have opinions. So let’s take opinion out of the equation and head over to logic and fact.
Acting is one of the hardest professions in the world. Acting is one of the most rewarding professions in the world. Acting is a profession. It takes hard work, long days, a toll on the body, a toll on the mind, and a toll on your emotions. Advice: if there’s anything else you would like to do, do it. If not, train long and hard – various methods and teachers – explore it all.
Having a headshot does not make you a professional actor, having an agent does not make you a professional actor, going to acting classes does not make you a professional actor. “What does?” you might ask… when it becomes your job, your livelihood, when people are repeatedly paying you to live the life of a character you create. Too many aspiring actors feel like complete failures because all of their friends want to know when they are going to see them on Game of Thrones… but they do it to themselves! By getting the acting basics down and professing to be an actor (headshot in hand), they are building this expectation – and thus, this feeling that they failed. Advice: let people know that you are training to be an actor.
I once had an acting coach who charged for consults to help grow your career. He gave me a piece of advice that I took with me from that meeting. I basically paid $100 for these words – which I later expanded upon… “Do one thing each day to grow your career.” Yep, $100 got me those nine words that changed my life. You see, I tried it, and it worked… a little bit. I added to it to see if it would change exponentially (logical thinking again). For two weeks I did one thing (this is in addition to training and auditions) each day, and one full day each week. Guess what? It worked. I later realized that there was an exponential law in acting JUST LIKE ANY PROFESSION. Advice: work full time whether you’re looking for work, training, preparing, or shooting. This includes training your body, your voice, and adding to your skill sets.
Praise builds ego, and criticism will tear you down (there’s a solution to this too…). One of the hardest things once you’ve prepared months and years (sometimes decades) is that once you do book work, work your hardest, and it gets released – it’s back to the beginning of this letter: opinions. You will find that opinion takes over logic again, and that everyone has one. You will have everything from heaps of praise to body shaming and criticism. If you build success in this career, it will come. Advice: all praise and criticism belong to the character, not to you. All offers of marriage and hateful remarks are to the character. Do not let it affect you as a human being, and do not listen. Stick with logic and facts.
I’ll end this with a pet peeve of mine, but only in a loving way – because it matters. Be off book. Be off book for your auditions (you may never get the opportunity to meet them again); be thoroughly off book weeks if not months in advance when you work. Let the lines run in the background of your head as you live your daily life so that when you show up… they’re your words. It’s really quite glorious. I recently had a techno-babble speech to deliver which was very difficult to memorize. By the time we shot I could not only recite it perfectly, but also backwards. Advice: if you want to live the life of the character, memorize way in advance.
…and good luck!!!
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Share with us your Top 5 Fashion Must-Haves For Winter’17.
Ms. Tracey Birdsall:
- A fabulous coat
- Over the knee boots & rain boots
- Fingerless cashmere gloves
- A fabulous warm hat
- Stylish trench coat
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What do you wish to say about the website Womenfitness.net and Christmas message for our visitors?
Ms. Tracey Birdsall:
Such a fabulous website it is! I love that this website has such a positive focus for women and explores everything health, fitness, and entertainment
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