10 Mistakes Beginner Actors Make
Here are the Top 10 Mistakes beginner actors make. These are mistakes I've seen pop up time and time again and some that I have made over the last 10 years. The goal here is not to criticise or judge but rather to inform and educate as these mistakes tend to happen regularly. Let's get straight into it.
1. Overacting
Actors tend to want to emote or show an emotion to the audience. This often takes the form of cliche reactions. If you are angry, the tendency is to scream and shout. If you are looking at something joyful like fireworks, you are smiling from ear to ear. A prime example of overacting is in some adverts. If the character is in pain it is often exaggerated pain.
Ways to stop overacting.
- People watch: Look at how everyday people would react in various situations. Watching documentaries and interviews are great resources.
- Question your first instinct: Sometimes our first instinct tends to be cliche or stereotypical. Ask yourself, Is this reaction stereotypical? What are some different ways I could do this? Remember you are not acting for preschoolers you don't have to emote.
- Get feedback from the director: Your relationship with the director is an important one. Simply ask the director if it "wasn't too big" or "let's try another but with less emotion" etc. This way you have another, hopefully more experienced, set of eyes on you.
2. Not listening
Acting is reacting and part of reacting is listening. Beginner actors tend to not listen to what is being said by their scene partners. I am not just referring to the specific words spoken, but also how they are being said.
This is incredibly important during rehearsal as actors and directors experiment with different approaches. Sometimes the best things happen in the moment. More experienced actors will often play around by emphasising different words or providing different attitudes toward a situation.
Your job is to listen to how it is being said and react according, acting becomes incredibly easy if all you are doing is reacting. A great way to learn or practice this skill is through improv classes. I will preach this till I die. A lot of actors don't like to improv but there are tons of great skills you can pick up by attending a monthly session.
"Acting is reacting and part of reacting is listening"
3. Articulation
There are a lot of young actors who tend to not pay attention to the ends of words. Remember this is not mumble rap. We, the audience need to hear the words that are coming out of your mouth.
Focusing on consonants will help tremendously. The danger here is to overdo it. You don't need to hit every single consonant all the time. No one talks like that, but making sure you are paying special attention to the end consonants of each word, even slightly will help provide better clarity on what is being said.
Here are some articulation exercises you can add to your daily routine, which leads to the next point.
StageMilk always has great resources, I recommend checking out their YouTube content well.
4. Not practising
With anything in life, the more you practice it the better you will be. You want to be a better guitarist, you practice, you want to be a better runner, you practice. You want to be a better actor. You practice.
You have to put in your reps. This includes articulation exercises and even practising monologues. You do not have to put it up on YouTube. You can just google any of your favourite movie's monologues and do it for yourself.
This is something I've been chatting to a lot of actors about and noticed that not many actors do this and it makes no sense when you think about it. If you want to get better at something, you practice it.
5. Too many pregnant pauses
I did this a lot. A pregnant pause is when you add an unnecessary silence to the dialogue. The keyword here is 'unnecessary'.
Silences are powerful things, but they need to be used carefully. If you overuse them they tend to slow down the scene and also take away from the weight of an important moment. A good way to practice this is to not overvalue every piece of dialogue. Sometimes you just need the words to flow. It might feel unnatural but as an audience member, it feels a lot smoother.
You can now save that 'pause' for just before or after you drop that important news.
6. Going after fame
This is where I'm going to get a little personal. This was me for the better part of 8 years. I was chasing the fame of acting. I wanted the red carpets, the photoshoots, the fancy Hollywood actor lifestyle.
Only recently I have changed my "why" into something more concrete and grounded. I would encourage you to sit down again and investigate your reasons for wanting to be an actor.
If you are seeking fame, you may tend to be very invested in vanity metrics; followers, likes, events. Fame is not acting. Fame is a byproduct of hard work and you don't have to be famous to be an actor. Hollywood actors only make up a very small percentage of the total acting population.
And just between you and me, if you want to be famous there are far easier ways to fame than acting.
7. No energy during the slate
During the slate, you introduce yourself and provide important information to the producers and directors on the other end.
At many of the castings I have been to I have seen actors introduce themselves in a monotone-low-energy way.
Imagine for a second you are on the other end of the video and actor number 52 pops up with low energy almost as if they have better things to be doing.
That's not a great first impression. Bring energy to it. The energy I'm referring to is a willingness and happiness to be there. You don't want to be bouncing off the walls, but you at least want to grab their attention when they come across your tape.
Something I am trying at the moment is just to do a little jump just before my slate. This just gives me a bit of energy right before I speak. Try it out and see if it works.
8. No showreel or demo reel
It doesn't have to be long nor should it be, 1:30min is fine. If you do not have any material for your showreel yet just pick 3 scenes that show off your range and get some friends to help you film and edit it. It will not be the best but it will at least be something to show someone. Often at times, they will ask for a demo reel or showreel just to see what you look like on camera. Start early with this process.
Here are some helpful video links
9. Not embracing imperfections
Hollywood has created a warped standard for actors. We think that we all have to have the perfect body, washboard abs, skinny waist and high cheeks. This is not the case.
We are moving into a trend of embracing different stories. Your 'imperfections' make you incredibly unique. There is no one else on this planet who talks the way you do, there is no one else who looks the way you do. no one with your laugh, no one with your smile.
Embrace the fact that you are unique AF and you bring something different to the table. Too many actors try and fit into a bucket that was not designed for them and this leads to immense agony and pain. You will be far happier as an actor if you learn to love the uniqueness you bring.
10. Not enough patience
We are all on our own timelines. I've had many chats with actors, who, straight out of acting school want to land leading roles in every project they work on, I was that actor. This is not going to be the case for 99.9999% of actors. You need to think of the long game.
You also need to have patience when it comes to; waiting for an answer after a callback, payments will be late more than they will be on time, and you will go months without a single email from your agent.
We are all still so very young in this industry. We have so much to learn. If you live with gratitude and leave nothing but kindness wherever you go. Your time will come. I don't think I am anywhere near my time yet. I think I still have 15 years before I even begin to taste the peak of my career and understanding that makes this journey a lot easier.