Don’t have an agent, but still want to get into major auditions? It’s possible to get into those auditions without an agent if you market yourself directly to casting directors. The best way to market to a casting director is by regular mail. If you can get the attention of the person who opens the mail, a casting director just may call you to come in for an audition. When marketing yourself to casting directors via mail, keep the following in mind. • Appropriateness – Most casting directors specialize in certain kinds of casting. If you are an aspiring film actor, do not market yourself to casting directors that only cast commercials. If you are looking for theatre roles, don’t market to television casting directors. Make sure your submission is appropriate for the casting director. • Mailing Envelope – Your first impression is your mailing envelope. Usually, an assistant will open the casting director’s mail, then sift through what the casting director will see and what he won’t. A casting office may receive multiple envelopes from actors every day. Send a clean, new mailing envelope of the correct size for the contents. • Mailing Label – Do not handwrite the address on your mailing envelope. Even if you have good handwriting, a handwritten mailing address/return address is not professional. Print the mailing address and return address on a mailing label using black ink and a simple font of appropriate size for the label. A nicely typed mailing label will make the good impression that you treat acting as your business. • Addressee – Do your research! Never misspell the name of a casting director or casting company. Make sure you have the name of the correct casting director, not someone who left the company four months ago. In addition, include the name of an actual casting director on your mailing label and not just the company name. If you just put the company name and not the name of a person, whoever opens the mail will usually toss it since it technically belongs to no one. • Cover Letter – Don’t just put your headshot in an envelope and send it off! Always include a cover letter on nice heavyweight business stationery/paper. Don’t use notebook paper or cheap copy paper – remember you want to present the impression that you treat your acting as a business. Never handwrite your cover letter. Typed (with appropriate sized business font) is always best on stationery with a nice header. If you don’t have pre-printed stationery, make up some on your computer. Include a header with your name, e-mail address, website (if you have one), and a 24-hour cell phone contact phone number. Don’t be cutesy – stick to business. Address the letter to the person you addressed the envelope. Be brief, simple, and direct in telling the casting director why you are writing. If you are interested in auditioning for a particular role, include that in your note. In addition, include any special skills or qualifications you’d like to highlight, the names of anyone who recommended you mail the casting director, and end with a short conclusion. Run your computer spelling and grammar check and have a friend read your letter before mailing it. • Sealing – Don’t make your envelope impossible to open. Gluing, excessive taping, and especially covering the metal fastener are quick ways for your envelope to end up in the trash. Some casting directors receive hundreds of submissions from aspiring actors. An assistant will give up after fifteen seconds of struggling to open your envelope. That’s it! Just add your professionally done headshot and resume to the envelope then mail it out to casting directors.

"Type?" you may be asking. Yes, type. The word typecast brings about fear in many actors. The reality is that typecasting is here to stay, especially for actors in the beginning of their careers. Instead of fighting typecasting, an actor should learn to love it and use it. Knowing and taking advantage of your type is one of the biggest casting secrets in the industry. When a casting director is casting for the part of a professional boxer who grew up on the streets and you walk in lacking muscles and looking like a high-dollar attorney, you do not stand a chance of getting the part. You are wasting your time and the casting director's time by showing up for that audition. Casting directors appreciate agents and their actors who know their type and audition for roles that fit. Typecasting does not mean you will never be able to break out of your type. If you make it as an actor and become a box office star, you will be able to choose your parts. Until then, knowing your type will help you along your acting career by giving you a clear place in the talent industry. Now you are probably thinking, "How do I determine my type?" One way is to ask casting directors. A better way is to go straight to the movie going public by doing your own market survey. Get yourself a clipboard, a pen, and a few sheets of paper. Write "Male" at the top of two of the pages and number from 1 to 50 down the left hand side. Then, write "Female" at the top of two more pages and repeat the numbering from 1 to 50. Put on some neutral, non-descript clothing so your outfit will not influence the answers to your questions. Head out to your busiest local movie theater near show times. (You may want to ask the theater management ahead of time if you can stand outside the movie theater to complete your survey.) As people arrive, ask if they will answer a short, three-question survey. Most of the time people are happy to help. If not, move on. For those who will take your survey, ask the following questions: 1. How old do I look? 2. What ethnicity do you think I am? 3. What do you think my job is? Write the three answers down on your paper on the appropriate line and on either the male or the female pages. If people answer that you are a student for the job question, ask what they think you are studying. Thank the survey participants and keep going until you have surveyed 100 people (50 males and 50 females). Then comes the fun part, it is time to compute the results. First, add up the ages and divide it by 100 to come up with the average age people think you look. Second, calculate the ethnicities to determine what people perceive. Lastly, sift through the jobs. You should be able to come up with a general range of jobs and characters. Use this information when shooting your headshots. Go for the look of the job, age, and ethnicity most popular in your survey. You are "right" for acting in these types of roles. If you were surprised or disappointed about how the public perceives you, do not be upset. You can do things to change your appearance, but it is usually best to be who you are and go for the type of acting roles perceived than struggling to be something you are naturally not.

Once you arrive in Hollywood looking to get famous as a screen star, you will face one main question: how do I break in? Well, first off, there are a number of good ways, and you need to get yourself up in front of casting directors, producers, and an audience quickly. The fastest ways to do that are - classes, extra jobs, self-promotion, low budget films, getting representation. Make sure that you have a headshot (8x10 photo of your face), and some sort of resume, and then charge into stardom like a bull. CLASSES Depending on your particular talents, you may take dance, singing, or scene study; but for sure you need an audition class, an on-camera & casting class and it is always good to take an improv class just to loosen you up. A place like actor's boot camp is good, and The Improv Olympic will put you on stage immediately (a good way to get famous). EXTRA JOBS Being extras can be fun and profitable. Some of the biggest stars began their careers doing extras work and bit parts. Contact Central Casting (centralacsting.org), for extra jobs, they're the biggest extra's casting agency in LA. Once you get some extra jobs, you will be well on your way to get famous. Remember, as soon as the guard at the studio gate finds your name on the list, it's "Welcome to Hollywood" You are now part of the movie business. If you have what it takes you'll do well, and whenever you're in the break room (which will be 80% of the time), you'll make friends SELF PROMOTION Another way to get famous, a little bit, is by entering your name in on IMDB (the internet movie database). Once casting directors are able to look you up on IMDB it is a completely new ball game. LOW BUDGET FILMS Then get a better headshot, and join actorsaccess.com, a do-it-yourself casting breakdown service that lists all the low budget movies in town. This will help you set yourself up with speaking-role audition. However, if you insist on a higher salary you will not get famous quite as fast. The value of doing low budget work is that the roles are bigger. REPRESENTATION Once you have a whole bunch of low budget movie credits, it is time to get an agent or a manager. You may not be union yet, but you will have SAG vouchers from your extra jobs, and once you have collected three then you can become union any time you want. So now, you are getting roles, taking meetings, going to audition and casting sessions, and well on your way to get famous. To paraphrase Michael Cain from his book on how to become famous as a performer in the movies, ‘if you want to be a lead, then only take the leading roles'. So, "choose the way how to be famous for you, and stick to it". Are you a character, a comedian, a villain, an ingénue or a leading man? Commit to one and be that person, everywhere you can, in every role no matter how small, even on You Tube. Become a screen personality. In addition, if you stick with all these steps, you will find your path: leading towards the movie stardom that you seek.