r/acting

Union actor here looking for some perspective from other working actors. I have a handful of recognizable TV credits, including a major network series. About 2.5 years ago I signed with one of the "top tier" agencies in Vancouver, but since then things have slowed down a lot for me.

In the past couple years I've booked one small role, and auditions are pretty sparse — maybe 1-2 a month if I'm lucky, almost always for very small roles. And I've definitely gone months without auditions. What's confusing is that back in 2021-2022, before my bigger credits, I was getting 1-3 auditions a week and for larger roles.

I know the industry is slow right now and everyone's feeling it, but I'm curious: is this level of slowdown pretty normal at the moment, even with solid credits/representation? Or would you start questioning your reps at this point? Would appreciate hearing how things are going for other actors, especially in Vancouver.

I know it’s a frustrating time in the industry. But every month seems to frustrate me a little more.

I’m a US-based actress from a country whose language is rarely spoken by people that are not our nationality (unlike say, Spanish). I also speak English fluently, since I moved here when I was very young.

Getting TV auditions right now without being a former series regular has proven almost impossible, especially since I’m in a demographic often deemed oversaturated/ultra competitive, but the few times I manage to break through and get seen, it’s because of a special skill. Like for example, speaking this language.

An audition came through last year for a recurring guest. Casting breakdown said: “MUST be a native speaker of X PLEASE. We are casting authentically”. The sides had full dialogue in our native language. I auditioned, and did damn well if I say so, and so did all my other friends of my nationality. We were curious who got the role, as if it was one of us, it would at least be an acquaintance of an acquaintance, and no one seemed to have booked the part. We assumed it was cut out.

The show comes out and yep, an American actress booked it. Who can’t speak the language. At all. Like it sounds absolutely awful. But she was #7 on the call sheet on a show 15-20 years ago (one whose audience is unlikely to cross over AT ALL with this new show’s audience). So as usual, the person with the most familiar face/biggest role on their resume gets the part.

I got some of my first big breaks through special skills, in an industry that increasingly seems allergic to giving even audition opportunities to new talent over age 21. And it’s not the first time this has happened recently.

What exactly are we supposed to do to get a real shot at this point? Because it seems like whoever has the least bit of recognizability or the biggest role in their past is just automatically gonna get these parts now, regardless of talent, work, skill, suitability for the role, or the ability to….you know, actually DO what the role requires. How are you, in 2026, getting actual shots at projects without having massive resumes or being able to produce your own movie?

For context, I have been with my agent for almost three years now. They reached out while I was in drama school, we had a meeting while I was meeting with other agencies and I decided to go with them in the end because I felt like they had shared values and they specialise in diversity. They have quite a good reputation, but I don’t know much about them as their client list is private. The only time I’ve met other actors with my agency are through jobs, and I haven’t met anyone else with my particular agent in this agency. I don’t really have a strong relationship with my agent, we speak maybe once a year or if I get a particularly good audition, but overall I’ve only met them in person once and had a few calls. I mostly interact with their assistant. During the past few years, I have gotten some really good auditions through this agency for really big projects and been seen by big casting directors so I’ve overlooked the fact that I’m not particularly close with my agent. However, this year for whatever reason I feel like I haven’t gotten many auditions at all for things that aren’t commercials. I’m wondering if I’ve been forgotten about or if that’s just the state of the industry in general. But though I’ve gotten these good auditions, I haven’t actually booked any good projects with them, only commercials. I have a fear that because of this, either they will drop me or they have forgotten about me. So I’m wondering if it’s better to leave now and if it is smarter to leave while I still have an agent or if all agents talk and that puts me in a bad light. Any advice would be helpful.

I'm thinking of which acting program in LA to commit to. I've boiled the choice down to the three places that teach the corresponding technique authentically:

- The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute

- The Sanford Meisner center

- Stella Adler Academy of Acting

The Lee Strasberg institute turns out to be about 30$/hour, while the Meisner center and the Adler academy are roughly 13$/hour.

Why is there such a huge price difference? Looking at other popular acting classes such as improv at UCB or Playhouse West classes, they are also within the 10-15$/hr range. What's going on with Strasberg?

I received an availability check from a casting director through my agent last Monday for a theatre tour that I would LOVE to be involved in, so was thrilled that they reached out. I let them know that I was fully available but haven’t heard anything else since. Should I follow up with my agent to check if they are going to request an audition, or just leave it?

My friend referred me and through him I got a meeting with them. Spent a whole hr and I thought it went well? But I followed up a week later and saw they opened my email and never responded. Is ghosting normal? I started cold emailing people on my list of agencies this week and I saw that NO ONE has opened the email. Should I just go do actors connection? Has anyone has success with that?

I am in the NYC market with handfull of credits and handful of national commercial and is a bilingual east Asian but im just feeling like I tried to reach for my dream management team and because they ghosted me ill never have the chance again 🫠 and no one's opening my emails and i should aim for boutique agencies again. Move horizontally instead of up.

Hi all! I’m starting on a film soon, but I’m hitting a pretty big roadblock in my acting due to mental health.

