Before The Oscars: John Hawkes
February 18, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film, Performing Arts News
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting careers? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
John Hawkes
Nominated for “Best Actor In A Supporting Role”
Film: Winter’s Bone
Role: Teardrop, the menacing uncle of a young girl who is searching desperately for her missing father.
How he got started: John Hawkes decided to pursue a career in acting after seeing Arthur Miller’s The Crucible at The Guthrie Theater when he was a sophomore in high school. While living in Austin, Texas, he started a successful theater company called Big State Productions with a few of his out-of-work actor friends. Hawkes moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career and appeared in numerous movies and TV shows before landing a starring role in the HBO series “Deadwood.” He also starred in the critically acclaimed indie film Me You and Everyone We Know, as well as Identity, American Gangster and The Perfect Storm.
Other notable films: A Slipping Down Life, The Perfect Storm, Identity, American Gangster, Miami Vice and Hardball.
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Before The Oscars: Helena Bonham Carter
February 17, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting careers? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Helena Bonham Carter
Nominated for “Best Actress In A Supporting Role”
Film: The King’s Speech
Role: Queen Elizabeth, the loyal wife of King George VI who urges her husband to seek help for his paralyzing stammer.
How she got started: Born in London, Helena Bonham Carter never received any formal acting training. She started performing when she was 16 years old after landing a role in a television commercial. Her first film was Lady Gray, which she followed up with Academy Award winning movie A Room With A View. In the beginning of her career, Bonham Carter was often typecast as a “corset queen” and played several early 19th century characters. She diversified her career by appearing in films such as Charlie and The Chocolate, Big Fish, Alice in Wonderland and the Harry Potter series.
Other notable films: Twelfth Night, The Wings of the Dove (Academy Award nomination) Fight Club, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd: The Barber of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Before The Oscars: Jeremy Renner
February 11, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film, Performing Arts News
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting careers? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Jeremy Renner
Nominated for “Best Actor In A Supporting Role”
Film: The Town
Role: James Coughlin, a dangerously unbalanced bank robber who takes a teller hostage.
How he got started: Freedom of emotional expression is what attracted Jeremy Renner to a career in acting. In college, he was paid $50 to play a domestic violence violator during a police training exercise. This role-playing exercise sparked his interest in theatre and he decided to study drama at the American Conservatory Theatre. He moved to Los Angeles where he continued to do theater, as well as some other work in television and independent movies. His first commercially successful movie was S.W.A.T. with Colin Farrell. Last year he received an Oscar nomination for his role in The Hurt Locker.
Other notable films: S.W.A.T., 28 Weeks Later, The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, The Hurt Locker (Academy Award nomination)
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Before The Oscars: Amy Adams
February 11, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting careers? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Amy Adams
Nominated for “Best Actress In A Supporting Role”
Film: The Fighter
Role: Charlene Fleming, the determined girlfriend of a boxer whose controlling family is harming his career.
How she got started: Amy Adams started her acting career doing dinner theater and waiting tables in Boulder, Colorado. Her first film was the 1999 comedy Drop Dead Gorgeous. A few years later, she landed a role in Catch Me If You Can, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. In 2005, she was nominated for an Academy Award for her breakthrough role in the indie film Junebug. Adams also received a Golden Globe nomination for starring in the Disney movie Enchanted and another Oscar nomination for playing Sister James in the film version of Doubt.
Other notable films: Catch Me If You Can, Junebug (Academy Award Nomination), Enchanted, Doubt (Academy Award Nomination), Sunshine Cleaning and Julie and Julia
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Before The Oscars: Jesse Eisenberg
February 10, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film, Performing Arts News
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting career? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Jesse Eisenberg
Nominated for “Best Actor In A Leading Role”
Film: The Social Network
Role: Facebook developer Mark Zuckerberg a young man whose computer expertise far outweighs his social skills
How he got started: Jesse Eisenberg began acting at a community theater when he was 9 years old while attending a performing arts school in New York . He made his Broadway debut as an understudy in a revival of Summer and Smoke. In 1999, he landed a role in the TV series Get Real, which was canceled a year later. After that, he starred in a few independent films that opened to positive reviews (Roger Dodger, The Emperor’s Club). In 2005, he appeared in West Craven’s horror flick Cursed and the indie drama The Squid and The Whale, starring Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels.
Other notable films: Roger Dodger, The Squid And the Whale, Adventureland, Solitary Man and Zombieland.
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Before The Oscars: Annette Bening
February 8, 2011 by Deanna Chew
Filed under Film, Performing Arts News
How did this year’s Academy Award nominees begin their acting career? Find out in The Daily Actor’s “Before The Oscars” special feature.
Annette Bening
Nominated for “Best Actress In A Leading Role”
Film: The Kids Are Alright
Role: Nic, a successful doctor who has raised two children with her female partner and must confront the problems that arise when they seek out their biological father.
How she got started: Annette Bening started acting when she was in junior high and landed a lead role in The Sound of Music. She continued to study theater at Patrick Henry High and Mesa College (both in San Diego) then graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in theater arts. She made her theater debut in an Off Broadway play with Tim Daly at Second Stage Theatre called Coastal Disturbances (for which she received Tony Award nomination). Shortly after, she starred made-for-TV movie Manhunt for Claude Dallas. In 1988, she made her big screen debut in the hit comedy The Great Outdoors with Dan Akroyd and John Candy.
Other notable films: The Grifters (1990 Oscar Nomination), American Beauty (1999 Oscar Nomination), Mars Attacks!, The Seige, The American, and Being Julia (2004 Oscar Nomination).
