Currently, he is appearing in the MAX series The Girls on the Bus and stars in the new indie flick The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, which hits theaters April 26. While he continues to act, he is also launching a coaching career, which he hopes will help younger actors better understand the craft. He spoke to us from his home in upstate New York, where he was recovering from minor surgery (don’t worry, he’s fine).

How did you start acting in the first place?

I started acting in high school. A guy who had graduated from my high school came back to direct a Bertolt Brecht play, and I auditioned for it. He cast me as the MC, who didn’t have that many lines in the play, but I read through it and thought to myself, “Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if all the projections that are done in Brechtian plays, that the MC is voicing the projection, so there’s a narration through the entire play?” I pitched this to him and he loved it, so I ended up having an enormous amount of dialogue. I had the most wonderful costume, top hat and tails, spotlight, and it was the beginning of like, “Wow, I enjoy this.” Both the idea of expressing myself in a dramatic way and also the beginning of realizing, “Oh, I have some kind of control or ability to create my own path. I can have an idea, I can express it, and it can be heard.”

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around doing a Brecht play in high school.

I don’t know. He just had an idea, and whoever was in charge of the drama program said “sure.” I mean, it worked. Also, this was 1976. But that’s where it all started. I never really thought about it as a career until I was in college and studying with this guy who ran a theatre company called Playback Theater, which was a psycho-dramatic, therapeutic, but entertaining form of improvisation. He taught this class on clowning, and I fell in love with the idea of it. I developed a character, and then went off and applied and got into circuses. I worked at Big Apple Circus and others and did that for a number of years as I was going to college. Also, I kept working with Playback and kind of fell into the drama program. I never auditioned for it, I just started taking classes, and then all of a sudden, I was graduating with a theater degree and loving it, but then realized, “Oh, I have to figure out what comes next.” I mean, I watched movies and loved movies, but it wasn’t like I wanted to be a movie star. I saw theater and drama as a way to express what I thought was happening in the world around me.

I never knew that you were a clown. Something I’ve always wondered. How do you fit so many guys into the car?

(Laughs) Yeah, I was more like Emmett Kelly. I was more of a solo clown. Never went into a Volkswagen.

Seems a missed opportunity, but whatever. Anyway, after college, you ended up in New York?

I studied with a guy named Bob Modica for years. That’s where I met [my wife] Ana, and I would say, at least once a week we have a conversation about Bob and what he taught us. He didn’t just teach us acting. He taught us about life and what it means to be an artist.

It’s been 21 years since we made that movie together, and it seems like you’ve been working pretty much nonstop ever since.

I would say that’s accurate. I think I’ve been pretty lucky. I would like it to be a lot more than it is, but everybody does. I’d like there to be a fatter bank account, but I feel like I’ve been working pretty consistently since, I’d say 1988. I’ve done commercials and movies and TV and plays, and when you’re going through it it’s hard to think of it that way, but I’m starting to coach, and going back through all my stuff, oh my God, there’s so much. It’s insane. I try not to look back that much because I feel like the best is forward. The best is out there. Hopefully, I’ll do that until the day I die.

I’m curious about your decision to coach. I remember working with you, and while others in the cast tended to be, I don’t want to say limited, but certainly had their specific lane, your approach was much more craft-driven.

Yeah, totally. I feel like that is how I come to it. Teaching-wise, there’s a population of young actors who focus on celebrity, which I think is a big problem.

I’ve gotten to experience these cathartic moments in my life and my career, being on stage or being in a film, getting something, understanding something, discovering something. It’s rare, it doesn’t happen in every single TV show or every single movie, but sometimes you get to have this incredible epiphany. I’ve experienced those moments, and I think that’s what feeds the artistic journey. It’s something that I want to imbue in another generation, that this is what to strive for.

How do you boil that down into its most basic sense?

To me, it’s all about the discovery. It’s that moment, in a scene, in a class, in a movie, in a TV show, if you can have that emotional experience, you’re getting closer and closer to a character, and all of a sudden, it’s no longer you, it’s the character that you’re developing. That is, I think, one of the greatest feelings in the world. It feels like you’re floating on air. It’s literally like you’re dreaming. You’re just living this whole other existence. If you’re not striving for that, then I think something’s wrong.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Acting Up: Andrew Scott Steals the Show in Netflix’s ‘Ripley’
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The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star Scott Cohen Talks Bertolt Brecht Plays, Joining the Circus and Why He Decided to Start Coaching first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star Scott Cohen Talks Bertolt Brecht Plays, Joining the Circus and Why He Decided to Start Coaching appeared first on Casting Networks.

(The limited series premiered April 4 on Netflix, and all episodes are now streaming)

The Performance: Criminals are fun to play. They’re inherently bad, and being bad is fun. That’s why some actors revel in playing villains because they get to take these bad characters — bad as in lacking moral fortitude, not in substance — and make them somehow sympathetic. The best villains, after all, believe that they’re right. Take the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Thanos. He was a genocidal maniac, but in his heart, he only wanted peace. Mass murder and the deaths of quadrillions of living beings were just a necessary side effect.

Thomas Ripley, however, has no such lofty ambitions, he’s just a low-level con man out for himself, preferably with as little effort as possible. The hero, or rather anti-hero, of a series of famous novels by Patricia Highsmith, Ripley has been adapted before, most memorably by Anthony Minghella in the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. In that version, Matt Damon played the role to moderate acclaim. The issue was that he was overshadowed by the man playing the ill-fated Dickie Greenleaf, Jude Law, who scored an Oscar nomination for his efforts.

There’s no chance of that happening this time around.

Photo credit: Netflix

In the latest screen version, Netflix has given us an eight-episode limited series from writer-director Steven Zaillian, who won an Oscar for writing Schindler’s List. The title role is played by Irish thespian Andrew Scott, who just about explodes off the screen in a remarkable turn that is alternately seductive and menacing, and so powerful that, no matter who else is in the frame, you can’t take your eyes off him.

The mistake a lot of actors make when playing a sociopath is to tip their hand too early. Giving clues as to their intentions and inherent evil. Scott avoids this by keeping a very cool veneer, even as he’s plotting how he’s going to get where and what he needs. There’s no wink at the audience, no self-conscious smirk to clue us into what he’s got going on. Instead, he gives us a man who appears to be the essence of calm. He is serene. He is a glassy pond at sunrise, without the slightest ripple, until he is ready.

That moment comes at the end of the first episode, when he finally shows us some semblance of his true self, in a chilling moment that sets up the rest of the story. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say, it’s much more menacing than seductive, although there is plenty of the latter in store.

Scott is a brilliant actor who has played his share of villains, but what makes his Ripley so much more interesting than, say, Damon’s, is how relatable he makes the criminal feel. There’s a quiet desperation to him at the story’s beginnings, but not an overwhelming one. Scott acts so much with his eyes that we both empathize with him and wonder what’s going on behind them. They may be the windows to the soul, but Scott wields them instead as mirrors, and that paradoxically serves to draw us in further.

One doesn’t have to love villains to love particular villains. We can pick and choose, based on who the villain is or, even better, how that villain is portrayed. James Bond fans have their favorite versions of Blofeld, for instance, and Batman fans have their favorite Joker. Take some time to sit down with Andrew Scott. He’ll likely become your favorite Ripley.

Photo credit: Netflix

The Career: Andrew Scott had already been a working actor for more than a decade when he showed up in the BBC’s monumental 2010 version of Sherlock, which made Benedict Cumberbatch an international star. He appeared in both Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, for instance, and played Colonel William Smith in four episodes of HBO’s John Adams opposite Paul Giamatti. He was in lots of British TV shows and some short films, and he was someone who had something special.

It was his turn as the villainous Moriarty in those Sherlock episodes that took him to the next level. Suddenly, this was a guy who could play a sociopath with charm and wit, adding to the considerable deviousness and menace that would show up again in several nasty roles, of course, most recently Netflix’s Ripley. In the immediate aftermath of Sherlock came Daniel Craig’s fourth outing as James Bond, Spectre, in which Scott was the traitorous C, leader of the British domestic secret service and ally of Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld.

But of course, Scott is far more than that, which he proved in the 2019 second season of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s seminal Amazon series Fleabag, in which he showed up as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Waller-Bridge’s title character. Scott’s priest was sexy and charming and romantic and made it clear that there was more to this actor than just villains. That was hammered home yet again in 2023, with his leading turn in All of Us Strangers, as a screenwriter who gets a mysterious new way to heal from losing his parents 30 years before. Scott is heartbreaking in the movie, offering a hopeful sadness that is somehow never off-putting. On the contrary, it only serves to make the audience feel for him even more.

The point is, you can’t pin down Andrew Scott. He’s as versatile as they come, and now we get eight episodes of seeing that versatility in action. It’s not just Mister Ripley who’s talented.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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• ‘Barbarian,’ ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ Casting Director Nancy Nayor Opens Up About Genre Casting
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The post Acting Up: Andrew Scott Steals the Show in Netflix’s ‘Ripley’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Acting Up: Andrew Scott Steals the Show in Netflix’s ‘Ripley’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

When actors forget it’s a job, it can have surprisingly wide-reaching effects.

Any form of acting requires collaboration. If you are using acting as therapy or as a reflection of your worth, you won’t be able to be a team player. It’s difficult to trust a castmate who is ultimately in it for ego or a mental health outlet.

Besides, how it feels doesn’t always translate to how it looks. You can be pouring your heart out on stage, really feeling the moment, but if you are focused on your internal experience, oftentimes you won’t be listening to your castmates, much less reaching the audience. If it’s all about how it feels for you, you can’t be a supportive participant in lifting up the story.

