What is an aspiring actress? According to Merriam Webster’s to be an aspiring actor (actress) is “a person who aspires to be and is trying to become an actor”
aspiring
adjective aspir·ing ə-ˈspī-riŋ
: desiring and working to achieve a particular goal
: having aspirations to attain a specified profession, position, etc.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aspiring
I called myself an aspiring actress for over a decade and it hurt the way I saw my acting career! Stop calling yourself an aspiring actress and here is why.
The “aspiring” in my title was like drinking alcohol at a karaoke party, you can blame it on the alcohol for sounding like an ass and you don’t have to be vulnerable in front of your friends and complete strangers for doing something you want to do in the first place.
For me “aspiring” gave me the excuse to suck and say, well, I’m not a real actress so yeah I kinda suck. But keeping the “aspiring” around kept me in this unconfident shell. The moment I dropped it I instantly felt like I truly belonged in the industry and started taking more risks.
As soon as I disassociated myself with ‘’aspiring” I began to look for only paying jobs I felt were worth my time and dedication. To date, I have spent (like many other serious actors) a large amount of money on acting classes and workshops.
That’s what “aspiring” was doing to me, it kept me only taking unpaid roles, I didn’t feel like I deserved to be treated as a professional actress. I had a rule, if I was going to work for free, I would take unpaid roles as long as I was featured or principal guaranteed.
There is nothing wrong with being an Aspiring Actress as long as you move out of that comfort zone after a reasonable amount of time, say at least a year.
“Aspiring” is a floating device that helps actors whilst learning their craft and taking on new jobs but if you are looking for an agent, you best introduce them to professional, hard working and unique Actress Olivia or Actor Isaiah.
Keep the shy, unconfident, self-defeating Aspiring Negative Nancy away from talent agents. You’ll never learn to swim if you spend a decade floating on “aspiring”.
At some point, you will have to let go of “aspiring” and find out if you will sink or swim and the sooner the better so you can move onto the next ‘stage’ of your life.
Are you ready to drop the “aspiring”? Don’t worry if you are a brand new actress, this is why I created this blog!
I created this just for you, to help guide you in your first year as an aspiring actress and deliver you to one of the many amazing talent agents where you’ll see much bigger opportunities.
And THAT is the next stage after “aspiring”.
I invite you to write on a piece of paper a few things. First, write down why you want to be an actress. Then set a deadline for yourself where you'll stop calling yourself an ‘aspiring actress’ and start seeing yourself as the working actress that you’ll be one year from today. You’ll see that the fun begins after year 1.
Don’t forget to read the rest of my blogs or pick up a copy of my book Acting in Texas: A Step by Step Guide to Acting in Texas and Resource Guide where I guide you step by step on your 1st year of your acting career as an aspiring actress.
This book includes resources in Texas of everyone and everything you will ever need in the industry.
If you ever wanted to know how to become an actor or actress, this is the book for you.