Why limit yourself by typing yourself?
Today I conducted the second part of an exhaustive course at TVI Studios on type as it applies to actors and the acting industry. From experience, I know this to be a delicate topic with many actors. We are naturally abhorrent at the idea of drawing boundaries around our work and recoil when somebody suggests that we limit ourselves in such a fashion.
We would like to believe that as trained artists we are capable of a broad range of roles. And the truth of it is, we are. Unfortunately, however, most industry professionals (producers, directors, casting directors) aren’t particularly interested in our range. These people tend to be very focused on the project they have at hand. They want to find actors that fit each role perfectly. Let me give you a personal example of how these two perspectives (ours and theirs) clash:
I used to audition for “The Sopranos” on a fairly regular basis. The casting directors there liked me and liked my work. Unfortunately, most of the roles that fit my age range were attitudinal young men with strong “street” looks and accents to match. The scripts called for either sleeveless leather jackets and slicked-back hair, or for gaudy pinstriped suits and wide ties. The characters usually threatened people. Sometimes they subsequently killed them!
Am I capable of performing well in one of these parts? Absolutely. The problem I ran into was that every time I went in on one of the above-described roles I would sit in a waiting room full of actors that, quite frankly, were in real life almost exactly like the characters! (minus, I hope, the homicidal urges). Who do you think had the competitive edge in those situations? I’ll give you a hint– “The Sopranos” is not on my resume!
“Type” is about identifying the most marketable version or versions of yourself, and then concentrating your marketing efforts towards those roles. It’s about understanding that industry professionals are more interested in solving their immediate problems than in heaping praise upon you for your broad range.
I help my TVI members and our program students identify and aggressively market for their type every day. If this is an issue you have yet to address in your own career please contact me so I can help you too.