I’ll be acting and often as soon as I try to begin I’ll feel all my emotions (and sometimes later on, thoughts) just “turn off.” It’s a really awful blankness and I end up kind of stuck. For context, I recently went through a traumatic incident, which I think is causing this flareup, and also live with cptsd/bpd. It’s never affected my acting in such an intense way before, though, and I’m quite worried.

I’ve read a few threads on dissociating while acting and mental health, and the consensus seems to be “get therapy.” I’ve definitely been doing so (three types at that), and while they’re definitely helping, I don’t see progress fixing this issue within the film’s time frame.

If anyone out there has dealt with something similar, are there any tips or practices that have helped you better connect with your character and the scene without dissociating, and any advice for keeping your brain moving forward when you do?

Thank you!

I want to become a better actor, but there are literally no classes anywhere near me. I don’t have the money to move anywhere else, but I would love learning this skill. Do I have any real options for getting better?

My daughter (13 years old) is into acting and has been very into it for a while. She’s been in every school play that she’s been able to, is taking acting classes and is constantly practicing. She’s been doing this since she was 10 years old and I think it’s fair to say that she’s gotten real good at it.

I’d like to get her started in a real role but I’m worried her braces might be an issue for her. I know some places are very strict about your physical appearance and some are much more lenient—but I don’t want to break her heart by telling her and then have something that she can’t control be an issue.

I hope I’m not being too paranoid, just a first time mom. Lol.

my budget is anywhere from 50-200 dollars

Hey, looking for some advice/knowledge as a beginner actor.

So I'm pretty young, have wanted to professionally act all my life but my parents forbid it. Without saying much, I recently submitted myself to an open call as a series regular in a TV show on a huge network and within four days I received a callback. This was through Actors Access, and I have never been represented or professionally auditioned in anything before. That being said, I fit the type cast extremely well, and I'm aware of that, and I'm the age range of the character. Additionally, I'm a pretty naturally strong actor so despite not having a solid background/good lighting or anything, I still got the callback.

I know that's a privilege in of itself, I also know upwards of tens of thousands of kids self-submitted for the role I was called back for so I'm grateful. However, I know it's pretty rare to be booked immediately with no experience, but I'm still wondering if there is a chance, and how to be productive moving forward.

I have a few questions for experienced actors/people who might have gone through something similar that I did.

1- How long tends to be the wait between a callback for a TV show series regular role (production filming in July) and the next step, which would be a producers session/chemistry read/second callback? It's been exactly a week since I did that zoom live callback, which doesn't show good for me, but then again the actual callback was two days before the official self tape deadline, and I received the message a week before the self tape deadline meaning I'm wondering if there may be possibly accounting for more people to callback first. (wishful thinking, I'm aware).

2-Although its impossible to read what a casting director thinks during a callback, are there good signs to look out for? For instance, in my audition I was watched by the casting director, casting associate, and casting assistant, and they stayed on with me for around 16 minutes (but I had technical difficulties at the start). I also made the casting director (comedy casting director of 33 years) laugh at one of my line deliveries, so that was nice, I think. And we did 2 takes of 2 different scenes, both in which they asked me to adjust something and told me it was a good adjustment. I'm wondering if these experiences I had are pretty standard and they are just being nice, or I did impress them (even if not booking). It was friendly, I didn't feel like they were disinterested, and so I'm just wondering if there is any way to interpret it. One thing though is that the casting director kind of quickly said "thanks for submitting to the open call, and have a good night" at the end when leaving, and I'm not sure if that's because they had another person to meet up with directly after, or they just wanted to cut the time with me.

3- Where to go from here?

I really want to get signed with an agent but without parental guidance, it's tough. I also would like to know if there would be any way to increase my chances for booking this role, but I know most advice is to just forget about it. I kind of want to ask the casting associate for the recordings they took of me when I was performing in the callback from a self-improvement standpoint, but I'm not sure she'd oblige.

I think, understanding the fact I got a callback this huge without lighting, a proper background, any experience, or an agent, proves I do have potential. And I have drive that can back that up. I'm wondering how to break through because I don't intend on doing small productions for the rest of my life and want to achieve big things from the point I am at right now. What can I do right now to level up my chances of becoming greater and pushing myself out there to the world?

Thank you for any advice, I really appreciate anyone's help. I know this is an industry that brings you down but I truly don't care, I'm going to be something because it's the only thing I plan on fighting for for the rest of my life. Thank you.

I'm filming a scene with an actor soon that's a 3-minute monologue that ends with them in tears for the final 20 seconds or so.

I have the edit very meticulously planned out and I know that I'm going to cut to a close-up of the actor for the tears at the end.

For the more general medium shots/coverage, what's the preferred course of action? I don't really want to make the actor perform a breakdown 5 or 6 times for parts of takes I know I'm definitely not using, and also risk fatiguing them for the big CU.

I could end the master early before the breakdown to avoid them getting emotionally fatigued, or they could simply perform that part in a lower gear for the coverage so they save themselves for the big CU shot? Or I could shoot the CU first, but I'm not sure how conducive that would be to most actors' process, to just jump into the breakdown without the monologue before it.

