One of the best skills for you to learn as an actor is how to talk about yourself, your background, and your credits in a positive way without sound fake or arrogant. Almost every actor I’ve met feels their credits are woefully inadequate for what they want and where they want to get to!
It becomes challenging to brag about a couple of non-union films you did for little to no pay when you’re trying to get cast in your first or next Co-Star or Guest Star Role on a TV series, let alone a nice Supporting Role in an upcoming Limited Run Series on Netflix.
But if you’re meeting with an agent or a manager and you’re trying to get them to take you on and submit you for these roles, you somehow have to milk these babies — these credits and training you already have — to make them sound like SOMETHING! But it ain’t easy, so what can you do? That’s what I’m about to cover.
First, let me be clear about one thing: Don’t lie. You don’t have to pretend Leonardo DiCaprio was in your short film out of charity, lol. You also don’t have to go out of your way to tell the agent that you didn’t get paid for it or you just got a small day rate. In other words, don’t lie, but don’t confess negative things either. The agent can already see they don’t know the film, so they already know it was not a big deal — although if it was a big deal, you have to let them know why it was a big deal.
If you’re going to be having some kind of meeting about your acting experience, you should be prepared to be able to discuss your background with confidence and without concern, no matter what your credits look like.
Here are five tips for making your acting credits and other things on your acting resume sound their best when you discuss them.
1. Be prepared to discuss anything on your resume.
Review each line item on your resume including classes and special skills and be prepared to discuss them in a positive way.
Whatever your resume looks like, make sure you’re ready to explain each and every item on there. Some actors who are reading this article have been pursuing an acting career for at least five years if not 25, and you have most likely done a lot of crappy projects for which the only thing you got was another line on your resume. Every actor does crappy projects early on, and you may have forgotten what some of those projects were. Or you may have to think about it for a minute to remember.
Countless times, when I’ve done Role Play Practice Interviews, I’ve asked an actor about a given credit and they had to think about it for a minute. Or they may have had difficulty discussing it because it was a negative experience. The actor had really done the film, but they hadn’t thought about how to discuss it.
When this happens in a real meeting, you lose a few points right there because it becomes awkward. A simple fix for that is to simply review your resume beforehand and be prepared.
Come up with a short sweet answer explaining the project and your role in it. If the plot is complicated, don’t try to explain it — as a matter of fact, the agent is not asking you for the plot — so don’t explain it at all. They might want to see what kind of role you played to think about your casting — or they may simply may want to get a sense of your personality by engaging with you.
Either way, your best bet is to be prepared to discuss any item on your resume.
2. For every credit and line of training on your resume, come up with an interesting little anecdote (story) about it by preparing an answer to the question “Tell me about this…”
Preferably, you should have a short little story about every item on your resume that you can tell in a fun way. Not that you will tell a story every time someone asks you about it, but it’s good to have it ready.
If you loved the project, you could talk about why you loved it. If the project garnered attention for some reason or other, you can mention it. If you worked with Name Talent on it, this is an opportunity to drop the names of those people. When you work with name talent, that helps give the project more credibility. People in this town associate you with success when you work with established talent, so don’t be afraid to drop names in a nonchalant way!
When you come up with a fun story about a given credit, it takes the emphasis off of the credit itself and makes your personality shine. Think about Actors being interviewed on talk shows when they’re promoting a film. Yes, they talk about how great the film is so the audience will go see it, but they always have a story to go with it. It may look like they talked about it off the cuff, but sometimes the host will even say, “I heard that you and Brad Pitt made an interesting bet while working on this film…” — and the actor will run with the story.
The whole idea is for the actor to promote the film while coming across as likeable and personable to the audience. When you’re talking about your credits, do what you can to lend some kind of credibility to your project or your role in it, but even if there’s not much to talk about there, let your personality show up in HOW you talk about it, so the agent sees you would be great to work with. Have fun with it.
Ready to pitch yourself so people listen? Check out our Agent Meeting Role Play Session. In this hour long meeting Smart Girls Founder Melody Jackson will coach you through a mock agent meeting to help you overcome all concerns you have about pitching yourself and discussing your credits in a positive way, including answering the dreaded question “Tell me about yourself.” Learn the number one thing to prepare to take the edge off off your nerves and be at your best.
