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You Can Make It Even Though You’re Black
My name is Malcolm Barrett, and I’ve been in an actor’s union since I was 18 starting with Equity, the one for theatre. I got this by auditioning for an Equity play the summer after my highschool year. I did community and local theatre while attending Tisch at NYU. I left school 3 times. Once to do a 6 month tour of “W;t”. Once because my scholarship ran out. And once for good to move to LA and do a TV show called “Luis”. I’ve shot a couple pilots every year since I moved to LA, but that didn’t stop me from going broke 3 years in and taking a job selling copy toner over the phone. So broke was I, that when I booked my next pilot, I had to keep selling toner while filming. The day I was cuffed and frisked by an officer while in a co-worker’s car who had no plates and was arrested for violating parole on narcotics charges for driving with a suspended license is the same day I stopped selling toner over the phone. I got back on my feet by doing commercials until booking another show (Better Off Ted) and changing management companies. They introduced me to a business manager who told me I should have have seen him 5 years ago (Note: If you shoot a pilot, or make your living off commercials- INCORPORATE. Trust me on this. That’s a freebie). Needless to say there is no manual for success and many blueprints for failure, so coming from someone who has experienced both here are ten helpful hints (and I use the term loosely).
OVERNIGHT SUCCESS TAKES 7-10 YEARS (aka The Hustle)
If you ever want to shut down a random actor, comedian, performer, rapper who wants to tell you how dope they are and how you need to give them direct access to everything you’ve worked for throughout your life… give them real advice. They’ll stop listening immediately.
There are three requirements to being a professional actor:
1. Headshot & Resume
- Headshot should be an 8×10 BxW (NY), Color (LA)
The headshot doesn’t have to be by an expensive photographer. It can be a photographer friend as long as it looks professional.
2. Agent (and/or Manager)
- A standard manager or agent takes 10% of whatever acting job you book with them. Some take 15% but fuck those guys. Most sign you to a 1-year or 3-year contract. In NY you actually sign a piece of paper. In LA you make “handshake deals”.
You get an agent by sending out postcards for your show en mass to agents & managers located in something called the Ross Report. It lists agents who are looking for submissions. When you get to the level of booking shows consistently or getting reviewed well, major agents will start coming to you.
3. Join a union
- Equity: The theatre union
- AFTRA: Television & Radio union
- SAG: Television & Movies
…Ross Report. It lists agents who are looking for submissions Backstage also helps.
You definitely want to be in a union. That’s how you get ten times the pay for the same work as well as residuals. I got paid $100 for my first commercial and they can run that forever without ever paying me again. Now I get paid per cycle per month, including residuals. See that?! Legal jargon! That means I’m GETTIN’ PAID! Until then you get paid like one of those models from the Price Is Right.
NY TIP: ALWAYS KEEP A HEADSHOT AND RESUME.
See above.
LA TIP: ALWAYS HAVE A COMEDY/DRAMATIC REEL OR BOTH.
Keep the reel short. Keep it professional. It should be 1:30 to 2 minutes long. And no video of you onstage. Guest roles, commercials and films (depending on the quality) are all good. Don’t follow a beer commercial with you and your boy in your room doing the De Niro & Pacino “meet” scene from HEAT.
THE MONOLOGUES YOU DO IN SCHOOL ARE USELESS
Nobody in the real world asks you to do “monologues” for an audition. I learned two monologues from high-school that got me into college. For some reason I thought when I auditioned in the real world, they’d ask me to do monologues, instead of just sides from the script which would make total sense. Maybe I was the only idiot who thought that but there you go. That’s a freebie, right there.
IF YOU ARE AN EXTRA YOU WILL NEVER MAKE IT AS AN ACTOR. EVER.
Of course there are exceptions, like if you’re trying to get your foot in the door. But if you’ve been doing that for over a year, I’ve got news for you, you’ve lost that foot. I did some seminar where an extra was talking about not joining the union because he didn’t want to miss out on all those sweet non-union acting jobs. That’s just backwards logic. I mean sure, I heard even Bruce Willis did some extra work at some point on some thing. But see how it isn’t a body of extra work. There aren’t multiple movie credits with him as an extra. There’s just that story that no one can corroborate.