Audiences are smarter than most give them credit for. They can tell when an actor is there to feel the story, rather than tell the story. They will disengage.

Such an outlook is not sustainable anyway. If you are putting your whole self on the line and at the mercy of the industry, you will burn out, and end up phoning in work that you could have otherwise invested in.

Besides the quality of the storytelling, the industry suffers when we don’t treat it like a career. Recent strikes have been a testament to what happens when those in power get used to taking advantage of artists because ‘they should be grateful for the opportunity’ or ‘they’re getting exposure.’

Healthy work boundaries don’t mean you aren’t passionate about the art. Refusing to suffer for the sake of the story does not diminish your work. And when the acting community acknowledges that it is a workplace that needs to be accountable for the safety of their workers, we end up lifting each other up and advocating for those who are less able to. Ultimately, the storytelling can only get better when we treat the storytellers with the respect they deserve.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 2: Theatre, Not Therapy first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 2: Theatre, Not Therapy appeared first on Casting Networks.

The first problem with tying your identity to your career is that it creates an imbalanced power dynamic. If others hold the keys to your identity you are not in the driver’s seat. The roles you get will always feel like a reflection of your worth. You will end up pushing yourself past your boundaries (if you set any at all) in pursuit of the idealized career you’ve created in your head.

This attitude encourages and enables the abuse of that dynamic. If you are not treating acting like a job, it creates an environment where you’re more likely to agree to work for free, overlook toxic work practices and even agree to do physically dangerous things for the sake of the art. You will be less likely to speak up. Unfortunately, many a director and artistic directors out there are keenly aware of this dynamic and will push actors far past the bounds of professionalism because they know how terrified actors are of losing any opportunity.

There can be no work/life balance when your work defines your life. Every dip in your career will dominate the rest of your life, putting a strain on relationships and a lens through which you interpret all outside experiences. There have been times in my career where I would have thought Fine. I don’t need anything else but this work. It’s the most important thing to me. But there has to be more. You cannot bring your best self to work onset or on stage if you are not investing in your life outside of acting.

Furthermore, if you take everything as a reflection of yourself it puts your self-esteem in a very precarious position. The rejections will feel like measures of your worth instead of part of the numbers game. Your resiliency will suffer. It puts you at risk of becoming jaded, bitter, or reluctant to take artistic risks for fear of failure.

Aside from your mental health, the more you are wrapping up your sense of self with your success as an actor, the less you will be able to be a supportive cast mate. If you’re in it for you, you have a skewed view of the project, and the work will suffer.

For example. I recently auditioned for a show I knew I was too emotionally invested in. While I booked the show, it was an ensemble track I didn’t feel as confident in, and none of the roles I was hoping for. If I had taken that personally, it would have been easy to say, “Well if I didn’t get exactly what I wanted, I won’t be part of it at all.”

But you know what? It was a job. I needed the money. I liked the people attached to the project. Parts of it were outside my comfort zone, but it started looking like an opportunity to learn. Separating my sense of worth from the casting let me enter into the project with genuine excitement, curiosity and drive to do my best. And the paycheck allowed me to sign up for training I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.

That’s the counterintuitive part of this equation. If you don’t pour all of yourself into your career, you’ll have the clarity and energy to accept more opportunities.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Literary, Journalist Icons Earnest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson
• The Art of Silent Expression: Acting Without Words
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The post Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 1: Who You Are vs. What You Are first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Remember, Acting is a Job, Part 1: Who You Are vs. What You Are appeared first on Casting Networks.

On the MAX series The Girls on the Bus, he has been cast as the ghost of legendary gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. It’s the first major streaming role for the actor, whose work on the show is earning kudos, even among a stellar cast that includes Melissa Benoist, Carla Gugino, Griffin Dunne and plenty more.

PJ and I have known each other for more than a quarter century. We bartended together when times were tougher and have seen and read each other’s work over and over again through the years. Seeing his success now is especially gratifying, considering how many times I watched him in less than stellar Off-Off-Off Broadway fare in which he was by far the best part. He was at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in between acting gigs, when we spoke. It was the first time he’d been interviewed in years, and the first time I’d interviewed a good friend, so strap yourself in. We cover a lot of ground.

Do you remember how we met?

You walked into Exile, that bar on West 70th, when I was just starting.

I think it was the winter of 1998. I had made Two Ninas, my first movie, but it hadn’t hit festivals yet.

I remember you gave me a VHS tape of it.

When we started talking, I said, “Are you a good actor?” And you looked at me dead in the eye and said, “Yeah, I’m really good.” I remember thinking, “I believe this guy.” You looked at me and said, “Are you a good writer?” And I said, “I’m awesome.”

