Movie Star?

Recently we hit the 50 actor mark in our show.  That means 50 different people have been in our little set and under our direction.  That’s a lot of people when you  take a step back and think about it.  It’s been a great learning experience to work with so many people.

Before we started this project I knew that we’d be working with a lot of younger people.  I remember thinking, for some of these actors, this might be their first real opportunity, even if it’s a small-time web project.  I thought, who knows, maybe one of them will go on to become a movie star and “The Vault” will be their first project.

I was having a conversation with someone recently who asked me, if I had to pick, who did I think would “make it big.”  Who could be a movie star someday?  I’ll give you my opinion.  I put that in bold because it is just an opinion.

Someone who is going to make it big has to have the following traits:

1.) You have to really want to do this.  There is too much rejection and disappointment in the entertainment industry, especially for actors, to only sort of want to do this.  I think a lot of people we’ve worked with have the desire to do this for a living, but I don’t know if it keeps them up at night.  It probably should.

2.) You have to actually be able to ACT.  Before we started this I might have said that there isn’t a huge talent difference between most actors.  I know there is a difference, but a huge difference?  I didn’t think so.  Now I see there is a difference between actors, and you can usually tell pretty quickly.  Can someone take direction and change the way they are doing something?  We for sure have had people that can and can’t.  It’s our job to get what we need out of people, but some people are better at it than others.  That’s when you realize it’s not a given that anyone can “act.”  Maybe people can get a part down, but could they do it five different ways?  I think that’s a smaller group of people.

3.) You have to be professional.  This sort of kills me.  If you can’t show up on time, learn your lines at least somewhat, get back to people in a timely fashion, it’s not a good sign.  Personally I’d rather work with someone less talented but went about their business in a professional way than someone who is flaky and unreliable.  I’m willing to give people a chance, but there are some people who make a habit of being unprofessional.  To them I say good luck, because you better be damn good.

4.) You need a plan.  This is where a lot of people screw up.  Your plan is to, essentially, buy a lottery ticket and hope someone calls your numbers.  What you should be doing is figuring out how you are going to get from A to Z without needing a miracle.  I’ll tell you something interesting.  There are actors in this show who got in because they figured out how.  If you really wanted to, you could get in this show.  Maybe not as easily today as you could a few months ago, but it doesn’t take a miracle.  I know people have gotten parts in other projects because they were in this show.  It all starts somewhere.  Figure out how it’s going to happen for you.  Give yourself a real chance.

There are a bunch of other things that I think are going to help you, but those four to me are pretty good starting points.  Notice I didn’t put things like knowing people or working really hard.  You should bust your ass and you should network as much as you can, but I think if you are following the four things I mentioned you’ll find yourself doing that.  I could think of a dozen other things, but they probably won’t matter without those four.

So who in “The Vault” do I think is going to make it big someday?  Someone.  Here, I’ll narrow it down for you: