Advice For Actors

10/09/2026

California just signed a law that requires ads to disclose it when the performer isn't human. Governor Newsom signed SB 1050 on September 16th, and it takes effect January 1, 2027. New York passed the same requirement back in June, so the two biggest ad markets in the country both now require the label.

Here's the part that actually affects your bookings. Right now a brand can swap you out for a synthetic performer and the audience never knows. This law makes that swap visible, sitting right in the ad. A company that wants to look trustworthy now has to explain, in the ad itself, why it didn't hire a person.

That's not a booking guarantee. Plenty of brands will run the disclosure and not care. But some will look at that label and decide the reputational cost isn't worth the savings, and that's the opening this creates for you.

SAG-AFTRA helped write the actual language in this bill, which is the part I want commercial actors to sit with. This didn't fall into place. It got fought for, in a statehouse, by people whose job is protecting yours.

If you book commercials or industrials, this is worth reading past the headline. Two states down. Watch which one goes next.

10/08/2026

Every time Meisner training makes the rounds online again, actors ask me the same question: is the repetition exercise actually useful, or is it just an acting-school ritual.

It's useful, and it's boring on purpose. Two actors face each other and repeat a line back and forth. You're not allowed a clever variation. You're only allowed to react to a real change in the other person, a tightened jaw, a longer pause, a laugh that wasn't there a minute ago. Actors doing this for the first time quit around the third minute because doing nothing but listening feels like doing nothing at all.

That's the point. On camera, the lens reads the difference between an actor waiting for their cue and an actor actually listening for it. I can spot it in a self-tape in the first ten seconds, before the line even lands. It's the same reason a scene can be technically correct, every beat hit, and still feel dead.

If you've never done a repetition drill, do it with someone tonight. One sentence, five minutes, no plan for where it goes. It will feel wrong the entire time and that's how you know you're doing it.

Where do you notice yourself planning instead of listening: on tape, in the room, or both?

10/07/2026

Casting offices are running self-tapes through AI screening before a human ever hits play. The software checks headshot quality, matches resume keywords against the breakdown, and flags lighting and audio problems before a casting director sees anything.

None of this judges your acting, it decides whether your tape gets opened. Match your headshot to the type in the breakdown instead of submitting your best all-purpose shot. If the breakdown says warm and approachable, don't submit the intense dramatic photo, even if it's the stronger picture. Keep your resume language close to the breakdown's own words, because the first pass is a keyword match. And the setup basics still matter: clean audio, a background that doesn't compete with you, a slate that's over in five seconds.

I tell actors this every time AI comes up in class: the software is a filter, not a judge. Getting past it is a production job, not an acting job, and it's one you can control completely.

Has an AI-screened submission process changed how you're building your tapes?

10/06/2026

My latest article - yes, there is a LOT of AI and tech in this industry, and you have to know how it can work for you and against you!

Learn how AI casting screens actors before a human reads the submission, what it scores, and three moves to protect your career this week.

10/06/2026

Casting directors keep your unused self-tapes on file. That's the part actors never think about when they're panicking over lighting.

SAG-AFTRA ran a panel of casting directors, and their notes were about setup, not performance. Background a different color than your shirt so you don't disappear into the wall. Eyeline right next to the lens, not down at your script. Slate should say your name and the role, nothing longer. If the scene calls for screaming, pull it back and let post-production carry the rest, because a blown-out mic gets your tape skipped before anyone judges the acting.

Fix that stuff once and it stops costing you auditions you were already right for.

The tripod question comes up in every class I teach. You don't need one. A stack of books with your phone on top does the same job. Put the money you'd spend on gear toward more tape reviews instead.

Here's the piece that changes how I think about a tape that doesn't book: casting offices hold onto submissions that didn't land the role. A clean, watchable tape from six months ago can put you in the room for something else entirely. A sloppy setup costs you twice.

What's the one self-tape habit you had to break?

Source: https://www.sagaftra.org/casting-directors-dish-self-tape-tips

10/05/2026

Regional theatres are posting their 2026-2027 season calls right now. Syracuse Stage wants video submissions for The Book Club Play by October 1st. Alabama Shakespeare Festival is casting As You Like It with callbacks in NYC in early October. Montgomery Theater in PA runs a full season call October 26th. Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh is casting a world premiere through November.

That's four theatres, four deadlines, all in the next few weeks. This is how you build a season instead of chasing one gig at a time. You submit to what's casting now and you're working from January through May.

