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Becoming a Leading Actor
By Louis Foxfire

You may already have a list of tips and tricks for a great acting career in Hollywood. You might have great headshots, an impressive resume, and a reel that you're proud of. You're ready to blow your potential agent away, you're prepared for any audition that might come your way, and you just know the audiences will love you. Great! But there's one more thing. How do you get famous? You know that you've gotta be in exciting blockbusters and entertain the pants off of the public, but how do you get into them in the first place? You've heard about actors being so high up the cinematic food chain that they just get offered roles, and of course, it's because of the movies that they were in before that. But how did they get into those movies that came first?

Salary - $0

To start from the beginning, you're going to have to work scrub jobs with all the other wannabes. Before you even get an agent, you'll probably be working on student films, doing little independent projects, or maybe even making your own stuff for experience and for your demo reel.

Salary - $500 - $1,000

Once you're ready to take the next step, you need to get an agent. This won't be any cakewalk, but it's not like trying to win the lottery. Once you've impressed them enough, your new agent will do several things for you. First, they will receive breakdowns from casting directors and producers looking for certain types (looks) of actors. At this point, you won't have any say in the movies you do, so just be prepared to pay your dues and start building some real credits. If your type matches what they're looking for, your agent will send your headshot in, and if they're interested in seeing you, your agent will set up an audition. Your job is to just kill your audition, and when you're filming, stand out a bit so that people will notice you. You'll want to exercise creativity and humor to do this, otherwise you'll just be another prop like all the other bit part players.

Salary - $2,000 - $5,000

Once you graduate from these (and your agent, impressed by your growing success, starts investing more energy in your career), you'll start getting better auditions. Some of these might be in the form of leads in tiny, little movies, and some of them might be semi-supporting roles in bigger movies. Again you'll have to keep killing your auditions, and wooing all who watch you when you get on camera. Remember, many of the people who see you on the big screen will be other agents, casting directors, producers, directors, writers, and others who may be impressed by your performances, so give it your all. In the event that another agent takes interest in you, they may buy you out from your smaller agent, and you'll literally move into a position with more bargaining power.

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