Acting: Make It Your Business

How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor

Paul Russell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781351382045
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

In ACTING: Make It Your Business, Second Edition, award-winning casting director Paul Russell puts the power to land jobs and thrive in any medium—stage, film, television, or the Internet—directly into the hands of the actor.

This blunt and practical guide offers a wealth of advice on auditioning, marketing, and networking, combining traditional techniques with those best suited for the digital age. Well-known actors and powerful agents and managers make cameos throughout, offering newcomers and working professionals alike a clear-eyed, uncensored perspective on survival and advancement within the entertainment industry. This second edition has been updated and expanded to include the following:

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• More stars of screen and stage sharing acting career strategies

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• Digital audition techniques for screen and stage, including how best to self-tape

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• New tools to master modern marketing, both digital and traditional with innovation

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• Expanded actor resource listings

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• Additional bicoastal talent agents and managers spilling secrets for obtaining representation, and tips for successful actor-to-representation partnerships

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• New insights on audition techniques

An excellent resource for career actors, beginning and amateur actors, as well as students in Acting I and II, Auditions, and Business of Acting courses, ACTING: Make It Your Business provides readers with invaluable tools to build a successful, long-lasting acting career.

chapter 1

Working Actors Speak Out

Candor and the Business

“There’s so many moments when you have this little internal, ‘Oh my God, I’ve arrived!’ You know you never have, really. And then in a certain way you’re never not. You’re part of this world. And you’re struggling to do it like we all are.”

—Kelly AuCoin
Actor

As you read this book, occasionally you will find candid insight from respected present and past working actors giving their viewpoints, advice, and criticism on a number of subjects, including the business of acting, training, auditions, rejection, and career survival.

When I began this project and decided to include the voices of working actors, I never thought that I would, in a way, be casting for my book. Upon reflection, that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t want celebrities (although you may find some here). I wanted the voices of working actors who I knew to be successful at having ongoing careers. I wanted actors of varying visibility; not everyone included had to be a household name. Most of the working actors included are industry names; they are known among part or most of the industry but not necessarily recognizable to all civilians.

The Working Actors

I assembled my cast aiming to include actors who had diverse and successful professional journeys. Some found themselves working predominantly in TV and film, while others ventured primarily into theater either in New York or the regionals; still others gained employment in all three mediums. Whatever the journey, the reality of being an actor is that you may plan for your destination, be it film, TV, theater, or all three, but occasionally you have little to no control over where the road will eventually lead you.

Of the actors whose ideas and impressions we’ll explore, some will be recognizable beyond our industry borders, such as screen and stage actress Selenis Leyva (starred as Gloria Mendoza in Orange Is the New Black). Another familiar face on television joining The Working Actors is Kelly AuCoin (The Americans and Billions). You’ll meet the hyphenated actress-playwright Kate Hamill, who created work for herself with the widely popular stage hits Sense and Sensibility and Pride or Prejudice. Other actors we’ll meet include Robert LuPone (Emmy and Tony Award nominee), Michael Mastro, Mark Price, and Phyllis Somerville—thespians widely regarded for their performances on and off Broadway, as well as on regional stages, while also crossing over into film and TV. Then there are the journeyman actors, Darrie Lawrence and Bonnie Black, who both boast career longevity but who perhaps enjoy less name recognition within the industry. However, their thriving careers are nonetheless impressive in the regional and Off-Broadway theater scenes, national tours, and/or in supporting roles on Broadway. Black and Lawrence’s careers reflect those of the largest percentile of working actors.

During the book’s First Edition shelf life, and subsequent writing of this current edition, some voices of The Working Actors within left us in life: twice-Emmy-nominated Charlotte Rae (widely remembered for her role as Mrs. Garrett on television’s The Facts of Life) and James Rebhorn (a principal in over forty films, including The Game and Independence Day, and he starred in the TV hit Homeland). The wisdom they shared remains relevant and vital to an actor’s journey. I couldn’t let their voices fade; I owe a service to you and to them. We learn best from those who came before us.

No matter what level of visibility, all the actors included have one common denominator: During their careers, they worked nearly consistently. Their professionalism and grounded vision of the business has earned them each respect from their peers and their audience. In this chapter, we meet The Working Actors.

Selenis Leyva

Selenis Leyva, co-star of Orange Is the New Black (Gloria Mendoza), has a street and an accompanying sign honoring her. But that marker heralding her name doesn’t place Leyva as being out-of-reach as is the sign honoring her high above the Bronx macadam in the borough where the Afro-Latina actress grew up. Despite the celebrity signpost honor, which could detour peers onto a path of aloofness, Leyva is warmly accessible—grounded. Kindness and her heritage are key to who is Selenis Leyva.

Born of immigrant parents—her father escaped Cuba; her mother is Dominican—Leyva vociferously, and proudly, proclaims herself from the Bronx. And it’s that borough’s hardscrabble, grounded, rough-and-tumble persona with a welcoming heart that backbones Leyva to seemingly freely envelope characters with a tough exterior that protects an inner vulnerability. In Orange Is the New Black as Gloria Mendoza, a fiercely protective mother who for years ran the Litchfield Penitentiary kitchen, Leyva brings a heartbreaking and soulful performance that endears viewers to the good-humored actress. Her inspiration for Mendoza’s devotion to family is more than likely grounded via Leyva’s home life. A single mother herself, Leyva’s priority off-screen is family. Her second priority is her extended family—a prolific career.