3. Don’t be dismissive of a project because of how small your role was.
You’ll find that it may be fairly easy to talk about the credits you know are strong. But on the other hand, I’ve seen actors play down a project that was great because they had such a small role in it. Don’t do that!
The idea is not to lie, but no reason to play something down and say, “It was a great film, but I only had one scene in it.” Instead, simply talk about how it was great fun to get to work on the project and especially to see such and such person in action.
4. Tell what you got out of that project, what you learned or what you took away.
If you had a small role in a great project OR if you have a big role in a no-big-deal project, you can always talk about what you got out of it, what you learned, or what you took away. You could say — as I did once — “Even though it was a really low budget film, it was a lot of fun getting to shoot in the desert and carry a rifle wearing a bikini — at least one time! Of course, that’s not what I want to do going forward, but campy stuff can be fun… and it just reminded me how much I love the filmmaking process.”
Back in the day, that was a project I did and it was a credit on my resume. Of course, after I got more credits I took it off of my resume because of the kind of credit it was; I’m not suggesting to leave every campy credit you’ve done on your resume.
But when you are building your resume, I suggest you put most of your actual projects on it. For a crappy credit, just have fun talking about it — especially if it fits with your branding at that time. Not every credit is going to be a role fit for Meryl Streep or Laurence Olivier. Just recently multiple-Oscar winner Tom Hanks said, “I’ve done about four good films in my life.” Four good films? Really? I can name five good films he was in off the top of my head!
The point is every actor will criticize their own projects at some point. But if you’re great to work with and you learn something, you can at least be sure to come across as someone great to work with when you talk about those projects. — It also just so happens that Tom Hanks is known for being one of the best actors in Hollywood to work with, from crew to other actors to background talent — By everyone he is known as being great to work with. And that is a very, very good reputation to have — and even more importantly, a great way to be as a human being.
5. Speak about your credits very matter-of-factly.
I’ve found there are two kinds of actors in the world: The ones who make everything they do sound like the best thing ever and those who make everything they do sound inadequate.
Okay, not really… most actors are somewhere in between! My point here is that if you try to play something up too big, then you sound naive and if you play it down too much, you seem to lack confidence. The way around that is to talk about them in a matter-of-fact but fun way.
No matter how great a project was, if you play it up TOO MUCH, then it’s off-putting because there’s always something much better; yet no matter how bad it was, likewise, there’s always something worse. Don’t speak in hyperbole about any of your credits. Try to find a neutral but light-hearted manner of speaking about each and everything on your resume.
And — a bonus tip — it’s great to talk about how your classes have helped you grow as a person and in your craft. But be careful about coming across as that being the end goal. Personally, I think that’s one of the greatest benefits you get as an actor — you grow personally when you diligently develop your craft. But remember an agent wants to represent you and make money off of your talent. If you’re going to talk about your classes and personal growth, always tie it into how it makes you ready to audition and work.
And there you have it!
Whenever you think you might be in a situation to pitch yourself as an actor, always refresh your memory of your credits on your resume AND come up with a fun, little story about each and every one of them. While this may sound odd if you are just starting out with your acting career, you’ll find out soon enough that you’ve done so many projects of all types that you hardly remember what some of them were.
By following these tips, you’ll be much more interesting to the talent agent who is thinking of taking you on. You’ll also be miles ahead of many other actors with your interview skills and selling your credits — and making them sound good — which, in turn, also makes you more charismatic.
If you would like support in applying these tips, you may want to have Melody work one-on-one with you in an Agent Meeting Role Play Session. In this hour long meeting Melody will take you through a practice session as if you were meeting in person with an agent or manager or even at a networking event. You’ll get to practice your pitch and discussing the items on your resume in a positive way. You’ll go through how to answer the dreaded question of “Tell me about yourself…” and overall, you’ll learn the number one thing to prepare that will most help take the edge off off your nerves and be at your best.
Meanwhile… go out there, Be Your Great Self, and let your freak flag fly!