In the last article, we discussed how doing the same thing and getting the same unwanted result, can lead to feelings of frustration and helplessness, and how over a period of time, these feelings can steal not only our energy and enthusiasm, but also undermine our self-esteem. We also discussed how coming from a reactive state actually empowers the very things we have no control over and creates an energy that attracts more of what we don’t want, and that raising our level of energy, living more consciously and taking responsibility for our own happiness and success, can move us out of a reactive state into a proactive one!
In this article we are going to start to discuss some of the things that are actually in the actor’s realm of influence. What you do have influence or some control over. What are some things you can do to take charge of your career and happiness? We are going to start with what you project to other people and how we can influence this by defining our image more specifically. Later we’ll discuss your level of skill, your creativity, your knowledge of the business, will power, your self-esteem, intention, assertiveness, living with purpose and integrity. First, let’s look at what other people see when they look at you and your headshot: what you project.
What you PROJECT: Either from your headshot or meeting you in person, what people see, hear, and observe you doing and saying, and how you do it and say it, makes up your image. This is what you project to others. There are two basic components that make up what we project to others: (1) Your PHYSICAL TYPE: what you look like without saying a word, and (2) Your QUALITY: how you speak and behave. The focus today seems to be on Type. To me, your physical type is not so difficult to define. You fit into a certain age range, ethnicity and gender. It’s not so hard to determine if you look upscale or lower or middle class or another category you might fit into. What I believe is more important, is to define your quality. The reason for this is that as soon as you open your mouth and speak or take on an action, your Quality will either enhance or diminish your physical type.
(External) Physical Type is characterized by your physical make up; what you look like. Something about your physical make-up; the shape of your head or body, placement of the eyes, size of your nose or ears or overall expression reminds the viewer of some past or current “stereotypical” type. This could be intensified by what you wear, how you wear it, the cut of your hair, make up etc. Without saying a word a person can be defined as a nerd, leading man, slacker, white collar or blue-collar worker. You could be typed as low class, upscale or hip and cool. For example, a person dressed in shorts, tank top, tan with long hair and a somewhat glazed look in their eyes could be typed as a surfer or stoner or both. Maybe you have small beady eyes and pug nose, and people see you as a criminal type or thug. If a person has a wiry physical frame, is pale, and wears a plain polyester suite with round wire rim glasses, and maybe even has a plastic pocket protector and is balding, he matches up with the stereotypical accountant type. Of course not every accountant fits this criteria, when we think of the stereotypical accountant this is how we might see him. Although your physical make-up might not be right on the money, certain features fit in. You may just have a receding hairline, or a wiry frame, but there is just enough there to suggest the type.
(Internal) QUALITY
Whereas type defines your physical make-up Quality comes from within and is manifested through your behavior. This is our essence manifested. It’s that special something that emanates from your photo. It’s that thing that colors your attitude. It is who we are without the presence of tension or emotional upheaval. It’s what makes you “you”. It is who you are when you are feeling good, confident, and on your game. It should be the “who” casting sees when they look at your headshot or meet you in person. It is the “who” they are asking you to be when they say, “just be yourself”.
Quality is different from personality. Your personality is made up of many characteristics and traits and is subject to all kinds of circumstances. For example, under certain circumstances you are warm, friendly, deep, playful, dark or even shy. So it’s not hard to understand why actors might get confused when asked to be themselves. “Which self should I be”? There are just too many characteristics that make up you to choose from. The characteristics we want to show are our strongest ones, or the ones that match up best with out type. The characteristics you consistently rise to, these characteristics or traits are what I call your dominant and subdominant characteristics. So, Quality can be defined as a dominant or combination of dominant and subdominant characteristics or traits: warm, friendly or warm and friendly, warm and sincere, little boyish or little girlish, arrogant, wiseguy or playful wiseguy. Your quality can also be flirty, sexy, befuddled or intellectual. Quality is behavior, and behavior is character, so your quality is “your character”. So when casting is asking you to just to be yourself, they are asking you to be your quality, they are not asking you to be a type.
