Paul Russell

Despised may be too gentle a verb. I once loathed, hated, and had no respect for a portion of my fellow auditioning actors: the gossip-pools that saturated audition studio hallways. They flowed from one building housing audition studios to another. The flood of critical chatters never was (and is) a dry riverbed of snarky surreptitious opinions. When I was an actor, the worst offenders were non-union actors with too much mouth and too little empathy for peers. Or the non-union actors who had circled the stock and dinner theater circuit but never electrified their auditions for the brighter jobs of LORT theaters, Broadway or the then lucrative AEA Broadway tours. Tied for worst were the AEA actors that for lack of talent, personality, or other reasons hadn’t many paying gigs beyond SPT or LOA contracts; their resumes a dumping ground for forgotten showcases attended only by begrudged friends. Why my fervent dislike for these actors? What was their offense? Blatant backstabbing, disrespect for their fellow actors, the entertainment community, producers, and casting directors.

Young and ignorant of the casting hierarchy as I was as an actor I unfortunately was also a sponge silently soaking up the bad mouthing rippling my way. Waves of sniping followed by the speaker’s and their audience’s giggles against the people-behind-the-table for which these actors were about to audition. But… I didn’t absorb the voiced assaults that actors-without-filters had for their fellow auditioning actors.

My audition routine always required one item I bring. A book. A rescue I hoped would draw my attention away from the actors in hallways backstabbing the actors in an audition studio. Some of the Brutus tongued would press their ears to the audition room door. Others had their eyes peering through curtains or the chipped paint on a window. Once the audition room door clicked shut the clique immediately excreted their verbal bile.

“Did she get that potato sack from the Salvation Army?”

“A monkey did her make-up.”

“If he thinks he’s a tenor, I’m Pavarotti.”

“She reads the scene like a zombie on speed after inhaling helium.”

“He should’ve stayed home. Allow this time for a real actor.”

Those actors of the late 20^th century were the equivalent of today’s Fox News. All noise. No substance. Little wit. Often an embarrassment. Our freedom to express openly opinions is never to be suppressed or discouraged. Dialogue seeds growth. Tilling the ground without seeding prompts the sprouting of weeds. The dishonest persons who plant relationships, and then surreptitiously poison the field encourages witnesses to yield their own false harvests.

Some years later when I jumped the audition table to sit behind that unfortunate barrier I rarely encountered past verbal bile clan members. Most disappeared into civilian life. A few have slithered up the ladder to the industry projects (Broadway, screen, and larger regional theater) of my past and present. They audition for me at open calls. I politely welcome and thank each for coming in. If after one of these spoilers of fraternity exits, and then a creative on our team speaks of an interest in the actor I simply say, “He/she wouldn’t be good for company morale.” The actor’s picture and résumé plops atop a large pile of actor résumés for whom no further interest is warranted.

I noticed that when I began auditioning industry and household name actors and the journeyman actors who are often employed; the actors backstabbing fellow actors in audition studio hallways subsided substantially. Maturity rises with each rung up entertainment’s ladder.

Yet, immaturity, and divisiveness continues. The clique has a new forum beyond the hallway. There are online message boards where bitching is encouraged to fester and breed in a digital petri dish. Anonymous unpoliced trolls post vilifying commentary to online articles. This allowance for keyboard courage encourages bad behavior in our 3D pursuits.

I cast in studio complexes where a new generation of the gossiping clique thrives. After I returned from my lunch break of a recent open call I posted on my Facebook profile my TODAY’S TIP.

One of the two chatty actresses above attended the open call after my lunch. I welcomed her.

She auditioned. After she finished singing I genuinely complemented her singing. I then said, “I think we rode the elevator together today.” She didn’t recall. (Fortunately I’m not always recognized when out and about but it has been happening more since the book and articles.) I thanked her for coming in. After she left I placed her résumé atop the large pile of actors for which no further interest was presently warranted. Unfortunately I don’t have a separate pile for permanent lack of interest due to bad actor behavior. But… under my home-office desk is a shredder. And what a cathartic snarling sound it makes as it rips through an actor who brings to mind the gossiping actors of my youth who shredded swaths of my idealism.

My Best,
Paul

Casting Directors, Talent Agents, Directors & Actors

Love the Best-Selling Book for Actors
ACTING: Make It Your Business!

“Humorous and witty…

Actors everywhere who are trying to succeed in the business, young or old, on stage or on camera, anywhere in the world, take note:

This is your roadmap!”

