Know your Type
Actors! Want to be good looking?
Well who doesn’t. We are obviously over-saturated with idealised images from ‘The Beauty Myth’. Hollywood is obsessed with beauty and this has extended to male actors hugely. But, before you try to look like BRAD PITT’s brother, please be aware that not all actors should look like this.
A friend of mine auditioning in New York at the moment has lost a lot of weight that he had on when he was in Australia. He got lots of work here, particularly commercials, playing the cute cuddly ‘guy next door’. But he got engaged and lost all this bodyfat for the wedding and because he is balding he aged quite quickly. He has gone to NY because he won a Green Card and is not getting much work. His personality and type lends itself to being CUDDLY, not buff! I have recommended he beef-up and be that type again.
Would Al Pacino make it in Hollywood today? How about Hoffman or DeNiro? I don’t think they would get lead roles in big movies. Maybe TV careers or maybe character roles like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, but first name Marquee roles? Don’t think so. Those guys are out of the 1970’s. That being said, if you talk to anyone in Casting they will talk about type. Your Type. What kind of roles will you go for?
Now if you don’t have profile yet (like me) you are going to want to sell yourself as a particular character across all your marketing efforts. Its like Internet Marketing. Try to sell to everyone and you sell to no-one.
What to do
Watch TV shows. Think how do I fit into the Industry? Watch movies. Think which part would I get cast in? Until you can nail a certain type, get cast in that and have it go successful, you will not be able to be an actor who plays many different roles. To break out of the pack of unemployment, you need to cast yourself first. Then go about all your marketing as that type.
Me for instance. Why not? Just to give you an example. Now I am past the pretty boy stage. But I am still good looking (by type) guy. I am not a baddie . I am not the quirky sitcom guy or a Seth Rogen.
Too old for that. But I could still be the guy who gets a romantic scene. But what I do best, right now, is to play the guy in a suit. The businessman, the lawyer, journalist or maybe a doctor…etc. Now, I love lifting weights but if I get too big and bulky, because of my ethnic type – possible Spanish, European, or even Middle Eastern – that might land me not in leading roles but in bit parts in terrorist movies. Not why I tried to become a hardcore thespian in the first place.
So for me to market myself?
Headshot with a shirt, looking like a guy in a office. Reel playing guys like this. Own a good audition suit. Get lean and attractive but nothing too extreme. Because I am not the action star. A very experienced top casting and talent agent said to me that I did not come across as someone who had had a hard life, even though as adult, my struggling acting career has given me exactly that. Still, I am not the guy with awesome streetwise sense, who can play gangsters. I am not the tough guy who can be a Bear Grylls. I am not the knock about bloke who can save the world and die hard – Bruce Willis. I am not the mysterious, sexy Javier Bardem type either. Even though I can play roles like these guys, but it’s not my goto “Me” – that is going to get me the break.
The Break
What’s going to get you a break? What is going to be your vein of gold that will put you in the Beverly Hills? Much of this comes down to personality and awareness. How well do you know yourself? This is a question you need to ask yourself if you are going to play upon yourself like a pipe. Actors want to play other people, so we loath pigeon-holing. But that is what is ahead of you – type casting. But if you do make it, then you can diversify and expand into all the roles of your dreams, because you will have profile. People will know who the f**k you are!
So cast yourself first, before you can expect to get cast.
Finally, I want to let you know that if we could look like BRAD PITT then we would all have some kind of acting career and Hollywood is obsessed with a good body, so WHY DENY TALKING ABOUT IT? So with that in mind I am releasing, just for men, a plan to get you the body of handsome movie star. Its called:
The Leading Man Workout Plan
I will be releasing this on August 1, 2013 on this site.
Who’s it for? Well its for the average guy who is not completely un-athletic but not completely gorgeous by nature either. Its for the guy who is a bit flabby, maybe a bit narrow in the shoulders, maybe a bit out of shape. Its for the men in their 30’s and 40’s who do not have the time to spend everyday in the gym and kitchen crafting and fine tuning their physique. But want quick results, where they could go from flabby to Leading Man in 8 weeks. Its not for heavy guys that should be walking or running every morning. Its not for guys like my friend- who is the cuddly every man. It is for actors who are half-way good looking and want to have the body that a casting agent will ask:
“Can you take your shirt off on camera please? Just so the client can see possibilities…”
August 1. All will be revealed. Fool proof plan.
Gil Balfas