Be on time.
On a big film the money is going out the door at about 30 grand every 20 minutes. On a network TV show the rate is only a bit less. If you are ten minutes late for a job that pays five hundred bucks – you will be very disliked by the producer and everybody that works for him. People will scream at you. If you are late for an audition, the casting director will worry that you won’t get to the job on time. If you are late for a job, that casting director will also have people screaming at her. And further more there is no such thing as an eight-hour day in show business. If you cannot work a long day, you are unsuited for success in show business.Be an early riser.
If you want to be in the movie or television business, you must be the kind of person who can get up at 5 in the morning. If you work in the theatre, your early rising will fall about 10 AM – because you work into the night. But if you plan on working in this industry you would do well to make early rising a lifelong habit. The early starts and long hours mean that you will be spending about half your life with co-workers. If you are a pain in the butt – you will be heartily disliked by other people who are also working 12 hour days. Word will get around and it will be harder to get work. Therefore be nice to people no matter what. You have to keep your ‘creative juices’ flowing during the entire 12 hours. If you don’t love doing this kind of work, being on for 12 hours is impossible.

Well groomed and clean.
You are not the part. Even the guys who play bikers and bums wear deodorant and have clean teeth. Your breath must be pleasant. A co-worker who literally stinks will get a reputation and lose opportunities because of it.

No complaints
Those actors on sets who complain about the dressing rooms, the food, the director, the co-star, the costume people, the lack of work, the hours, the script and pretty much anything, are labeled as complainers and are rarely appreciated or tolerated for very long.

Good value from you
When you habitually give 100% of your energy to the work – you will get more work.

Overall, work hard and let them know you are serious about this business and are willing to learn all of the inns and outs of the business!

Actors have found various mediums over the centuries, from voice acting on radio, theatre acting and cinema. From the Latin word ag?re meaning “to do” (see Wikipedia), actors literally play a role, speaking written dialogue and physically performing in a way that the character would. In most acting, a director is present, whose job is to tell the other actors what to do and make sure that the whole act is going smoothly and as the writer of the scenario wanted.

Actors are required to possess many skills such as physical strength and dexterity, vocal imitation and charisma. The modern cinema industry employs thousands of actors to play the roles of characters in movie scripts, recording them for show on the silver screen. Acting in cinema is rarely done before an audience, but has the added pressure of being seen by millions on the later screen release.

Acting is a traditional art form and many actors learn by going to established academic institutions. Famous institutions include the London Academy of Film, Radio and TV and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Some actors train at a variety of different places, learning classical acting techniques and modern ones such as Method Acting. This is a style of acting in which the actor strives to be as realistic as possible, drawing on personal experience of emotional situations rather than dramatizing.

The tradition of acting goes back to ancient times, with ancient Egyptians and Greeks performing either for religious purposes or more so in the case of the Greeks, for entertainment. A man named Thespis is acclaimed as being the first recognised actor way back in 560 BC, and his name inspired the term thespian as another word for actor (see New York Film Academy website). He is claimed by some to be among the first to personify a character for the purpose of story telling, using masks to discern between identities.

If you want to be a great actor, learn how to bring a story to life. What’s the best way to do that? Taking some acting classes and getting some experience.