YOU DON’T NEED CLASSES BUT IT HELPS (Classes in LA don’t count)
You should really take speech classes, especially if you’re ghetto. And I don’t mean ghetto to refer to just Black folks. I’m talking Louisiana, Texas, Minnesota. All you motherfuckers gotta learn to talk right, what Edith Skinner refers to as Standard American English. I remember my acting teacher had us do an exercise where we had to say a series of different words and phrases. Me being the smarty-art MoFo that I am, knew this was a way to test if we could speak properly. So I said each word and phrase with perfect (Brooklyn) diction, which by the way is nowhere close to Standard American English. Keep in mind. I know what some of you rebels are thinking. I don’t wanna get rid of my accent, my swagger, my identity. I agree. Don’t. Those years of training just made me aware of my speech and gave me an ability to speak in ways I thought I was doing when needed. It gave me another tool. Even Rosie Perez got speech lessons if you can believe it. Tape yourself or read Edith Skinner’s Standard American English… if you give a fuck.
NEVER BRING PROPS… UNLESS SPECIFICALLY ASKED
I once saw a guy bring trash bags to audition for a homeless man (blank stare)… needless to say he did not get the part, but I’m pretty sure he is now actually homeless.
A SCREEN TEST ISN’T JUST ONE AUDITION, IT’S ACTUALLY IN 3 PARTS… ALL OF THEM SCARY.
When I hear the words “screen test” it makes me think of a person in costume auditioning in a small room in front of a single camera while a mysterious stranger reads the scene with them from behind the lens. Standing in front of some poorly painted wall like lost footage from James Dean’s “Rebel Without A Cause” audition or those early 90’s pedophilia-esque Calvin Klein commercials where some creepy guys asks what you’re wearing. Actually, only the audition is like that.
A ‘regular’ is someone who’s contractually obligated to shoot a number of episodes of a certain TV show, say 12 of 12 episodes. So if you audition to be a ‘regular’ in a show, a la Rerun on “What’s Happenin’”, you must audition, callback and ‘test’. The test consists of 2 auditions and one meeting. The first audition or “test” is with the major relevant heads of the studio producing the show, which usually turns out to be you auditioning in some sort of office/theatre for about 20 people. Before or after that you may have a ‘producer session’ with the executive producer (which in tv parlance is also the writer/creator) where he and/or the director may give you a note or two. Later that day or the following day you ‘test’ with the network which is you auditioning for about 20-30 relevant network heads (President of the network, head of casting, head of comedy, etc.) in a slightly larger room. All in all you may audition for the same role 5 times. The studio test is usually pretty cold with one or two people making you feel welcomed if you’ve been there before or if they really like you. The network test is as warm as a welcome for Hitler at a Bat Mitzvah. No one from the network will talk to you and at the end of you bearing your soul in front of 30 strangers you just met, none of them will thank or acknowledge you and whoever ushered you in will usher you out just as quickly. Leaving you feeling kind of used and alone… So, I guess it is like that Calvin Klein ad.
LEARN ANOTHER SKILL
Longevity is achieved by keeping yourself relevant when others aren’t demanding you. When I got to NYU I learned set building, design, and directing. I sucked at the first two but found an affinity for directing which I still do. I also write because if you are as unique an artist as you believe yourself to be then chances are there are not enough roles for you. I did stand-up, I was a 2001 Slam Poet. I perform live hip-hop. In other words I do mad shit. As an artist your life can be saved just by honing a related skill (See ‘I Stay Sharp (so sharp)’ by Darian Dachaun). Shoot, even Puffy also raps.
HONESTLY ASSESS YOURSELF. AND IF YOU SUCK… QUIT.
One percent of all actors in the union actually get paid off of acting…. One-percent! That means there are many levels of actor. There’s the wanna-be actor, there’s extra, there’s the actor/teacher, there’s the actor/waiter, the commercial actor, the TV actor, the movie actor… The point is there are many levels to this complex career and you can bounce from level to level very quickly. But a 45 degree angle up is rare in this business. So is longevity. And that’s hard to attain if you don’t have the discipline, the persistence and the skill. Always sharpen your skills and push your limits. Because life is too short to miss opportunity and this business is too difficult to be unprepared.
–Malcolm Barrett
