Episode Details

Okay, now what? We graduated, and there's a fucking writer's strike, and a pending actors strike. Wait, this is not what I showed up for.

I've been a member of SAG AFTRA for over 30 years and a working actress for over 30 years.

And let me tell you something, I've been through a lot of strikes, and you know what the greatest thing about them is? They end.

There is a lot you can do right now, and that's getting ready.

The number one thing I recommend to actors getting out of drama school is learning "the Language of the Agents and the Casting Directors."

If you think you learned it in drama school, I am here to tell you that, no, you did not. Chances are that you did not learn what the industry was like from the agents and the casting director's points of view.

Some of the things to know, though, is that yes, you are the newbies on the block, and you are fresh meat. Everybody's all excited about you, but this is the thing you need to know is there have been thousands of you beforehand, and the more you can learn to be professional, and what I mean by that is to not waste an agent and a casting director's time.

So it is best to keep your ears open and listen to what industry professionals are saying.

As a casting director, the number one thing I cannot stand is actors who waste my time.

And one of the ways they waste my time is if I'm in the middle of casting and I want to audition you, I need you to already know some of the things that I talk about in that masterclass because I don't have time to train you.

You also understand that if somebody goes out of their way to give you advice, listen to it.

That's why when people reach out to me over social media, if they make some kind of a blunder, I actually say to them, "Hey, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not going to take your submission seriously because you did this or that or the other thing.

A lot of people call me Pamela. My name is Peter. A lot of people say, dear Peter and Pamela, well, you obviously haven't done your research on me.

And if you are looking for me to hire you on a job, I would hope that you would know what to call me.

And I know that sounds like a really silly thing, but that's just kind of that immediately tells me that you haven't even done one ounce of a bit of research on me. You've got Google, the internet, do your research.

The other thing that I would say is that although you may have been told how special you were in drama school, you are entering a whole new realm here.

There are lots of special people here, and there are lots of really talented actors here.

One of the pieces of advice that I wish somebody had given me many years ago was, don't ever, ever, ever underestimate how good you need to be.

This means keep up your training and keep doing your warmups.

Keep practicing your voice. Keep going to dance classes, keep going to movement classes. Keep going to acting classes.

Finally, I want to talk to you about core work.

That's the work on yourself, and that's the hardest thing because when you are early in your career, you can be given phenomenal opportunities.

I was given some, and I'm going, to be honest with you, I blew it. I auditioned for two films.

I'll talk about the Jerry Lee Lewis film Great Balls of Fire with Dennis Quaid, and Winona Rider got the part I also auditioned for. For Say Anything, I auditioned for the Lily Taylor role in that.

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