(Laughs) That was the beginning of our friendship! That we both owned it. You want to keep some humility, but knowing you can back it up and jam with anyone is the key. I think we saw that in each other. Now, I’m working with people that I’ve admired, Carla Gugino and Jackie Earle Haley, and with them, it’s instant. We’re playing.

In all of the years we’ve been friends, I don’t think I’ve ever asked you this question: how did you get into acting in the first place?

I was a nationally-ranked cross-country runner. I did the National Junior Olympics my senior year of high school, I was kicking ass, getting all the records, blah, blah, blah. I went to the University of Rochester on a scholarship. The coach turned out to be a dick, and after I missed a practice, benched me. So I quit.

Photo by Brette Taylor, courtesy of PJ Sosko.

You really quit?

My parents were pissed. And that happened right as a guy from the Royal Shakespeare Company named Mervyn Willis was taking over the theater program, ultimately to get his green card. I started getting cast because I was the only one who was comfortable on stage. I liked getting in front of people. I was a bit of a class clown, but I didn’t know that this would turn into a career.

One of the things I’ve always admired about you, and I think that this has always been a cornerstone of our friendship, is we’re both lifers. There was never a moment when it occurred to either of us to say, I can’t do this anymore. How did you get through the dark times?

If I didn’t have people say to me, “Hey, you have something special,” I don’t know that I would have. I put the work in. The craft is important to me. That’s always been part of it for us both. We bust our ass. There are a lot of steps along the way where you can get lazy, but for me, voiceovers happened, which was lucky. Many people enter the voiceover world and stop acting, but that allowed me to be patient. I could do the Off-Broadway show that you don’t get paid that much, but I do it because I’m the lead. I could go away for a week to do a developmental thing. It allowed me some freedom to do whatever I wanted. My side job was the job.

While most actors are losing time working on acting while they’re doing their side job, you’re only continuing to hone it?

Right. And since I was constantly working, I didn’t bring any less of what I do with a role to a short film than I do to a feature. It’s really hard work.

That was our long-running joke. I saw you in, like, a couple dozen theatrical things, and it was always, “I hated the show, but you were great in it.” The work was always stellar.

At some point, that starts to become a world that no longer satisfies you as an artist. It was something that would come out of our conversations. I was always trying to make sure that everybody was bringing their A-game because I’m going to bring a level to this. What I learned to do was to start throwing my two cents in because I’m realizing that they’re not matching what I’m bringing.

I was listening to Ethan Hawke, who was on Marc Maron’s podcast, and he said he can’t approach a role now not like a filmmaker, and that’s me, too. I’ve done too much, and seen too many things go wrong. Now, I approach every job as a producer, because I’ve done all those things. This HBO show was the first time for me to work with a huge machine, so it was a new experience about how to collaborate.

Photo courtesy of PJ Sosko.

How did that work, then? You’re used to being a big fish in a small pond, and now it’s the opposite.

I think it’s important for them to allow the actor, when you’re working with a certain talent, to let me surprise you on the creative side, and bring ideas to the table. My point of view is worthy interesting, valid and unique, and that’s something that I don’t take away. I’ve lived a very full life. The good, the bad, the ups, the downs, I’ve gone to the extremes. But I put everything I had into this character while I was there for eight months.

Well, let’s talk about this. Because as you said, this is the first time you’re walking into a real machine. This is big time. You’ve survived in a way that 99% of actors don’t, and now you’re doing it as a character who is a well-known part of the Zeitgeist.

I’ve played real people before. Remember, I played Hemingway …

That’s where you met Marta.

That’s where I met my wife. There’s no way I should’ve been playing him. I’m about 100 pounds too light and six inches too short, but it was about technique. I know how to make myself bigger. I know those things. I learned them from masters along the way because I never stopped learning. In the film, there are lots of tools that you can use from your theater experience if you’re crafty with it and if you realize that you just gotta turn the volume down on it, but filling the frame, sometimes people don’t think about how you fill a stage is the same as the frame.

That’s a terrific answer to a question I didn’t ask.

(Laughs) Sorry. Hunter S. Thompson. HBO.

I was up for a part in the Scorsese movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, which was shooting down here. Then I got an offer for the lead in an indie film from a couple of producers I’d worked with before. I asked the Scorsese people and they hadn’t made a decision, so I took the indie. In the hiatuses, I shot some other stuff, and while I was shooting this other low-budget thing, I got the audition for an HBO show for a recurring character named Hunter S. Thompson.

I had no time to prepare this, but I found one video that I connect with, but because of working on Hemingway and these other real guys, it gave me a shorthand to how he spoke. I did one take of the self-tape and sent it in, and Marta said, “If they don’t hire you, they’re stupid.” Two days later, I’m on hold. One day after, it’s mine.

