Acting : Ask Me Anything (AMA) Wednesday 3/20 to Thursday 3/21- Becoming a Professional Actor by Grace Duah

Hi Grace Duah - thank you so much for spending your time with us. I see that you're a writer as well. Question: have you ever written any roles for yourself and if so, how did you introduce that aspect of the script to a producer? Asking for a friend. ;o)

Also (if I may) - what what was your experience like for your very first audition? Thanks!!

Congratulations on all your success, Grace Duah! Thanks for having this AMA. What's the usual way(s) to become a professional actor?

Hello, Grace Duah! Thanks so much for having this AMA. Congratulations on everything, and how exciting that you have two short films premiering at Tribeca this year!

At what point in your life did you know you wanted to pursue acting? What was your first step to get started as an actor? Thank you!

Hi Grace Duah Thank you for being here and sharing you experience with us. What is the most challenging role you have had thus far? Why was it challenging for you and how did you overcome it?

Grace Duah, thank you for sharing your time with the Stage 32 community! With the recent strike and so many other changes to the industry in the last few years, people have mostly been focused on theatrical acting when talking about casting opportunities. But what about the world of commercial acting or even voiceover? Have you seen a lot of change in those spaces lately and how do you see that being a positive or negative to performers right now?

Hi @Leonardo Ramirez Happy to be here! I have not yet, however, I have many friends who have. Often while pitching a script as an actor there is already an assumption that you would like to play a role. So that conversation tends to happen very early on. However, the reality is, depending on where you are in your career there could be pushback. Pushback in which a producer insists if they are to make the script they would like a bigger name attached to secure extra funding. A close friend of mine wrote and produced a film she got to star in. The film had a major theatrical release and received critical acclaim. However, in the same year, she was told she would not be able to star in the other script she wrote for herself, as that production company wanted a bigger name. As this script was of less importance to her, she took the deal. In her mind she already starred in her dream script. That is all to say every production company is different. For every company who pushes back on someone leading their script, there is another who will understand the vision and want to take that risk.

As for my very first audition - I’ll tell the story of my very first professional audition as prior I was a true blue theater kid. It was my sophomore year in acting school and it was for the film If Beale Street Could Talk. They were doing an open casting call, where you could submit your headshot and if they liked your look you could send in a tape. I desperately tried to get friends to read with me as it was during spring break and I didn’t have any actor friends around, but everyone refused. Eventually, I read it with my cousin, in her dorm room. We filmed it on my low-quality iPhone and I laugh when I think about how bad it looked. I did not book that role, however, I look back at it so fondly, because it allows me to track the evolution of my growth as an actor and more importantly my growth as an auditioner. The skill of auditioning is not the same as the skill of acting, and it’s nice to see all the progress I’ve made in mastering both.

Hi Maurice Vaughan! Thank you so much! I would say the most common way for a lot of people is to do some sort of training, i.e conservatory, university, classes etc that lead to a final showcase for talent representation. These reps will then begin to submit you for potential auditions and opportunities. However, I truly think the moment you begin to audition in any capacity your journey begins as an actor. Platforms like Actors Access, Backstage, and Casting Network all allow actors who may not be able to go that route access to submit themselves for available opportunities. Also live theatre is a great avenue to get discovered, whether it be community or regional theater. The key to being an actor is being able to audition as long as you have access to auditions, whether through apps or casting calls on Facebook you have begun your journey. I always just recommend people to seek training even minimal, because the training allows for you to have longevity. I'm friends with many actors who began acting and auditioning as children who are now seeking more formal training as adults to solidify their skills.

Leonardo Ramirez

Thanks a ton Grace Duah ! I love the story you shared about your first self tape. Funny you say that because (for kicks) I did a self-tape reading a part for a short film I wrote not too long ago. I think it turned out ok but I wish I had filmed it on a higher resolution. And yes, it was recorded on an iPhone! I had a blast doing it though. I love stories like that.How is the skill of auditioning different?

You're welcome, Grace Duah. Great answer! Thanks. Do you think actors should audition for one genre or different genres?