Basically I want to respect the actor's process and do whatever makes sense for them, I guess I can ask before shooting, I just want to make sure I won't offend them by offering to call cut early or have them tone it down before we get to the CU we'll definitely be using? Thanks!

So, I have a new actor website that includes headshots, bio, reel, agent info, link to social media. But what exactly do I do with it. How can I be strategic with it. I welcome suggestions!

I’m talking about holding the fork in their left hand and knife in the right hand and then taking a piece of food up to their mouth with the fork upside down. This is referred to as the European style of using utensils and I’m pretty sure I have never actually seen anyone eat like this in real life. But if you pay attention, you will notice that a lot of actors eat like this in dinner and lunch scenes. Is this something actors are taught or they just think it looks more sophisticated? Sometimes it takes me out of a movie when an American character who has no reason to eat like this does so.

I worked on a gig late February. Received session fee late March. Saw it aired by mid-April. Now it's mid-late May. When should I be receiving the buyout paystub? I contacted the producer last week, followed up this week and haven't heard back. Is there a protocol for non-union gigs if producers don't respond in good time?

Hello Everyone! I've recently been trying to get into acting/voice acting and so far, I've been running into a constant and consistent issue. Throughout my whole life, I've been someone who will talk to himself almost ad nauseum, doing voices, or just thinking things out loud whenever I thought them. More specifically, I've been someone who can sing, pretend to do scenes from shows and movies without a care in the world, besides minor potential embarrassment. For context, I am, more than likely, autistic and very much tone deaf, according to those around me, as well as my cadence not at all matching a normal person's (Shown high signs but never been diagnosed officially, this will make more sense in a moment)

The reason I say all this is because when I've been sitting down and trying to find potential roles to audition for/rehearse, it feels as though my brain itself can't break out of its cage and play the part. It only ever feels like me performing a simulacrum of the character rather than the character performing through me. I know that I'm fully capable of getting into character, especially when I'll pretend to do whole music videos on the spot just from listening to the lyrics and performing interpretive dance type stuff. I'll spend a few days or a week going through the audition scripts/monologues, come up with scenarios and settings to match what was given to me, but when I put it out there, it sounds awful. It feels as though I am ashamed of the walls hearing any kind of performance. I'm not overtly anxious or socially awkward, mainly just can't make eye contact, and I only try to perform when I'm alone, so I don't know

I guess I'm mainly asking if this is something that is normal for someone who is new to acting/voice acting or is it something that I genuinely need to tackle before beginning to find any kind of success or progress?

(Sorry if this was slightly disjointed, just trying to ask this question before I forget to ask it)

I am new to this industry, so I am still learning.

Yesterday, I saw a talent agency in my area looking for people who match my demographics for a commercial, so I submitted my information to them. They followed up with me in the morning, asking to submit more details.

Today, I saw a post from a casting agency looking for people in my area who match my demographics for a commercial. "What a luck!" I thought. They are really looking for Central Asian talent." and submitted my information to them as well.

I just realized that I might have submitted my info to two places who are casting for the same project. Am I screwed? I don’t want to get blacklisted by either of them.

This year has been really hard, like I feel like I should quit hard. I got dropped by my LA agent along with losing my 17 year old dog in the same week. Didn’t book much last year either and auditions were slow. I was feeling so lost, so much so that I paid someone to get my fortune told so at least I know another career that will be better suited for me (it was fun but didn’t really help tbh because at the end of the day, acting will and is my forever dream)

Yesterday I got an audition for a small but important role for a SAG feature film. For the first time the breakdown was aligned including the physical descriptions (I’m SE Asian), and I get to show my range with the script, even with just one line. I taped and forget, didn’t think much of it and today, I received an email from my agent that I booked it and they said that the director really liked my reading. Took me 30 minutes to process and now I can’t stop crying in the best way possible because what?!! I don’t even know who the director is or the name talent attached, where this is gonna get screen or even if my scene will make it. But its going to be my first time in a SAG feature film, second union job after 5 years and first booking of the year!! Its true what they say, every no’s you get, the closer you are to your ‘YES’. By all means this might not change/boost my career, but its a sign that I should keep going. Hope anyone who’s reading this who’s been in a rut like me can keep on going too 💟

Hi there, I just booked my first National SAG Commercial as a principal. I'm so excited. It shoots this Friday. When do you typically receive the contract from your agent? What can I expect on set? What type of pay do people normally make as a total (session rate, I know)? This was the breakdown given. TIA!

Usage / Run

Class A National Cable, Local Cable, Wild Spot, Traditional Digital Streaming Platforms (including Traditional and all other digital uses), Gaming Platforms/Virtual Worlds/Augmented Reality Theatrical/Industrial BTS: If agency/client elects to film non-broadcast industrial videos (behind-the-scenes video & brand essence sales video), we intend to pay Category II scale rates pursuant to the current SAG-AFTRA Corporate/Educational Contract

Hi everyone, I just got cast in a student film and I’m very happy about it. However, my character needs to kiss another character. The actor playing this character is a senior in high school. He is 18, but I still feel very uncomfortable doing so. I know it’s legal, and I know it’s my character doing the kissing, not really me, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether or not I’m overreacting, or if you think doing this would be morally wrong. I’m 23F