What Skills do you need to be an Actor?
To be an actor, you’ll need a collection of skill sets under your belt, most of which you’ll acquire over time.
Acting is not a linear career – there are many ups and downs, pits and falls and far too many moments of rejection and instability. This is not to discourage you but to speak transparently about an industry that can often times, be very unforgiving.
Choosing to pursue a creative passion amidst this turbulent dynamic, forcibly nurtures one of the most important skill sets that an actor can have, and that’s resilience. We’ll talk about this in a bit.
An Actors Toolkit
Like any average person, an actor too will accumulate a plethora of learned skill sets in their lifetime, especially skills that pertain to their given industry and specialized niches. Think of these skill sets as your personal instruments, stored in your own actor toolkit: a box you can open at any time to select the tools that’ll help you get the job done. That job could be anything from auditioning, performing, going to class or simply motivating yourself to keep going when your path feels discouraging.
For the sake of this blog post however, I will only focus on a few, particularly the ones that I find to be most relevant. These skills range from interpersonal to craft-specific and acting-based.
Skill #1: Resilience and the Art of Perseverance
In an industry where our employment status depends heavily on the decisions of somebody else (“we’re going with another actor,” “we’d love to work with you,” etc.), we need to have the ability to put that aside, and keep going. Resilience and the art of perseverance is instrumental in an industry where so much is out of our control. As actors, resilience teaches us to bounce back, despite the rejection we face on a daily basis. As an actor, this is fundamental. Without resilience, your acting career will inevitably fall short.
On another note, actors will sometimes decide to take breaks or simply part ways from their acting career altogether. This is a different story and should not be confused with lack of resilience.
Resilience should be celebrated as a primary tool: the skill set (or motor) that continues to drive your vehicle forward. Choosing to stop an acting career however, is just that: a choice, and this choice should be celebrated as well!
Skill #2: Adaptability
The entertainment industry is constantly changing and as an actor, it’s important to adapt along with it. Whether it’s a last-minute audition that requires some schedule changes on your end, a line drop on stage, an understudy needing to go in last minute, a swing going on at the drop of a hat, an abundance of backstage malfunctions, a time change in the call sheet or anything remotely similar: things happen and actors need to be flexible.
At the end of the day, adaptability allows us to “roll with the punches,” and in an industry where so much is last minute or simply out of our control, rolling with the punches is one of the best skills you can master!
Skill #3: Entrepreneurship
So much of being an actor belongs to entrepreneurship. Think about it: you’re coordinating your own schedules, marketing your talent and generally managing different time frames (especially when it comes to balancing work, auditions, acting classes, singing and dance lessons or any other creative outlets and artistic training).
In many ways, you work for yourself. You are your own boss. As entrepreneurs, actors know first-hand what it means to administer and manage their own time.
Skill #4: Accessing our Emotional Compass
As actors, we are hired to portray somebody else. It might be on stage, on screen or in some alternative medium that combines the two, but regardless where we perform or who we perform in front of, our primary job is to interpret somebody else’s story. To do so (and to do it successfully) it’s important to access our emotional compass.
To interpret and perform another character, another life circumstance or another story, we need to pull (with feasibility), emotional layers that can accentuate the emotional narrative we set out to perform. This looks different for everyone (and it should), because no two actors are the same. While an actor might be able to cry on cue, another actor might not be able to physically do so (or do so as easily) but they might have another strategy to pull that feeling of sadness, or grief or whatever emotion it might be that could make somebody else “cry” in the first place.
This is all to say that, it doesn’t matter how you get there emotionally, as long as you do. Being vulnerable enough to access our emotional compass is an essential acting skill for any performer to have.
Skill #5: Being Well-Rounded
Actors should expose themselves to the world around them. Their craft doesn’t (and shouldn’t) end at the final minutes of an acting class, or the bows at the end of a performance, or the “wrap” announcement of any on-camera set project. Being a well-rounded actor is the willingness to learn about so many things… besides acting.
Ultimately, our job as actors is to recreate and mirror other human beings and the different components that constitute human existence. If our job is to interpret how human beings exist in the world: how they move and talk and co-exist amidst different life circumstances, then why wouldn’t we make an effort to immerse ourselves in that world around us?
Exposing ourselves to the world around us offers us insight and awareness, creating well-rounded people. Some ways to develop and nurture this skill set is by:
Traveling
Reading
Cooking
Listening to music
Observing your surroundings
Practicing mindfulness
Embracing your day job or linear careers
Skill #6: Networking
The last skill set I want to highlight is an important one – networking.
A lot of people will tell you that the acting industry and the entertainment business is really about “who you know.” I never really liked this phrase because it seemingly makes me feel captive to a very strict idea – an idea that says “hey, if you don’t connect with others, there’s no possible way to succeed.” And that’s not true.
Yes, there is a lot of truth to this idea that the industry is about “who you know” but not knowing people is OKAY too. Everybody starts from somewhere, and many people are lucky enough to succeed without connections in the first place.
Does that mean that you shouldn’t network? No.
Networking is important. It builds connections and nurtures a deeper sense of community. It establishes bonds and it’s those bonds that oftentimes provide us with guidance, support, references and recommendations. All of that is fundamental for ANYONE… in any industry.
But I don’t want you to feel discouraged either. In my opinion, networking is one of those skill sets that’s important to have and it could catapult you into great rooms, with very important people… but it could also not. So, don’t sweat it too much!
What Skills do Actors Need?
There are a number of skills needed to be an actor, many of which will help you sustain the longevity of your career. While I’ve shared the ones I believe to be the most relevant, everyone is different and their personal needs or creative paths might bring forth other skill sets that they find to be more useful.
At the end of the day, the only skill required to be an actor is the willingness to try. Everything else will come with time, especially as you continue to learn and navigate the entertainment industry and nurture your own craft.
The acting skills I shared on here are a collection of tips I’ve learned over the years, and while I hope they offer some insight and truly help you, never forget the following: that your path and personal journey will often times lead the way to new opinions and beautiful ideas, curated by your own lived experiences!