Leonardo Ramirez Acting is fueled by reacting to the world around you. You're reacting to the kettle on the stove. The look in your partners eyes as they find out the truth. The feeling of someone hugging you after hearing your mother passed. Auditioning requires you to react to the world inside your head rather than the world around you. As actors, conflating the two can make auditioning damn near unbearable over time. Reason being that you'll always be searching for a world around you when all you have is your blank living room wall. Understanding the two require entirely different skills, gives actors the freedom to have different expectations when going into an audition than when stepping onto a stage or set.

"Acting is fueled by reacting to the world around you. You're reacting to the kettle on the stove. The look in your partners eyes as they find out the truth. The feeling of someone hugging you after hearing your mother passed." That was beautifully said, Grace Duah. I know you were giving wonderful examples but it did bring back the memory of hugging someone when my father passed. Beautifully, beautifully said.

Maurice Vaughan Oh I absolutely think actors should audition for everything, for the simple fact that every audition stretches your skills as a performer in general. Comedic actors should still audition for dramatic roles, because even if you never book one, the practice of auditioning strengthens you as an actor. I would hope a world famous sushi chef would still know the basics of cooking a steak, because being a chef means you know how to cook in general. Your speciality may be sushi, but your baseline should be everything.

Sidney Lumet once described how some actors come into scenes performance ready for the first take, while others need a few takes to warm up and get going, with the performance rising each successive take. Do you feel like this is still the case today? Or since actors in general are so much more media trained and prepped, there is a more strict expectation/baseline for performance out the games? Which style do you work in and prefer to act across from?

Hi Dustin Richardson! I think I knew I wanted to pursue acting for my life, in high school. Prior to that I had quite a few moments when I realized acting was an extremely vital part of my life, and I would always like to do it in some way or capacity. However, in high school my acting teacher mentored and gave me the tools to be able to pursue it as a career. And that shift changed everything for me. Because it's one thing to want to be an actor it's an entirely different thing to be taught how. My first step was to go to Acting School in New York City. I auditioned for about 19 programs in total and finally chose to go to Pace University's BFA Acting Film, Television Voiceover and Commercial program. At which point I kickstarted my career post graduation

Hi Suzanne Bronson! The most challenging role I think I ever played was in a short film I shot last year called Memoirs of a Bruised Mind. My character was a survivor of years of familial abuse and was reliving this abuse in a severe panic attack which made her feel like she was back in danger. I think for me I used a lot of movement training I learned in acting school specifically Alexander Technique, to help get the reality of that character into my body. But more importantly I used this technique to help my body release the trauma afterwards. Your body isn't aware you are acting, so it is extremely important to take the time to release that energy from your body after doing an intense scene. It was vital that I did not take the April's experience into my own life.

Loving these answers, Grace Duah. Great stuff! How do you study and/or prepare for a role?

Hi Ashley Renee Smith! I am a huge huge proponent of the world of Commercial and VO acting. The strike financially decimated a lot of us full time working actors, because it not only took away 7months of wages it also meant we were dipping into savings that were barely healed from covid. Residuals I received from random VO ads were what allowed me to hunker down and hold out in the strike at a time when many people had to give up their pursuits. It's not always glamorous, but a national commercial could be the thing that qualifies an actor for health insurance or keeps an actors rent and mortgage paid for a year, while they grind thru the ever painful audition circuit. I 1000% recommend every actor to pursue those opportunities rather than turn their nose at them, because in the world where TV residuals become less and less, VO and Commercial residuals remain steady and ever present. Pedro Pescal said recently a residual check from one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer allowed him to keep going as an actor, and in todays climate we're seeing more and more of those checks coming from VO and Commercials rather than TV.