Your Quality colors the way you walk, talk, smile, greet, laugh or converse. It’s not only what you do, but also the way you do it. If you have a warm and sincere quality you will approach a situation much differently from a loud and aggressive person. A person whose quality is flirtatious will ask for help differently from one who is shy. Your quality colors how you see and read copy or sides. It is the lens by which we view the material. Your quality should enhance or compliment your type. If you look like a nerd, then it would be best if your quality, (the way you behave either) compliments your nerdy look or enhances it. Commercially speaking, when I was working in casting the people who I saw book consistently are the ones who came in each and every time with the same quality.
For some reason, people still have it in their mind that a commercial shot should be a warm smiling shot and a theatrical shot should be dark and intense. To me if it’s not “who you are” it’s a form of false advertising and a set up to be frustrated. You can have many shots, but you definitely want them all to resonate some degree of Quality.
Alignment with your QUALITY:
Do people see you in a certain way? Put you in a certain category? Do you agree with it or are you at a loss? Do they see you one-way before they get to know you and in another way after the fact? Has anyone ever characterized you based on how you look, then changed his/her mind once he/she got to know you? The degree of contradiction or lack of alignment between what you look like on the outside and what is going on inside, will be to that degree that people will either read you correctly or not. When people perceive you in a certain way based on your headshot or how you present yourself in person, and you fail to live up to that perception when you audition, something is out of alignment. Unless we recognize what it is and deal with it, we are doomed to get the same result each and every time we walk into an audition.
The problem is, when your type says one thing and your quality says another, and the two fail to match up well. Your headshot says you are warm and friendly, but in reality you are rather a cold detached person. Your headshot says you are playfully sexy, but you do not identify with your sexuality. Your headshot says that you are aggressively intense, but there’s not an ounce of aggression in you. This is what I mean when I say that you are not in alignment with “who” you are selling yourself as. An actor came to me complaining that he was not getting any commercial callbacks. He was going in for a lot of “nice guy” roles. I asked to see his headshot. It was a shot of a nice, warm guy with a nice smile. The problem was, he was not a warm guy, nor did a smile come to him naturally. The headshot he had was one moment in time that he had to work very hard to achieve, and one that he could not live up to. For him, his quality was a bit arrogant and stern. Once he changed his headshot to reflect his quality, he started going in for the right roles and getting the callbacks. He was now in alignment to get the callback and ultimately, the role.
Another example of this would be, your type reads “strong confident cop”, and you are brought in for that tough cop role, but as soon as you open your mouth we discover that you are “shy and sweet”. This conflict would make it almost impossible to get a call back, let alone book. Quality is what makes some actions look normal and fluid for one actor and so painful to watch by another. Just the simple act of smiling can send some people’s anxiety level soaring. Some would say that this contradiction between Type and Quality falls under level of skill. Yes, your skill can help you execute the action truthfully, but unless you know that your quality is influencing and how it is influencing what you project, it will not only betray you, but you’ll have no reason to make any changes. You won’t know that you are not in alignment with the role. There is no aspiring to the role for an audition. To aspire to the role would be to take on a quality that is not yours. Talented actors can do this, but it takes research and rehearsal, which the auditioning actor has very little time for. Casting wants some aspect of who you said you were in your headshot, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought you in. If you are uncomfortable with an action it reads. The one who looks the type and executes the actions truthfully will be more in alignment for getting the role.