I got like, a month of prep time, which I never had in New York without my wife and kid, so I did a real deep dive and just started memorizing all these quotes of his, just beautiful stuff that wasn’t well known. I was an advocate for the character and let it fly. I would talk to the directors or Melissa about how there was room for something here or there, but it’s rarefied air.

I wonder how many actors would feel comfortable enough to go in like that.

I came in and did an episode of a popular network drama during all this as well. The season three finale was great. We banged out almost an entire episode in like a day. And then they wrote the character back into this season. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought I was just going to be a robber of the week.

I have to think part of that is because of the choices I made. The availability. The consistency that I brought. They didn’t have to write him back on, but even though I wasn’t necessarily comfortable with the process, I couldn’t stop my creativity from coming out. And now I’ve earned my spot. I know what I’m doing. Each time that I get a chance to work with these geniuses, these people who I’ve watched over the years, I’m humming along with them, and that’s it. To gain more of that experience gives me confidence.

Photo by Colin Key, courtesy of PJ Sosko.

A lot of actors are on this site, and I imagine a good number of them are struggling. As someone who struggled for a long time and is finally getting his shot, what advice would you give to that person reading this?

What are you doing about it? Are you sitting there and complaining? Are you happy with your auditions? If you’re not, have you taken a class recently? You’re always learning. In this career, if you think you know it all, that’s a foolish thought. There’s always someone to learn from, there’s always a moment that you can figure out from somebody else’s work, or share a director’s note that landed on you.

If you’re a lifer, you just have to keep creating. Are you doing the work? Your body is your instrument, and you have to keep making it better. You have to keep adapting. I found collaborators and they helped make me better. Find other artists and create together. Don’t sit at home and say, Why am I not getting anything? Go out and make shit. Shoot something in the park with two people. Find people you can work with and do it. You’re gonna fail sometimes but keep doing it. That’s what I did, and here I am.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Literary, Journalist Icons Earnest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson
• The Art of Silent Expression: Acting Without Words
• Fight Director Benedetto Robinson Gets into the Nitty Gritty of Fight Choreography, What it Means to Be an Actor Combatant

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Icons Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post ‘The Girls on the Bus’ Star PJ Sosko Talks Learning from Masters to Portray Icons Ernest Hemingway and Hunter S. Thompson appeared first on Casting Networks.

The Power of Silence in Acting

Quietness should not be mistaken for a lack of connection; rather, it serves as an alternative means of connection. Regarding performance, silence can carry more weight than spoken language. It enables actors to communicate the complexity of their characters’ feelings, ideas and motivations through gestures, posture and eye contact. Through silence, a sense of unease can be built, secrets can be unveiled and compassion can be stirred in manners that words may struggle to achieve.

Techniques for Mastering Silent Expression

Observation and Imitation

One of the first steps in mastering silent expression is to observe people in real life. Notice how they communicate without speaking, how their emotions are reflected in their facial expressions and body language. Imitate these observations in front of a mirror or record yourself to analyze and improve.

Physical Awareness and Control

Mastering silent acting demands a keen sense of physical mindfulness and mastery. Engage in various body control practices like yoga, dance or mime to refine your skills. These pursuits will enable you to communicate emotions and intentions through gestures and movements.

Facial Expressions

The face is a powerful tool for silent expression. Enhance your ability to convey a spectrum of emotions like happiness, sorrow, rage, astonishment and more through deliberate practice in front of a mirror. Pay close attention to the eyes, eyebrows, lips and forehead to master the art of expressing various feelings without uttering a single word.

Eye Contact

It’s commonly believed that the eyes serve as a gateway to one’s innermost self. In silent performance, establishing and sustaining eye contact with your fellow actor or spectators can establish a profound bond and communicate a wide range of feelings. By mastering the art of maintaining eye contact, one can effectively convey sentiments such as affection, animosity, apprehension or resolve.

Subtext and Inner Monologue

Understanding the subtext of a scene or character is crucial in silent acting. Develop an inner monologue for your character, even if you’re not speaking. This will help you stay in character and convey the right emotions through your non-verbal cues.

Breathing Techniques

Your breathing pattern can greatly influence your ability to express emotions silently. Practice different breathing techniques to convey calmness, anxiety, anger or sadness. Controlled breathing can also help you maintain focus and presence on stage.

The Impact of Silent Expression

On the Actor

Actors who have mastered the art of silent expression are able to delve into the intricacies of their craft. This skill compels them to communicate intricate emotions and stories without the use of words, prompting them to gain a profound insight into their characters and the narrative. Additionally, it broadens their capabilities as artists, allowing them to embrace diverse roles and excel in various genres of theater or cinema.

On the Audience

For the audience, silent expression can create a more immersive experience. This skill compels actors to communicate intricate emotions and stories without the use of words, prompting them to gain a profound insight into their characters and the narrative.