— BERNARD TELSEY, casting director – CSA
(NBC’s Peter Pan – LIVE!, Into The Woods – The Movie, Wicked, Sex & The City)

“All the right questions asked and answered…
and with a generous portion of good humor.”

— SUZANNE RYAN, casting director, CSA
(Law & Order, Unforgettable)

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Paul’s book tells you what you don’t want to hear but really need to know

EVERY actor should read this book!”

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Harden-Curtis & Associates

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— KAREN ZIEMBA, TONY & Drama Desk Award Winning Actress

“Paul Russell’s words are not only blunt & accurate they zero in on all the questions every actor wants to know but is afraid to ask!”

— KEN MELAMED, Talent Agency Partner
Bret Adams, Ltd.

“I had my Business of Acting, BFA Seniors, class do book reports on a variety of “business of acting” books and ACTING: Make It Your Business came out a clear winner—considered to be essential for their bookshelves!

— Dr. NINA LeNOIR,
Dept. Chair – Dept. of Thtr.
Chapman University

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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at universities including Yale, Elon and Wright State University. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

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An actor’s career is doomed for failure unless they ask themselves and then informatively answer a vital question for success:

“What’s my professional goal?” That larger-than-life ambition I quietly covet; the ambition I share only with myself as I lay pondering in bed? The same lofty aspiration(s) whispering only to me while I patiently wait outside yet another audition room’s door? A dream that I fear family or friends will jeer? A destination kept so secret so as to side-step snarky observations from peers and professional nay-sayers. Come on; you know you have a professional fulfillment yet to be sated. That sparkle of idealism that exploded in your imagination when first you dreamed of being an actor; an artist. Perhaps you don’t have a goal… or you do and you have no idea how to seize your career’s wheel to steer your work away from careening into a ditch. Either way—goal or no idea of a destination—how’re you to get where you desire your career to flourish?

Recently, I was counseling an LA actor via Skype. He was lost in finding an answer to whether he should remain career-locked in LA, which hadn’t uncaged his desires, or should he bolt to New York? Chicago? Somewhere… anywhere that would offer him wider avenues of work. The actor’s problem, like for a percentage of actors (my past former actor-self included), was that he was aimless. He was seeking solutions not objectives. He wasn’t setting goals. “Plural, not singular,” I informed the actor. To reach his destination city several goals must first be set. He disagreed stating he’d only one goal, “I want to be a working actor making money at what I love to do so I can eat and pay bills.”

“That’s not a goal,” I replied. “That’s life. That’s everyone’s hope.” I further explained that if survival—which is what he was describing—were his goal then where are the actors with the goal of being a working actor who don’t want to make money at what they love to do so they can eat and pay bills; actors against earning income? “What’s your first goal?” I pressed him. He was silent; possibly pondering: You’re the one I hired to tell me Paul Russell. He restated his desire for my advising of which market (LA, NY or CHI) he should next set root to nurture and grow his professional life. I refused to give him a location. I advised what the varying markets have to offer an actor. I then added, “Your first goal is to set a deadline for deciding on your next goal. A deadline for when you must decide whether or not you’re serious about abandoning LA. When you meet that goal; then the next goal is to set a deadline for setting upon your city of choice after you have made the decision to alter your career’s path.”

In the actor’s profession he may or may not want awards, mansions, and pick of projects. But should he want the golden trifecta of acting acclaim then mini-goals must be first set. Meeting and passing each goal like risers on a staircase. There is no end goal. There are only goals. Plural. For if your goal is like one of my past students who wishes to win all three major acting awards I ask you this as I prompted him; “Then what? But before the ‘after’ what are you doing with your ‘before?’ What goals are you setting for yourself to arrive at; claim; and then continue onward to other goals that eventually lead you to your penultimate goal(s) and beyond?”

The LA actor wrote me afterwards that he had set his first goal; a deadline for deciding. But what he didn’t realize was that he already had met a goal; a riser met and passed on his career’s climb. He reached out for help. He contacted me.

Like destinations on a globe mapping Earth we can choose discovery—goals—arriving at a desired city, continent or geographical feature like the Grand Canyon. But the globe’s circumference will taunt the traveler with additional discoveries beyond each point met. More goals to explore. But first; you must traverse points of interest to reach your Grand Canyon. To maintain career momentum: set multiple goals that you must visit in order to get you where you wish your career’s love to flourish. Only by setting mile-marker goals will you reach a desired destination. Remember though—there will remain a horizon beckoning beyond what you believe is your final goal.

My best,
Paul

Casting Directors, Talent Agents, Directors & Actors

Love the Best-Selling Book for Actors
ACTING: Make It Your Business!