I’m a Great Actor. Why Can’t I Get Cast?

Robie Hager in “Dream, The Musical”. Photo courtesy of the Author.

If you find yourself posting questions like the following…

• How can I get an Agent?
• Is (name of school here) any good?
• I’ve auditioned (number here) times, called back (number here) times and don’t get any further. What am I doing wrong?
• Will getting my MFA suddenly propel me to success
• Etc.

Apparently, you haven’t learned the most important factor controlling your success or failure as an artist.

What is that factor?

Supply vs. Demand

Why do you think having a sustainable career as a performer involves something called “BREAKING IN”?

The demand for actors is infinitesimal compared to the supply of people wanting to pursue it as a career. Pre-Covid, my back of the napkin calculation using statistics from the 2018 AEA annual report indicated an effective annual unemployment rate for union actors and stage managers of roughly 86%. Of the 14% that did work the median annual income from professional work was about $7,500. The film industry doesn’t fair much better. A longitudinal study of data from IMDb by researchers from Queen Mary University in London, published in 2018 (NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2019)10:2256) found that roughly 70% of actors with IMDb entries had a career of less than one year.

Because of the vast difference between supply and demand, over the years conventional commercial theater, film, etc has developed two contradictory faces.

1. The “NO” face — This is the face that creates barriers to entry. Fundamentally, its purpose is to prevent the massive number of people wanting to work from overwhelming the very small number of actual decision-makers responsible for the financial success or failure of a project. The number of “NO” faces you encounter is exponentially greater at the bottom of the ladder than at the top. Because of this, by the time one reaches the top rung you’re competing with a tiny number of alternatives. A number that the decision-makers can thoughtfully consider. In other words, all the battles you win or lose on your way up the ladder involve finding a way to get past gatekeepers. Sure, talent and technique are (usually) a necessary must-have. But there’s far more of that around than is needed. Getting past the gatekeepers involves figuring out how to “BREAK-IN”. How to become an actual consideration in the mind of the decision-makers. How to become someone that a decision-maker actually thinks about rather than just another headshot on a table of hundreds of others.
2. The “YES” face — This is honestly where most of the money is made in the business. And it’s not made by performers. The training you paid for, headshots, managers, agents, unlimited number of people offering pay to play, thousands of college/university BFA and MFA programs pitching how their program produced this or that actor. These individuals and institutions promise (some earnestly) that their particular offering will give you an “edge” that will somehow allow you to “BREAK-IN” and get the “YES” you so desperately want. Think of it. Most of the “YES” faces you see are people who were once trying to “BREAK-IN” and gave up. Sure they have a few credits on IMDB or an entry or two on Playbill, but they got tired of the day to day battle and moved in a direction that felt a little less like going out each day and slamming their head against another proscenium arch.

No judgement from me. But it’s easier to be a gatekeeper on the inside looking out than one of the thousands crushed up against the gate trying to get in.

What’s the real solution?

Ignore both the faces.

If you have the entry-level talent and technique needed to do the job stop obsessing about it. Sure, keep growing, studying, improving. Being an artist is a lifestyle, not a destination. But don’t listen to the “YES” faces telling you that their school, agency, class, etc is going to somehow provide the missing link that will finally allow you to “BREAK-IN”. At best, it’ll provide a small contribution.

The way forward?

Conventional theater and film are changing in ways unimaginable ten years ago. Why? Well, Covid to be sure upset many an apple cart. Ongoing labor contract issues have been destabilizing things in a big way. Live theater suffers from the dual challenges of shifting audience demographics and exorbitant ticket prices. Finally, studios are wrestling with a streaming strategy that didn’t work out the way they wanted.

But, more important is the way technology is affecting the fundamental nature of entertainment and art. Here’s just a few examples…

• Who could have imagined five years ago that rights holders would be crawling over each other figuring out how to get educational and amateur theater to stream productions as a way to revitalize revenue flow during Covid.
• The impact gaming technology has had on virtual and augmented reality, high-quality live streaming, virtual productions, etc. will increasingly inform and shift the way we produce live performing arts events. The idea of live theater being limited to “butts in seats” is gone forever.
• The gatekeepers are becoming unnecessary and redundant. Who would have imagined self-tape auditions becoming the primary entry point for casting a decade ago?
• We now live in a world where artists like Billie Eilish can startup her career and create Grammy-winning work in a small bedroom using equipment that’s affordable to almost anyone.
• TikTok is now the new onramp that allows artists to develop direct connections with their audience. No gatekeepers needed.
• It’s possible now to fit up a small black box theater almost anywhere with multi-camera full 4k live streaming and expand its audience to the world. This allows access to an audience of millions in addition to the 80 “butts in seats” the Fire Marshall blesses. Finding an audience and delivering inspired, excellent content is what will determine success or failure. Not gatekeepers.
• AI is not going away. It continues to accelerate at close to exponential speed sweeping away categories of jobs in its wake. This is a double edged sword. The day when a dozen talented creative artists can create a film with the same production value as Poor Things for pennies on the dollar is not far away. You can either wait for your agent to call, or get busy.

It’s time to stop looking at the “NO” and “YES” faces and realize that the only face that matters now is “YOURS” and the faces of other artists you’d like to collaborate with to bring projects to life. Projects that will find an audience that’s now no further away than your closest wi-fi hotspot. The biggest opportunities for creatives are no longer tied to a few major market throughout the world. You can do it wherever you want.

Those who cling to the dying paradigm will miss becoming part of the new one. Do what artists do best.

Get out there and create!