Mastering the skill of conveying emotions without words demands a profound comprehension of the role, adeptness in managing and shaping one’s body language, and a powerful bond with the spectators. As the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin once said, “Words are cheap. The biggest thing you can say is ‘elephant’.” Sometimes it’s the silent moments that speak the loudest.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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The post The Art of Silent Expression: Acting Without Words first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post The Art of Silent Expression: Acting Without Words appeared first on Casting Networks.

The actor sat down with Casting Networks via video call to share the eventful casting story that led to her playing the humanitarian/entrepreneur/visionary that was Francesca Cabrini in Alejandro Monteverde’s biopic about the first American saint.

From casting director Denise Chamian championing the actor to Dell’Anna pulling off her third self tape without a reader, you can catch all these insights and more in this on-camera installment of My Casting Story.

This video interview has been edited and condensed.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

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• Work Begets Work — The Power of Creating Your Own Projects
• Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’

The post Cristiana Dell’Anna Shares How Martin Scorsese and Three Self Tapes Helped Her Land the Starring Role in ‘Cabrini’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Cristiana Dell’Anna Shares How Martin Scorsese and Three Self Tapes Helped Her Land the Starring Role in ‘Cabrini’ appeared first on Casting Networks.

He uses Casting Networks regularly, and is taking full advantage of our Role Tracker feature, which lets Premium members know exactly where their submissions stand in the process while helping performers gain insights to help shape and refine their submission strategies.

Pollak took time to share submission strategies for Casting Networks while giving us nuggets of wisdom for how he’s been able to sustain a 20-year acting career.

How did you decide to become an actor?

I liked attention, I guess. I know that sounds crazy, but I remember going back to the kindergarten graduation recital. Some kids were the A, the B, the C, the D, and I was the Z. I remember hearing the “Awwww” from the kindergarten graduation audience when I said “Z is for…ZHAT’S ALL!”

It was definitely the beginning of me knowing how to get a laugh, which of course was further cultivated and reinforced with seeing Joan Rivers at the makeup counter with Miss Piggy in The Muppets Take Manhattan. I never stopped talking in class, and was oftentimes in trouble, because I was usually trying to amuse and entertain my classmates rather than paying attention.

How did you first discover Casting Networks?

Oh, gosh, when I first got to LA in 2006. I was living at my parents in the New York City suburbs a couple of years after college, and then moved to California. Of course, I was very lucky. I got a very strong commercial agent and manager very quickly. They were like, “Oh, [sign up with] Casting Networks.” So, I just set it up.

What successes have you found on Casting Networks?

This is a good one. It was over the holidays several years ago, maybe five years ago. I submitted myself for Honda. It was one of the worst auditions I think I’d ever had in my life. They were seeing 17 roles in four different spots. You had to be there at a certain time and they kept you waiting anyway. I walked out of there thinking, “That was awful.” I got the callback and I had it sent to my agent. He said, “If you get this, I’m not taking a commission, because I didn’t submit you.”

I got the job and it was cut into, I think, four spots. Scale-and-a-half because it was English and Spanish. It only aired for maybe a month. The conflict was one 13-week cycle, but that was pretty honorable of him [my agent].

Photo courtesy of Stephen Pollak.

What do you find about Casting Networks to be the most helpful?

It used to be a little dicier to try to change pictures. If you wanted to update, you’d have to go down to 200 South La Brea and bring the disk or the hard copy. I don’t remember exactly when it shifted, but just the ability to upload photos, willy nilly, so to speak, whenever you feel like it or delete some, add some [is great]. Now, of course, you could take a selfie. You can send that and submit that and it’s amazing. It eliminates a lot of the legwork. I love that.

My other favorite feature about Casting Networks is the ability to upload auditions anytime from anywhere. While I still really do miss many aspects of the in-person casting experience, the ease of being able to self-produce at home is incalculably beneficial.

I also love Role Tracker because you really are able to track which pictures might be working for certain roles. I love this new feature where when you submit, it’s gray. If it’s been selected, it’s yellow. Then if you’ve been under consideration, you’re green. You can see, “Oh, that picture isn’t really getting selected. Let me try this one,” and then it gets selected. That doesn’t mean you got the job or even got the audition, but somebody clicked it because it popped. I know that’s fairly new, but I think it’s a great feature.

Do you have any tips or advice for other members on how they can get the most out of Role Tracker?

Experiment. I would also say take one extra step and write down which picture you may have submitted for which role, and then go back at a later date. I’m not saying every day in real time or throughout the day in real time, but just keep tabs on what may or may not be working.

What’s the benefit of submitting yourself to projects when you also have a talent rep submitting you for projects as well?

For me, it makes me feel proactive. I like to feel I’m in control of my own destiny [without] leaving it to someone else to take care of it, when you may be competing within the agency for the slots. Your agent may not have as strong of a relationship with that casting director as you do.

