Answers from The Working Actor

11 On the Job

So much energy goes into booking a gig that it’s no wonder actors are sometimes less than prepared for the realities of the job itself. After you (understandably) celebrate landing a role, there is still the matter of going to your new place of business and doing it.

As actors, we have to navigate an ever-changing work environment. Each project introduces a new boss, new venue, and in many ways, a new job description. (Are you learning legal terms? Taking on white-river rafting? Psychoanalyzing a killer? Mastering the dialect and mannerisms of another culture?) Actors at work encounter circumstances and puzzles one would never face in other professions, and each job presents a whole new set of co-workers, which can be the most challenging ...