Your Daily Actor’s Meal Plan

Actors, Career Development, Tips & Tricks, Written By A Casting Director

Joi When you are bored…look to this list and find something to do.

By Casting Director Carmen Aiello

THIS LIST DRIVES ME CRAZZZZZZY!

Actor’s Access, casting frontier, headshot, resume, demo reels, acting class, technique class, commercial class, dance class, vocal coaching, audition class, audition technique, IMDbPRO credits, YouTube, IG, Facebook, Twitter account, mailings, postcards, workshops, seminars, premieres, screenings, day jobs, texting, checking the trades, play readings, theatre auditions, meet and greets, schmoozing, phone calls, emails, 01-Visa, work permits, internships, being a reader for casting, P.A. on set. Still nothing? Don’t even think or worry about it.

Welcome to…The Daily Artistic Meal Plan.

SECRETS DON’T MAKE FRIENDS

The most asked question is, “What more can I do?” The secret is that there is no secret. Yes I’m serious. I assume if you are an Actor you are doing absolutely everything you can in order to further your career every single day. There is no such thing as an overnight success. Success doesn’t happen overnight. It’s years of working, believing, dreaming and running around to get people to notice you. Yes it’s true that some people have been discovered walking on the street or in a coffee shop but I wouldn’t count on it. It’s the same odds as winning the mega lottery. There are no secrets – only truths.

PLAN IT!

Plan every single day. I’ve been told that it is a minimum of ten (10) years of pounding the pavement in Los Angeles before you EVEN get your first big break! TEN YEARS! A DECADE? That’s 3,650 friggin days! Look, we can’t count the time it’s going to take in order for you to make it. And what is the definition of, “Making it?” Here is a small five day list of things you can do in order to help keep you occupied. This is in between preparing for auditions, acting classes and that crazy list above that I wrote down. When you are bored…look to this list and find something to do. Consider it your Daily Artistic Meal Plan:

DAY 1 (MONDAY)

  1. Make sure that your car is well stocked with hard copy headshot/resume’s attached. At least three in a manila envelope should suffice.
  2. Have a full tank of gas.
  3. Get one hour of exercise or meditation.

D) Make a list of four people you want to contact this week. 1) Agent 2) Manager 3) Creative Executive (associate producer, writer, casting director etc) 4) A friendly Actor you trust.

DAY 2 (TUESDAY)

  1. Schedule and/or email your list of people. DO NOT attach your headshot or resume. You can send a link or two but anything too much is just…too much. (Tuesday’s are a great day to do this because Monday tends to be very busy in offices.) Make sure you email around 11am-12pm and NOT during industry lunch which is 1pm-2pm.
  2. Start a vision shelf or add to it if you have one. This is an area in your house where you can wake up and meditate on quotes or post it notes that put thoughts out into the universe. Believe it or not, I have one in my bathroom near the sink and my living room. Three out of five post-it notes have come true.
  3. Write a scene for yourself. You have to get out of the house and go to coffee. Write one scene about 3-5 pages that has you and two other characters in it.
  4. Watch a TV you have never seen before. Even if it is one episode! Why? Because this is called WORKING!

DAY 3 (WEDNESDAY)

  1. Drive to a place of solitude and meditate for an hour. It’s really important that you have one place in Hollywood that is outside your house that you can go to that is within distance of your house. If you need to get back quickly you shouldn’t be far from home. My place is near my favorite coffee shop on a crappy sidewalk. Every time I walk there something good happens – don’t ask why it just does.
  2. Find someone to call and vent to about your life. Actors need to let go of their emotions. Some people have therapy (not me personally) but you need to let go of the stress and I promise it’s worth it. Make sure the person you are calling is there to hear you out.
  3. Pick a song to play on repeat all day. Yes, yes, yes I do this too. It channels my energy. You just get into a mode and stay there all day. I believe L.A. is all about how you channel your energy. Wednesday is a good day for this but I tend to do have songs on repeat everyday. Ask my friends because it’s true and I’m sure it drives them crazy but it helps me and that’s all that matters…right? Right!
  4. Read a script. You can find them online. Or you can go to a bookstore and sit in the aisle and read a script. Find a character in the script that you can realistically play. Read that part aloud for a few pages. Trust me – it’s going to be therapeutic.

DAY 4 (THURSDAY)

  1. Wake up like it’s your first day in L.A.. It’s a great feeling to remember your journey from the start. That fresh “I can do anything” feeling follows you around wherever you go and keeps you from being jaded. Personally, I wake up everyday like it’s my first day in Hollywood. But I have had a lot of practice. And it works.

B) Follow up on your email list for that week. “Hi (enter name) I’m just following up on my email with you to meet for coffee. Would love to schedule a day that works for you!” That’s all you need to say. Make sure you are willing to pay for this btw

😉

  1. Dance. Do what you say? This list is ridiculous! No… it’s not. I dance in my house to music. And no – I won’t tape it. Release your energy. You can’t bottle it up and sometimes the gym or yoga class just isn’t enough.
  2. Wear something different. Ohhh, you know that shirt that’s lonely and stuck in the far wall of your closet that you keep looking at but refuse to wear except for a special occasion? Or a perfume or cologne that you are hoarding for your big Oscar win. Yeah that! (Wear it and put it on.) Stop denying the truth. It’s not getting any attention. I did this the other day and felt great. It was a Calvin Klein purple shirt button down that I’m afraid to wear for some reason. I felt happy all day. J

DAY 5 (FRIDAY)

  1. Start a three episode arc on Instagram or YouTube. Get another Actor to do a three episode mini-series on either IG or YouTube. It’s fun, quick to do and keeps you occupied. DO NOT send this to your AGENT! This is just for you to keep your blood flowing! But if it get’s over 10k views for some crazy reason, scream it to the world. For sure.
  2. Buy something for yourself. I know it sounds cliché but it is true to say that you need to buy things for yourself. You can’t be an Actor without giving yourself a reward each week for being in this crazy business.
  3. Find three things you have accomplished this past week and write them down. Find three things that you wish you could have done better and write them down in a column next to that. Now you know what you need to improve on next week and what you need to keep doing.
  4. Plan the weekend. Never get to the weekend without some plan. You don’t want to feel out of touch. Make a plan to go out or watch a movie or play. You need to constantly keep occupied.

YOU ARE AN ARTIST – PERIOD

Never ever, ever, ever, ever, deny the truth. You’re an Artist! You’re going to get there. You have to have patience more than anything and perseverance. You know what you are doing and you have worked hard to get here. Make every day count even if you hate your day job. Find a reason to love yourself and give back to YOURSELF!

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