Because I’ve been here so long, I have some casting directors that I can reach out to directly that will send me the appointment without even having my agent submit me. It just creates relationships. I mean, there’s many talent reps, agents and managers, there’s many casting directors and everybody can’t be best friends with everybody and not everybody can get called in for everything.

Whatever you can do as an actor to be proactive, which A: is going to make you feel like you’re doing something for yourself each and every day, sometimes multiple times throughout the day, depending on your category and what’s going on casting-wise. And B: it’s going to fill in the gaps where you might fall through the cracks.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Pollak.

What would you say helps somebody succeed on Casting Networks?

I lifted this from an acting teacher I had once upon a time: “Guys, it’s not brain surgery. It’s just acting. Nobody is gonna die.” So have fun and don’t take anything too seriously. Easier said than done, I know. But it works.

As long as it’s on the up-and-up, say yes. Submit to everything. You decide if you’re willing to do paying or non-paying work and what your goal is. [For example,] if your goal is to get tape to build up your theatrical reel, you can focus more on the non-paying, short films, webisodes, etc. If your focus is to get into the union, you might focus on becoming a stand-in on something where they might give you a voucher.

I would say you want to get on-set as much as possible, because nobody learns how to head a mark, in my opinion, in any other place than being on a set. You’ve got to think about what it is you want and you probably want to be on a set.

Once you have all the materials ready, the headshots or the selfies that look like headshots and you’ve filled out your resume, make sure you have Talent Scout® filled out. Whatever you’re looking for, make sure that’s reflected in Talent Scout because [talent agents and managers] are looking.

Realize that this takes time. I’ve been at this for 20 years. You move out here and you think, “Oh, I’m going to be this and this.” Careers have ebbs and flows. Maybe one day you’re the principal on some big campaign, and then six months later or the following year, you’re trying to get a day of background just to make your insurance or your pension credit. It’s okay.

You’re not more of a success because of one, or less of a success because of another. We’re here. We’re living the dream. Be grateful for every opportunity you have. Create as many opportunities as you can. Make sure the photos are updated. Track your submissions with a little log, diary kind of thing. See what’s working, see what isn’t and submit away.

And never, ever give up your day job/side hustle—even if and when you have a great year financially as an actor! I’ve been a lifeguard and swim instructor forever, and I don’t ever plan on stopping. It affords me a sense of self-reliance, enriches my life as it is a “service” profession and gives me something to do during off/down/slow times.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Give Role Tracker a try! Log in or sign up for Premium today!

You may also like:

• Work Begets Work — The Power of Creating Your Own Projects
• Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’
• How Christopher Ian Bennett Took a Marketing-Driven Approach to Start HectiQ Artists Talent Management

The post Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Success Story: How Stephen Pollak Uses Role Tracker to A/B Test His Casting Networks Wins appeared first on Casting Networks.

You can be doing all the right things (auditioning, updating media, training, etc.) putting yourself out there and you still won’t be able to break through. These times can be incredibly discouraging. However, when you aren’t being given the gigs you want, it can also be a great opportunity to create them yourself.

Take a Creative Detour With Side Projects

If you’ve been hammering away at one thing with no luck, it might be time to try a detour. Side projects such as podcasts can be a great way to channel your energies into something that feels fulfilling and reinvigorating. I know I often have projects, scripts or submissions left unfinished during busy times that I’m always meaning to get back to. The lean times can provide a great space to resurrect these.

If you can’t seem to create your own acting opportunities, try fostering another creative skill. It’s easy to get trapped in the mindset of feeling like a failure if you’re not getting consistent work in your specific niche.

The best part about the arts is being able to wear so many hats. What area of the arts have you always been interested in? Maybe it’s time to try writing, directing, producing or camera work. Learning a new trade as you create your own opportunities can be a great way to make new connections and learn more about yourself as an artist.

Create for Yourself

There is so much pressure on artists to be productive and monetize every craft and hobby. However, creative pursuits that are solely for pleasure are important. When you’re feeling like you’re in a creative rut, you need to reawaken your passion and drive by connecting to what you love. Take the pressure off and do something creative that is just for you.

This is the time to indulge your inner creative child. Sketch, do karaoke, write fanfiction or whatever brings you joy. Whether collaborative or on your own, it can be immensely freeing and inspiring to produce work that is simply fun, free of deadlines or critiques. It might lead you down some interesting roads, or it might just shake things up enough to create some momentum in your career.

Oftentimes, artists are made to feel that any unpaid project isn’t worth their time. And while I do not recommend undervaluing your time and talent, putting energy into creating your own work is not wasted.

The creative fulfillment, success and connections made during these passion projects often lead to unforeseen opportunities. Even if they provide new perspective and confidence, they can be well worth it. Work begets work. Don’t wait for permission to create.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’
• How Christopher Ian Bennett Took a Marketing-Driven Approach to Start HectiQ Artists Talent Management
• Actor Liana Ramirez Shares How COVID, Her Brother and Selena Gomez Inspired Her Journey to Become an Influencer

The post Work Begets Work — The Power of Creating Your Own Projects first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Work Begets Work — The Power of Creating Your Own Projects appeared first on Casting Networks.

