What Have You Been Up To?
This is a series about what we can do for ourselves as actors. And by now, if you’ve been in this business for any length of time, someone has probably given you this advice: “Create your own work.” There is plenty of truth in that advice. I have also bristled at it for most of my career. And yet, I have been busy creating my own work for most of my career. I’ve produced and developed a play in Midtown Manhattan and played the lead. I created a ten-episode Instagram series. I built a festival for films still in production. I made a high-production-value trailer that predicted and parodied Creed II before the actual movie existed. If we count building a coaching business, I’m creating my own work right now. So perhaps my problem was never with creating. It was with the instruction. “Create your own work” is often offered as though it were a single, straightforward action. But what does it actually mean? Make a short film. Produce a proof of concept. Shoot a pilot. Write yourself the role nobody is offering you. Create content. Build a following. Become your own production company—and perhaps an influencer while you’re at it. And while that sounds like a lot, it skips over a few things. Money. Time. Skill. Producing experience. Distribution. Finding collaborators who want to make the same thing you do. And the small matter of writing something worth producing—as though becoming a good writer isn’t its own pursuit that generally takes years. It also assumes you ever wanted to become a writer, filmmaker, producer, marketing department, and distribution company in the first place. But there is a difference between being told you should create your own work and feeling called to create something. If an idea keeps returning to you—if there is a film you need to make, a play you want to write, a character you can’t stop imagining, or a story that feels like it belongs to you—follow that. Take it seriously. Learn what you don’t know. Find collaborators who understand what you are trying to make. Do the due diligence required to make it as well as you can. You don’t have to know exactly where it will lead. After I made the Creed II parody, a manager I had met with once—and who had passed on representing me—happened to come into the bar where I worked. We started talking. I reminded him that we had met. He asked what I had been up to. I showed him the trailer. He began representing me shortly afterward and helped me get a number of co-star roles—and eventually guest stars. I certainly hadn’t designed the project around the possibility that a manager who had previously turned me down might wander into my bar. But I had made something I was proud to show him when he did. Creating something does not guarantee that it will build an audience, attract the industry, or change your career. Sometimes it might. Sometimes it may teach you something about acting that you carry into every project thereafter. Sometimes it may show you what kind of artist you are—and what kind of artist you’re not. And sometimes the opportunity arrives from a direction you never could have planned. More on this next time. While we ponder whether being an actor now requires running a small production company out of your laptop… Today’s Practical TaskRename one clip on Actors Access. Go to the video section of your profile and read the title of each clip as though you were a casting director who had never seen your work. Can another human understand what the clip contains without already knowing the project, character, or scene? If not, rename one. If you can’t come up with a title yourself, describe the clip in detail to AI and ask for a short title and one-sentence description using your castable energies, lanes, or brand. Don’t overthink it. Estimated time: 5 minutes. Lucas Open Studio Acting, NYC |
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