Hi Pat Alexander! I truly think it varies on the actor and in some cases the director. For me personally, I always try to come ready to go by the first take, knowing that naturally each take will get stronger. So in my mind if I come at 100%, if we do multiple takes by the end I might be at 200%. What's better than one cake? Two. So that's kind of how I view that because naturally everyone always gets more comfortable as the takes go. However, there are some cases in which you will not get multiple takes, at which point at least your baseline was always 100%. For example, Clint Eastwood very famously does not allow actors to do more than one take ever. Matt Damon has told the story of how he prepared double time for Invictus because he was not sure, but wanted to make sure just in case. And lo and behold he did his first take, and when he asked for another Clint immediately shot him down and said moving on. In film and TV time is money and not ever director or production is willing to sacrifice that money. By coming in 100% as your baseline, you can always ensure that even your most rushed performances reflect you in a quality light.

Great point, Grace Duah! Thanks for the answer.

Leonardo Ramirez I have a quite intensive notebook that I fill out pages and pages for every character I work on. I have a couple key categories I break down for each character. I first start my breaking down my "historicals". These are things I know to be objectively true. I first start by naming out the facts the script gives me like name, age, where I live. Then I will go in and fill out any data the script might not give me directly like my birthday, and favorite color. After I have my objective truths, I then break down my relationships. Who are the people I come across good or bad in my life and what do I want and expect from them as people? If I'm a villain this is especially helpful because this is the point in which I justify my goals of destruction. Take a character like Lex Luther, we as the audience might not understand why he does what he does, but he does. So if I'm the actor playing him I have to then understand in full why he does what he does. After that, I then go scene by scene and break it down even further into three categories: Immediate past, present physical, potential future. Immediate past is any event or happening that has occurred previous to the scene. Present Physical- using my senses, I paint the environment of the moment(the scene) BEFORE it begins. I think of stopping time right before the scene begins...what do I see? What do I smell? Taste? Hear? Physically feel? Potential Future- This category is about imagining, as my character, how I'd like this to play out. I always go into a scene, a moment, an event with a hope that it'll go the way I want. That way if it derails in any way I fight harder to get it to go the way I want. If I fail, well there lies the devastation of a sad scene.

Grace Duah - that sounds akin to what I do to create a character for the story. There's a questionnaire that I have that answers some of those questions but it stands to reason that as the actor you would include the five senses and beyond. That's awesome. Gives me lots to think about. Thank you! Sidenote: I've always thought the root of Lex's villainy was insecurity. ;o)

Grace Duah awesome, thank you for the insights :)

Grace Duah Congratulations on all your success! Thanks for all your advice and experience here on our Stage32.

Thanks so much for this valuable information!

Grace Duah Thank you so much for donating your time and experience with us. While I was asked to appear in one commercial (what were they thinking?), acting is something I am not sure even practice could improve. But the one question that burns into me is how on earth do actors remember their lines? Even in my 30s I couldn't remember what I wrote down five minutes before. You guys make it look so easy (I know it's not). How do you remember lines?

Hi Grace Duah! Thanks so much for doing this AMA! I would love to know your thoughts on actors working for free - obviously there's always free work when you're first starting out, but how do you discern when it is or isn't worth it?

Hi Debbie Elicksen! I can assure you it's far from easy! I truly think it depends on the actor. I have actor friends who are just wonderful about memorization and can pick up an entire script and know it within hours. I unfortunately inherited my grandmother's memory, so for me I am rather meticulous in my memorization. But the main thing for me is I have to rewrite my lines on pen and paper in my own handwriting. Depending on the size of the role this can be very tedious but I have to do it regardless. I also write the lines as if they were being written in my personal journal. That way the words become my own, because I may be terrible at memorizing lines, but I am very good at knowing what I have to say. By making the lines into my own journal they just become what I wanted to say anyways to a person and with that I never forget.

Hi Emily J! I think the only time I really approve of completely free work is if it's being done in an educational capacity, whether for a student film or for a workshop for students. Other than that I believe it is unfair to ask for all the work of acting to go completely uncompensated. Now compensation can be as small as 50 bucks for two hours. Or whatever the rate may be, but a lot of work goes into acting and that work should rarely be valued as completely free. Again it's one thing if it's for educational purposes or if it's for the true love of it. Maybe as a favor for a friend, but I think there should absolutely be a standard of minimum compensation for time and work being spent regardless of the field.