How do I become an actress in Australia & LA?

January 14, 2009 6:59 PM

Attention all Thespians: Help me become an actress in America! I would like to move to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, but would also like to get some experience in Australia (on the Gold Coast) before I go.

*Posted for my Wife*

I am a 25yo old Australian woman who is interested in moving to LA to pursue an acting career later this year.

I have very limited experience in this industry (I have not done anything apart from drama classes in high school about 10 yeas ago) so am looking to take classes once I’m there.

Ideally I would like a school that helps me with everything (head shots, demo/audition reel, helping to get auditions etc) not just teaching.

Can you recommend a school that you’ve been to and has helped you, or one you know of with a good reputation? I have done some internet searches, but the results are overwhelming so would really love any recommendations you have.

Also, if there are any Australians reading this, I would also like to take some classes before I go to build up my experience and start a resume. I am located on the Gold Coast and would love to get some Extras work, or do some theatre etc.

posted by ranglin to media & arts (10 comments total)

Do you have a visa already?
posted by k8t at 7:02 PM on January 14

Do you have the immigration issues dealt with already? If not, that might be a showstopper (it's not like there's a shortage of aspiring actors in LA).
posted by winston at 7:03 PM on January 14

Visas are not an issue. We are planning on going on the new E-3 visa
posted by ranglin at 7:05 PM on January 14

I am not at all trying to be snarky when I say that learning to act needs to figure more strongly in your plans. Of course, being a good actor is not necessarily a prerequisite to becoming an actress, but gaining more experience to even determine if this is the right career for you would be useful if your only experiences were in high school.

Australia has a very vibrant film industry. Why not try to get your legs wet closer to home before making such a big leap and move? You wouldn't be the first Aussie to get some experience under their belt before heading to Hollywood. I'm talking more than a few months experience. Consider, actually making a name for yourself before you go.

Have you considered your dialect? If you cannot convincingly do various American dialects, your casting choices will be limited.

I'm coming off a bit negative, but understand it is a very difficult business and extremely competitive. Many, many people go into it without enough training and information, expecting an easy ride to stardom. The truth is far more prosaic involves lots of hard work and sacrifices.
posted by typewriter at 7:17 PM on January 14 [3 favorites]

Here is a great blog by Jenna Fischer of The (American) Office, which tells her story of being a struggling actor in LA and has advice for actors. There's a lot of good stuff in it, and at the bottom she gives the contact info for her acting coach and specifically recommends one of his classes.
posted by warble at 7:32 PM on January 14 [4 favorites]

ranglin: E-3 visas require a job offer for the primary applicant (as it is the employer who files the paperwork), so I assume you have that in hand already?

90% of actors in Australia are unemployed, let alone all those in the US. If you have the time and savings to do this, go and enjoy learning the industry, but be prepared for spells without work.

Gold Coast: there's always Movie World, that's how Sophie Monk started out. Community theatre would also be a good start, call and see if they have open casting.
posted by wingless_angel at 7:52 PM on January 14

Advice from my boyfriend, who's been pursuing acting in L.A. for about 25 years: "there are three million people in this city, and two million of them are actors of one stripe or another. Be prepared for constant competition and near-constant rejection. Understand that developing your craft is a lifelong process of finding your voice in the midst of millions of other voices. Worry about classes first, and head shots and agents (in order to get auditions) later. And if you don't have a trust fund, be prepared to live frugally, since you'll be waiting tables most of the time."
posted by scody at 8:19 PM on January 14 [1 favorite]

(and on non-preview: typewriter is on the right track. I would also add that there's a possibility of a Screen Actors Guild strike on the horizon, and no one can predict how it will impact movie and TV work in the year to come.)
posted by scody at 8:20 PM on January 14

Hi Guys.

Can I clarify that the question really was about CLASSES more than anything else? Maybe this wasn't clear from the original writeup. My wife and I are planning to go overseas anyway, and she thought that if she was interested in pursuing acting, LA seemed like the best place to try it out. In fact, the blog that warble mentioned specifically says "If you're serious about acting, move to LA", so that's what we're looking to do!

Also, please be assured that we understand the issues with visas, work, money etc. The intention was always for ME (ranglin) to get a job which would get us the E-3 visa and allow my wife to also work over there part-time while looking into acting classes etc. In fact, my previous question (see here) was about just that and gave some good advice!

Thanks all for the advice so far. Hope this helps to direct further responses... :)
posted by ranglin at 9:34 PM on January 14

Well then, I think you need to focus just on beginning classes and NOT about finding a school that will give you one-stop shopping in terms of creating an "acting career." To be blunt, with so little experience to draw on, you don't know if you actually have much talent or interest in acting. You have to start with the basics: character, scene, voice, movement. Head shots and audition reels really aren't on your radar screen at this point.

So if the two of you are coming to L.A. anyway and you'd like to see if acting might be up your alley while you're here (which is a horse of a different color from coming to L.A. specifically to "become an actress"), then I think you just need to shop around for some beginning classes; after all, there's no point in planning on enrolling in the Stella Adler Academy for the two-year program for $30,000 when you don't even know if Method acting is the best approach for you... so try a single Method workshop to start. On the other hand, you might prefer to start out via improv. Or you might want to do the four-week immersion with Actors Boot Camp. Then again, you may feel more comfortable in a more classroom setting.

The point is, pretty much everyone I know who's found a good acting teacher or school has largely found them by accident (all of the schools/classes I linked to above are ones taken by actors I've known). It's more than a little trial and error; you can't really map it out ahead of time.
posted by scody at 12:37 AM on January 15