I tell my actors the same thing every fall. Submit to five things this month, not one. Sign up for BroadwayWorld's audition alerts so the calls land in your inbox instead of you finding them three days late. Look up who owns the rights to the show you want through Concord or MTI, then go straight to that theatre's site instead of waiting for it to show up on a casting board.

The actors who work steady in regional theatre aren't more talented than the ones who don't. They submit more often and earlier.

What's on your list to submit to this week?

Source: https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Audition-Season-is-Here-How-to-Find-Auditions-20260920

10/02/2026

Titanique closes on Broadway this Saturday. SIX, & Juliet, and Stranger Things: The First Shadow are all currently set to close January 3rd. Four shows, four casts, all losing steady work in the same stretch of the calendar.

Here's what nobody warns you about the week a long-running show ends. The paycheck doesn't taper off, it stops. You're employed Sunday and not employed Monday, and most of the cast waits until closing night to think about next steps, which means everyone floods the same audition rooms at once.

If you're in a show with an announced closing date, do this now, not on the last night. Get your reel footage while you still have access to the costume, the staging, the lighting. Reach out to your network while you can still say you're in a Broadway show, not after you're the actor who just closed one. Book auditions into the final weeks instead of waiting for your schedule to open up on its own. Save from the next three or four paychecks, not just the last one. Ask your agent what's casting for January while you're still working, because January is slow and everyone else is job-hunting at the same time you are.

Watch who keeps working after a show closes. It's usually the actor who already had the next four weeks planned, not the most talented one in the cast.

Anyone been through a show closing? What's the one thing you wish you'd done in the last month instead of waiting?

Source: https://www.broadway.com/broadway-guide/9/broadway-shows-closing-soon/

10/02/2026

The bad audition. The difficult director. The show that feels like torture.

In many respects, there is good hidden in these bad situations. But let's be clear. Once you control the emotional reaction and look at the situation objectively, you can ask the more useful question:

What’s the second act here?

Dwight D. Eisenhower reportedly viewed a massive German counteroffensive not simply as a disaster, but as an opportunity to draw the enemy into a trap. Same battlefield. Different perspective. Different options.

That bad situation may be forcing you to develop boundaries, communication skills, or leadership you never had to build before. That string of “no’s” may be exposing a weak audition, a vague performance, or a preparation problem you can finally fix.

Adversity can produce adversarial growth and even post-traumatic growth, but only if you stop letting the obstacle write the entire story.

So what’s the second act in the obstacle you’re facing right now? 🎬

Share it below. Perhaps seeing it clearly is the first move toward using it.

10/01/2026

SAG-AFTRA members just voted on the new TV/Theatrical contract. Only one in five eligible voters cast a ballot. Ninety-one percent of that fifth said yes.

The deal runs through 2030 and does two things worth watching. It puts real limits on synthetic performers for the first time, and it starts merging the SAG and AFTRA pension funds, which stayed separate for fourteen years even though the two unions merged in 2012.

This affects you even if you're not in the union. Non-union productions follow union paperwork sooner or later. The synthetic-performer language in this contract is the reason a producer will or won't hand you a digital-replica release to sign next year. Read that clause before you sign anything, union or not.

One thing to do this week: find the actual synthetic performer clause, in this contract or a friend's, and read the sentence yourself. Don't take a headline's word for it.

Eighty percent of eligible voters sat this one out and the vote still passed nine to one. Does that make it a mandate, or does it mean the outcome never depended on the people who stayed home?

Source: https://www.sagaftra.org/sag-aftra-members-approve-2026-tvtheatrical-contracts-tentative-agreement

10/01/2026

Stop trying to “sound” dramatic.

That’s one of the fastest ways to make a performance feel manufactured. Style is not something you paste onto a scene because the play is labeled “heightened,” “naturalistic,” “comedic,” or “period.” It emerges from the truth of the material, the director’s concept, and your specific inner life. Your job is not to demonstrate a style. Your job is to digest the circumstances, pursue the objective, and make the character’s reality personal.

The shape, rhythm, sound, and physical life will show up when the actions are truthful. Observers may categorize the style after the work is created. You do not need to walk into the room wearing an external label like a costume. 🎭

So before your next audition, ask yourself: “What am I actually trying to get from this person?” Start there. Not with the accent, the attitude, or the “version” you think they want. What happens when you stop imposing a performance and start pursuing the truth? Share your answer below.