The 83rd Academy Awards airs on February 27 at 8pm. For a list of nominees, click here.
Why Actors Need Websites – 6 Money Saving Tips
July 19, 2010 by Erin Cronican
Filed under Columns
Imagine this: You are in your car (or walking to the subway) and you suddenly get a call from a casting director. They are interested in submitting you for an upcoming project, but need to forward your headshot & resume to the director within the next 30 minutes. You’re not at your computer, so you cannot email your materials to them. And you’re nowhere near their office, so you cannot just drop by with a physical copy of your headshot/resume. What can you do?
Or, imagine this: You are networking at an event (like the Tribeca Film Festival) and you have met so many people that you have handed out your last copy of your reel. You run into an agent who has seen you on stage, but comments that he would like to see your film work. He asks if you have a reel to give him. Sadly, you don’t, and it will be at least a week until you can get more duplicates made. What now?
If you are a business-minded actor, you would have a website and neither case would have been a problem! You could simply tell the casting director, “Drop by my website, where you can download a copy of my headshot and resume, both formatted for printing.” And for the agent, you would be able to say, “Here’s my website. Not only do I have my reel posted, but I also have clips from a few of the other projects I have done, including some singing and a few commercials.”
Having a website is one of the most important promotional tools an actor can have, second only to a good headshot. A website allows you to provide interested parties with a more full look at your body of work, your personality, and the way you run your business. And it allows them to do it in their own time, at their pace and leisure, which is vitally important in the larger, more competitive markets. The easier you can make it for a CD/agent to get to know you, the better chance you have of making an impact with them.
How To Feel Confident And Give Great Auditions
July 9, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Columns
HOW TO GIVE GREAT AUDITIONS BY CHANGING YOUR FOCUS!
Hello fellow actors!
I’m thrilled to be able to share my years of experience as an on-set and stage actor and over 15 years of teaching and coaching actors. Some of the topics I’d like to cover include; how to have sexual chemistry at auditions and on set, the secret to playing bad guys, cops, lawyers, FBI, judges and prostitutes; how to break down audition scripts; how to get more depth and vulnerability as an actor and much, much more!
For my first column I’d like to address:
How to feel confident and have a great time at your auditions.
The incredible technique I’m going to share with you is based on the work of Jerry and Esther Hicks, who introduced the secrets of the law of attraction years before the huge success of the video and book, The Secret.
According to Esther and Jerry Hicks we are always either focusing on what we want or what we don’t want. When you’re unhappy, nervous, angry, etc it’s usually because you are focusing on what you don’t want. “I don’t want to be lonely, I don’t want to have so few auditions, I don’t want to be poor”, etc. The secret to shifting your mood in general and specifically when you audition is to focus on what you do want and how you DO want to FEEL at your auditions and on set.
So here’s a simple process for preparing for an audition:
First, imagine yourself on the way to an audition for a part you really want. try to focus on how you are feeling.
FOCUS ON HOW YOU ARE FEELING
Usually if you’re honest, you’ll say, for example…I feel nervous, I feel excited. I feel anxious. I feel like I’m not even right for this role. I feel unprepared, etc.
Top 11 Reputable Casting Websites
June 29, 2010 by Erin Cronican
Filed under Columns
One of the things that can get me incensed as a career coach is when casting websites pop up promising to give actors access to stardom. Some sites make it sounds like an actor’s big break is just around the corner, and all they need to do is pay a fee and they’re in! But most actors know that success comes with good training, strong relationship building, and the ability & wherewithal to seize an opportunity when it presents itself (also known as tenacity.) The trouble is, even the smartest actor has heard at least one rags-to-riches story, and the allure of a quick win sometimes overshadows common sense.
So, to combat the many unscrupulous characters baiting actors with empty promises, below you’ll find are 11 of my favorite reputable websites where casting notices can be found.
Actors Access
Backstage
Actors Equity Casting Call
Playbill
SAG Indie
Now Casting
Casting Networks/LACasting.com
Casting Networks/NYCasting.com
NYCastings.com
Mandy.com
Craigslist
Any of the others not listed here typically have the same notices that are on the above sites. If you are in LA or NY, I would caution you if paying to use any website other than these listed- it probably wouldn’t be worth the money. Of course, there are exceptions and I am sure a new website will come along and blow away the competition. But as of now, the above sites are the most reputable for those in the major markets.
Three Tips To Finding An Agent
June 3, 2010 by Lance Carter
Filed under Columns
Three Agent Tips
by Dallas Travers, CEC
One of the most common complaints I hear from actors involves finding the right representation. Snagging a solid agent or manager can be tricky, time consuming, and expensive. A lot of actors experience the old catch-22: “I need an agent to get work and I need work to land an agent”. What’s an actor to do?
Whether you feel like you don’t have enough time or money to grab the attention of an agent, or you question whether or not you’re ready for representation, you can begin planting seeds with prospective agents easily and inexpensively. All you need to do is commit to these small steps.
Apply a Laser Beam Focus
I’m a big believer in “doing less more often”, so narrow your agent list to a manageable target group of about 10 agencies. Ask for recommendations from fellow actors and any industry connections, such as casting directors, producers, acting coaches, etc. Do you have a peer with representation whose career you admire? Research their agency. The Hollywood Creative Directory, available as a reference book in many libraries, and IMDB Pro are good resources to help locate names and contact information for anyone in the industry. Don’t forget to plug in to online forums such as the Hollywood Happy Hour Yahoo Group. You will be amazed by how easily you can access up to date information about any agent you may be researching.