The Performance: There is something particularly difficult and fascinating about playing a character who has no idea what’s going on. Not the stupid kind, the clueless moron who meanders through life without an intelligent thought in their head, but rather the brilliant person caught in a situation they don’t understand. That’s the kind of person who must unearth the truth and do so in a way that will be satisfying not just to the character, but to the audience as well.

This is, in essence, Jo, the role that Swedish actress Noomi Rapace inhabits in Constellation. An astronaut who is the best in the world at what she does, who is used to contending with the unknown as a space traveler. But when that unknown suddenly becomes something inside her own head, it’s mind-melting for both her and viewers alike.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

Rapace’s performance is especially impressive when you consider that, for the bulk of Constellation’s first season, Rapace has to play Jo in several different ways. She sees things that she’s not sure are real, remembers details differently from how the rest of her family remembers them and when she tries to relay the events of the tragedy that sets the story in motion, she is contradicted not only by the administrators on the ground but by her fellow astronauts who were there with her.

The confusion is constant, and it’s easy for an actor to lose control of that, to make the audience feel sorry for them, or, conversely, to stop caring. That kind of thing can get frustrating, after all, which can lead very quickly to indifference. But when it’s done right, and the audience is brought along for the ride, the frustration is in concert with the character, and instead of indifference, what arises is empathy.

Rapace engenders the audience’s empathy with work that is astonishing in its complexity. There is never a time when we’re not with her, not also wondering what’s going on and what is missing from her life. Why does she remember her family’s Volvo as red instead of blue? Or why does she wonder aloud if her husband Magnus (James D’Arcy) remodeled the kitchen since she went up to space several months earlier?

Spoiler alert: He didn’t. Also, the car has always been blue.

When the answer finally arrives and both Jo and the audience are simultaneously clued into the truth, there is a sense of satisfaction that we went on this ride with her, wondering with her what answers would finally be revealed. Good writing goes a long way in accomplishing that, but without the central performance holding it all together, that writing can be utterly wasted. A bad performance can render it meaningless, whereas a great one can elevate it even higher. Rapace does that with every expression, every beat of silence and every motion. Rapace’s Jo is not just an astronaut on a mission to find the truth, she is also a proxy for viewers who want answers as badly as she does. Pulling off both of those things is to carry a heavy load, which Rapace shoulders with relative ease.

You’ll end up wanting to watch the show a second time, not only to get a better sense of what’s going on and view the clues it offers on the path to illumination but also just to enjoy the work that Noomi Rapace gives us in every single frame.

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+.

The Career: It was 2009, when Noomi Rapace was nearly 30 years old, that she became a sensation here in North America. And she did it in a trio of Swedish films. True, she was playing a character made famous literary trilogy by author Steig Larson, in what came to be known as The Millennium Saga, starting with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rapace played hacker Lisbeth Slander. She spoke not one word of English in the three films, and yet, by the end of that first film, she was an international star.

Of course, her ability and charm were well known to Swedish audiences, as Rapace — formerly Noomi Norén, before she married fellow actor Ola Rapace in 2001, though she kept his name after their 2011 divorce — had been on the big screen there since she was a kid. Born in Hudiksvall, Sweden, she earned her first role in an Icelandic film at the age of seven, became a mainstay of Swedish theater in her teens and twenties and won the Danish version of an Oscar for her work as a teen mother in the 2007 film Daisy Diamond.

But obviously, it was her work as Lisbeth Salander, the eponymous “girl” of the movie’s title, that changed everything. That role earned her a BAFTA nomination, another nomination for a European Film Award, and won her the Guldbagge, otherwise known as the Swedish Oscar.

From there, the offers came rolling in. First, there was Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, then Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus and Brian De Palma’s Passion. There have been more than a dozen other roles, leading up to her star turn in Constellation. The key word being “star,” because that’s what Noomi Rapace has become. Right in front of our eyes.

Constallation premiered February 21 on Apple TV+, and all first season episodes are now streaming.

Casting directors use Casting Networks every day to discover people like you. Sign up or log in today to get one step closer to your next role.

You may also like:

• How Christopher Ian Bennett Took a Marketing-Driven Approach to Start HectiQ Artists Talent Management
• Actor Liana Ramirez Shares How COVID, Her Brother and Selena Gomez Inspired Her Journey to Become an Influencer

Success Story: How John-Deric Mitchell Booked the Oscar-Nominated Film ‘Past Lives’

The post Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’ first appeared on Casting Networks.

The post Acting Up: Noomi Rapace’s Interstellar Performance on Apple TV+’s ‘Constellation’ appeared first on Casting Networks.