entertainment industry – Page 24

Everyone has got a f—ing opinion. Opinions can either stall our desires or mislead into self-delusion.

Human nature is wired to focus on the negative over the positive. We’re drawn to it like injury claim lawyers are to car crashes on the Jersey Turnpike. Before shaking your head in denial that you yourself are not guilty of this non-pleasurable foible lets slide down the slippery slope of your psyche.

How many times have you received praise for a performance or deed but then in the midst of that praise there was one critical response? A less than enthusiastic kneel at your feet or rejection at drinking the Kool-aid of your brilliance? Remember that nasty snide remark made by someone who pleasures in pointing out fault over favor? Now that your memory is jogged how much did the one critical comment obscure the plethora of praise? Come on, be honest. It had to irk you a bit. If so, you stepped onto the land mine that is the negative booby-trap.

Screw the negative.

And recall that criticism is a synonym for opinion. Got it? It’s not a judgment chiseled in granite. There is no Supreme Court (other than your parents) handing out verdicts of shame upon you. Only you (and yes maybe the parental units) do that. Stop it. Get away from the negative.

And damn the positive.

Praise positive and critics negative can not be the barometer of which you measure your success or failure. If you focus on either you’ll become lost in a forest of distorted mirrors. Forever seeing reflections that are projections provided by others. Smash the mirrors. Govern your own way out of the thicket of thorns and protective pines.

Pre-P.S. And please, no opinion notes to me that this was an opinion about opinions. Infinity mirrors belong in one of two places; cheap motels with day rates and South Philly row homes.

And yes that was an opinion about having an opinion within an opinion piece. At least that’s my opinion.

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

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Bret Adams, Ltd.

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

Get smarter on the business of acting from legendary Hollywood & Broadway actors and talent agents in a casting director Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book ACTING: Make It Your Business!

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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.

Too many agents, casting directors, directors, and yes even an open-call line crammed with agitated actors can be short-sighted in envisioning truthful optics of what characters actors can portray. Although, some actors tend to be creative (re: delusional) when they envision whom they can inhabit; such as a 4’11” gamine actor who fumes about being ‘short-shortsightedly snubbed’ for a spotlight to personify Abe Lincoln.

Talent agents and casting decision makers don’t sport the rose colored specs as does the “I can play any role” Norma Desmond actor. Talent agents believe themselves ‘realists’ determining who can be what type or inhere a profession. But are their instincts always being honest to reality?

Let’s place on trial your instincts in the casting of a lawyer. You’ll be doing what casting directors and do daily–viewing pictures and determining by look the actor’s appropriateness for the role.

From the three photos below whom would you cast as a lawyer?

Are you certain any of the amiable faces above would fit attorney typecasting: a heartless and cold conniving stereotype that is the fabled assignment as imagined upon attorneys by the public?

All of the ladies are olꞌ friends of mine: an attorney, a real estate investor, and a horse trainer.

Which is the legal eagle?

The brunette on the right. A cherished friend from my adolescence of mullets and Smurfs who failed to convince her mother that pillows lumped under a bed sheet was her dozing best friend.

Now, let’s see how you fare against talent agents’ perception.

From the three photos below whom would you believe to be a doctor?

Choose the third picture? Steven may look like a man with bad penmanship bound for a prescription pad but he’s a wonderful musician and the former music director for the Barter Theatre.

Choose the first picture as our doc? Two talent agents would strongly disagree.

Lawrence was my master class actor/student who portrayed a doctor before a panel of agents.

One agent responded with:

“I don’t think you can play a doctor [from your looks].”

Another agent surmised:

“Doesn’t physically look the part of a doctor in any way.”

Who’s the real doctor of twelve years? The youthful actor-looking gent in the middle. Do you suppose the talent agents would have rejected his appropriateness for ‘looking the part of a doctor?’

Far too often subjective opinions of casting, and those of talent agents, imagine a reality of an actor playing a profession that never matches… reality.

From where comes the misconceptions of who is what by look? It’s taught. Not learned from experience but developed via a distorted perception delivered by media and entertainment to which we become conditioned to as fact. And sadly, I don’t foresee coming anytime soon an expansion of imagination in our industry towards reality. (Unless of course it’s Reality TV for we all know… that’s real… Next!)

My best,
Paul

Share Answers for Actors:

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Follow Paul Russell Casting:

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, Temple and the University of the Arts. 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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Tag: entertainment industry