Why Quality makes us unique:
When you think of a mom type what do you think of? Although all the stereotypes will look similar, they are not all created equal. We all know a mom, but not all moms are alike. Some are warm and nurturing, some a real high energy, some are even cold and grumpy. We have soccer moms, stressed out moms and very loving, nurturing and patient moms. What separates them from each other is their quality. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all moms, but they all behave differently and are very difficult to interchange. The one who has a warm quality will naturally and effortlessly reach out and touch her child, while the cold mom might never even think of that action. Another example would be a person who is ruggedly handsome. His good looks, strong jaw and toned physique paint a picture of a stereotypical fireman. But there are all kinds of firemen. The quality casting may be looking for may be warm and sincere, playfully witty even quirky, like the fireman who played opposite Steve Martin in Roxanne. Someone may look like you, but no one looks and behaves like you. This is what makes you unique. The point is type gets you in the door; your quality is what makes the spot or scene work or not.
Actor’s influence:
So, what control do we have over our Type and Quality and how can we make it more specific?
1. Determine your type. If you go out a lot, what roles do you go out for the most? Are you in agreement with this type? If you are not in agreement, you need to either make the type you see yourself as more specific, or be open to change. You don’t want to be in conflict with it. If you are not going out, seek out professionals in the business and find out how they see you. But remember even though they may see you as a certain type, your quality will either enhance or diminish the type.
2. Making Type more specific. Although our control is limited, short of cosmetic surgery, we do have some control over our type. We can cut our hair or let it grow. We can gain or lose weight, or get contact lenses or change the style of our glasses. In other words, we can make our type much more specific. We can go out and buy the necessary clothes and accessories that will enhance our type. Each type comes with a specific wardrobe, make sure yours is complete.
3. Enhancing Quality: Once you’ve determined type move onto quality. Do they match up? For example, (quality) Quirky (type) Businessman, if not, you may want to nurture another aspect of you. Is there another aspect of you that would match up better? So many things can play havoc with our quality. Our quality can be affected by our diet. If we fail to eat right we are more apt to have mood swings or fall into a bout of depression. Check your diet and exercise routine make sure it is working for you. We can continuously define and hone in on our quality, exploring new ways to express it. We can also work on eliminating anything that interferes with us expressing our quality, such as lack of concentration, self-doubt and our level of skill. Our goal should be to enhance our type through our quality. You can also work on your quality by aspiring to it on demand, especially during times of stress.
4. Come to terms with your type and quality: We all want to be seen at what we think is our best. Most people don’t want to be seen as low class, geeky or nerdy. Most actors want to be seen as leading men and women, but the truth is, not everyone is a leading man or woman. If how we see ourselves is consistently different from how the rest of the world sees us, we have to listen. We cannot be in an adversarial relationship with our selves when it comes to our type. We need to acknowledge it, embrace it and enhance it. Resistance only creates conflict and keeps you out of alignment.
5. Quality and getting an agent. If you are presently trying to get an agent, the worse thing you can do is send them a generic smiling headshot. Your headshot should represent your quality more so then your type. Even if they have your type (which they will determine on their own) you may fulfill a quality they don’t have within your type. Even if you have an agent you still want to have a least one shot that holds up your type and quality as strongly as possible. It would also serve you to make sure that you and your agent are agreement as to your Type and Quality. Set up a meeting to go in and see your agent with the purpose of getting in alignment.
6. Research the types you go out for. If you consistently go out for doctors, technicians, lawyers or any other specialized professions due to your type, it would serve you to research the job activity and terminology of these professions. So much of today’s commercial casting is improvisational. To know what a certain profession does and some key phrases in that profession, would keep you from getting stuck on what to do or say at that the audition.
Our goal is to be in alignment with booking the job. Bad casting withstanding, in order to get the job you have to be the right type, have the appropriate quality and skill and go out for the right job. If your headshot represents not only your type, but your quality, you have an agent that is in agreement with you and sends you out on the roles that are asking for you, casting brings you in because your type and quality match up well with the character they are casting, and you have the skills necessary, you are now in alignment.
Next Article we will discuss “Level of Skill”
To learn more about your type and quality, you can set up a consultation with John. For an appointment and rate, call the studio at 818-505-1223 or log on to www.JohnSudolStudio.com