Selenis Leyva

Photo by Paul Gregory

Leyva’s first professional job as an actress was as a principal on Law & Order. “I was a prostitute,” Leyva said, laughing. “I’ve been everything on Law & Order.” Leyva appeared in twenty-five episodes of the Law & Order franchises. Both as a guest star or in a recurring role. Leyva recalled her initial Law & Order. “That was my first on set, and I was so nervous. I had a scene with Mariska [Hargitay] and Chris[topher Meloni] … And I sat there, trying, you know, to keep up. Feeling very conscious of everyone in the room. I was like, ‘Wow! There’s so many people in this room!’ ” Leyva laughed at the memory. “I remember Mariska and Chris said, ‘You’re going to be just fine. You’re going to be working for a long, long time.’ And at that age I thought, ‘Wow. That’s cool. They’re stars. Maybe it’ll come true.’ ”

Hargitay and Meloni were prophetic. “Working for a long time” Leyva has. And from her work, Leyva has received an Alma Award for Special Achievement in Television. Apart from being a series regular on Orange Is the New Black and her Law & Order appearances, her lengthy list of television credits include (but aren’t limited to) Veep, Madame Secretary, Blue Bloods, Person of Interest, Third Watch, Girls, The Good Wife, and The Sopranos. Many of those credits include multiple appearances for each title—a rarity of success for an actress. Her film credentials are just as extensive: Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Place Beyond the Pines, Custody, Sex and the City 2, plus providing voices for two Ice Age movies. And that’s only a sampling. Leyva has many more films on her résumé both studio and independently produced. Theatrically, Leyva has appeared at David Mamet’s The Atlantic Theatre Company, New World Stages, Repertorio Español, and elsewhere. Oh, and then there’s the occasional celebrity guest appearance on talk shows, including The Daily Show.

For Leyva, the impulse for acting arrived early. “I think it was something I couldn’t even put into words when I was very young,” she recalled. Leyva’s inspiration began at home; among family. “Downstairs,” she said, “I literally stumbled upon an old collection of encyclopedias. And in those encyclopedias were all these plays. One of the plays I picked up was Lorca’s Blood Wedding. I couldn’t understand what the words meant but there was something magical in them. I remember being lost in that. I held onto that Lorca book for a while.” Several years after discovering Blood Wedding Leyva encountered an additional fascination involving acting. “As I got older I was watching the telenovelas with my parents—I would have to sneak in and watch them from a corner of the room…. I loved all of that. I felt myself getting lost,” Leyva said of the Spanish-language dramas. Her love drove her to an impulse. “I would go, and lock myself in my room, and then act out all the scenes I had just seen. That went on for years!” I asked Leyva if her parents had ever discovered her bedroom telenovela reenactments. She laughed, and said, “Yes. I’d have a scarf on my head or a hat. I had props to invent the different types of people. It became such a routine, such a part of my life that my parents were like, ‘Oh, there she goes again.’ Like it’s not a big deal.” Her parents weren’t alone taking notice of Leyva’s blooming acting frolics. “My brothers did tease me growing up. And they were just like, ‘You’re so weird. Don’t pay attention to her. Look the other way.’ I always remind them that whenever we’re at cool places, now thanks to my newfound celebrity, I’ll go, ‘Remember the sister? The weird sister? Yeah, she’s the one who got you those Yankee tickets.’ We have fun with it now.” Leyva laughs. Leyva continues to hold the wonder of that young Bronx girl who discovered a play with words she didn’t understand.

Long before Leyva found herself being a celebrity, she didn’t know to where, or how, to pursue her fascination for acting, not until she surreptitiously saw a movie about others emboldened with the dream of acting. “I was too young to see it,” Leyva recalled, “but I’d sneak in the room and peer from the side.” What was too adult for Leyva’s young eyes? Fame. “When I watched that movie I said, ‘Wait! Is there a school that exists like that? Because if there is I need to go there.’ ” Leyva auditioned for the school and was accepted. “It was like love like I never felt.”

Now don’t think that the path for the Afro-Latina’s career and celebrity was as accepted as easily as was her one audition to a performing arts high school. People along her journey wanted to change who she is—although not always. “At LaGuardia High School they do all these techniques to lose your accent.” Surprisingly, the tailoring of Leyva’s accent wasn’t for off the rack. “I remember walking into a room and I’m this Afro-Latina that they want to sound like I look. And I was like, ‘You know what? There’s nothing wrong with me embracing who I am. And banking on that. And, yes, I could do many versions of myself.’ ” It’s Leyva’s self-awareness that is the foundation for her fervent belief that actors discover themselves. “Know who you are. And don’t be apologetic about it. And stop apologizing about being a Latina from the Bronx. And I started embracing that.”

Embracing one’s differences while trying to work in the homogeneous Wonder Bread that can be Hollywood (and occasionally Broadway) is almost always challenged. I asked Leyva what encouragement she had for actors of diversity. “[The industry] has gotten a little better …,” she said. “But it’s still a work in progress.” While progression remains evolving, Leyva encourages that “actors continue to prepare themselves. Continue to do classes or [be] involved.” She advises a path of proactivity for actors of diversity. “Know that there are … opportunities for you to write your own stuff. A podcast. A web series or whatever. Put yourself out there. There are so many ways of expressing yourself. If you are a good writer or you know someone who is a good writer … sit down. Write a script. Write a story. Do something. Write a play. I think that some of us get so scared of the idea of writing and being creative …” Leyva described her own past doubts for her writing. A fear that manifested itself into her thinking that if she began writing it meant, “I was giving up on acting,” she said. She overcame fears but not alone. “I have a wonderful friend [who] said to me, ‘You have to write. You have to write for yourself.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah writing for myself doesn’t mean that I’m giving up on me as an actor. It just means that I’m opening up other possibilities.’ So, I am writing now. ...