As I only recently decided to start acting late last year, I naturally knew nothing. Besides years of me consuming movies and tv shows, I had no idea how to get started. So what did I do? I looked to Reddit for answers. Reddit, as I’ve come to realize, is a great, vast resource for anything anyone would be curious about, and lo and behold, I found the subreddit r/acting.

This subreddit has so much information about acting and I am grateful for it. If you are starting to get into acting or just curious, I encourage you to check it out here. Anyway, after perusing a couple of posts on there, I found something that caught my eye. The post mentioned how casting agencies post on Facebook for Background or Extra roles: the people in the background of a scene who don’t talk and just move around to make the scene feel alive. So after a couple more minutes of researching on Google, I opened my hardly-ever-used Facebook account and followed all the background casting agencies in Georgia and also a couple Facebook groups related to acting.

You can either follow the Southern Casting Call on Facebook or go to their website for all the casting calls in the Southeast. They reupload all of the other casting agencies’ posts on their page.

Then I looked for all the breakdowns that I could apply for and sent email applications with the information each agency required. Now, it was a waiting game, but after a couple more days of applying for every role I could, I finally got a response from an agency mid December: Extras Casting Atlanta. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to talk about the details, so erring on the side of safety, I won’t.

So the email they sent me had a couple of things. I’m going to paraphrase, so here’s the gist. They started with a greeting and told me that I was selected along with 14 other background artists for the scene. Then they gave a brief description of the scene and then asked for me to confirm that I was available. They also noted that they would send me more information as the filming day came closer. Following my confirmation and a couple more days, they sent me an email that production would be delayed till January 2021. Bummer. But at least it wasn’t a cancellation. Then in January, long after I forgot, they sent me another email that production resumed and that we would be filming the next week. So we did. It was very exciting and thrilling to be on a real live set, but I also learned a lot about how production works, which I will go into more detail about on an upcoming post.

So here is some advice to anyone who is thinking about acting.

1. Research: Delve into the vast space of the internet and read everything you can about how to get started in acting. Again, reddit.com/acting is a great starting point.
2. Apply, Apply, Apply: Once you followed the Facebook pages of all the agencies in your area, apply to everything you’re fit for. I will emphasize to only apply to the casting calls that ask for your type. Casting directors get so many submissions and if you apply to something you’re not right for, they’ll get annoyed at best and start to get a bad reputation of you at worst.
3. Always Say Yes: If you really want to get serious about acting, you should always say yes to everything. This career is not for someone who has a lot of other responsibilities because production is mostly inconsistent. Get used to moving appointments around. Plus, you never know who knows who, so a great opportunity can come from a small one.
4. Be Patient: A lot of acting is a waiting game: waiting for a response from a casting director, waiting for a reply to a question you asked, waiting for call time info, even waiting for the filming date. Like I said above, production is not consistent, and even if you get booked for something, it could be days to months before you actually get called to set.

Well, that is the short version of how I got started in the acting industry, and hopefully, some helpful advice to anyone who’s interested. Good luck, and I hope you get whatever you’re looking for!

-Notes from an Aspiring Actor