Episode 399: Stages Every Actor Goes Through

The Career Stages Every Actor Goes Through

There is a coaching phrase I keep coming back to.

It gets better, it gets worse, it gets different, it gets real. And then it starts again. Better, worse, different, real. Over and over, sometimes all at once, sometimes so fast you can barely tell which one you are in.

That is an acting career. And honestly, that is most creative careers.

So today I want to talk about the stages, because here is what I find is true for so many actors I work with. They are not failing. They are just in a different stage than they think they are in, and that changes everything.

Everyone Else Is Moving Forward and I Am Stuck This is the quiet belief that a lot of actors carry around. And whenever we compare ourselves to other people what we are really doing is telling the universe we are in the wrong place. But you are not in the wrong place. John over there is just in a different phase. That is it.

Compare and despair. It is one of my favorite little sayings because it is so true. Comparison creates panic, and panic is absolutely useless unless it is your character who is panicking. Leave the drama on the stage.

When you understand the stage you are actually in, the path forward gets a lot clearer.

The Training Stage This is where you are focused on skill and craft. Studying technique, learning how to audition, learning how to work on camera, building those very first relationships in the industry.

And so many actors want to skip this stage, which I genuinely do not understand. Improv classes and acting classes are fun. That is why we want to do this in the first place. It is joyful. So why would we rush past it?

The desire to get representation immediately, to land big auditions right away, I get it. But I so strongly believe that opportunities come into our lives when we are ready for them. Without that training foundation, the opportunities that do arrive are very hard to sustain.

The Positioning Stage This is where a lot of actors get confused. You can already be a strong actor, but casting still does not know where to place you. And sometimes that is because you do not know where to place yourself.